Seventeen short masterpieces, chosen for their timeless relevance and enduring popularity, include Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'Rappaccini's Daughter,' Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado,' Herman Melville's 'Bartleby,' 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat' by Bret Harte, as well as works by O. Henry, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson, Mark Twain, Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane, Jack London, Henry James, Willa Cather, Ambrose Bierce, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Kate Chopin.
