SELECTED SHORT STORIES OF GREAT AUTHORS
 
A master of distillation, Maupassant can illuminate an entire code of values by means of a few telling details, yet he states clearly rather more than he implies, leaving little open to interpretation. There is a sensuous quality to his careful portrayal of people and he excels at natural description that is simple and direct. Chekov’s originality lies in his unique combination of tragedy, comedy and pathos and above all in his peculiar technique which relies on the sensitivity and intelligence of his readers. Chekhov’s stories, like his plays, are essentially concerned with the incommunicable and have been criticized by the uninitiated for their lack of action.
O. Henry is as at home describing life south of the Rio Grande as he is ‘the four million’-the ordinary inhabitants of teeming, turn-of-the century New York. Although he has been criticized for relying too much on coincidence and contrived circumstance, O. Henry had a genuine sympathy for the downtrodden and oppressed which was unusual in writers of his era.
 
Saki short stories of urbane malice are like a fine dessert wine-they should be sipped and savoured slowly; so intense are they that to read them at one sitting may induce kind of literary dyspepsia. However, they are so beautifully crafted that one can return to them again and again.
 
This edition also contains stories of equally famous and sought-after master story-tellers which include Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens and W.M. Thackeray.