The Black Cat was a monthly literary magazine, publishing original short stories, often about uncanny or fantastical topics. Many writers were largely unknown, but some famous authors also wrote original material for this magazine. We're presenting the first issue of Volume 3 with the following stories: "His Millionaire Client", by Sallie Pate Steen: a clever plan is hatched to claim a convicted murderer's inheritance "The Egg that Ran Away", by Philip Verrill Mighels: a naturalist finds a supposedly new species of eggs "Love and Avarice", by Leonard Freeman Burbank: obsessive love often ends in tragedy "How the Widow Raised the Mortgage", by R...

An abandoned young white woman dies with a baby in her arms in rural Japan. The child is raised by a Japanese woman. This child sees herself only as Japanese. As she grows older, necessity forces her into a racial awakening. And a romantic one.

The Black Cat was a monthly literary magazine, publishing original short stories, often about uncanny or fantastical topics. Many writers were largely unknown, but some famous authors also wrote original material for this magazine. This is the second issue of Volume 3 with the following stories: "Melted Melody", by James J. McEvilly: witness an archaeologist's unusual experiment in an ice cave "Old Pruitt", by Wellington Vandiver: the explanation why Block 2 was the merriest block in gaol "The Coming and Going of a Washoe", by Philip Verrill Mighels: a little Indian boy conquers the heart of two men "A Problem of the East", by Joseph A...

This post-humous collection of stories, sketches and essays by celebrated quintessential New England author Nathaniel Hawthorne gives us glimpses of the many different facets of Hawthorne's personality. The titular tale The Dolliver Romance was an unfinished manuscript that was edited and prepared for publication after Hawthorne's death and relates the story of an aged man with a small child in his care who swallows a magical tincture daily that rejuvenates his vitality, reversing the aging process...

Twelve stories, one for each month of the year, which first list a few Bible verses then relate how those verses took effect in a young person's life. The first 10 chapters are letters written by Frank Hudson to his cousin Renie. Frank is a boy who gets into trouble when he doesn't think before acting. He receives Bible verses as a kind of "hedge fence" he has to jump through or climb over to do the wrong things; they scratch him and give him a prick, and remind him of what is the right way to go...

This 1913 story is far more than a Christmas tale. It is a story about spiritual wisdom; the seeking of wisdom, the getting of wisdom, even when the seeking and the getting is obscure. Henry Collinton is an 81 year old, widowed, Episcopal Church bishop. The story opens on the morning of the Bishop’s last Christmas and ends with his death that night. We see him encounter four to him important people throughout the day, three friends and the Nazarene, the Christ, he has followed all his life...

Now that the railroad has come through, Christie Tucker's parents have decided to save enough for her to go to her well-to-do Uncle Daniel for a one-day visit, on Christmas, which is also Christie's birthday. It's her first trip away from home -- and on the cars! Of course, the trip doesn't turn out exactly as expected. That one day, and how Christie lived it, has consequences that keep coming! Addressed by the author to girls, it is still a pleasant story for adults, too.

Seven stories, chapters, essays, or poetry about Christmas or around Christmas. - Summary by david wales

From celebrated crime author Rex Stout, creator of the long-running Nero Wolfe detective stories, comes this early mystery, that served as an inspiration to the first Nero Wolfe novel Fer-de-Lance, of a golfer who, while out on the greens, clutches his chest and keels over from an apparent heart attack. But the coroner rules it a poisoning, and the president of the country club, Canby Rankin, takes it upon himself to track down the killer. - Summary by Ben Tucker

Regina Miriam Bloch is a somewhat enigmatic figure in the world of Weird Fiction, having written only two slim volumes , yet her language and impact of writing style is unrivaled. The Swine-Gods and Other Visions is a haunting, at times grotesque, at times exuberant collection of strange and otherworldly fables, filled with pagan deities, bizarre allegorical parables and rich imagery unlike anything in print at the time. The dream worlds that Bloch creates, of priests sacrificing souls to boar-headed...

Dudley Baker is new to Grafton School. Like many rookie students he finds himself feeling out of place amongst the strange new faces he encounters there. With the help of his roommate, Jimmy Logan, he attempts to overcome his insecurities and become a popular member of school society. Struggling with these attempts he finds redemption in the game of baseball and strives to make an indelible impact in sport. Of course many interesting adventures ensue! - Summary by Howard Skyman

The attractions Roopa experienced and the fantasies she entertained as a teen shaped a male imagery that ensconced her subconscious. Insensibly, confident carriage came to be associated with the image of maleness in her mind-set. Her acute consciousness of masculinity only increased her vulnerability to it, making her womanliness crave for the maleness for its gratification. However, as her father was constrained to help her in becoming a doctor, she opts to marry, hoping that Sathyam might serve her cause though the persona she envisioned as masculine, she found lacking in him...

