Prospero’s Isle

"Clothes Make People (Kleider machen Leute)" by Gottfried Keller (1874) - one of the most famous German-language stories now available in English
This famous story by the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller (1819-1890) was first published in 1874 in the second volume of his collection of stories (...)
This famous story by the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller (1819-1890) was first published in 1874 in the second volume of his collection of stories The People of Seldwyla about the mores and adventures of the people of the mythical but (...)
This famous story by the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller (1819-1890) was first published in 1874 in the second volume of his collection of stories The People of Seldwyla about the mores and adventures of the people of the mythical but somehow very typical Swiss town of that name. It recounts (...)

"The Weapon Shops of Isher" (1949) - a major golden-age novella by A. E. van Vogt never before republished!
This long, well-developed novella, revisiting the saga of the mysterious "Weapon Shops" organization that acts as a check-and balance on the (...)
This long, well-developed novella, revisiting the saga of the mysterious "Weapon Shops" organization that acts as a check-and balance on the powers of the world-dominant Isher dynasty some 7000 years in the future, was first (...)
This long, well-developed novella, revisiting the saga of the mysterious "Weapon Shops" organization that acts as a check-and balance on the powers of the world-dominant Isher dynasty some 7000 years in the future, was first published as the cover story of the February 1949 issue of Thrilling (...)

"The Weapon Shop" (1942) by A. E. van Vogt
One of van Vogt’s iconic stories, this theme of a mysterious "Weapon Shop" organization, subtly fighting to oppose by advanced technological, (...)
One of van Vogt’s iconic stories, this theme of a mysterious "Weapon Shop" organization, subtly fighting to oppose by advanced technological, ideological and organisational means the overreaching tyranny of a populist-style family (...)
One of van Vogt’s iconic stories, this theme of a mysterious "Weapon Shop" organization, subtly fighting to oppose by advanced technological, ideological and organisational means the overreaching tyranny of a populist-style family dictatorship, provided the central theme to a number of works by (...)

"Out of the Night" (1941) by Jan Valtin - an extraordinary memoir of life in the international Communist movement between the two World Wars
This is the memoir of a militant and full-time party worker in the German Communist Party (KPD) and in the Comintern – the international (...)
This is the memoir of a militant and full-time party worker in the German Communist Party (KPD) and in the Comintern – the international organization of all the Communist parties in the world - in the twenties and thirties, this is a (...)
This is the memoir of a militant and full-time party worker in the German Communist Party (KPD) and in the Comintern – the international organization of all the Communist parties in the world - in the twenties and thirties, this is a first-hand account of many of the dramatic events that shaped (...)

"Away and Beyond" - A. E. van Vogt’s other great 1952 anthology (the complete text)
This outstanding collection of nine of van Vogt’s best golden-age science-fiction stories was published in 1952, as a sort of companion volume to (...)
This outstanding collection of nine of van Vogt’s best golden-age science-fiction stories was published in 1952, as a sort of companion volume to Destination Universe, his first short-story anthology published earlier that same year. (...)
This outstanding collection of nine of van Vogt’s best golden-age science-fiction stories was published in 1952, as a sort of companion volume to Destination Universe, his first short-story anthology published earlier that same year. Curiously, almost all editions of Away and Beyond printed (...)

"Destination Universe!" - the full text of A. E. van Vogt’s superb first anthology of his science-fiction short stories (1952)
With the original magazine texts, artwork and covers of each story. ---- TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION by A. E. van Vogt. 1. Far Centaurus (...)
With the original magazine texts, artwork and covers of each story. ---- TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION by A. E. van Vogt. 1. Far Centaurus (1944) Getting to Centaurus on a spaceship can take a long time indeed, and when you get (...)
With the original magazine texts, artwork and covers of each story. ---- TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION by A. E. van Vogt. 1. Far Centaurus (1944) Getting to Centaurus on a spaceship can take a long time indeed, and when you get there, there will be surprises! (7,700 words). 2. The (...)

