Something between a tale and a polemic, these "fables of reason" are feats of narrative compression and contain much of Voltaire's best and funniest writing. From ribald tales of adultery to conversations between cosmic travellers, the stories in this collection pose moral, philosophical and social questions. Reader and protagonist alike find their assumptions challenged as Voltaire mingles rationality and fantasy.

Somewhere between tales and polemics, these funny, ribald, and inventive pieces show Voltaire doing what he does best: brilliantly challenging received wisdom, religious intolerance, and naïve optimism. Traveling through strange environments, Voltaire's protagonists are educated, often by surprise, into the complexities and contradictions of their world. Arriving on Earth from the star Sirius, the gigantic explorer Micromégas discovers a diminutive people with an inflated idea of their own importance in the universe. Babouc in "The World as It Is" learns that humanity is equally capable of barbarism and remarkable altruism. Other characters include a little-known god of infidelity, a pretentious graduate who invites a savage to dinner, and an Indian fakir who puts up with a bed of nails to gain the adoration of his female disciples. These "fables of reason" challenge the assumptions of reader and protagonist alike.

Includes Part One of Candide; three stories; selections from The Philosophical Dictionary, The Lisbon Earthquake, and other works; and thirty-five letters.

From vampires and demons to ghosts and zombies, interest in monsters in literature, film, and popular culture has never been stronger. This concise Encyclopedia provides scholars and students with a comprehensive and authoritative A-Z of monsters throughout the ages. It is the first major reference book on monsters for the scholarly market. Over 200 entries written by experts in the field are accompanied by an overview introduction by the editor. Generic entries such as 'ghost' and 'vampire' are cross-listed with important specific manifestations of that monster. In addition to monsters appearing in English-language literature and film, the Encyclopedia also includes significant monsters in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African and Middle Eastern traditions. Alphabetically organized, the entries each feature suggestions for further reading. The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters is an invaluable resource for all students and scholars and an essential addition to library reference shelves.

"One of the most gifted novelists of his generation” (TIME) gives us a metaphysical literary mystery that is as ambitious as it is intriguing, an investigation of a young woman's violent extinction that also traces her construction of a new and oddly innocent self. She wakes in an emergency room in a London hospital, to a voice that tells her: "You're on your own now. Take care. Be good." She has no knowledge of her name, her past, or even her species. It takes her a while to realize that she is human—and that the beings who threaten, befriend, and violate her are other people. Some of whom seem to know all about her. "Powerful and electrifying.... Other People is a metaphysical thriller, Kafka reshot in the style of Psycho." —J. G. Ballard, author of Empire of the Sun

Candide is a French satire by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. As expected by Voltaire, Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté. However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. Today, Candide is recognized as Voltaire's magnum opus and is often listed as part of the Western canon; it is arguably taught more than any other work of French literature. It was listed as one of The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written.

Presents a chronological survey of this genre from the beginnings of modern science and technology to the present.

