Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

Front Cover
Harper Collins, Sep 26, 2006 - Fiction - 400 pages

A mysterious circus terrifies an audience for one extraordinary performance before disappearing into the night, taking one of the spectators along with it . . .

In a novella set two years after the events of American Gods, Shadow pays a visit to an ancient Scottish mansion, and finds himself trapped in a game of murder and monsters . . .

In a Hugo Award-winning short story set in a strangely altered Victorian England, the great detective Sherlock Holmes must solve a most unsettling royal murder . . .

Two teenage boys crash a party and meet the girls of their dreams—and nightmares . . .

In a Locus Award-winning tale, the members of an excusive epicurean club lament that they've eaten everything that can be eaten, with the exception of a legendary, rare, and exceedingly dangerous Egyptian bird . . .

Such marvelous creations and more—including a short story set in the world of The Matrix, and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction—can be found in this extraordinary collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his terrifyingly entertaining dark sense of humor. By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most unique writers of our time.

 

Contents

A Study in Emerald
1
The Fairy Reel
27
The Hidden Chamber
45
The Flints of Memory Lane
65
The Facts in the Case of the Departure
139
Strange Little Girls
159
The Problem of Susan
181
How Do You Think It Feels?
195
Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot
209
Diseasemakers Croup
229
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
255
Inventing Aladdin
297
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About the author (2006)

Neil Gaiman is the author of many highly acclaimed and award-winning books for children and adults, including the New York Times #1 bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning novel The Graveyard Book and the bestselling Coraline, Stardust, and Odd and the Frost Giants. He is also the author of the picture books Blueberry Girl and Instructions, illustrated by Charles Vess; The Wolves in the Walls, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and Crazy Hair, illustrated by Dave McKean; and The Dangerous Alphabet, illustrated by Gris Grimly. Originally from England, he now lives in the United States.

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