If passing through youth was like crossing the mirage of life for Chandra and Nithya, it proved to be chasing the mirage of love for Sathya and Prema though for plain Vasavi, Chandra's pitiable sibling, it was the end of the road. As life brings Chandra, who suffers from an inferiority complex for his perceived ugliness, and Nithya, who was bogged down being jilted by Vasu, together, they script their fate of fulfillment. And as poetic justice would have it, Sathya, who caused Prema's heart burn, himself was led down the garden path by Kala, doing a "Sathya on Sathya"...

Glaring Shadow in a stream of consciousness mode is the self-account of the life and times of a man, who liquidates his immense wealth only to consign it to the flames. The agony and ecstasy of his life as he makes it big in our materialistic world and the way he loses his soul in the bargain, only to regain it when tragedy strikes him makes one ponder over the meaning of success in life - He had the soul of our times, and is the namesake of many. He tamed success by the scruff of its neck, only to fuel envy in our neighborhood...

This fascinating saga of life exemplifies the material raise and moral fall of Gautam and Sneha and also the poignant end of the latter and the spiritual rise of the former that is after the fall. Besides, this piquant story depicts the tragic life of their son Suresh Prabhu and his eventual redemption through love for and of Vidya. Book One, Artha and Kama, is about conflict and resolution arising out of ambition and achievement, intrigue and betrayal, compulsion and compromise, sleaze and scandal, trial and sentence and regret and remorse spread over eighteen chapters...

Who could have poisoned Ranjit the realtor, Shakeel the Inspector, Pravar the criminal and Natya his accomplice? Well the needle of suspicion tilted towards Pravar that was till he perished with his mate, but then who was the one? Could it be Radha under the scanner for her role in the death of her husband Madhu and his mistress Mala, Pravar's sister? Or was it Ranjit's spouse Kavya, who owing to Stockholm Syndrome, takes to Pravar her kidnapper. As these deaths by poisoning puzzle Dhruva, Radha, who worms her way into his life, avers that Kavya had the motive and the means to kill her spouse, her paramour and his wife besides the cop...

Voice Over: Under the British Raj in India, the self-indulging Nizams of Hyderabad abdicated the administration of their vast principality to doralu, the village heads, letting them turn the areas under their domain into their personal fiefdoms. While the successive Nizams were obsessed with building palaces and acquiring jewelry, the village heads succeeded in ushering in an oppressive era of tyrannical order. Acting as loose cannon from their palatial houses called gadis, the doralu succeeded in foisting an inimical feudal order upon the downtrodden dalits...

A story which shows that strength of character, and belief in the good in everything is above all else The old fisherman had a good dog, Boley, and an evil black cat, Sershina. "Master, this cat will be our undoing! Let's drive her away! Black cat, evil cat!" yelped Boley "Don't say that! You'll see that Serzhina will change and become good!" answered the old fisherman... Excerpt: There once lived an old man on the shore of a beautiful sea. All day he wove nets and caught fish. There were so many that the old fisherman shared them with his animals...

The Mysteries of London was a best-selling novel in mid-Victorian England. The first series was published in weekly instalments from 1844-46, priced at a penny each. Serialised novels sold in this way were known as Penny Dreadfuls … without any claim to literary greatness, they sought to provide ongoing entertainment for the popular audience. This book has it all -- vice, poverty, wealth, virtue, in every combination. Consider it a Victorian soap opera.Summary by Cori Samuel. Note: this project only covers half of volume 1. To be continued!

Set in the 1890s in Moonstone, a fictional place supposedly located in Colorado, The Song of the Lark is the self-portrait of an artist in the making. The story revolves around an ambitious young heroine, Thea Kronborg, who leaves her hometown to go to the big city to fulfill her dream of becoming a famous opera star. The novel captures Thea's independent-mindedness, her strong work ethic, and her ascent to her highest achievement. At each step along the way, her realization of the mediocrity of her peers propels her to greater levels of accomplishment, but in the course of her ascent she must discard those relationships which no longer serve her.

