Bram Stoker

Charlotte Riddell

Isabella Augusta

These British Isles, moored across from mainland Europe, are more often seen as a world unto themselves. Restless and creative, they often warred amongst themselves until they began a global push to forge a World Empire of territory, of trade and of language.

Now authors began to offer a wider, more diverse choice from social activism and justice – and injustice to cutting stories of manners and principles. From many forms of comedy to mental meltdowns, from science fiction to unrequited heartache. If you can imagine it an author probably wrote it. 

At the end of the 19th Century bestseller lists and then prizes, such as the Nobel and Pulitzer, helped focus an audience’s attention to a books literary merit and sales worth. Previously coffeehouses, Imperial trade, unscrupulous overseas printers ignoring copyright restrictions, publishers with their book lists as an appendix and the gossip and interchange of polite society had been the main avenues to secure sales and profits. 

Within these volumes are 151 authors and 161 miniature masterpieces of a few pages that contain story arcs, narratives, characters and happenings that pull you one way and push you another. Literature for the ears, the heart, the very soul. As the world changed and reshaped itself our species continued to generate words, phrases and stories in testament of the human condition. 

This collection has a broad sweep and an inclusive nature and whilst you will find gems by D H Lawrence, G K Chesterton, Anthony Trollope, Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker and many, many others you’ll also find oddballs such as Lewis Carroll and W S Gilbert. Take time to discover the black humour of Violet Hunt, the short story craft of Edith Nesbit and Amy Levy, and ask why you haven’t read enough of Ella D’Arcy, Mary Butts and Dorothy Edwards. 

Track Listing of Volume 4: The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell; Alexander the Ratcatcher by Richard Garnett; The Face in the Glass by Mary Elizabeth Braddon; The Astounding Adventure of Wheeler J Calamity, Related by Himself by W S Gilbert; The Story of the Rippling Train by Mary Louisa Molesworth; Fiddler of the Reels by Thomas Hardy; Mr Sprouts, His Opinions. A Night in Belgrave Square by Richard Whiteing; The Ghost at the Rath by Rosa Mulholland; The Papers of Basil Filimer by Harry Duff Traill; Many Waters To Quench by Louisa Baldwin; An Uuexpected Fare, A Tale in Five Chapters by Mary Tuttiett (writing as Maxwell Gray); The Burial of the Rats by Bram Stoker; A Queer Business by William Edward Norris; A Rainy Day by Mary Elizabeth Hawker (writing as Lanoe Faulkener) The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson; The Only Son of Aoife. A chapter from 'Cuchulain of Muirthemne' by Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory

Miniature Masterpiece

The Short Stories of the British Isles: Volume 4 – Charlotte Riddell to Lady Gregory: Some of the best stories written in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales