Presents a collection of twenty recent short stories, accompanied by commentary on each piece's themes and origins.

These eleven arresting, comic, and moving stories by acclaimed writer Michael Parker testify to the driving force of love, the lengths to which we'll go to claim it and pursue it, the delusions we'll float to keep it going, the torment that goes part and parcel with it. And despite all of the above, the absolute necessity of it, no matter its consequences. Whether it's a college student undone by the boy who leaves her, or the boyfriend intent on...

Short stories that are "achingly true to life when it comes to the many ways mothers and daughters grow together and apart, over and over again" (O, The Oprah Magazine).

"Mothers and daughters go at it in the way only mothers and daughters can, with full hearts and claws out, in Natalie Serber's funny, bittersweet collection" of short fiction named a New York Times Notable Book (Vanity Fair).

In...

The Metamorphosis is a short novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often, cited as one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world. The story begins with a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into an insect. "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous...

"Further Chronicles of Avonlea" is a collection of short stories by L. M. Montgomery that serves as a sequel to" Chronicles of Avonlea", and a companion book to the Anne of Green Gables series. The stories all relate to the fictional sea-sprayed Canadian village of Avonlea, and while Anne Shirley appears in a few, mostly concern other characters from the series, including Diana Barry, and members of the Meredith and Blair families. Published in 1920,...

From rodeos to rustlers, from ranch life to the outlaw trail, Elmer Kelton's take on the human condition shows us life in Texas as it was back then: simpler but harder, with danger always present. Filled with unforgettable characters and adventure, and imbued with a love of the time, the people, and the place, these stories take us from the earliest days of the Wild West well into the twentieth century, each one embodying a passion for life that's...

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...