This is an anthology for people who love story-telling. Our one hundred classic masterpieces were selected purely for their capacity to delight, instruct and charm. In this collection, readers will encounter some of the finest writing in world literature. We have chosen to arrange the stories thematically, dividing the anthology into ten parts as follows: 1) Characters 2) Animals 3) Epiphanies 4) Mystery and Adventure 5) Horror and Ghosts 6) Strange, Surreal and Fantastic 7) Humour, Satire and Tall Tales 8) Love 9) Summer Tales 10) Winter Tales Please view the preview of this book for a full listing of contents. We hope this arrangement will encourage readers to move between the different parts of the anthology as their interest takes them, discovering as they do so, the shared sensibilities of authors remote in time and place. Though these stories vary enormously in theme, tone and setting—from Russian snow storms, to spiritual epiphanies in Winesburg, Ohio—each of them has enthralled readers across generations; is exemplary in its attention to detail and evocation of mood; resists all simplistic and univocal interpretations, and remains as fresh and penetrating today as when it was first written. At Elsinore Books we pride ourselves on creating beautiful e-books, and devote great attention to formatting, and ease of navigation. This book contains a cleanly-styled contents page that permits easy movement between the stories. Contents: Part 1: Characters Gusev — Anton Chekhov Boule de Suif — Guy de Maupassant Alyosha the Pot — Leo Tolstoy Mateo Falcone — Prosper Mérimée Little Brother — Mary E. Mann Bartleby, The Scrivener — Herman Melville The Lightning-Rod Man — Herman Melville The Ambitious Guest — Nathaniel Hawthorne The Darling — Anton Chekhov A Simple Heart — Gustave Flaubert Part 2: Animals Sredni Vashta — Saki Kholstomer, The Story of a Horse — Leo Tolstoy A Dark-Brown Dog — Stephen Crane Kashtanka — Anton Chekhov The Cat That Walked By Himself — Rudyard Kipling The Black Cat — Edgar Allan Poe The Fly — Katherine Mansfield The Boar-Pig — Saki The Tiger Guest — Pu Songling Jackals and Arabs — Franz Kafka Part 3: Epiphanies Araby — James Joyce The Dead — James Joyce The Strength of God — Sherwood Anderson The Egg — Sherwood Anderson A Death in the Desert — Willa Cather Roman Fever — Edith Wharton The Story of an Hour — Kate Chopin Home Sickness — George Moore The Madonna of the Future — Henry James The Kiss — Anton Chekhov Part 4: Mystery and Adventure The Red-Headed League — Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle — Arthur Conan Doyle The Arrow of Heaven — G. K. Chesterton The Sign of the Broken Sword — G. K. Chesterton The Purloined Letter — Edgar Allan Poe The Master of Mystery — Jack London The Problem of Cell 13 — Jacques Futrelle The Three Stranger — Thomas Hardy The Diamond as Big as the Ritz — F. Scott Fitzgerald A Jury of Her Peers — Susan Glaspell Part 5: Horror and Ghosts The Body Snatcher — Robert Louis Stevenson The Signal-Man — Charles Dickens August Heat — W. F. Harvey The Monkey’s Paw — W. W. Jacobs “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You my Lad” — M. R. James The Phantom Coach — Amelia Edwards The Horla — Guy de Maupassant An Inhabitant of Carcosa — Ambrose Bierce Schalken the Painter — Sheridan Le Fanu The Cask of Amontillado — Edgar Allan Poe Please "Look inside" to see the complete listing.

Candide has been delighting readers since 1759 with its satiric wit, provocations, and warnings. The novella has never been out of print and has been translated into every conceivable language. The text of this Norton Critical Edition remains that of Robert M. Adams’s superlative translation, accompanied by explanatory annotations. The Norton Critical Edition also includes: · A full introduction by Nicholas Cronk. · Six background studies of Enlightenment ideas and themes (by Richard Holmes, Adam Gopnik, W. H. Barber, Dennis Fletcher, Haydn Mason, and Nicholas Cronk), five of these new to the Third Edition. · Seven critical essays—five of them new to this edition—representing a wide range of approaches to Candide. Contributors include J. G. Weightman, Robin Howells, James J. Lynch, Philip Stewart, Erich Auerbach, and Jean Starobinski. · A revised and expanded Selected Bibliography.

Gregory Benford is perhaps best known as the author of Benford's law of controversy: "Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available." That maxim is a quotation from Timescape, Benford's Nebula and Campbell Award-winning 1980 novel, which established his work as an exemplar of "hard science fiction," dedicated to working out the consequences of modern science rather than substituting pseudoscience for fantasy. Like many other current science fiction writers, Benford has tackled the major genres: space travel, time travel, technology running amok, prolonged longevity, searing apocalyptic cosmic events, and alien life, which he theorizes to be more likely viral than intelligent. An astrophysicist by training and profession, Benford has published more than twenty novels, over one hundred short stories, some fifty essays, and myriad articles that display both his scientific rigor as well as a recognition of literary traditions. In this study, George Slusser explores the extraordinary, seemingly inexhaustible display of creative energy in Gregory Benford's life and work. Presenting Benford's ideas on science and the writing of science fiction, the volume addresses the writer's literary production and his place in contemporary science fiction. By identifying direct sources and making parallels with other works and writers, Slusser reveals the vast scope of Benford's knowledge, both of literature and of the major scientific and philosophical issues of our time. Slusser also discusses Benford's numerous scientific articles and nonfiction books and includes a new interview with Benford.