The story is a dreamlike first-person narrative by an unnamed young man who has just turned twenty-five, and who has spent his entire life walking down a narrow path or road bounded by two tall hedges of dead, thorny shrubbery. He is determined to advance along the road, and to make good time doing so, a goal which he considers a mark of his commitment to progress and modernity; he keeps close track of his progress with the aid of a pedometer (which is, curiously, denominated in years instead of miles.) The narrator briefly reflects on the fact that he has tried to outpace every other person he has met on the path, and that he has not slowed for another person since he abandoned his brother, who had disappointed him by wasting time singing and stopping to help others. The narrator grows exhausted from walking, sits on a milestone to catch his breath, collapses, and in a daze drags himself through the thorny hedge. On the other side of the hedge, he unexpectedly falls into a water-filled moat, from which he is pulled by an older man. He discovers that the landscape on the other side of the hedge is pleasant and bucolic, with green rolling hills and fields inhabited by people who do not compete with one another and are not in a hurry to get anywhere. The narrator (who discovers his pedometer has stopped) interacts with the people politely, but is discreetly repelled by their lack of purpose: he attempts to explain to them that the path is the only worthwhile goal in life, and that it represents humanity's highest aspirations toward advancement and self-realization, even though he admits he does not know where it the path ultimately leads. The older man shows him to a gate of translucent horn in the hedge, and the increasingly conflicted narrator expresses a determination to return to the road, but - at the last possible instant - desists, and lays down in a meadow and falls asleep. In his last moment of wakefulness he recognizes his guide as the brother he once left behind on the road.
The Chronicles of Amber is a series of fantasy novels by American writer Roger Zelazny. The main series consists of two story arcs, each five novels in length. Additionally, there are a number of Amber short stories and other works. While Zelazny's will expressly forbids any sequels to his Amber novels, four prequel books, authorized by Zelazny's family following his death, were authored by John Gregory Betancourt.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More is a 1977 short story collection by British author Roald Dahl. The seven stories are generally regarded as being aimed at a slightly older audience than many of Dahl's other children's novels.
Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded published in 1893, form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. Both volumes were illustrated by Harry Furniss.
The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001) is a series of three science fantasy novels or one three-volume novel by the American author Gene Wolfe. It continues The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996): they share a narrator and Short Sun recounts a search for Silk, the Long Sun hero. The two works are set in the same universe as The Book of the New Sun series that Wolfe inaugurated in 1980 and the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) catalogs all three as sub-series of the "Solar Cycle", along with some other writings.
Falling Up is a 1996 poetry collection primarily for children written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein and published by HarperCollins. It is the third poetry collection published by Silverstein, following Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974) and A Light in the Attic (1981), and the final one to be published during his lifetime, as he died just three years after its release. Falling Up was the recipient of the Booklist Editors' Award in 1996.. In 2015, a special edition of the book was published, with 12 new poems.
"White Nights" is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, originally published in 1848, early in the writer's career.
"To Build a Fire" is a short story by American author Jack London. There are two versions of this story. The first one was published in 1902, and the other was published in 1908. The story written in 1908 has become an often anthologized classic, while the 1902 story is less well known.
Owd Grandad Piggott is a fictional character created in 1970 by author Alan Povey, based on a real-life person. The Owd Grandad Piggott stories are best known in Povey's home town of Stoke-on-Trent where they have often been heard on BBC Radio Stoke, read by the author. Owd Grandad Piggott is noted for having a broad Staffordshire accent and speaks in an old Potteries dialect. The stories are mostly set in the 1950s when the pottery industry was still at large.
"The Man of the Crowd" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe about a nameless narrator following a man through a crowded London. It was first published in 1840.
Betrachtung is a collection of eighteen short stories by Franz Kafka written between 1904 and 1912. It was Kafka's first published book, printed at the end of 1912 in the Rowohlt Verlag on an initiative by Kurt Wolff.
The Crater is a manga by Osamu Tezuka that began serialization in 1969.
Raymond Theodore Robinson was a disfigured American man whose years of nighttime walks made him into a figure of urban legend in western Pennsylvania. Robinson was so severely injured in a childhood electrical accident that he could not go out in public without fear of causing a panic, so he went for long walks at night. Local tourists would drive along his road in hopes of meeting the Green Man or Charlie No-Face. Most became disappointed to see no such person, however, they passed on tales about him to their children and grandchildren regardless, and people raised on these tales are sometimes surprised to discover that he was a real person who was liked by his family and neighbors.
"Godfather Death" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812. It is a tale of Aarne-Thompson type 332.
In Black and White is a collection of eight short stories by Rudyard Kipling which was first published in a booklet of 108 pages as no. 3 of A H Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library in 1888. It was subsequently published in a book along with nos 1 and 2, Soldiers Three (1888) and The Story of the Gadsbys, as Soldiers Three (1899). The characters about whom the stories are concerned are native Indians, rather than the British for writing about whom Kipling may be better known; four of the stories are narrated by the Indians, and four by an observant wise English journalist. The stories are:
"Time and Again" is a short story by American writer Breece D'J Pancake, first published in 1977. This American Gothic tale tells the story of an aging murderer, a farmer who feeds the bodies of his victims to his hogs. The short story appears in Pancake's only book, The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake (1983). It can also be found in the anthology American Gothic Tales, edited by Joyce Carol Oates. The story was based on “The Mad Butcher” of Fayette County, WV, an unsolved string of murders in the Ansted, WV area from 1962-1964.
Quirky Tails is the third in a series of short stories by Australian author Paul Jennings. It was first released in 1987.
The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor is a post-apocalyptic horror novel written by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga and released October 11, 2011. The novel is a spin-off of The Walking Dead comic book series and explores the back-story of one of the series' most infamous characters, the Governor. Rise of the Governor is the first in a trilogy of novels. The Walking Dead's fourth season utilizes plots from the novel, the Chalmers family in particular.
Black Tickets (1979) is a collection of short stories by American writer Jayne Anne Phillips. The collection was published by Delacorte Books/Seymour Lawrence. In 1980, it won the inaugural Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction.
L'Auberge rouge is a short story by Honoré de Balzac. It was published in 1831 and is one of the Études philosophiques of La Comédie humaine.
The Tarzan Swing is a short story by Victor Pelevin, published in 1994.
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