Collected Short Stories Author:E. M. Forster All the stories in this book were written before the First World War and were originally published in two volumes, The Celestial Omnibus in 1911, and The Eternal Moment in 1928. Although they are fantasies, and more lighthearted than the major novels like A Passage to India and Howards End, behind their amusin... more »g comedy are glimpses of profound themes. The Machine Stops is described by the author "as a reaction to one of the earlier heavens of H.G. Wells." Many of the stories express an instinctive beliefe in the force of Nature. There is a charming skit debunking "Progress", and another which shows what a true appreciation of literature really means. And, above all, while unmercifully disposing of meaningless social conventions, these masterpieces of irony are full of a trust in human values which is almost unknown to-day.« less