An uproarious romp of one-upmanship and drunkenness from the nineteenth-century Russian comic genius.
Chekhov perfected the short story, as shown in these three moving miniature dramas of love, dread and lies.
Austen's riotous early stories of drunks, poisoners and prison-break, written for her family entertainment when she was a teenager.
The fearless, pioneering Victorian female explorer describes dodging elephants and fighting off a leopard with a stool in Africa.
Horrifying tales of mystery, sickening madness and buried bodies by the master of the macabre.
Demonic horrors and spirits dreamt up by the most exuberant, inventive prose writer of Elizabethan England
Glittering essays by the Renaissance master of the form, exploring contradictions in human thoughts and actions.
One of the most famous Canterbury Tales casts a satirical eye over and marriage in the Medieval Age.
Dark, nightmarish sea stories and poems inspired by Melville's adventures around the world's oceans in a whaler
Two rollicking tales of scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells from the Sketches by Boz that launched Dicken's career