This anthology has 12 classical short stories from around the world.



O. Henry's sentimental story "The Gift of the Magi" was first published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi" on December 10, 1905 and was first published in the book form in the O. Henry Anthology "The Four Million" in April 1906.



Guy de Maupassant's The Necklace was first published on 17 February 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois.



Ambrose Bierce's A Horseman in the sky was published on April 14, 1889 under the title The Horseman in the Sky in the Sunday edition of The Examiner, a San Francisco newspaper. It is set during the American Civil War and is one of Bierce's best known war stories.



H.H. Munro (Saki)'s short story The Open Window was first published in the Westminster Gazette on November 18, 1911. The story was collected in the 1914 anthology Beasts and Super-Beasts.



American author Jack London's adventure short story To Build a Fire was first published in The Youth's Companion on May 29, 1902.

W. W. Jacobs's supernatural short story The Monkey's Paw was first published in England in the collection The Lady of the Barge in September 1902. In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey's Paw, but the wishes come with an enormous price for interfering with fate.



Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty's first published short story The Sniper was published in a London-based socialist weekly The New Leader on January 12, 1923. This is set during early weeks of the Irish Civil War.



Frank R. Stockton's much anthologized short story The Lady, or the Tiger was first published in the magazine The Century in 1882. "The Lady, or the Tiger?" has entered the English language as an allegorical expression, a shorthand indication or signifier, for a problem that is unsolvable.

Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game was first published in Collier's on January 19, 1924. The story features a big-game hunter from New York City who falls off a yacht and swims to what seems to be an abandoned and isolated island in the Caribbean, where he is hunted by a Russian aristocrat. The story is inspired by the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were particularly fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.

British writer H.G. Well's apocalyptic short story The Star was published in the Christmas number of The Graphic in 1897. This begins with astronomers observing a star approaching the solar system. They calculate it will pass close to the Earth - perhaps even collide with it. As the 'star' comes nearer, reaction ranges from apathy to panic. Its gravitational pull causes earthquakes, tidal waves, and the melting of the ice caps. Millions are killed, although the star eventually misses the Earth and falls into the Sun, and the remaining population begin to rebuild their lives.

Oscar Wilde's short story The Canterville Ghost was the first of Wilde's stories to be published, appearing in two parts in The Court and Society Review, 23 February and 2 March 1887. The story is about an American family who move to a castle haunted by the ghost of a dead nobleman, who killed his wife and was starved to death by his wife's brothers. It has been adapted for the stage and screen several times.

Hans Christian Andersen's short story The Last Dream of Old Oak is an endearing story for all ages. This is another excellent Christmas Story and was published first time on March 2, 1858.