English Stories and books
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The Last Leaf – Part one
The Last Leaf (By O’ Henry), Part one Sue often met Johnsy in a little café on the East Side of New York, where the two girls came for lunch almost every day. Johnsy was small and quiet, with big blue eyes and light hair. Sue was dark and bigger…
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THE LAST LEAF -Part two
THE LAST LEAFPart two(By O’ Henry) When Behrman was a young man, he decided to become a great artist. For forty years he tried, but he did not even become a good artist. Now he was more than sixty. Sometimes he sold his paintings, but he never had any money,…
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The Love Drug (by O’ Henry)
Jim, a young car-driver was a boarder at old Riddle’s. He was in love with Rosy, Mr. Riddle’s only daughter and Rosy was in love with him. They wanted to get married, but Mr. Riddle expected his daughter to marry a rich man. And Jim was going to have a…
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DOCTOR MARIGOLD by Charles Dickens(read and download)
Charles Dickens. DOCTOR MARIGOLDI am a Cheap Jack, and my own father’s name was Willum Marigold. It wasin his lifetime supposed by some that his name was William, but my ownfather always consistently said, No, it was Willum. On which point Icontent myself with looking at the argument this way:…
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A HOUSE TO LET by Charles Dickens (read and download)
A HOUSE TO LET by Charles DickensContents:Over the Way The Manchester Marriage Going into Society Three Evenings in the House Trottle’s Report Let at LastOVER THE WAYI had been living at Tunbridge Wells and nowhere else, going on for ten years, when my medical man–very clever in his profession, and…
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OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck (read online)
OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck ONE A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow…
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Lady into fox by David Garnett (read online)
David Garnett. Lady into foxWonderfulor supernatural events are not so uncommon, rather they are irregular in their incidence. Thus there may be not one marvel to speak of in a century, and then often enough comes a plentiful crop of them; monsters of all sorts swarm suddenly upon the earth,…
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THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK an Agony in Eight Fits by Lewis Carroll (read)
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK an Agony in Eight Fits by Lewis Carroll PREFACE If – and the thing is wildly possible – the charge of writingnonsense were ever brought against the author of this brief but instructive poem, it would be based, I feel convinced, on the line (in…
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The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe (read)
Edgar Allan Poe. The Cask of AmontilladoThe thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length…
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The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe(read online)
Edgar Allan Poe. The Masque of the Red DeathThe “Red Death” had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal–the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding…
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The Apple Tree by John Galsworthy (read online)
John Galsworthy The Apple Tree“The Apple-tree, the singing, and the gold.” On their silver-wedding day Ashurst and his wife were motoring along the outskirts of the moor, intending to crown the festival by stopping the night at Torquay, where they had first met. This was the idea of Stella Ashurst,…
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Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream by James Alan Gardner
James Alan Gardner. Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human BloodstreamThree Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream. Asimov’s Science Fiction, Feb 1997 1. Concerning an Arrangement of Lenses, So Fashioned as to Magnify the View of Divers Animacules, Too Tiny to be Seen…
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Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson(read online)
William Gibson. Johnny Mnemonic I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs oftennis socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for: If they think you’re crude, go technical; if they think you’re technical, go crude. I’m a…
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Nevermore by Henry Lion Oldie (read)
Henry Lion Oldie. Nevermore Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said,"art sure no craven, Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore -- Tell…
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THE GRAND INQUISITOR By Feodor Dostoevsky
THE GRAND INQUISITORBy Feodor Dostoevsky(Translation by H.P. Blavatsky)[Dedicated by the Translator to those sceptics who clamour soloudly, both in print and private letters–“Show us the wonder-working ‘Brothers,’ let them come out publicly–and we willbelieve in them!”][The following is an extract from M. Dostoevsky’s celebratednovel, The Brothers Karamazof, the last publication…
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The wonderful wizard of Oz by L.Frank Baum (read online)
L.Frank Baum. The wonderful wizard of OzIntroductionFolklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhoodthrough the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome andinstinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness tochildish hearts than all other human creations.Yet…
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THE GIFT OF THE MAGI by O. Henry(read online)
