Outstanding Short Stories (Penguin Readers level 5)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.
Detective J. P. Beaumont uncovers kickbacks and bribes in a Seattle ironworker's union, but his investigation may be curtailed by a long walk off a short I-beam.
Writing during periods of dramatic social change, Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Gaskell were both attracted to the idea of radical societal transformation at the same time that their writings express nostalgia for a traditional, paternalistic ruling class. Julie Nash shows how this tension is played out especially through the characters of servants in short fiction and novels such as Edgeworth's "Castle Rackrent", "Belinda", and Helen and Gaskell's "North and South" and "Cranford".
We live in an age of globalization on every conceivable level, but globalization has a deeper history than politicians and pundits often allow, and nothing is more significant to its history than exploration. For as long as human societies have existed, people have felt the urge to venture outside of them, either in search of other societies or in search of new land or adventure. Exploration: A Very Short Introduction surveys this quintessential human impulse, tracing it from pre-history to the present, from east to west around the globe, and from the depths of volcanoes to the expanses of space.
