Previously published individually, these four great novellas are collected in one book for the first time! “The Legacy”—Valerian Blackwood is summoned to his aged uncle’s country estate to help the old man settle a problem with his heir. What Valerian finds is a mystery—and the love of his life. He only has to decide which is more important to him: solving the mystery or winning his lady. “Buried Treasure”—What is Hannah Jenkins to make of the wildly attractive silver-tongued man villagers bring to her family’s house after he is found injured on the shore near her seacoast home? He says he was the victim of pirates. But who is the pirate, and who is the prey? “Something Blue”—June Heywood’s coming wedding day is clouded by a vicious remark she overhears, causing her to wonder why the handsome and clever Lawrence, Lord Morrow, ever asked for her hand. Who should she believe? Gossip or her heart? “A Marriage of True Minds”—The bride’s sister and the groom’s brother, alike in temper, lock horns—all the while missing what their relatives can so plainly see.

Contributed essays.

The eighteen pieces collected in Mrs. Golightly and Other Stories bring together the many and subtle voices of Ethel Wilson, demonstrating her extraordinary range as a writer. From the gentle mockery of the title story to the absurdist reportage of “Mr. Sleepwalker,” Wilson exerts unerring narrative control. Revealing what is “simple and complicated and timeless” in everyday life, these stories also venture into irrational realms of experience where chance encounters assume a malevolent form and coincidence transmuted into nightmare. First published in 1961, Mrs. Golightly and Other Stories is a diverse and rewarding collection, unified by Ethel Wilson’s distinct and engaging wit.

Speaking to Sushila is the story of Sushila, a young, middle-class woman, who fights for freedom and respect from her family. In Gambit, a drug deal gone sour brings death and violence to idyllic Goa. Her niece’s predicament urges an older woman to hit back and right a wrong. Conversation probes the background of two women very unlike each other. Kaavi, My Sister tells the tale of a young married woman’s unusual friendship with an adivasi village girl. Under different skins, both of them have common urges. Lydia, Merchant of Purple is about an accomplished woman with a successful business in a patriarchal society. It’s a fascinating tale from first-century Greece. Open this book and start anywhere. You have fifteen choices. Perhaps one of these is a story waiting for you to encourage you to tell your own story.

The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories is a series of political tales focusing on such topics as white-collar poverty, class differences, and social ambitions. Excerpt: "In England, during the sixties and seventies of the last century the world of books was dominated by one Gargantuan type of fiction. The terms book and novel became almost synonymous in houses that were not Puritan, yet where books and reading, in the era of few and unfree libraries, were strictly circumscribed. George Gissing was no exception to this rule. The English novel was at the summit of its reputation during his boyish days."

THE HERMIT AND THE WILD WOMAN I THE Hermit lived in a cave in the hollow of a hill. Below him was a glen, with a stream in a coppice of oaks and alders, and on the farther side of the valley, half a day's journey distant, another hill, steep and bristling, which raised aloft a little walled town with Ghibelline swallow-tails notched against the sky. When the Hermit was a lad, and lived in the town, the crenellations of the walls had been square-topped, and a Guelf lord had flown his standard from the keep. Then one day a steel-coloured line of men-at-arms rode across the valley, wound up the hill and battered in the gates. Stones and Greek fire rained from the ramparts, shields clashed in the streets, blade sprang at blade in passages and stairways, pikes and lances dripped above huddled flesh, and all the still familiar place was a stew of dying bodies. The boy fled from it in horror. He had seen his father go forth and not come back, his mother drop dead from an arquebuse shot as she leaned from the platform of the tower, his little sister fall with a slit throat across the altar steps of the chapel—and he ran, ran for his life, through the slippery streets, over warm twitching bodies, between legs of soldiers carousing, out of the gates, past burning farmsteads, trampled wheat-fields, orchards stripped and broken, till the still woods received him and he fell face down on the unmutilated earth.

This book celebrates the centennial of Bliss's publication by offering new readings of some of Mansfield's most well-known stories.

Immerse yourself in Edith Wharton’s evocative storytelling with her collection, "The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories." This anthology presents a rich tapestry of narratives, each crafted with Wharton's signature elegance and keen insight into human nature. Among the tales, you’ll encounter the mysterious Hermit who dwells in a cave overlooking a picturesque valley, and other compelling characters that reveal the depth and complexity of Wharton’s literary artistry. The stories blend historical settings with timeless themes, exploring the intersections of solitude, social change, and personal transformation. Curious about how Wharton intertwines historical context with intimate character studies? What does the Hermit’s secluded life reveal about the broader themes of her work? Explore the profound and intriguing world Wharton creates in this collection. Each story invites you to reflect on the human experience through richly developed characters and evocative settings. Are you ready to delve into Edith Wharton's compelling narratives and explore the nuances of her storytelling? Discover "The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories" and experience the depth of one of literature's greatest voices. Don’t miss the opportunity to enrich your reading collection. Purchase "The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories" now and immerse yourself in Wharton’s captivating world of fiction.

To celebrate her forthcoming biography of Constance Fenimore Woolson, Anne Boyd Rioux has selected the best of this classic writer’s stories. Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894) was one of the few nineteenth-century women writers considered the equal of her male peers. Harper & Brothers was so enamored of her work that the firm agreed to publish whatever she could write. In this gathering, Rioux has chosen fiction over the course of Woolson’s life, including “In Sloane Street,” never published since it first appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. Woolson’s stories travel from the rural Midwest to the deep South and then across the Atlantic to Italy and England. Her strong characters and indelible settings provide continuity throughout this collection as do her concerns with passion, creativity, imagination, and the demands of society. Whether portraying the keeper of a Union soldiers’ cemetery in the defeated South, a woman writer whose genius goes unrecognized, or the ex-pat denizens of Florence, Woolson’s deft characterization and subtlety create a broad landscape of Americans and their ways no matter where they lived.