Books in Hesperus Modern Voices series

Boasting a veritable menagerie of characters, including dancing instructors, pies, and talking parrots, and written in the Franco-Italian storytelling tradition, The Three Fat Men is considered an absolute endorsement of the Communist regime. Revolution is brewing outside the palace walls, and the three fat men who rule the land with an iron fist are getting fatter as the news gets worse. Led by the tightrope walker Tibul, the revolutionary forces, made up of ordinary citizens and the palace guard, embark on a mission to rescue Prospero the gunsmith from his imprisonment in the tyrants’ zoo, and to save the life of brave young circus girl Suok, who has been unmasked from her disguise as the favorite doll of the childless men’s heir, Tutti.

As his elderly relative lay dying, insurance salesman Mr. Chase stands in the wings, waiting to inherit the manor of the soon to be deceased. Yet once in possession, Chase deems the home entirely impractical and a burden whose only useful purpose is to be sold for capital. For him, the house holds none of the charm that had so beguiled its former mistress. But as the wheels are set in motion for the sale, an inexplicable change begins to take place within him, and soon Chase finds himself falling deeply—and irrevocably—in love with the very house he had once so scorned.

Inside its glass dome the One State is a place of mathematical precision, a community where everything belongs to everyone, and integrity, clarity, and unerring loyalty reign over all. D-503, Builder of the Integral, is an honest Cipher, ashamed of the hairy hands that link him to a barbaric ancestry. And yet he is tormented by the figure v-1, that impenetrable x, the legacy that makes him lust, imagine, that has given him a soul. Consumed by his sickness and obsessed with the mysterious I-330, he escapes outside the Wall, to where the humans are wild, the land is green, and plots to overthrow The Benefactor and return his civilization to natural chaos are rampant. Only The Operation can return order to the perfect world, and allow reason to win.

Set in the First World War, the title story is a naval commanding officer’s harrowing account of the lasting effects of decisions made in times of conflict. Suspecting another ship's captain of being in league with the enemy, the officer makes a momentous decision that will haunt him—its enduring ramifications echoing through the narrative voice as he later recounts the tale to his lover. This volume also features the stories "The Warrior’s Soul," "Prince Roman," and "The Black Mate."

This captivating portrait of the greatest writer of the Colonialist age, as told by himself, is the last work he wrote. Shedding light on both his life and his work, this charming autobiographical sketch opens with an account of his miserable early childhood, his time at school, and his beginnings as a journalist in India, where he first started to write. He describes how he felt on being published ("Lord ha’ mercy, this is none of I"), the writers he met, and the people he worked with. Most interestingly of all, Kipling recalls the books and incidents that inspired and shaped his many writings.

In May 1913, Rupert Brooke embarked on a year-long expedition of North America, visiting the United States, Canada, and finally the South Seas. He sent his impressions home in a series of letters, written for publication in the Westminster Gazette, describing all his various experiences and reflections: the beauty of arriving by boat at night in New York; the novelties of a baseball game; the awesome grandeur of Niagara Falls and the Canadian wilderness; and "the full deliciousness of traveling in an American train by night through new scenery." He is blunt in his judgments on society, business, and cities; playful in his accounts of Anglo-American relations; and finally humbled by the vastness of the landscape in which he finds himself. Henry James's foreword to the collection on its publication in 1916 is included here as an afterword.

Undisputed king of jazz-age writing, F. Scott Fitzgerald perfectly encapsulated all the glamour and despair of 1920s' society. These three short stories are supreme examples of his craft. With wealth and privileges beyond measure, 'rich boy' Anson Hunter had every reason to expect life to be a breeze. Yet one by one his dreams fade away, leaving him with nothing. Slowly, painfully he realises that beneath the sparkle and fizz of his glittering life lies only failure and disillusionment - the self-same emptiness that pervades the beautiful people of The Last of the Belles and The Bridal Party.

In May 1913, Rupert Brooke embarked on a year-long expedition of North America, visiting the United States, Canada, and finally the South Seas. He sent his impressions home in a series of letters, written for publication in the Westminster Gazette, describing all his various experiences and reflections: the beauty of arriving by boat at night in New York; the novelties of a baseball game; the awesome grandeur of Niagara Falls and the Canadian wilderness; and "the full deliciousness of traveling in an American train by night through new scenery." He is blunt in his judgments on society, business, and cities; playful in his accounts of Anglo-American relations; and finally humbled by the vastness of the landscape in which he finds himself. Henry James's foreword to the collection on its publication in 1916 is included here as an afterword.