Wonderfully wide-ranging and enjoyable, this outstanding collection features short stories by great 19- and 20th-century writers from America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Western Europe.
Included are Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," in which two waiters and a lonely customer in a Spanish cafe confront the concept of nothingness; "A & P," John Updike's most anthologized story and one of his most popular; "Borges and I," typical Jorge Luis Borges -- imaginative, philosophical, and mysterious; as well as short masterpieces by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Herman Melville, Thomas...

An indispensable source of advice and inspiration for aspiring writers, this anthology features observations on the craft of creating fiction, by classic and contemporary authors. A literary feast of artistic practices and philosophies, its absorbing essays offer a vast array of personal reflections, suggestions, and critiques.
Featured writers include Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Kate Chopin, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Jack London presents "Advice for Aspiring Writers," Sinclair Lewis recounts "How I Wrote a Novel on the Train and Beside the Kitchen Sink," and Kurt...