検索キーワード： 短編小説

A Penguin Classic. First published in 1938, this volume of stories collected with the encouragement of his longtime editor Pascal Covici serves as a wonderful introduction to the work of Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Set in the beautiful Salinas Valley of California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themselves in the world, these stories reflect Steinbeck’s characteristic interests: The tensions between town and country, laborers and owners, past and present.

Hercule Poirot is asked by Prince Paul of Maurania to solve the murder of Henry Reedburn, which has greatly distressed the Prince's fiancée, the famous dancer Valerie Saintclair. The only other witnesses seem to be a family of four who were playing bridge near an open window when she staggered in, crying, "Murder!"

This collection shows a vibrant young writer with a wide-ranging imagination, ferocious creative energy, devastating wit, and an eye for the wonderful and terrifying and tragic. Among the gems are "All the Sounds of Fear", "The Sky Is Burning", "The Very Last Day of a Good Woman", and "In Lonely Lands". Though they stand tall on their own merits, they also point the way to the sublime stories that followed soon after and continue to come even now, more than 50 years later.

Ernest Hemingway's first new book of fiction since the publication of A Farewell to Arms in 1929 contains 14 stories of varying length. Some of them have appeared in magazines but the majority have not been published before. The characters and backgrounds are widely varied. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is about an old Spanish Beggar.

Lee Child once again demonstrates his mastery of the thriller genre with an unbeatable collection of three Jack Reacher novellas and six short stories, together for the first time in one pulse-pounding collection from the New York Times best-selling author.

Troy Bennett had a reputation with the Chicago PD for being fearless and in control - until the night his daredevil partner is killed during a raid. From that moment on, he swears he'll never again be responsible for the loss of a loved one. To escape his demons, Troy transfers to the NYPD, bringing him up close and personal with Ruby Elliott, a beautiful, street-savvy pool hustler. Reckless and stubbornly independent, Ruby embodies everything Troy's avoiding, but when she walks into the pub he's at with his new coworkers and blows his carefully laid plans to hell, Troy knows he has to have her.

A brilliant collection of short stories from the double Man Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies.Hilary Mantel is one of Britain's most accomplished and acclaimed writers. In these ten bracingly subversive tales, all her gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged, summoning forth the horrors so often concealed behind everyday façades.

An alarming telephone call, in which the phrases “it’s life and death” and “the table with the yellow irises” are whispered, causes Hercule Poirot to rush to the luxuriant restaurant Jardin des Cygnes, desperate to stop an impending murder and find the person behind the voice on the phone. After bumping into an old acquaintance, he is invited to join a dinner party in full swing. But, just as the dancing and champagne are overflowing, a morbid announcement is made and the lights go out.

This is one of the defining novels of English writer Julian Barnes. An entertaining melange of stories starting with a contemporary account of the launch of Noah's Ark takes us into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities, and tendencies.

First published in 1846, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella The Double is a classic doppelganger story and the second major work published by the author. It is the story of Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, a government clerk who believes that a fellow clerk has taken over his identity and is determined to bring about his ruin. Considered the most Gogolesque of Dostoyevsky's works, the novella brilliantly depicts Golyadkin's descent into madness in a way that is hauntingly poetic. The Double illustrates Dostoyevsky's uncanny ability at capturing the complexity of human emotion.

When wealthy spinster Emily French is found murdered, suspicion falls on Leonard Vole, the man to whom she hastily bequeathed her riches before she died. Leonard assures the investigators that his wife, Romaine Heilger, can provide them with an alibi. However, when questioned, Romaine informs the police that Vole returned home late that night covered in blood. During the trial, Ms. French's housekeeper, Janet, gives damning evidence against Vole.

The unabridged, digital audiobook edition of "Katina", a short, gripping story of life in wartime from Roald Dahl, the master of the shocking tale, read by the actor Cillian Murphy. In "Katina", Roald Dahl, one of the world’s favourite authors, tells of a young Greek girl fascinated by the British planes and airbase that have come to her village. Katina is taken from the short story collection Over to You, which includes nine other dramatic and terrifying tales of life as a wartime fighter pilot.

A blinding snowstorm - and a homicidal maniac - traps a small party of friends in an isolated estate. Out of this deceptively simple setup, Agatha Christie fashioned one of her most ingenious puzzlers, which in turn would provide the basis for The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in history. From this classic title novella to the deliciously clever gems on its tail (solved to perfection by Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple), this rare collection of murder most foul showcases Christie at her inventive best.

J. R. R. Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor best known as the author of fantasy works like "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings." Listen as Tolkien reads "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," "The Hoard," "Perry-The-Winkle," and "The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon." Also included is a reading of "A Elbereth Gilthoniel" in Elvish and "The Road Goes Ever on," sung by William Elvin with music by Donald Swann.

The stories in this collection are drawn mainly from those tribes which lived in the northern and central areas of North America. These represent the linguistic groups gerneally referred to as Algonquian, Iroquois, and Sioux. A final chapter covers the tales of the northwest Pacific Coast.

With the coruscating gaze that informed The Sympathizer, in The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half sister comes back from America having seemingly accomplished everything she never will.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Last Stories by William Trevor, read by Niamh Cusack, Stephen Hogan and Tara Fitzgerald. In this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here we encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when they meet again years later; a young girl who discovers the mother she believed dead is alive and well; and a piano teacher who accepts her pupil's theft in exchange for his beautiful music.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, (1860 - 1935), gained much of her fame with lectures on women's issues, ethics, labor, human rights, and social reform. She often referred to these themes in her fiction. She is best remembered for her 1892 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", which was based on her own bout with severe depression and misguided medical treatment.

For as long as she can remember, beautiful Laurel deCourtney has loved Matthew Hughes and has always assumed the handsome landowner and consummate gentleman loves her in turn. But with her coming out now three years behind her, Laurel is starting to get a little anxious. Why hasn't Matthew proposed? What is he waiting for?

Five great American short story writers, dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, are represented here. Different in atmosphere and writing style, they nevertheless caught the mood and concerns of the day in a way that was distinctly American.