It is of no importance, the name of the little provincial city where Captain Mercadier—twenty-six years of service, twenty-two campaigns, and three wounds—installed himself when he was retired on a pension. Two more geese, strolling in the grass across the bottom of the page. It was quite like all those other little villages which solicit without obtaining it a branch of the railway; just as if it were not the sole dissipation of the natives to go every day, at the same hour, to the Place de la Fontaine to see the diligence come in at full gallop, with its gay cracking of the whips and clang of bells. It was a place of three thousand inhabitants—ambitiously denominated souls in the statistical tables—and was exceedingly proud of its title of chief city of the canton. It had ramparts planted with trees, a pretty river with good fishing, a church of the charming epoch of the flamboyant Gothic, disgraced by a frightful station of the cross, brought directly from the quarter of Saint Sulpice. Every Monday its market was gay with great red and blue umbrellas, and countrymen filled its streets in carts and carriages. But for the rest of the week it retired with delight into that silence and solitude which made it so dear to its rustic population. Its streets were paved with cobble-stones; through the windows of the ground-floor one could see samplers and wax-flowers under glass domes, and, through the gates of the gardens, statuettes of Napoleon in shell-work. The principal inn was naturally called the Shield of France; and the town-clerk made rhymed acrostics for the ladies of society.

From the pen of Mick Jackson, author of The Underground Man and Five Boys, come these ten acclaimed tales. Featuring undertakers, dark forests, resurrected butterflies and a singularly mean-spirited horse, the stories are nevertheless rooted in the realistic and all too recognisable world of retirement, loneliness, and childhood boredom. By turns funny, scary and heartbreaking, they are always illuminating, and further evidence of one of the most original and brilliant imaginations in contemporary fiction.

This classic collection of short stories includes some of Clarke's finest work: vivid glimpses into the future, a year, a decade, a century, a millennium from now.

Proud to announce that "Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow" has won three literary awards: Gold Winner for Short Stories in the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Awards Silver for Short Story/Novella in the Readers' Favorite International Book Awards Finalist for Short Stories in the National Indie Excellence Awards Submitted for your approval—Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow, a collection of speculative fiction inspired by the original Twilight Zone series. In the spirit of that iconic, timeless show, these mysterious and gripping narratives explore parallel worlds, faraway planets, dystopian societies, and unsettling reality. •A toddler shifts through parallel worlds, changing into different versions of herself. What would a mother do for her daughter? •A chef finds an alternate food source on a remote world. When the new chef arrives, will he be forced to reveal a horrific secret? •A twelve-year-old Earth girl is randomly chosen to rule the galaxy. Why are galactic administrators so desperate to stop her? •Humanity is on trial, annihilation at stake. Can an underdog alien lawyer save us? •Time seems to stand still as a young boy bikes with his troubled friend. Is the friend causing this phenomenon—and what if he doesn’t stop it? Explore space and time—and confront humanity’s deepest fears—with Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow.

Here, combined in one volume, are ten of Dr. Seuss' tallest tales, taken from three of his best-loved storybooks -- The Sneetches, Yurtle the Turtle, and I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today! Packed with zany pictures and hilarious rhymes, the tales make enchanting bedtime reading.

A lovesick count and the ghost of his brutalized servant... a serial killer who defies death... a house with a violent mind of its own and another that holds within its peeling walls a grotesque secret. Here are witches who feast on faces, changeling rites of passage, a venerable vampire contemplating his end, and a fanged brat who drains the patience of a bumbling teenage boy. Here, too, are a flamboyant young novelist in search of a subject more compelling than his own eerie existence, and the daughter of a sorcerer fighting to free her lover, and her will, from sinister bonds. Enter the world of gothic, a celebration of the literary form made famous by such writers as Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe.