Great Stories of Suspense & Adventure

by Beth Johnson

In Great Stories of Suspense & Adventure, six spine-tingling experiences await you.

•You'll visit a sun-baked garden in India, where silent death lurks in the tall grass.

•In the peaceful English countryside, you'll be given a gift too terrible for words.

•On a lush plantation in Brazil, you'll battle an army of tiny soldiers who turn a man into a skeleton in the blink of an eye.

•On trial for your life, your fate will hang in the hands of a friend who just might wish you dead.

•Deep in the frozen Yukon north, you'll confront a danger that's beyond human understanding.

•On a tropical island, you'll meet a charming fellow who loves to hunt—and he has you in mind as his target.

The classic stories in this Townsend Library collection have been carefully edited to be more accessible to today's students.

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Classics, Short Stories

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Beth Johnson is Associate Professor of Media and Film at the University of Leeds, UK. She is author of Paul Abbott (2013), and co-editor of Television, Sex and Society: Analyzing Contemporary Representations (2012) and Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain (2017) with David Forrest.

Reviews

[Joseph]

The most dangerous game is great book because it has an interesting story, and I would recommend this book to a friend.

[Haley Lin]

book was great

[Devine]

It had a lot of action and it was a good book

[Helen]

This is part of the Townsend Library, of good books for young adults. It is a wonderful collection of six short stories by noted authors. Each story has to do with suspense or adventure. I recommend highly all of the books in this set!

[John Schaberg]

This collection of short stories was something I read when I was about 12 years old. I remember many of the stories very well. I reread it last year.

1) In Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, you'll visit a sun-baked garden in India, where silent death lurks in the tall grass;
2) in The Monkey's Paw, you'll be given a gift of three wishes you'll wish you hadn't received;
3) in Leiningen Versus the Ants, on a lush plantation in Brazil, you'll battle an army of tiny soldiers who turn a man into a skeleton in the blink of an eye;
4) in The Lady, or the Tiger?, your fate will hang in the hands of a friend who just might wish you dead;
5) in To Build a Fire, deep in the frozen Yukon north, you'll confront a danger that's beyond human understanding, and
6) in The Most Dangerous Game, on a tropical island, you'll meet a charming fellow who loves to hunt - and who has you in mind as his target

3 and 6 are really worth it.

[Lara Bay]

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a great book that you can read in between novels since it has short stories and the book has only about 180 pages. DEUTSCH: Mir hat dieses Buch sehr gut gefallen. Das tolle ist, dieses Buch kann man zwischen langen Büchern lesen da es aus kurzen Geschichten besteht und es hat nur ungefähr 180 Seiten.

[Emma]

I read "The Most Dangerous Game" and I think it was really good. I liked how Zaroff kept trying to impress Rainsford with fancy foods and things. I wish that the book would have been a little bit longer.

[Danielbernabe]

This was a suspense, amazing, dangerous game

[Deborah]

Powerful stories. Some of these stories are well known from childhood, others new. All enjoyable. The book makes it's points in the stories.

[Jean]

Decent collection; this edition was a steal. $2 from the publisher

[Tim Deforest]

The title doesn't lie--the six tales included in this anthology really are great stories of suspense and adventure.

For pure adventure, Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is one of the best ever written. Part of The Jungle Books, it's the story of a mongoose defending a family against a pair of deadly cobras. It is one of my favorite short stories - always a delight to read again.

"The Most Dangerous Game," the story of a madman who hunts other men for sport, is yet another personal favorite.

"The Lady or the Tiger," is a suspense story that realized its proper ending was uncertainty about how it does end, while "The Monkey's Paw" is essentially a horror story about the dangers of having a wish come true.

"Lienengen versus the Ants" is an edge-of-your-seat tale about a man who decides to defend his plantation against a horde of devouring army ants. Is he displaying courage and intelligence? Or is he displaying hubris?

Jack London's "To Build a Fire" is about just that. A man caught outside in freezing temperatures desperately tries to build the fire he needs to survive, as his fingers rapidly become too numb to function.

I have all these stories scattered about in different collections, but it's nice to own them in this single volume. It is indeed a perfectly curated collection that matches its title exactly.

[Adrian Gazaway]

2 of these stories are fantastic, 2 are really good, and 2 are okay. However, 1 star because I discovered, much to my chagrin, almost all of these stories are edited with dumber word choices to make them more palatable for a young school audience. Which is interesting because one of these stories is about a serial killer. Anyway, I searched up the proper text of these stories and read them that way. Why they thought it was okay to tamper with someone else's art like this I'll never know.

[JL Thornton]

Fun collections of classic and engaging short stories, many of which I'd read but not for quite a while! Definitely a quick and easy read, although I wish there had been a bit more diversity to the offered stories. Overall, though, a nice break from novels and a chance to revisit some stories that are famous for a reason.

[Shinobi Vega]

Excellent collection of short stories.

But what really stuck to me more than anything was the afterword, which talked about the signifigance of conflict in a story, and the differences between internal vs external conflict.

But even without that, this was an awesome book.

[R]

Easy reading level. Some of these were read in English classes growing up, others were new to me. I enjoyed it, especially The Lady or the Tiger.

[Andrew Nemo]

Quick and excellent read. To build a fire is chilling; pick it up if you see it!

[Star Shining Forever]

All classics!

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
The Monkey’s Paw
Leningen Versus the Ants
The Lady, or the Tiger?
To Build a Fire
The Most Dangerous Game

[Chris]

Classic short stories (most I had read before and a couple new to me) in a modern readable format while keeping the integrity of the classic tales.

[Kelley Riley]

This book was okay. Many of the suspensful stories I found to be boring. Riki Tiki Tavi was pretty good, it always had action. To Build A Fire was my second least favorite. The Lady Or The Tiger was a very very big cliffhanger, which I did not like. The Most Danergous Game I have read in school and it was my absolute favorite. I can't remember the title of the last one or find the book but I think it was Legingred And The Ants or something. That one was my most least favorite and I thought the entire idea was a little silly.

[Emily Franklin]

This book was on a list of books to read for my colleges Library for people who want somewhere easy to start reading. I think this book is a good fit for that list because they're short, classic stories that are engaging enough to provide enjoyment but don't make you think to hard. The writing in all of these is pretty straightforward as well. A nice small book to pick up for a quick little read.

[Chris Webber]

It's truly amazing how a very short story can satisfy the most basic sensory experience! To Build a Fire. Oh my.