An illustrated collection of fourteen classic stories.

It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of disease a patient has. William Osler Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist, who looks after people with brain diseases. She is also fascinated by psychosomatic disorders - seizures, paralysis, blindness - disabilities that originate more in the mind than in the structure of the brain. Hysteria by another name. Medical conditions that people find so shameful that they often exist below the radar. Or they are given labels that make them more acceptable or more difficult to spot. Some believe that hysteria is rare. Any neurologist will tell you it isn’t. They see a form of it in every clinic, on every working day. For those like O'Sullivan, who are drawn to it, sightings are not restricted to the clinic. It is everywhere. And this is how she learned about Andrei, and the 424 other children in Sweden like him, children who have fallen into a state of apathy, a waking coma, some for months, some for years. But why? The Sleeping Beauties is the story of these children in Sweden but it is also an exploration of different aspects of psychosomatic disorders, mass hysteria, culture bound syndromes and the idioms of distress. Culture bound syndromes are a set of symptoms that exist only within a particular society. Windigo is a condition that affects Native Americans. It manifests as a fear that the sufferer has turned into a cannibal. Koro, an intense anxiety that the penis will recede into the body, is seen almost exclusively in Malaysia. Susto is prevalent in Latinos who live in the States. Triggered by traumatic events the symptoms include anorexia, nervousness, insomnia and diarrhea. There are over two hundred culture bound syndromes. They are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as rare psychiatric conditions. However within the societies in which they exist they are more likely to be regarded as folk illnesses. They are culturally acceptable ways to express distress. Two questions arise. Who defines psychiatric illness and what shapes the manner in which distress is communicated within a society? Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, this is a remarkable scientific investigation with a very human face.

The servants of the Hotel Salisbury, which is so called because it is situated on Broadway and conducted on the American plan by a man named Riggs, had agreed upon a date for their annual ball and volunteer concert, and had announced that it would eclipse every other annual ball in the history of the hotel. As the Hotel Salisbury had been only two years in existence, this was not an idle boast, and it had the effect of inducing many people to buy the tickets, which sold at a dollar apiece, and were good for "one gent and a lady," and entitled the bearer to a hat-check without extra charge.

Three surreal, erotically charged stories from Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. In the three long tales in this collection, Yasunari Kawabata examines the boundaries between fantasy and reality in the minds of three lonely men. Piercing examinations of sexuality and human psychology—and works of remarkable subtlety and beauty—these stories showcase one of the twentieth century’s great writers—in any language—at his very best.

MERCEDES LACKEY'S magical A Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series continues with a captivating new adventure… Heavy is the head—and the eyelids—of the princess who wears the crown… In Rosamund's realm, happiness hinges on a few simple beliefs. For every princess there's a prince. The King has ultimate power. Stepmothers should never be trusted. And bad things come to those who break with Tradition…. But when Rosa is pursued by a murderous huntsman and then captured by dwarves, her beliefs go up in smoke. Determined to escape and save her kingdom from imminent invasion, she agrees to become the subject of one of her stepmother's risky incantations—thus falling into a deep, deep sleep. When awakened by a touchy-feely stranger, Rosa must choose between Tradition and her future between a host of eligible princes and a handsome, fair-haired outsider. And learn the difference between being a princess and ruling as a Queen.

A beautiful princess is put into a deep sleep by a curse until she is awakened by a brave prince.

"Lists of Stories and Programs for Story Hours" is a bulleting from the St. Louis Public Library issued to help teachers and parents organize their kids' reading activities. The book is broken into several chapters containing stories for little children, stories for special occasions, stories for reading out loud, and those for older children. The bulletin doesn't contain the texts of the stories, though.