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.

Kipling in these more modern times is increasingly seen as an apologist for the bad ways of evil empires. It's a simplistic analysis and avoids much of his literary talent that is entertaining, scary and down right brilliant story telling whatever the background it is based on or comes from.

01 - The Top Ten - The 19th Century - The Men - An Introduction

02 - The Signalman by Charles Dickens

03 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 1 by Herman Melville

04 - Bartleby the Scrivener - Part 2 by Herman Melville

05 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol also known as 'The Overcoat'

06 - The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

07 - About Love by Anton Chekhov

08 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

09 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev

10 - Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

11 - A Passion in the Desert by Honoré de Balzac

12 -Lost Hearts by M R James