This remarkable collection features short stories by great nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers. Beginning with Washington Irving's masterpieces The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow and The Devil and Tom Walker, the volume also includes humorous short stories by Mark Twain (The Celebrated Jumping Frog) and Ellis Parker Butler (Pigs Is Pigs); fantastic and dark tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Rappaccini's Daughter) and Fitz-James O'Brien (The Diamond Lens); realistic stories by Herman Melville (Bartleby) and the Pulitzer-winner Willa Cather (Paul's Case); a crime story by Edgar Allan Poe (The Purloined Letter), and so much more.

The text has been simplified and made easier to read for the enjoyment of readers who study English. It is appropriate for upper intermediate to advanced learners.