About The Book

American author William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name br>o Henry (11 September 1862-5 June 1910), was a prolific short-story writer. Adept at handling comic and tragic themes, he used to great effect, both sentiment and surprise endings in his stories. Many of these trace the lives of ordinary new Yorkers who yearn for romance, passion and adventure, brilliantly capturing in the process The rhythms of American life at a time when slavery and the Indian Wars were a raw and recent memory. In his first book, he brought to life a colourful cast of characters whose stories unravel against a Honduran setting. This collection, featuring some of br>o br>Henry’s best stories—‘the gift of the Magi’, ‘the last leaf’, ‘the Skylight room’, ‘a municipal report’ and ‘the making of a new Yorker’ – showcases his mastery over the medium and the sheer range of his themes.

About O. Henry

WILLIAM SYDNEY PORTER (1862-1910), pseudonymously famous as O. HENRY, was one of the finest American short story writers. His writings were famously marked by ironic humour and surprise endings. Some of his major works are The Four Million (1906), The Trimmed Lamp (1907), Heart of the West (1907) and Whirligigs (1910). Porter began his writing career with the setting up of The Rolling Stone in 1894, a humorous weekly which did not do well. This was followed by a short stint at The Houston Post as a reporter, columnist and cartoonist. However, Porter was imprisoned for embezzlement of bank funds and served a sentence, eventually getting early release for good behaviour. While in jail, he started writing short stories under the pseudonym O. Henry to support his daughter, and became renowned. O. Henry died on June 5, 1910, aged 47.

About The Book

It sounds plausible enough tonight, but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning. Born out of H.G. Wells’ literary vision of the future, The Time Machine (1895) is an extraordinary work of early science fiction. A Victorian scientist builds a time machine and lands in the year 802,701 AD. Initially, he is transported to the pastoral idyll of an unknown land which is delightfully peaceful. Soon, however, the paradisiacal façade shatters and he discovers the reality of two distinct species: Eloi are useless, childlike adults surviving on a fruit based diet, and Morlocks who are barbarians thriving underground. The Time Traveller saves one of the Eloi from drowning, and navigates through tunnels to retrieve his time machine that has gone missing. Before returning to his era, The Time Traveller also visits a land where a bloated red sun stares motionless in the sky and the only sign of life is a black blob with tentacles. Once again, the scientist prepares to leave on another time travel, but this time will he return?

About H.G. Wells

About The Book

“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves. Considered one of the most important modernist works in literature, James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) is often referred to as a modern parallel of Homer’s epic poem, Odyssey. The story revolves around the events of a single ordinary day, 16 June 1904, in the life of Leopold Bloom, Mary Bloom and Stephen Dedalus, the famous hero from Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, who act as counterparts of Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope respectively from the epic poem. Joyce portrays modernist concerns in the context of the 20th century by enhancing the structural similarities yet stark differences between the events and characters of the epic poem and his novel. His use of ingenious characterisation and humour as well as literary techniques such as stream of consciousness, allusions and puns not only enrich the novel but also elucidate the inner workings of the mind and the nonlinear progressions of thought. Fans of the author now celebrate 16 June worldwide as Bloomsday.”

About James Joyce

Other Books By James Joyce