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The Satirical and Bitter Side of Mark Twain. "Man is made of dirt, I saw him made. I am not made of dirt. Man is a museum of diseases, a home of impurities, he comes today and is gone tomorrow, he begins as dirt and departs as stench. I am of the aristocracy of the Imperishables. And man has the Moral Sense. You understand? He has the Moral Sense. That would seem to be difference enough between us, all by itself." The Mysterious Stranger and Other...

From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of North and South, “the best historical novelist of our time” (Patricia Cornwell).
In the late nineteenth century, Newport, Rhode Island-with its giant marble mansions, lavish dinner parties, and vicious social climbing- is a summer playground of the very rich. Into this rarefied world comes infamous railroad mogul and robber baron Sam Driver. He wants his...

The Blindman's World' (1898) is a short story by the American author, Edward Bellamy, most famous for his socialist and utopian novel 'Looking Backward: 2000-1887' (1888). The Professor of Astronomy and Higher Mathematics at Abercrombie College is an expert on Mars. One night, while observing the cold, red planet, he collapses and is found lifeless on the floor by the janitor. However, something far stranger than death has visited the Professor. This...

"The Altar of the Dead" is a short story by Henry James, first published in his collection Terminations in 1895. A fable of literally life and death significance, the story explores how the protagonist tries to keep the remembrance of his dead friends, to save them from being forgotten entirely in the rush of everyday events. He meets a woman who shares his ideals, only to find that the past places what seems to be an impassable barrier between them....

A self-made American goes to Europe to enjoy his fortune and becomes engaged to a French widow from a noble family. Depicts the contrast between American and European culture.

This anthology covers the entire span of Twain's inimitable yarn-spinning, from his early broad comedy to the biting satire of his later years. Every one of his sixty stories is here: ranging from the frontier humor of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, " to the bitter vision of humankind in "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, " to the delightful hilarity of "Is He Living or Is He Dead?"

"In the seventh standalone title in the American Novels series, Ellen Finch recalls her time as an assistant to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, heroes of America's woman suffrage movement, and her friendship with the diminutive Margaret, one of P.T. Barnum's "eccentrics" in his circus. When Ellen's infant son is abducted by the Klan to punish her for serving the cause of women, Ellen, Margaret, and the two formidable, if elderly, suffragists...

In 1850, Mellicent "Mellie" Blanchard takes a job at a mill in Manchester, New Hampshire, to help support her family. In search of additional earning opportunities, she approaches a daguerreotype shop owner with the proposal that he hire her to make paper cuttings or silhouette portraits for those who can't afford an expensive daguerreotype. When a particularly charming customer -- whose broad smile and twinkling eyes catch her off guard -- asks to...

Stephen Crane was born November 1, 1871 in Newark New Jersey. He was the eight surviving child out of fourteen. Incredibly he began writing at the age of four and was published several times by the age of sixteen. Although educated at Lafayette and Syracuse he had little interest in completing university and was keen to move on to a career declaring college to be "a waste of time". By twenty he was a reporter and two years later he published his first...