When her mother dies, Mary Yellan goes to live with her aunt and her uncle at Jamaica Inn. Strange things happen there at night, and Mary slowly discovers that she and her aunt are in terrible danger. Can she save herself and her aunt before it is too late?
This collection brings together some of the best examples of late nineteenth - and early twentieth-century short stories. Some are about ordinary people to whom something unexpected happens. Others are about unusual characters or events. Some of the stories are funny and others are more serious. All of them are highly enjoyable.
Edgar Allan Poe, 'the father of the detective story' and a master of horror, is one of the greatest American short story writers. In these stories we meet people struggling with fear, revenge, mental illness and death. Which of them will win - and which will lose - their battles?
These stories paint colourful pictures of life in Britain and America in the past. We meet some unusual people. There's the dreamy boy who wakes up one day to find a bird making a nest in his hair! And there's the man who tries to catch a ghost. Some of the stories are very funny and others are quite frightening. Many have a twist at the end!
During the great depression in the United States, and after the loss of their farm in Oklahoma, the Joad family is faced with a journey of more than one thousand miles to California in search of a better life. Can hope defeat poverty, illness, hunger, and even death as they follow their dream?