A book of five short stories 1. "Oh threats of hell and hopes of paradise" 2. "One thing at least is certain, this life flies" 3. "One thing is certain and the rest is lies" 4. "The flower that once has blown forever dies" 5. "I sent my soul into the invisible some letter of the afterlife spell" My stories (five) are told in the first person and inspired by the "Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam, the twelfth century philosopher and Edgar Allen Poe. They tell of rape, murder, a philandering preacher, an engineer driven to the gates of insanity by his perfectionist ideals and a despondent professor attempting to leave his legacy by trying to prove Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. I have been writing on these stories for a few years as the spirit would move me to write. When someone asks me what they are about, or to summarize them, my brain sort of goes into neutral and I really don't know where to start. I generally try to change the subject since I can't summarize in 4000 characters or less what I had for breakfast this morning. If the inquisitive person is persistent I simply offer to let them read the book and then they change the subject. Actually, after meditating upon the "Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam and wallowing his quatrains around in my mind for a while, I generally end up writing a little. I think I'm much like Omar; still trying to deduce what this thing we call "life" is all about! My stories touch on things from the simple life of an Appalachian Mountains sharecropper, a dubious country preacher, rape, murder, an arduous and unnecessary flight from justice, snakebites and miraculous healings, the lynching of an innocent black man, and subsistence farm life to, the complicated motives of brainy engineers and chemists attempting to leave their legacy to science by proving knowledge can be transmitted genetically; thereby, proving Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious to be valid. Keywords: Fiction, Short Stories, Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam, Carl Jung, Life, Murder, Rape, Preacher, Engineer

Christopher Decker's critical edition of the Rubaiyat is the first to publish all extant states of the poems and to unearth a full record of its complicated textual evolution.

Regarded by many as the most comprehensive anthology of all time, ‘The Harvard Classics’ was first published in 1909 under the supervision of the Harvard president Charles W. Eliot. An esteemed academic, Eliot had argued that the elements of a liberal education could be gained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. The publisher P. F. Collier challenged Eliot to make good on this statement and ‘Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf’ was the result. Eight years later Eliot added a further 20 volumes as a sub-collection titled ‘The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction’, offering some of the greatest novels and short stories of world literature. The exhaustive anthology of the ‘The Harvard Classics’ comprises every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject up to the twentieth century. This comprehensive eBook presents the complete anthology, with Eliot’s original introductions, numerous illustrations, rare texts and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to life and works of the authors featured in the anthology * All 51 volumes of ‘The Harvard Classics’ * Eliot’s original concise introductions * Eliot’s general introduction to the anthology (Volume 50) * The complete 20 volume edition of ‘The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction’ * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Major works include the original illustrations that accompanied the text * Easily locate the chapters and sections you want to read with individual contents tables * Precise arrangement of texts into the original anthology order * A veritable digital library comprised in a single eBook! Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to see the full contents - too many titles to list fully here. CONTENTS: Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENN Vol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS Vol. 3. BACON, MILTON’S PROSE, THOS. BROWNE Vol. 4. COMPLETE POEMS IN ENGLISH, MILTON Vol. 5. ESSAYS AND ENGLISH TRAITS, EMERSON Vol. 6. POEMS AND SONGS, BURNS Vol. 7. CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, IMITATION OF CHRIST Vol. 8. NINE GREEK DRAMAS Vol. 9. LETTERS AND TREATISES OF CICERO AND PLINY Vol. 10. WEALTH OF NATIONS, ADAM SMITH Vol. 11. ORIGIN OF SPECIES, DARWIN Vol. 12. PLUTARCH’S LIVES Vol. 13. AENEID, VIRGIL Vol. 14. DON QUIXOTE, PART 1, CERVANTES Vol. 15. PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, DONNE & HERBERT, BUNYAN, WALTON Vol. 16. THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS Vol. 17. FOLKLORE AND FABLE, AESOP, GRIMM, ANDERSON Vol. 18. MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA Vol. 19. FAUST, EGMONT, ETC. DOCTOR FAUSTUS, GOETHE, MARLOWE Vol. 20. THE DIVINE COMEDY, DANTE Vol. 21. I PROMESSI SPOSI, MANZONI Vol. 22. THE ODYSSEY, HOMER Vol. 23. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, DANA Vol. 24. ON THE SUBLIME, FRENCH REVOLUTION, ETC., BURKE Vol. 25. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC., ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, J.S. MILL, T. CARLYLE Vol. 26. CONTINENTAL DRAMA Vol. 27. ENGLISH ESSAYS: SIDNEY TO MACAULAY Vol. 28. ESSAYS: ENGLISH AND AMERICAN Vol. 29. VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, DARWIN Vol. 30. FARADAY, HELMHOLTZ, KELVIN, NEWCOMB, ETC Vol. 31. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BENVENUTO CELLINI Vol. 32. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS Vol. 33. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS Vol. 34. FRENCH AND ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS Vol. 35. CHRONICLE AND ROMANCE Vol. 36. MACHIAVELLI, MORE, LUTHER Vol. 37. LOCKE, BERKELEY, HUME Vol. 38. HARVEY, JENNER, LISTER, PASTEUR Vol. 39. PREFACES AND PROLOGUES Vol. 40. ENGLISH POETRY 1 Vol. 41. ENGLISH POETRY 2 Vol. 42. ENGLISH POETRY 3 Vol. 43. AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS Vol. 44. SACRED WRITINGS 1 Vol. 45. SACRED WRITINGS 2 Vol. 46. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 1 Vol. 47. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 2 Vol. 48. THOUGHTS AND MINOR WORKS, PASCAL Vol. 49. EPIC AND SAGA Vol. 50. INTRODUCTION AND READER’S GUIDE Vol. 51. LECTURES The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 20 Volumes: FIELDING to TURGENEV