The complete short stories and novelettes of Jack London - synopses, comments and ratings
Jack London (1876-1916) wrote an almost incredible number of short stories and novelettes (199) before his premature death at the age of 40, as (...)
Jack London (1876-1916) wrote an almost incredible number of short stories and novelettes (199) before his premature death at the age of 40, as well as novels (13), novellas (5) and a considerable number of essays, plays, poems, and (...)
Jack London (1876-1916) wrote an almost incredible number of short stories and novelettes (199) before his premature death at the age of 40, as well as novels (13), novellas (5) and a considerable number of essays, plays, poems, and articles. [1] The sheer volume of his output and the wide (...)

"The Monster" (1948) - A. E. van Vogt’s best short story (the full text)
This golden-age story, first published in the August 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, was considered by its author to be one of his best (...)
This golden-age story, first published in the August 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, was considered by its author to be one of his best - an opinion we heartily concur with. It was later republished in some anthologies as (...)
This golden-age story, first published in the August 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, was considered by its author to be one of his best - an opinion we heartily concur with. It was later republished in some anthologies as Resurrection, but it appeared in van Vogt’s first anthology of (...)

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Latest articles

  • “Easter Eve” and other great Chekhov stories

    by Anton Chekhov

    TABLE OF CONTENTS
    1. OYSTERS (1884) An eight-year-old boy accompanying his unemployed father who has decided to go out to beg for alms notices the strange word “oysters” on a sign inside a restaurant. The story continues in ever-starker tones as the little fellow progressively discovers the (...)

  • "The Lady with The Dog" and other great stories by Anton Chekhov

    by Anton Chekhov

    TABLE OF CONTENTS
    1. A TRIVIAL INCIDENT (1886) The narrator recounts how he and his companion, a Prince, had been prevented from hunting in the forest of Madame Kandurin, with whom the prince had formerly been connected. The two go to the lady’s mansion, where the narrator realises the extent (...)

  • The complete stories of Anton Chekhov: synopses, comments and ratings

    by Ray

    Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was probably the most prolific writer of short stories of all time, with at least 319 published stories to his credit before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 44, as well as 2 novels [1], 16 plays [2] and a number of newspaper articles and essays.
    Here you (...)

  • "Boule de Suif" and other famous stories by Guy de Maupassant

    by Guy de Maupassant

    TABLE OF CONTENTS
    1. BOULE DE SUIF (1880) A group of civilians obtains permission from the Prussian forces that have just occupied Rouen during the War of 1870 to leave for the coast: several rich businessmen with their wives, a count and his countess, two nuns, a radical activist and Boule (...)

  • The complete stories of Guy de Maupassant: synopses, comments and ratings

    by Ray

    Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was one of the most prolific writers of short stories in the history of world literature, with 298 stories, novelettes and novellas to his credit [1], almost all of them written in the decade 1880-1889, shortly before his final illness and premature death at the (...)

  • "The Promenade (der Spaziergang)" (1917) by Robert Walser

    by Robert Walser

    Robert Walser (1878-1956) was a Swiss-German poet and author of novels, short stories and essays who is remembered particularly for his delicate and yet somehow powerful poems [1] and this quite wonderful monologue about his encounters and observations and thoughts during a pleasant stroll on a (...)

  • "In the Snow" and other stories by Stefan Zweig

    by Stefan Zweig

    Three dramatic short stories by the author of Letter From an Unknown Woman:
    1. In the Snow (1901) – Word comes to a Jewish community celebrating Hanukah in a small town in medieval Germany that a large group of religious fanatics are on their way with hate in their hearts and blood on their (...)

  • "Letter From an Unknown Woman" (1922) by Stefan Zweig

    by Stefan Zweig

    The great Viennese-Austrian author Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was a prolific writer of short stories, novelettes, novellas, historical studies, essays, memoirs, and letters – as well as several plays, two books of poetry, an opera libretto and one full-length novel .
    In this 14,400-word (...)