Ten classic short novels appear in this collection by noted editor Neider. The contents include:
Benito Cereno
by Herman Melville,
Notes from Underground
by F. M. Dostoyevsky,
A Simple Heart
by Gustave Flaubert,
The Death of Ivan Ilych
by L. N. Tolstoy,
The Aspern Papers
by Henry James,
Ward No. 6
by A. P. Chekhov,
Death in Venice
by Thomas Mann,
The Dead
by James Joyce (recently made into a musical),
The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka, and
The Fox
by D. H. Lawrence. In the introduction, Neider discusses the themes that arise in several of the novels, grouping them by more than just their greatness.