THE GIFT OF THE MAGIby O. HenryOne dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. Andsixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and twoat a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man andthe butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silentimputation of parsimony that such close…
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The Adventure of the Cardboard Box By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(read)
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box By Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIn choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkable mental qualities of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to select those which presented the minimum of sensationalism, while offering a fair field for his…
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New Rose hotel by William Gibson(read online)
William Gibson. New Rose hotel Seven rented nights in this coffin, Sandii. New Rose Hotel. How Iwant you now. Sometimes I hit you. Replay it so slow and sweet and mean, I can almost feel it. Sometimes I take your little automatic out of my bag, run my thumb down…
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THE BOOGEYMAN by Stephen King (read online)
Stephen King THE BOOGEYMAN‘I came to you because I want to tell my story,’ the man on Dr Harper’s couch was saying. The man was Lester Billings from Waterbury, Connecticut. According to the history taken from Nurse Vickers, he was twenty-eight, employed by an industrial firm in New York, divorced,…
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Traveling with the dead by Barbara Hambly (read online)
Barbara Hambly. Traveling with the deadChapter One All Souls and black rain, and cold that passed like needles through flesh and clothing to scrape the bones inside. Sunday night in Charing Cross Station, voices racketing in the vaults of glass and ironwork overhead like ball bearings in a steel drum.…
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Fragments of A Hologram Rose by William Gibson (read online)
William Gibson. Fragments of A Hologram RoseThat summer Parker had trouble sleeping. There were power droughts; sudden failures of the delta-inducer brought painfully abrupt returns to consciousness. To avoid these, he used patch cords, miniature alligator clips, and black tape to wire the inducer to a battery- operated ASP deck.…
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The prophet by Henry Lion Oldie (read online)
Henry Lion Oldie. The prophet “Arise, oh prophet, hark and see, Perform that will o’mine! And wandering through lands and seas Burn hearts by verbal fire.” A. S. Pushkin Antisthenes took the test-tube and examined the fluid against thelight. The elixir was dark-golden, thick, resembling old Tokay. Was this the…
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Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream
Read Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream by James Alan Gardner onlineThree Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream.Asimov’s Science Fiction, Feb 1997 1. Concerning an Arrangement of Lenses, So Fashioned as to Magnify the View of Divers Animacules, Too Tiny to…
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The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Read online The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington PlansBy Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIn the third week of November, in the year 1895, a dense yellowfog settled down upon London. From the Monday to the Thursday Idoubt whether it was ever possible from our windows in BakerStreet to see the loom of…
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Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Jonathan Livingston SeagullRichard BachTo the real Jonathan Seagull,who lives within us all.PART ONEIt was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea. A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water. and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a…
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The Country Of The Blind By H. G. Wells
Read online The Country Of The Blind By H. G. WellsThree hundred miles and more from Chimborazo, one hundred from the snowsof Cotopaxi, in the wildest wastes of Ecuador’s Andes, there lies thatmysterious mountain valley, cut off from the world of men, the Country ofthe Blind. Long years ago that…
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The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Read online The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot By Sir Arthur Conan DoyleIn recording from time to time some of the curious experiencesand interesting recollections which I associate with my long andintimate friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have continuallybeen faced by difficulties caused by his own aversion topublicity. To…
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The Grand Inquisitor By Feodor Dostoevsky
Read online The Grand Inquisitor By Feodor Dostoevsky(Translation by H.P. Blavatsky)[Dedicated by the Translator to those sceptics who clamour soloudly, both in print and private letters–“Show us the wonder-working ‘Brothers,’ let them come out publicly–and we willbelieve in them!”][The following is an extract from M. Dostoevsky’s celebratednovel, The Brothers Karamazof,…
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Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson
Read online Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs oftennis socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for:If they think you’re crude, go technical; if they think you’retechnical, go crude. I’m…
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