Short Story Collections

Each one of these books is available as a single book or part of a series of short stories

This volume collects five of Agatha Christie’s short stories published between 1922 and 1924. The first three stories feature one of her most popular characters, the detective Hercule Poirot. “The Wife of the Kenite” is a story of revenge that takes place in South Africa on the Veldt. “The Red Signal” refers to a character who gets warning signals when danger is immanent--and it is.

In the 1920s when Agatha Christie was publishing her short stories in The Blue Book Magazine, it was considered one of the “Big Four” pulp magazines in the United States. “The Mystery of the Hunter’s Lodge” was published there in June of 1924; “The Missing Will” was published there in January of 1925; and “The Plymouth Express Affair” was published there in January of 1924.

Poirot Investigates is a short story collection written by English author Agatha Christie and first published 1924. In the eleven stories, her famously clever detective Hercule Poirot solves a variety of mysteries involving spies, thieves, kidnappers, and murderers.

Father Brown is a Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories by English author G. K. Chesterton between 1910 and 1936. He’s known for solving mysteries using his intuition and insight into human nature. These stories are included in the collections The Innocence of Father Brown and The Wisdom of Father Brown.

The Inimitable Jeeves is a collection of short stories that’s now considered the first of the Jeeves novels. Jeeves is the butler of young Londoner Bertie Wooster. Most of the stories involve Bingo Little, a friend of Bertie’s, who is always falling in love.

The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories is a collection of 13 vintage short stories by British author P. G. Wodehouse, first published in 1917. It contains Wodehouse’s comedic fiction, as well as several more serious stories.

The Man Upstairs is a collection of 19 short stories by English author P. G. Wodehouse, first published in 1914. Most of the stories, which were first published in magazines, concern love and romance.

This collection of short stories features 7 classic Wodehouse tales across many genres, including “Death at the Excelsior,” a thrilling murder-mystery with the author’s signature comedic flourishes. Two of his most famous characters, Jeeves and Bertie, are also featured in some of the stories.

“The Door in the Wall” is considered by critics to be H. G. Wells’ finest short story, a tale of a man obsessed by a vision of an enchanted garden he knew as a child. The collection also includes the stories “The Star,” “A Dream of Armageddon,” “The Cone,” “A Moonlight Fable,” “The Diamond Maker,” “The Lord of the Dynamos,” and “The Country of the Blind.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery, born in 1874, is best remembered for her "Anne of Green Gables" books, but she was also published over 500 short stories before her death in 1942. Her stories range the gamut from chilling, romantic, whimsical, and humorous.

Dr. David Stone was once a police surgeon—that is, until he lost his sight. But he hasn’t lost his mystery-solving abilities. With his seeing eye dog Lady, and helped by his young nephew Joe, the trio takes on mysterious incidents in their small New Jersey town, crimes ranging from fraud to murder.

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes gathers together the final 12 stories (out of a total of 56) in the Sherlock Holmes’ series. In the Preface of Volume 1, Doyle writes, “And so, reader, farewell to Sherlock Holmes!” and states his hope that the Holmes’ stories have provided a distraction from the worries of life.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 stand-alone stories published in 1903 and 1904 in the United States and Britain featuring Sherlock Holmes and his crime mystery solving sidekick, Dr. Watson.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring detective Sherlock Holmes, and told from the point of view of Dr. Watson, Holmes’ best friend, assistant, and housemate. The stories take place in Victorian London, and center around social justice issues.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 12 stand-alone stories published in 1893-94. Doyle intended this would be the last of the Sherlock Holmes stories and killed off the detective in the last story of this series, but he resurrected him when fans clamored for more.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish author best known for his classic detective fiction featuring Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote short stories full of mystery and terror, known for their slow build-up and/or unexpected changes that lead to surprising and sometimes horrific conclusions

Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was considered the American Agatha Christie, publishing murder mysteries alongside short stories such as the seven collected in Love Stories. These stories are heartfelt, witty, fast-paced, romantic, and at times mysterious. Some are hospital stories, and draw upon Rinehart’s training as a nurse.

This collection includes:

"My Own True Ghost Story" by Rudyard Kipling
"His Wedded Wife" by Rudyard Kipling
"A Case of Identity" by Arthur Conan Doyle
"The Baron’s Quarry" by Egerton Castle
"The Fowl in the Pot" by Stanley J. Weyman

INCLUDING:

The Duplicity of Hargraves (O. Henry)
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (Mark Twain)
The Angel of the Odd (Edgar Allan Poe)
How the Widow Won the Deacon (William James Lampton)
The Watkinson Evening (Eliza Leslie)

INCLUDING:

Eve’s Diary: Translated From the Original
Extracts From Adam’s Diary: Translated From the Original Manuscript
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
A Dog’s Tale
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

These stories of adventure, suspense, terror, the supernatural, mystery and crime by the author of the Sherlock Holmes series are meant to be read “round the fire” on a cold winter night, which Doyle called “the ideal atmosphere for such stories”--though he also hoped they would “give pleasure to any one, at any time or place.”

FOUR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE’S MOST FAMOUS AND FRIGHTENING SHORT STORIES

The Black Cat
The Purloined Letter
The Cask Of Amontillado
The Pit and the Pendulum

FIVE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE’S MOST FAMOUS AND FRIGHTENING SHORT STORIES

The Tell-Tale Heart
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Oval Portrait
The Premature Burial
The Masque of the Red Death

Guy de Maupassant is a 19th century French author known for his mastery of the short story format, having written over 300 of them. “The Necklace” is one of his most famous, and is widely read in high school and college literature classes all over the world.

American author Anna Katharine Green is credited with being one of the earliest writers of detective fiction. However, her early writings crossed many genre boundaries, as this eclectic collection of short stories demonstrates. Ranging from gothic fiction to romance, and also including one of her earliest detective tales, This book is an important and compelling introduction to Green's work.

Mansfield, Cather, Chopin, Wharton, Gilman--five of the most important woman writers of the 20th century--all gathered here in one place, featuring five of their most important and timeless short stories.

This collection includes eight of the most beloved short stories by William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry. The author is famous for his surprise twist endings, including the one in his most renowned story, “The Gift of the Magi,” which tells the tale of three valuables: Della’s hair, Jim’s gold watch, and the love between the young husband and wife.

Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was an American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. She is best known for her stories about the inner lives of women and their outer societal constrictions. Her short stories were well-received during her lifetime and were published in prestigious American magazines such as Vogue and The Atlantic Monthly.

Four of the best short stories by the beloved 20th-century American author Willa Cather:

On the Divide
Eric Hermannson’s Soul
The Enchanted Bluff
The Bohemian Girl

These three short stories by American author Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) were his very first published works. Originally published in 1923, they were all that remained of his early works after his suitcase containing his original writing was stolen. These three still remain some of his most beloved and popular short stories.

Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) was a New Zealand-born short story writer, poet, essayist, and journalist, and considered one of the most important and influential writers of her time. The fifteen stories in this collection were written near the end of her tragically short life, when she died at the age of 34 from tuberculosis.