«An anthology that brings together «The Frog Who Became an Emperor from China», «The Thee Billy Goats Gruff from Norway», and «Pinocchio» from Italy as well as the classic stories of Aesop, Andersen, the Grimm Brothers, Charles Perrault and Oscar Wilde, among many others.»

The short story is the perfect format for traditional ghost stories. They have their roots in folklore, but in modern form they can be traced back to the romanticised writers of the Gothic tradition. Authors include Charles Dickens, Sheridan Le Fanu, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Mrs Henry Wood, F. Marion Crawford, Elizabeth Gaskell and H. H. Munro (Saki). Perhaps the finest exponent of the genre was M. R. James whose sly, academic tales are well represented in this collection, as well as those of Le Fanu, whom James acknowledged as his inspiration. This is a book to be relished by the fireside, with the curtains drawn against ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night.

The Limerick packs laughs anatomical into space that is quite economical, but the good ones I've seen so seldom are clean, and the clean ones so rarely are comical. This collection of witty Limericks, some clean, many filthy, and some packed with double-entendre has been assembled to add gaiety to nations. It contains over 1,000 Limericks historical, wistful, whimsical, clerical, medical, cynical and gastronomical, all of which will delight connoisseurs of the English language.