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Guy de Maupassant, French master of the short story, had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centered on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served. Volume VIII of his Complete Original Short Stories contains the following:

Today we have ghosts that haunted our ancestors, as well as our own modern revenants, and there appears to be no earthly use trying to banish or exorcise them by such a simple strategy as refusing to believe in them. Since man knows that whether or not he has seen a ghost, presently he will become one, and thus he has become fascinated with the subject. Therefore he creates ghosts, not merely in his own image, but according to his dreams of power.

Guy de Maupassant, France's gift to the world of short stories, was a prolific writer of this genre. His complete collection numbers just under 200.

The publication in 1848 of The Communist Manifesto came at a time when industrialization was reaching its peak, and signs of the cost to the working class blatant; the Revolutions of 1848 were just getting under way. Marx and Engels shared the belief that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" and this notion formed a central part of the manifesto they crafted together. They believed that industrialization was simply a new form of struggle among the classes - the price paid by the lower class still high.

Russell's The Problems of Philosophy, first published in 1912, is both a primer for the philosophy-curious and the practicing philosopher. He introduces his readers to his thoughts on the difference between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description, and asks the question: If we cannot be certain that external objects exist, how can we then have knowledge of them but by probability? There is no reason to doubt the existence of external objects simply because of sense data.

In compiling this collection of humorous short stories by both well known and more obscure authors, Alexander Jessup applied a broad interpretation of humour; the stories span the period between 1839 and the beginning of the first World War.

Voices of Today presents two stories by Anna Katharine Green, the great American mystery writer who published before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. In "To the Minute", a man returns to his native village after many years absence, after being advised of the death of his misanthropic grandfather. Will the dead miser's decaying mansion contain the secret to his lost wealth? In "Scarlet and Black", a man returns home to find mysterious foreigners playing cards in his house and cannot rest until he finds out the reason for this unexpected visitation and what the stakes are.

The second of four novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring famed detective Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of the Four is set in London but has its origins in colonial India. Four men in Agra make a pact to share the proceeds of a stolen treasure, but they are deceived by a fifth, who finds and takes the loot back to England and hides it. A decade on, young Mary Morstan receives the first of several lustrous pearls in the post - a mysterious gift delivered to her on the same date for several years.

Emile Gaboriau first introduced the young police officer and detective Monsieur Lecoq in his novel L'Affaire Lerouge. He based his character on an actual thief who later became no less than the head of the Paris police -- Eugine Francois Vidocq. As a character, Lecoq would later influence Arthur Conan Doyle in his creation of Sherlock Holmes. In this, his first foray into detection, Lecoq reveals his mastery of the art of disguise and his zeal for detection. Monsieur Lecoq: Volume I is the first of a two-part novel and details the crime and ensuing investigation.

Oscar was not only a prolific author but also attracted the critical attention of many other writers. This collection contains a poem and two nonfiction works by Wilde, and three essays about Wilde by contemporary commentators.

Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (1870-1953) was the first Russian author to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. The theme of the title story, which describes the death of a wealthy American in the island of Capri, has distinct links with the more famous treatment of this subject - "Death in Venice", by Thomas Mann. Bunin wrote: "The idea of a story [called initially] 'Death on Capri' came to me and in four days I finished the piece.

France's master of the short story was prolific, producing 13 volumes of tales of everyday life.

A dead woman is discovered in the parlor of an empty luxury home in New York's famed Gramercy Park. Thus opens Anna Katharine Green's popular detective novel That Affair Next Door.

Consulting detective Sherlock Holmes is first introduced to the reading and listening public in A Study in Scarlet, along with his soon-to-be fellow sleuth Dr. John Watson. First published in 1887, the novel is one of only four full-length works by the author in his original canon of Holmes cases. The murders in question are committed in London, but the actions leading up to them were perpetrated in America, calling for a transcontinental narration of this most interesting story.

André Gide met Wilde many times and was one of the small number of celebrities who maintained contact with him until his death in Paris in 1900.

New York-born John Kendrick Bangs was associate editor and then editor of Life and Harper magazines, eventually finding his way into the Humour department. Here, he began to write his own satire and humour. Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others is a delightful humorous collection of short tales relating encounters with ghosts, including "The Mystery of My Grandmother's Hair Sofa", "The Exorcism That Failed", and more.

Two British members of Parliament - one an elder conservative, the other a younger man with a liberal bent (and an eye on the older man's daughter) face a difficult choice. Some stranger has left each of them a considerable fortune on condition they give up their well-respected family names and adopt that of Wurzel-Flummery.

Edith Nesbit's trilogy about a group of children who encounter a sand fairy and, through his intercession, embark on a wild round of adventures has been a staple of juvenile literature since the first volume was published in 1902. The three books are Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Story of the Amulet (1906).

This essay was written in 1891 after Wilde had become enamored of concepts expressive of a liberal socialism. In his view, the aim of socialism should be "to try to reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible". Typically, Wilde stresses the vital role played by art and the imperative significance of the artist.

Guy de Maupassant, French master of the short story, had a simple, efficient style of writing and, like Anton Chekhov, found inspiration for his stories in the daily lives of humans, which often reveal our darker nature. Many of his works also centered on the Franco-Prussian War, in which he served.