Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author's brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted 'Top Tens' across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

In this decade life on both sides of the Atlantic relied on territorial expansion and the gathering of industrial muscle. The people who live there merely cogs in a vast machine. Our authors illuminate these times with words that bring humanity and life to these literary gems.

01 - The Top Ten - The 1850's - An Introduction

02 - The Lifted Veil - Part 1 by George Eliot

03 - The Lifted Veil - Part 2 by George Eliot

04 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville

05 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 2 by Herman Melville

06 - The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

07 - Master Zacharius - Part 1 by Jules Verne

08 - Master Zacharius - Part 2 by Jules Verne

09 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev

10 - A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins

11 - Psyche's Art by Louisa May Alcott

12 -The Lake Gun by James Fenimore Cooper

13 - Two Offers by Frances Watkins Harper

14 - Gods in Exile by Heinrich Heine