An Empty Bottle is a collection of short stories that would otherwise have been consigned to the realm of forgotten things. Written over many years, many published around the world and others achieving awards in Australia, they cover aspects of life and living from humour, crime, and retribution, love and hate, children and the elderly—something for just about anyone. There is even a fairy story for adults in there. This is the third collection gleaned from a busy writing life, No Time for Pity and Standfast appearing a few years ago. Barbara believes that readers still enjoy short fiction, but it is not easy to find. For the busy person, the young mum, the city girl, the elderly, and those who just don't have a long attention span, the genre still offers a happy hour or so curled up with a book. Reading is one of life's true enjoyments, whether it is done with an old-fashioned collection of bound paper or one of the new electronic gadgets. Long may it last!

A selection of Robertson's short stories, including: "The Brain of the Battle-Ship," "The Wigwag Message," "The Trade-Wind," "Salvage," and many more.

This ebook is a compilation of short stories written by author Sherwood Anderson and published in 1921. It includes some of his greatest works: "The Egg," a story about the struggle to find success and happiness in the American Midwest, "I'm a Fool," about a young man who sabotages his chance at love because of his own feelings of inferiority, and "I Want to Know Why," about the confusion and desperation felt by a boy entering adulthood. Triumph of the Egg and Other Stories is highly recommended for those who enjoy the writings of Sherwood Anderson and for those discovering his writings for the first time. Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) was a novelist and short story writer who has been recognized as one of the most innovative and important American authors of his time. He was a prolific writer, publishing seven novels and myriad collections of essays, memoirs, poetry and short stories. Anderson wrote in a characteristically simple prose style, and his unconventional techniques caused him to at first be written off. However, his unique exploration of the unconscious and its effect on behavior created very vulnerable, human characters that evoke sympathy from readers.

Madeline City is situated inside a ring of steep mountains and all but covered by the constant clouds that serve as a reminder of the dreary conditions of all who live within the walls. While the people of Bater District, Gnight District, and other less privileged areas of the city suffer by fighting, stealing, and drinking their way through life, the officers of the church execute their Prelate's orders to bring the entire city under militant, fanatical rule. But just who is the goddess Madeline? Or rather, who was she? No longer among her people, she once brought peace, love, and prosperity to her city, but was moved to abandon them after they tarried in their allegiance to her long ago. Now the Magmenian Rebellion claims her as their champion as they strive to overthrow the church's stranglehold on the city, and the Augsburg Church cites divine duty as they scour the alleys and slums, seeking to imprison anyone who would refuse to submit to her holy law. And so it is the innocent and the oppressed who star in this collection about a people seeking to understand the forces at work in their world.

Introduction. Mark Twain's own letters from the Earth -- Part I. The Mississippi. The lure of the river -- More river thoughts -- Steam boat magic and a small town boy -- The face of the water -- Goin' to the theater in the big city (a letter from "Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass," 1856) -- Mardi-Gras in New Orleans (A letter to Pamela A. Moffett, 1859) -- A tour of New Orleans -- The scene of battle: Vicksburg -- Part II. The West. "Roughing it" lecture -- Among the miners -- The killing of Julius Caesar "localized" -- A trip to Tahoe -- Off for San Francisco -- A San Francisco day trip -- San Francisco weather and other natural events -- Part III. Back East. Philadelphia: the first visit -- New York: the overgrown metropolis -- New York: the dreadful Russian bath -- New York: changes in the city -- New York: street people -- New York: personal ads -- Plymouth Rock and the Pilgriims -- First visit to Boston -- Boston: a modern Cretan labyrinth -- Boston antiquities --

The opportunity here offered [Footnote: By the appearance in England several years ago of an edition of the author's writings as then collected.] to give some account of the genesis of these Californian sketches, and the conditions under which they were conceived, is peculiarly tempting to an author who has been obliged to retain a decent professional reticence under a cloud of ingenious surmise, theory, and misinterpretation. He very gladly seizes this opportunity to establish the chronology of the sketches, and incidentally to show that what are considered the "happy accidents" of literature are very apt to be the results of quite logical and often prosaic processes. The author's first volume was published in 1865 in a thin book of verse, containing, besides the titular poem, "The Lost Galleon," various patriotic contributions to the lyrics of the Civil War, then raging, and certain better known humorous pieces, which have been hitherto interspersed with his later poems in separate volumes, but are now restored to their former companionship. This was followed in 1867 by "The Condensed Novels," originally contributed to the "San Francisco Californian," a journal then edited by the author, and a number of local sketches entitled "Bohemian Papers," making a single not very plethoric volume, the author's first book of prose. But he deems it worthy of consideration that during this period, i.e. from 1862 to 1866, he produced "The Society upon the Stanislaus" and "The Story of M'liss,"—the first a dialectical poem, the second a Californian romance,—his first efforts toward indicating a peculiarly characteristic Western American literature. He would like to offer these facts as evidence of his very early, half-boyish but very enthusiastic belief in such a possibility,—a belief which never deserted him, and which, a few years later, from the better-known pages of "The Overland Monthly," he was able to demonstrate to a larger and more cosmopolitan audience in the story of "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and the poem of the "Heathen Chinee." But it was one of the anomalies of the very condition of life that he worked amidst, and endeavored to portray, that these first efforts were rewarded by very little success; and, as he will presently show, even "The Luck of Roaring Camp" depended for its recognition in California upon its success elsewhere. Hence the critical reader will observe that the bulk of these earlier efforts, as shown in the first two volumes, were marked by very little flavor of the soil, but were addressed to an audience half foreign in their sympathies, and still imbued with Eastern or New England habits and literary traditions. "Home" was still potent with these voluntary exiles in their moments of relaxation. Eastern magazines and current Eastern literature formed their literary recreation, and the sale of the better class of periodicals was singularly great. Nor was the taste confined to American literature. The illustrated and satirical English journals were as frequently seen in California as in Massachusetts; and the author records that he has experienced more difficulty in procuring a copy of "Punch" in an English provincial town than was his fortune at "Red Dog" or "One-Horse Gulch." An audience thus liberally equipped and familiar with the best modern writers was naturally critical and exacting, and no one appreciates more than he does the salutary effects of this severe discipline upon his earlier efforts.

In this, his second published book set in Coney Island through the latter half of the 20th century, the author focuses primarily on an aging professor who has found sympathetic conditions of environment in which to ruminate on his experiences and destiny. He lives in a rundown hotel located in the heart of the amusement area, with ready access to secret places and intermittent encounters. A variety of Island transients and dreamers also appear in these dark tales.