Alma Books Tales of Twilight and the Unseen Дойл Артур Конан

Tales of Adventure and Medical Life, one of the collections Arthur Conan Doyle published at the end of his career, anthologizes some of his best short fiction outside of the Sherlock Holmes canon. As well as various tales of escapades in Egypt, London and the far-flung regions of northern Scotland, he included stories which deal with a subject that, as a physician himself, he had a unique perspective on: the medical profession • London surgeons and country doctors, male and female, are described as they deal with business and sentimental issues and encounter incredible situations – both comic and tragic. Conan Doyle displays his dazzling storytelling talents while providing a fascinating glimpse into his profession and times • Contains: ‘The Debut of Bimbashi Joyce’, ‘The Surgeon of Gaster Fell’, ‘Borrowed Scene’, ‘The Man from Archangel’, ‘The Great Brown-Pericord Motor’, ‘The Sealed Room’, ‘A Physiologist’s Wife’, ‘Behind the Times’, ‘His First Operation’, ‘The Third Generation’, ‘The Curse of Eve’, ‘A Medical Document’, ‘The Surgeon Talks’, ‘The Doctors of Holyland’, ‘Crabbe’s Practice’

While he is now mostly associated with his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle was also celebrated for the many masterful tales he wrote outside of that cycle. In this collection, first published in 1922, he compiled various pieces of short fiction which fall into the categories of horror and detective fiction, two genres for which he has become a byword • These eclectic, captivating tales – dealing with topics such as mysterious jungles in the sky, seventeenth-century torture techniques, a bloodthirsty Brazilian cat and a train mysteriously disappearing between two stations – showcase Arthur Conan Doyle at his creative best • Contains: ‘The Horror of the Heights’, ‘The Leather Funnel’, ‘The New Catacomb’, ‘The Case of Lady Sannox’, ‘The Terror of Blue John Gap’, ‘The Brazilian Cat’, ‘The Lost Special’, ‘The Beetle-Hunter’, ‘The Man with the Watches’, ‘The Japanned Box’, ‘The Black Doctor’, ‘The Jew’s Breastplate’ and ‘The Nightmare Room’

Although he is best known to the public as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories and other pioneering works of detective fiction, Arthur Conan Doyle successfully contributed to other genres, such as historical fiction, as demonstrated by this collection he compiled in 1922 • These vivid and enthralling stories – which take the reader to Roman Britain, ancient Carthage, Mecca at the time of the Prophet Muhammad and many other evocative settings – showcase the author’s knack for bringing to life diverse times and places and crafting enduring narratives. Tales of Long Ago is an entertaining and invaluable read for all those interested in this lesser-known facet of Conan Doyle’s writing • Contains: ‘The Last of the Legions’, ‘The Last Galley’, ‘Through the Veil’, ‘The Coming of the Huns’, ‘The Contest’, ‘The First Cargo’, ‘An Iconoclast’, ‘Giant Maximin’, ‘The Red Star’, ‘The Silver Mirror’, ‘The Homecoming’, ‘A Point of Contact’

As a group of Western tourists travel down the Nile on the steamer Korosko towards the historical sites near Egypt's southern border, they are kidnapped by a marauding band of dervishes who demand their conversion to Islam. Cut off from the world, deprived of the comforts of civilized society and shaken in their beliefs, they will have to overcome the most arduous obstacles to regain their freedom and safety • Written towards the end of the Victorian era and permeated with a sense of fear and uncertainty, The Tragedy of the Korosko calls into question the moral authority of Europe's presence in the Arab peninsula and the cultural supremacy of British colonialism, all the while demonstrating Conan Doyle's unparalleled ability as a storyteller

These five stories were collected and published as Tales of Unrest in 1898, shortly before Heart of Darkness, the first of Conrad's major novels. Ranging from the faraway and unfamiliar, where the acquisitiveness of colonial adventure is damningly exposed, to an ostensibly ordinary London household, these disparate tales display Conrad's ability to explore and lay bare human nature • Set in Central Africa, 'An Outpost of Progress' is suffused with irony and represents a ruthlessly mocking view of European imperialism. 'Karain' and 'The Lagoon' are exotic tales of the Malay Archipelago, with the former telling of disharmony and discord between Western traders and the indigenous inhabitants. 'The Return' recounts the story of, in the author's own words, "a desirable middle-class town residence which somehow manages to produce a sinister effect"

A collection of early short stories which helped make Fitzgerald’s name, Tales of the Jazz Age combines period pieces – the most notable of which is the novella-length ‘May Day’ – with more fanciful creations, such as the fantastical ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, recently made into a Hollywood film. Also containing the now classic story ‘The Diamond as Big as the Ritz’, as well as lesser-known sketches and tales, this diverse selection, compiled by Fitzgerald himself from material published in newspapers and magazines, showcases both the variety of his writing and early examples of the themes and characters which would find their way into his later novels

A murderer is forced to reveal his crime by the sound of a beating heart, a mysterious figure wreaks havoc among a party of noblemen during the time of the plague, a grieving lover awakens to find himself clutching a box of his beloved blood-stained teeth, a man is obsessed with the fear of being buried alive - these are only some of the memorable characters and stories included in this volume, which exemplify Poe's inventiveness and natural talent as a storyteller • Immensely popular both during and after his lifetime, and a powerful influence on generations of writers and film-makers to this day, Edgar Allan Poe is still counted among the greatest short-story writers of all time and seen as one of the initiators of the detective, horror and science-fiction genres

Comprising one finished novel, Lady Susan, which was published posthumously, and two unfinished fragments, Sanditon and The Watsons, this collection – full of melodrama and burlesque, and exploring a range of literary styles and social classes – spans the entirety of Jane Austen’s writing life • The epistolary novel Lady Susan is the darkly humorous tale of the amatory schemes and machinations of an ambitious and unprincipled coquette. The Watsons is the tale of the refined and well-educated Emma Watson, forced by the second marriage of her aunt to return to the house of her impecunious father and face the marital plots and intrigues of her sisters. Begun in the last few months of Jane Austen’s life, Sanditon, set in a fast-growing former fishing village, swiftly becoming a fashionable resort, pokes fun at the inhabitants of the new coastal town, with all their hypochondria, witlessness and self-obsession

When the corpse of Sir Charles Baskerville is found on the grounds of his Dartmoor estate next to a mysterious animal footprint, thoughts turn to a fabled family curse: that of a hellhound set out to avenge a crime committed by one of Sir Charles’s ancestors. As the only surviving heir of the Baskervilles is terrified for his safety, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are called in to investigate • The most famous novel in Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes cycle, The Hound of the Baskervilles is a masterpiece of terror, suspense and mystery which has enthralled readers young and old since it was first published in 1902 • This edition contains extra material for young readers including a section on ‘Great Fictional Detectives’ and a test yourself quiz