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The grand-prize winner of a writing contest sponsored by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper, The Gold-Bug was one of Poe's most popular stories during his lifetime. Similar to his ratiocination tales-early versions of what we now call detective fiction-The Gold-Bug is full of mystery and adventure and includes a cryptogram, invisible ink, a scarab-like bug, and pirate treasure.

Originally published in a 1905 edition of The New York Sunday World, The Gift of the Magi tells the story of a young couple at Christmas when money is tight, offering important insight into the nature of gift-giving. A well-known example of comic irony, it has been widely adapted as everything from an Off-Broadway show to television episodes. This recording of The Gift of the Magi was recorded as part of Dreamscape's Classic Christmas Stories: A Collection of Timeless Holiday Tales.

Originally published in 1844 in one of C. A. Reitzel's New Fairy Tales collections, The Fir Tree is a moralistic tale that reveals the importance of appreciating what you have. In it, a young fir tree is so fixated on growing up that he does not value his life in the forest. But when Christmas comes, he discovers that what he thought he wanted wasn't what he expected it to be. This recording of The Fir Tree was recorded as part of Dreamscape's Classic Christmas Stories: A Collection of Timeless Holiday Tales.

First published in a 1839 edition of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, The Fall of the House of Usher is the story of the declining physical and psychological health of the residents of the House of Usher-and the way in which the house itself reflects that. Gothic in theme and style, the story is an exemplar of Poe's philosophy of composition, which dictates that literary works should be short, methodological, and have a unity of effect wherein all the elements of the story are related and relevant.

Every legend has a beginning. Dreamscape Media presents a collection of thirteen early short stories penned by Philip K. Dick. Exploring themes of authoritarianism, alternate universes, and altered consciousness, the stories (including The Variable Man, Second Variety, and The Defenders) first appeared in American science fiction magazines of the 1950s and earned him the respect of such peers as Robert Heinlein and Ursula LeGuin, as well as the adulation of a voracious readership.

An earthquake sends Dorothy and her California friends, Zeb, Jim, and Eureka, tumbling down a crack and deep beneath the earth. There she runs into her old friend, the Wizard of Oz. Together with the Wizard and his troupe of piglets, Dorothy and friends travel through many fantastical lands, such as the Valley of Voe, where fruit has turned the entire population invisible. After a run-in with flying Gargoyles, Dorothy and friends finally reach the Land of Oz, where she reunites with Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, Princess Ozma, and the wooden Sawhorse.

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, originally published in Colliers Magazine on May 27th, 1922. The story follows Benjamin's life from his birth in 1860. However he is no ordinary child, as he has the appearance of a 70 year old man, already capable of speech. His family soon realizes that Benjamin is aging in reverse, becoming younger as the years go by. The fascinating story looks at his triumphs and struggles as he slowly gains his youth. Adding in themes of love and acceptance, F.

Hopalong Cassidy is an iconic western cowboy hero conceived by Clarence Mulford, but immortalized in a series of films starring William Boyd from 1935-1948. A tough-talking and violent character in the print novels, Cassidy was remade into a clean-cut hero who traveled the West with his sidekicks fighting villains who took advantage of the weak. Clarence E Mulford takes you back to the beginning by relating the stories (as told to him by Red and the boys of the BAR-20) of how Buck Peters started the BAR-20 ranch.

First published in 1853 amidst rumors that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with one of his slaves, Clotel is a fictional chronicle of one such child. After Jefferson's death, his mistress and her two daughters are auctioned. One daughter, Clotel, is purchased by a white man from Virginia who impregnates her. Despite the promise of marriage, Clotel is instead sold to another man and separated from her daughter. After escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returnss to Virginia to reunite with her daughter - now a slave in her father's house.