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George Horace Lorimer (1867-1937) was an American journalist, author, and publisher. He is best known as the editor of The Saturday Evening Post, which he led from 1899 to 1936. This work contains the correspondence between the fictional self-made Chicago millionaire "Gorgon" Graham and his son Pierrepont who is coming of age and about to enter the family business. The letters are witty and filled with sound advice, like “I remember reading once that some fellows use language to conceal thought; but it's been my experience that a good many more use it instead of thought.”

Henry James's story Julia Bride appeared in Harper's magazine in 1908. Julia Bride is being courted by Basil French, the son of a wealthy but very traditional New York family. He wants to know more about her background, but she is reluctant to let him know that she has been engaged six times, and that her mother has been divorced twice and is likely heading for a third one. Julia is caught between America’s class mobility, social fluidity and personal freedoms, and the rigid ethics, snobbery, and social codes that the east coast elite had imported from Europe.

A man rants and raves about people’s gullibility when he encounters the Angel of the Odd who claims to cause weird events. Unconvinced, the cynic drives the angel away and falls asleep. Then, a series of bizarre incidents follows.

"Mother Sauvage" by Guy de Maupassant is a short horror story of the Franco-Prussian War. The four young Prussian soldiers quartered in the house of Mother Sauvage do chores around the house as if it were their own. Mother Savage continually asks them about the French 23rd Regiment of the Line in which her son is serving, but they know nothing. When she hears of her son’s death, Mother Sauvage exacts revenge on the young soldiers. The story subtly explores the theme of revenge from the perspective of the narrator, and from the perspective of his friend Serval, who tells him the Mother Savage story.

Wouter van Twiller appears in A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker, a satirical history by Washington Irving published in 1809. The putative narrator offers a history of New Netherlands, often ignoring or altering facts. Descriptions of the founding and landmarks of early New Amsterdam, and the “golden reign” of Governor Wouter van Twiller are included in the history. Van Twiller is described as a very wise Dutchman who never said a foolish thing.

Winesburg, Ohio is a short story cycle by Sherwood Anderson. The plot revolves around the life of George Willard, from his childhood to him leaving the town as an adult. The work comprises 22 stories, with the first, "The Book of the Grotesque", serving as introduction. The book is considered a pioneering work of modernist literature due to the prominence giving to the psychological insight of the characters and the simple prose style.

Anatole France (1844-1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist who wrote several best sellers. The Revolt of the Angels is a mischievous take on the theology of modern society; it chronicles the thoughts of Arcade, a lowly guardian angel, as he discovers the ugly truths of his divine master in the library of his human charge As Maurice, the young man abandoned by Arcade, struggles to get his guardian back, one gets a view of a wide variety of the author’s artistic personalities, most of whom are fallen angels.

Elizabeth Gaskell's novella The Moorland Cottage takes place near the town of Combehurst where Mrs. Browne lives with her children, Edward and Maggie, and their servant, Nancy. Near the Brownes' cottage lives the Bruxton family in a luxurious mansion. The two families grow closer with time and the author shows how childhood education and growing up shape and effect the adult personality.

A Tramp Abroad (1880) by Mark Twain is a travel journal which includes autobiography and fictional events. The book chronicles a journey by the author and his friend Harris through central and southern Europe. The two men make their way through Germany, Switzerland, eastern France, and Italy, encountering situations that become more humorous by their reactions to them. The narrator plays the part of the American tourist, believing that he understands all that he sees but in reality understanding none of it.

Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is an 1853 novel by the author and playwright William Wells Brown. Set in the early 19th century, it is the story of Clotel and her sister Althesa, who are fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson. It is considered the first novel published by an African American and explores the destructive effects of slavery on African American families, the difficult lives of mixed-race people, and the degraded and immoral condition of the relationship between master and slave.

The Lesson of the Master is a novella by Henry James about life and art, the choice that an artist must make, and the life that art makes. It’s the story of a young writer, Paul Overt, who becomes friends with Henry St. George, a famous author, at about the same time that he meets the love of his life. St. George tells Paul that he ought to dedicate himself to writing, and warns him against the distraction of a wife and family; he goes out of his way to persuade the young writer that marriage would destroy his creativity.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842 - circa 1914) was a short story writer, journalist, poet, and Civil War veteran. Bierce wrote realistically of the terrible things he had seen in the Civil War in stories like "The Affair at Coulter's Notch", making him a pioneer of the psychological horror story. In this tale, a Captain Coulter leads the way in a fierce battle between Federal and Confederate forces to capture a house. After the battle, a horrible scene is revealed. The theme of "Coulter's Notch" is to question the nature of war and highlight the sacrifice of the individual.

The Iliad - attributed to Homer - is the most famous ancient Greek epic poem. It recounts the struggle between King Agamemnon and the hero Achilles during the final months of the Trojan War, with frequent detours into earlier legends and myths. In its portrayal of battle scenes and the constant interventions of the gods, The Iliad explores themes of wrath, glory, and fate, and has provided the subject matter for many later Greek, Roman, and Renaissance writings.

A Girl of the Limberlost, a novel by the writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter, was published in 1909 as the sequel to her earlier novel Freckles. The tale unfolds in and around the Limberlost Swamp of north-eastern Indiana and in the nearby town of Onabasha. The main character, Elnora Comstock, lives with her widowed mother, Katharine Comstock, on the edge of the wetlands. The embittered Katharine blames her daughter for the death of her husband, who was swallowed by quicksand.

The story of The Scarlet Plague takes place in 2073 in the San Francisco area, 60 years after an apocalyptic pandemic called the Red Death or Scarlet Plague has depopulated the Earth. James Smith, one of the survivors, lives with his grandsons who are hunter-gatherers in a tribal world. He relates the horror of the plague to them, and tells them of the time when he was a professor of English, and of the start of the pandemic. His grandsons, who are of limited cognitive ability, refuse to believe him; they cannot believe that the disease was spread by germs.

Where Love Is, There God Is Also is a short story by Leo Tolstoy written in 1885, about a shoemaker named Martin Avdeitch. Martin had lost his wife and children, and in his grief, he denied God. One day, after a visit from a missionary, Martin bought a Bible and read about a Pharisee who had invited Jesus into his house, and about the woman who anointed and washed Jesus' feet with her tears. That night, he dreamed that God told him that He would visit him the next day.

Besides being a great short story writer, Anton Chekhov was also a master of the novella. One of his best is My Life, the tale of a rebellious young man so disgusted with bourgeois society that he drops out to live amongst the working classes, only to find himself once more disillusioned.

The Red Badge of Courage is Civil War novel by the author Stephen Crane (1871-1900). The story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who deserts the battlefield. Overcome with shame, he yearns for a wound, a "red badge of courage", to atone for his cowardice. When his regiment once again engages in battle, Henry becomes the standard-bearer who carries the flag.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Captain of the Pole-Star is a collection of mystery tales about amnesia, sea voyages, shipwrecks, lost love, and heists. It includes humorous stories and fairy tales.

A Prisoner of the Caucasus is an 1872 novella by Leo Tolstoy about two Russian soldiers kidnapped by the enemy for ransom. They were held in custody for some time. They try to escape twice, but one of them succeeds the second time with the help of a local woman.