Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories originally published between 1931 and 1963, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed.
Summary by Cori Samuel, with Wikipedia input.
A collection of ten short essays or other short nonfiction works in the public domain.
The Short Mystery Story Collection by Various is a real treat for intrigue enthusiasts! This volume features such greats as Ambrose Bierce, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Anton Chekov. Some unexpected names like P G Wodehouse and Kate Chopin also crop up, bending their prodigious talents to the genre.
The ten stories contained in this volume range from events as diverse as the mysterious death of a sea-captain in a seedy boarding house, a group of women who deal with a crime committed by a friend, a dashing king who seeks to cover up evidence of his philandering ways, a fatal obsession that consumes a man after his wife's death and many more to delight the midnight reader...
The Short Ghost Story Collection contains ten classic spooky tales written by such master craftsmen as Algernon Blackwood, Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker and Saki among others. The stories range from haunted houses to reincarnation (as a predatory otter), ancient curses in which marble statues come alive and wreak a horrible revenge and a long narrative poem that describes a dialog between a ghost and a human being.
This anthology features authors like Lewis Carroll and E Nesbit who are traditionally regarded as children's writers and other practitioners of the paranormal like American writer Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.
Ghost stories generally deal with anything that's...
Tutored by Aristotle, compelled to ascend the throne at the age of 20 when his illustrious father was assassinated, driven by a passion for expanding the borders of his tiny kingdom, Alexander of Macedon was one of the most towering figures of ancient history. He is brought to vivid life in this gripping volume by the American children's writer Jacob Abbott.
In his short but eventful life, the young Macedonian king went on to rule over one of the most powerful and largest empires in the ancient world, breaking the hegemony of the powerful Persian dynasty of Darius. Alexander's sudden death in Babylon is one of the enduring mysteries of history. With him ended the glorious empi...
The report reveals not just the events that happened on that fateful day, but also describes the circumstances that led up to it. It analyzes the role of several government agencies in the drama and also pinpoints the lacunae in the system that allowed such events to occur. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were the most heinous committed on American soil and led to nearly 4,000 deaths, countless injuries, enormous loss of pr...
This is truly a delightful compilation of some of the best known and loved passages from William Shakespeare's plays. Most readers would be familiar with all or at least some of them. If you've studied Shakespeare in school or college, plays like The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth were probably assigned texts. However, if you haven't encountered these plays before, Shakespeare Monologues is a great volume to browse through and enjoy at leisure.
It's important to know that there is a distinction between the terms “monologue” and “soliloquy.” Since Shakespeare's plays often contain both these, the reader should be informed that a monologue is a speech deliv...
Multilingual Poetry Collection of favorite public-domain poems in languages other than English.
Like most epic novels written in the 19th century, the storyline of Les Misérables spans through several decades beginning in the early 1800s and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris. The events related to the lives of the central characters in the novel are also tied to the great historical events of the time from the French Revolution to the June Rebellion.
In the novel, Jean Valjean a man from a poor family was convicted o...