Musaicum Books presents to you this unique collection, designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.Novels:The BeetleTom Ossington's GhostCrime and the CriminalThe Datchet DiamondsThe Chase of the RubyThe Twickenham PeerageMiss Arnott's MarriageThe Great TemptationThe Master of DeceptionA DuelThe Woman with One HandThe Coward behind the CurtainA Woman PerfectedViolet Forster's LoverA Hero of RomanceA Second ComingShort Stories:Marvels and MysteriesThe Long Arm of CoincidenceThe MaskAn ExperiencePourquoipasBy SuggestionA Silent WitnessTo Be Used Against HimThe Words of a Little ChildHow he Passed!Between the Dark and the DaylightMy Aunt's ExcursionThe Irregularity of the JurymanMitwaterstraandExchange is RobberyThe Haunted ChairNellyLa Haute FinanceMrs. Riddle's DaughterMiss Donne's Great GambleSkittlesEmA Relic of the BorgiasFrivolitiesThe Purse Which Was FoundFor One Night OnlyReturning a VerdictThe Chancellor's WardA Honeymoon TripThe Burglar's BlunderNinepenceA Battlefield up-to-DateMr. Harland's PupilsA Burglar AlarmA Lesson in ScullingOutsideAmusement OnlyThe Lost DuchessThe Strange Occurrences in Canterstone JailTwins!A Vision of the NightThe Way of a Maid with a ManAunt Jane's JalapWillyumHis First ExperimentAn Old-fashioned ChristmasBy DeputyMr. Whiting and Mary AnnA SubstituteThe Confessions of a Young LadyA Wonderful GirlCupid's MessengerThe OgreThe HandwritingThe People's Stock ExchangeBreaking the IceA Girl Who Couldn'tThe Princess MargarettaThe End of His HolidayThe Girl and the BoyA Mutual AffinityMagical MusicA Runaway WifeUnder One FlagA Pet of the BalletA Christmas MiracleOur Musical ComedyStaggersMy Wedding DayTwo of a TradeRewardedOn the RiverA Member of the Anti-Tobacco LeagueThat FoursomeAn Episcopal ScandalMr Bloxam and the British ConstitutionFor DebtThe Thirteen ClubUncollected StoriesCapturing a ConvictThe Disappearance of Mrs. Macrecham

Knickerbocker's History Of New York was published in 1809. Nearly forty years later Washington Irving, the real author, says it was his purpose in the history to embody the traditions of New York in an amusing form, to illustrate its local humors, customs and peculiarities in a whimsical narrative, which should help to bind the heart of the native inhabitant to his home. He adds: "In this I have reason to believe I have in some measure succeeded. Before the appearance of my work the popular traditions of our city were unrecorded; the peculiar and racy customs and usages derived from our Dutch Progenitors were unnoticed, or regarded with indifference, or adverted to with a sneer. Now they form a convivial currency, and are brought forward on all occasions; they link our whole community together in good humor and good fellowship; they are the rallying-points of home feeling, the seasoning of our civic festivities, the staple of local tales and local pleasantries; and are so harped upon by our writers of popular fiction that I find myself almost crowded off the legendary ground which I was the first to explore by the host who have followed in my footsteps.

An astonishing and fantastical autobiographical novel--reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Laurence Sterne--"The System of Vienna" details Jonke's travels through Vienna by streetcar, reporting the bizarre and frustrating encounters he experiences as he progresses--and meanwhile moving not just from trolley-stop to trolley-stop, but through life as well, from innocence to disillusionment, birth to death. Jonke meets a paranoiac fish wholesaler who believes he is directing all of Austrian politics from his little stall, a stamp collector in such deadly earnest he hopes to be appointed to a professorship in philately, and a compulsive talker who has developed a rigorous economic philosophy out of the most common objects to be found in a Vienna neighborhood. Slowly increasing the comic and fantastic elements in his story until they overwhelm all pretense to autobiography--culminating in a strangely touching love scene between Jonke and a caryatid--"The System of Vienna" reminds us that the very act of describing a life turns it into fiction.