D.H. Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter.
Lawrence’s best-known short stories include The Captain’s Doll, The Fox, The Ladybird, Odour of Chrysanthemums, The Princess, The Rocking-Horse Winner, St. Mawr, The Virgin and the Gypsy and The Woman who Rode Away. Among his most praised collections is the Prussian Officer and Other Stories, published in 1914. His collection “The Women Who Rode Away and Other Stories”, published in 1928, develops his themes of leadership that he also explored in novels such as Kangaroo. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation.
In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. Lawrence is now valued by many as a visionary thinker and significant representative of modernism in English literature.

O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 - June 5, 1910).
O. Henry’s short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.
Fundamentally a product of his time, his work provides one of the best examples of catching the entire flavour of an age written in the English language. He wrote a story a week for over a year for the New York World Sunday Magazine. His wit, characterization and plot twists were adored by his readers, but often panned by critics.
His health began to deteriorate in 1908, which affected his writing. He died on June 5, 1910, of cirrhosis of the liver, complications of diabetes and an enlarged heart.

Charles Dickens (7 February 1812 - 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed unrivalled popularity and fame during his career, and he remains popular, being responsible for some of English literature’s most iconic novels and characters.
Many of his writings, with their recurrent concern for social reform, first appeared in magazines in serialised form, a popular format at the time. Dickens often created the
episodes as they were being serialised. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by cliff-hangers to keep the public looking forward to the next instalment. The continuing popularity of his novels and short stories is such that they have never gone out of print. Dickens’ work has been highly praised for its realism, comedy, mastery of prose and unique personalities by writers such as Leo Tolstoy, George Gissing and G.K. Chesterton.

H.G. Wells (21 September 1866 - 13 August 1946) was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books. Together with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback, Wells has been referred to as “The Father of Science Fiction.”
Wells was an outspoken socialist and sympathetic to pracifist views, although he supported the First World War once it was under way, and his later works became increasingly political and didactic. His middle-period novels (1900-1920) were less science-fictional; they covered lower-middle class life (The History of Mr Polly) and the “New Woman” and the Suffragettes (Ann Veronica).

Henry James (15 April 1843 - 28 February 1916) was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary reaslism. James spent the last 53 years of his life in England, becoming a British subject in 1915, one year before his death. He is primarily known for the series of novels in which he portrays the encounter of Americans with Europe and Europeans. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allows him to explore issues related to consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.
James is one of the major figures of trans-Atlantic literature. His works frequently juxtapose characters from the Old World (Europe), embodying a feudal civilisation that is beautiful, often corrupt, and alluring, and from the New World (United States), where people are often brash, open, and assertive and embody the virtues, freedom and a more highly evolved moral character of the new American society. James explores this clash of personalities and cultures, in stories of personal relationships in which power is exercised well or badly.

Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 -  11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.
While he regarded himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly for financial gain, he became and continues to be widely regarded for his novels, such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd. The bulk of his fictional works, initially published as serials in magazines, were set in the semi-fictional land of Wessex (based on the Dorchester region where he grew up) and explored tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances. An additional short-story collection, beyond the ones mentioned above is, A Changed Man and Other Tales published in 1913.

Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 - 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s.
At the height of his fame and success, whilst his masterpiece, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, was still on stage in London. Wilde published The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888, and had been regularly writing fairy stories for magazines. “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.”, which Wilde had begun in 1887, was first published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine in July 1889, it is a short story.
He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six.

Guy de Maupassant (5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a master of the 19th‑century French short story and is widely regarded as one of the founders of the modern form. Celebrated for his elegant irony, psychological insight, and brilliantly concise prose, he crafted narratives that reveal the complexities of human life in just a few pages.
A gifted storyteller with a flair for clever plotting, Maupassant influenced writers such as Somerset Maugham and O. Henry. His famous tales about jewellery—most notably The Necklace and Les Bijoux—inspired later reinterpretations like Maugham’s Mr Know-All and A String of Beads.
Drawing inspiration from Balzac, Maupassant moved effortlessly between high Realism and the fantastic. Even his supernatural stories often hint at deeper psychological turmoil, blurring the line between external mystery and inner disturbance.
This collection brings together some of his finest work, including the classic The Necklace. With a crisp, accessible layout, it offers readers an inviting gateway into timeless French literature and the enduring brilliance of Maupassant’s storytelling.

The Russian novelist and moral philosopher Leo Tolstoy ranks as one of the world's great writers. Tolstoy’s stories are very humorous, with an underlying political or philosophical message. The message in all his stories is presented with such humor that the reader hardly realizes that it is strongly didactic. The book contains well-known works by the author, including the book that is considered by many as his best, War and Peace. 

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.

His works continue to be translated into various languages across the world. This edition brings together his short stories.

These 51 great short stories presents some of the finest works of short fiction. One of the most flexible literary genres, the short story can accommodate almost anything fairy tales to horror stories, romance and fantasy to comedy and satire, and more. These timeless stories stemming from a variety of socio-political and personal turmoil's, explore the complexities of human nature.