"Anton Chekhov's best stories display a detached sympathy for the Russian people and a controversial skill in portraying the decaying world of czarist Russia. Though not a political man, Chekhov could be cutting in his criticisms of upper-class society, and he turned a lens on its manners and shortsightedness. His finely observed and sharp-as-nails writing created unforgettable characters." "In these short novels, Chekhov was interested, above all, in human relationships, especially mutual unintelligibility and frustration between lovers and the evolution of affection over time. "The Duel," "My Life," and "Ward No. 6" are intimate portraits of individuals and their predicaments, while "A Woman's Kingdom," "Peasants," "Three Years," and "In the Ravine" depict the social milieu on a much larger scale than was possible in his shorter stories."--BOOK JACKET.

Since its first printing in 1954, this outstanding anthology has been the book of choice by teachers, students, and lovers of short fiction. Surveying stories by British and American writers in the first half of the twentieth century, editors Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine selected stories that broke new ground and challenged the imagination with their style, subject matter, or tone: the unforgettable, enduring works that shaped the literature of our time. A truly exceptional collection of great stories, including: The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane The Horse Dealer’s Daughter by D. H. Lawrence Barn Burning by William Faulkner The Sojourner by Carson McCullers The Open Window by Saki Flowering Judas by Katherine Anne Porter The Boarding House by James Joyce Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway The Tree of Knowledge by Henry James Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty . . . and twenty-five more of the century’s best stories!

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Art, fashion, fame and sex - artist Esther Glass has it all. That is, until a ghost from her past threatens to destroy her perfect life. Trying to cover her tracks, Esther goes for ultimate sensation, selling herself as a living work of art. She takes the international art scene by storm, performing as the female sitters inside seven great paintings. But underneath the surface the cracks start to show as Esther is forced to reconcile a very private history with a very public life. Fast-paced, smart and scintillating, Masterpiece gives the reader a rare glimpse into a closed world.

Level 7 is the diary of Officer X-127, who is assigned to stand guard at the "Push Buttons," a machine devised to activate the atomic destruction of the enemy, in the country’s deepest bomb shelter. Four thousand feet underground, Level 7 has been built to withstand the most devastating attack and to be self-sufficient for five hundred years. Selected according to a psychological profile that assures their willingness to destroy all life on Earth, those who are sent down may never return. Originally published in 1959, and with over 400,000 copies sold, this powerful dystopian novel remains a horrific vision of where the nuclear arms race may lead, and is an affirmation of human life and love. Level 7 merits comparison to Huxley’s A Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984 and should be considered a must-read by all science fiction fans.