This unique collection of Twain s essential short stories and semiautobiographical narratives is a testament to the author s vast imagination. Featuring popular tales such as Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, as well as some delightful excerpts from The Diaries of Adam and Eve, this compilation also includes darker works written in the author s twilight years. These selections illuminate the depth of Twain s artistry, humor, irony, and narrative genius."

Ambrose Bierce (1842 1914?) has been a widely read, often controversial, author for more than a hundred years, but until now there has been no exhaustive collection of his short fiction. This new edition, both comprehensive and chronological, reveals the broad range of fiction that Bierce mastered. Readers who expect to find only a writer of grim and shocking stories of war and other horrors will discover that he excelled at other types of tales humorous, mystical, Gothic, satirical, sentimental, mystery, science fiction, and even love stories. This collection gives readers the opportunity to...

Ambrose Bierce (1842 1914?) has been a widely read, often controversial, author for more than a hundred years, but until now there has been no exhaustive collection of his short fiction. This new edition, both comprehensive and chronological, reveals the broad range of fiction that Bierce mastered. Readers who expect to find only a writer of grim and shocking stories of war and other horrors will discover that he excelled at other types of tales humorous, mystical, Gothic, satirical, sentimental, mystery, science fiction, and even love stories. This collection gives readers the opportunity to...

Ambrose Bierce (1842 1914?) has been a widely read, often controversial, author for more than a hundred years, but until now there has been no exhaustive collection of his short fiction. This new edition, both comprehensive and chronological, reveals the broad range of fiction that Bierce mastered. Readers who expect to find only a writer of grim and shocking stories of war and other horrors will discover that he excelled at other types of tales humorous, mystical, Gothic, satirical, sentimental, mystery, science fiction, and even love stories. This collection gives readers the opportunity to...

This volume in the Critical Insights series begins with an essay entitled "On Jack London," which is a brief discussion of his life and works. A longer biographical section follows. Original essays include a discussion of the literary careers of Jack London and Mark Twain and a close examination of the critical reception of London's works. Other essays discuss London's use of Carl Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious, his use of Naturalism in his early works and the themes of androgyny throughout his novels.