If you are expecting glass slippers and pumpkin coaches, look elsewhere... This is "a pantomime as Ibsen would have written it, if only it had occurred to him to write one." Set on a "bleak and cheerless heath overlooking the fjord" we meet Ibsenesque heroine Mrs. Inquest, her step-daughter Hilda, and her daughter Hedda, who is engaged to be married to the unfortunate Tesman. Thus begins Calderon's hilarious Ibsenesque version of Cinderella. NOTE from the editor of the volume, published in 1922 after Calderon's death: This play is hardly more than a rough draft, written when the idea was fresh and put aside to be worked on when the right moment should come...

The Marvelous Land of Oz Being an account of the further adventures of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and also the strange experiences of the highly magnified Woggle-Bug, Jack Pumpkin-head, the Animated Saw-Horse and the Gump; the story being A Sequel to The Wizard of Oz.

The novel, set in 1861, describes adventures of British expedition led by Captain John Hatteras to the North Pole. Hatteras is convinced that the sea around the pole is not frozen and his obsession is to reach the place no matter what. Mutiny by the crew results in destruction of their ship but Hatteras, with a few men, continues on the expedition. ( Wikipedia)

This project features four longer stories by Hans Christian Andersen.Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films. (

Lisbeth Longfrock - (Sidsel Sidsærkin in its original Norwegian) was seen by the author as a book written for adults, telling the story of a young girl growing up in a farming district in a steep-sided Norwegian Valley. First written when the author's daughter was 8 years old so she would know about his childhood spent in similar surroundings, living on a farm and spending summer in charge of the cows and goats on the mountain pastures.

Amadis of Gaul (Amadís de Gaula, in Spanish) was not the first, but certainly one of the best known knight-errantry tales of the 16th century. Not only is its authorship doubtful, but even the language in which it was first written - Portuguese or Spanish. It is imagined to have been composed in the 14th century, but the known first printed edition came to light in Zaragoza in 1508, and the oldest extant version is in Spanish. The plot is the story of the brave knight Amadis, and starts with the forbidden love of his parents and his secret birth, followed by his abandonment near water...

The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) presents a kaleidoscope of individual stories, which are all tied together by the story of Lucia and Renzo, two young persons of humble origin that are deeply in love with one another. However, despite their great attachment, they are prevented from marrying by the cruel Don Rodrigo, who has himself cast an eye on the beautiful and pious Lucia. Don Rodrigo menaces the priest who was to perform the wedding ceremony, who then refuses to do his duty. Thus threatened and prevented from being married, the couple is separated, and the narration follows each of them on their struggle to unite again...

Part I. The Story of Rollo; Mr. Holliday knows all there is to know about raising children, or at least he thinks he does. His attempts to train his son, Rollo, "in the way he should go," are well-meant, but hilariously unsuccessful--or are they? I believe this is a sort of spoof of the “Rollo” series for children, that was written by Jacob Abbot in the mid 19th century. The characters have the same names and the chapters have a little Q&A at the end like the Abbot books, except these are definitely tongue-in-cheek...

Ulysses is a groundbreaking novel in which Irish author James Joyce explores realism through stream-of-consciousness technique and shifting narrative styles. It was published in serial form between 1918-1920 and first published in book form in 1922. The story follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin during the course of one day: June 16, 1904. The events and characters of Ulysses parallel those of Homer's Odyssey, with Bloom corresponding to Odysseus. Although the book was the subject of early obscenity...

Sylvie and Bruno Concluded continues the adventures of the many characters in the previous volume Sylvie and Bruno. The fairy-children Sylvie and Bruno are charming whenever they appear, their fairy companions such as the Professor delight in taking ideas to their logical (and humorous) conclusions, and many nonsense songs are sung. Meanwhile, the mortals (comprised of the unnamed narrator, the gracious Lady Muriel and the sententious Arthur) tend to become the vehicles for Carroll's regular sermons on morality and proper Christian values.

Our hero, Peter Vibart, an Oxford graduate with no means of support but for 10 guineas he has inherited, sets out on a walking tour of the Kent countryside. Along the way, he meets many quaint and adoring characters as well as a few ne’er-do-wells, meets with several disasters and triumphs, and eventually he meets "The Woman," who leads him to even more disasters and triumphs. (Introduction by John Lieder)Proof-listened by Dawn Larsen and BainbridgeCatherine.

Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies.