The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin (1894)

Mrs. Louise Mallard, afflicted with a heart condition, reflects on the death of her husband from the safety of her locked room. Originally published in Vogue magazine, The Story of an Hour was retitled as The Dream of an Hour, when it was published amid much controversy under its new title a year later in St. Louis Life.

The Story of an Hour was adapted to film in The Joy That Kills by director Tina Rathbone, which was part of a PBS anthology called American Playhouse.

32 Pages

A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger (1948)

A Perfect Day for Bananafish is a short story by J. D. Salinger, originally published in the January 31, 1948 issue of The New Yorker.

It was anthologized in 1949’s 55 Short Stories from The New Yorker, as well as in Salinger’s 1953 collection, Nine Stories.

18 Pages

The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence (1926)

An exemplar of Modernist fiction, The Rocking-Horse Winner tells the story of a young boy named Paul who learns to predict horse-race winners by frantically riding a rocking-horse until he enters a trance.

22 Pages

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1922)

In 1860 Benjamin Button is born an old man and mysteriously begins aging backward. At the beginning of his life he is withered and worn, but as he continues to grow younger he embraces life — he goes to war, runs a business, falls in love, has children, goes to college and prep school, and, as his mind begins to devolve, he attends kindergarten and eventually returns to the care of his nurse.

56 Pages

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber (1939)

Walter Mitty is an ordinary man living an ordinary life. But he has dreams – vivid, extraordinary day dreams – in which the life he leads is one of excitement and even adventure, in which he – a weary, put upon middle-aged man – is the hero of his own story.

A man can dream, can’t he?

32 Pages

Thank You, M’am by Langston Hughes (1958)

When a young boy named Roger tries to steal the purse of a woman named Luella, he is just looking for money to buy stylish new shoes. After she grabs him by the collar and drags him back to her home, he’s sure that he is in deep trouble. Instead, Roger is soon left speechless by her kindness and generosity.

30 Pages

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell (1924)

The Most Dangerous Game features a big-game hunter from New York who becomes shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat.

48 Pages

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury (1951)

The short story, A Sound of Thunder, involves a Time Travel Safari where rich businessmen pay to travel back to prehistoric times and hunt real live dinosaurs.

41 Pages

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

The tale centers on two matters, a black cat and the deterioration of a man. The man is one who enjoyed family life with his wife and numerous pets, but then he changed radically for the worse.

The story is often compared to The Tell-Tale Heart because of the profound psychological elements these two works share. The Black Cat is a story you will never forget.

24 Pages

The Fly by Katherine Mansfield (1922)

The Fly, written in February 1922, primarily concerns the loss of a young British soldier in World War I and the effects of his death on his father.

The story was published the following month in The Nation and Athenaeum. In 1923, after Mansfield’s death at 34, The Fly was published in The Doves’ Nest and Other Stories, a collection of her most recent short stories.

9 Pages

Cooking Time by Anita Roy (2014)

Cooking Time by Anita Roy is a dystopian short story included in the anthology, Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean. It is a twist on the competition show, Masterchef, in which contestants have the chance to travel in time and enjoy fresh food.

12 Pages

Sherlock Holmes: The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1891)

Holmes is engaged initially by a pawnbroker. He’s upset by the loss of a well-paying, part-time job. One that doesn’t require many hours and, when it does require work, doesn’t interfere with his busiest times at the pawn shop. To Sherlock Holmes, it may be much more than it appears. Could it be the beginning of a larger mystery?

Using minute details of the small one, he works to solve the serious one.

40 Pages

The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick (1953)

The Hanging Stranger is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, originally published in December 1953 in the magazine Science Fiction Adventures.

Ed Loyce, is a store owner who is disturbed when he sees a stranger hanging from a lamppost, but finds that other people consider the apparent lynching unremarkable.

30 Pages

Désirée’s Baby by Kate Chopin (1893)

Kate Chopin was an American author of short stories and novels, mostly with a Louisiana Creole background. Today she is considered a forerunner of the feminist authors of the 20th century.

Kate Chopin often wrote about subjects that were particularly sensitive during her lifetime, and many of them still strike a nerve in the United States today. In Désirée’s Baby, Chopin offers a compelling critique of the class-based and racial prejudice that permeated the attitudes of the antebellum South.

28 Pages

The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury (1951)

This dystopian story takes place on one night in November 2053. A man named Leonard Mead, who later identifies himself as a writer, is walking the deserted streets of a city.

4 Pages

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)

Diagnosed by her physician husband with a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” after the birth of her child, a woman is urged to rest for the summer in an old colonial mansion. Forbidden from doing work of any kind, she spends her days in the house’s former nursery, with its barred windows, scratched floor, and peeling yellow wallpaper.

In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid” wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.

A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth-century society.

First published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.

22 Pages

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (1948)

In a small American town, the local residents are abuzz with excitement and nervousness when they wake on the morning of the twenty-seventh of June. Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win.

The Lottery stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history. Originally published in The New Yorker, the author immediately began receiving letters from readers who demanded an explanation of the story’s meaning. The Lottery has been adapted for stage, television, radio and film.

11 Pages

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (1905)

O. Henry’s classic holiday tale of Della and Jim, the struggling newlyweds so anxious to give each other a Christmas gift that each sells the one thing the other holds most dear.

26 Pages

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (1890)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a short story with a twist by American author, Ambrose Bierce. Set during the American Civil War, it is the story of Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer condemned to death by hanging from Owl Creek Bridge.

This story has been hailed as an early pioneer in stream of consciousness storytelling.

36 Pages

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury (1950)

A wealthy couple builds the ultimate virtual playroom for their spoiled children. This electronic nursery comes complete with an African savanna and man-eating lions. It is so real, you can even smell the lions’ last meal.

19 Pages

The Wretched and the Beautiful by E. Lily Yu (2017)

The Wretched and the Beautiful by E. Lily Yu is a short story included in the anthology, Terraform, edited by Brian Merchant. This short story, first published in Terraform Magazine, was selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2017. It asks readers what it truly means to be human.

9 Pages

Skin by Roald Dahl (1952)

Skin is a macabre short story written by author Roald Dahl, first published in the May 17, 1952 issue of The New Yorker. It was also adapted for television as part of Anglia Television’s Tales of the Unexpected in 1980.

Here, Roald Dahl, one of the world’s favourite authors, tells a bitter-sweet story about one man’s love for artwork, and how that love leads him to confront a Faustian bargain when it is least expected.

21 Pages

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier (1952)

It is a very cold winter and there are many more birds around than usual. Nat is afraid, for the birds keep coming in their thousands and they are hungry. They want to kill.

56 Pages

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820)

Ichabod Crane, a schoolteacher, came to Tarry Town in the glen of Sleepy Hollow to ply his trade in educating young minds. He was a gullible and excitable fellow, often so terrified by locals’ stories of ghosts that he would hurry through the woods on his way home, singing to keep from hysterics.

Until late one night, he finds that maybe they’re not just stories. What is that dark, menacing figure riding behind him on a horse? And what does it have in its hands? And why wasn’t schoolteacher Crane ever seen in Sleepy Hollow again?

46 Pages

The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty (1923)

The classic short story by Liam O’Flaherty set in the Irish Civil War.

A trained and experienced sniper is pinned down and must use his wits to escape with his life. Even to a man who is accustomed to conflict and has become used to its horrors, the price of war can be high.

7 Pages

To Build a Fire by Jack London (1902)

A man alone on the Yukon Trail—save for his dog—is planning on meeting friends when the day turns for the worse and he encounters severe cold reaching 75 degrees below zero.

His luck only goes downhill from there when he gets wet after falling through the snow. Now, his only hope of surviving is to build a fire, but his lack of supplies, the extreme elements and his own diminishing senses prove to be an impenetrable barrier to his existence.

32 Pages

The Landlady by Roald Dahl (1959)

In The Landlady, Roald Dahl, one of the world’s favourite authors, tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a young man in need of room meets a most accommodating landlady . . .

17 Pages

Eraser Tattoo by Jason Reynolds (2018)

Jason Reynold’s Eraser Tattoo is the first short story in the anthology, Fresh Ink. This love story is about a girl and boy who grew up together, but have to say goodbye because one of them has to move away.

11 Pages

Read more about Fresh Ink & Eraser Tattoo

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe (1839)

The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, first published in 1839. It recounts the terrible events that befall the last remaining members of the once-illustrious Usher clan before it is—quite literally—rent asunder.

With amazing economy, Poe plunges the reader into a state of deliciously agonizing suspense. It’s a must-read for fans of the golden era of horror writing. This story is one of Poe’s best known short stories, and often regarded as his best.

36 Pages

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway (1927)

A conversation in a Spanish cafe between a man and a woman that is not as simple as it seems.

Hills Like White Elephants is a short story by Ernest Hemingway, which was first published in the 1927 collection Men Without Women. Here, a man and his girlfriend wait for a train to Madrid at station in rural Spain, the almost casual nature of their conversation evading the true emotional depth of what’s happening between the two of them.

6 Pages

The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1836)

Overnight, Reverend Hooper has taken to wearing a translucent, but dark veil. Believing the veil to be symbolic of his sin, Hooper refuses to remove it, and wears it throughout the rest of his life.

26 Pages

Two Kinds by Amy Tan (1989)

Two Kinds is a short story within the book The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. It follows Jing-mei Woo as she comes of age while dealing with the pressure of her mother’s high expectations of her.

20 Pages

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell (1917)

Two women uncover the truth in a rural murder investigation.

Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers showcases the resilience of women amidst a world dominated by male perspectives. Through a compelling exploration of a crime scene, Glaspell skillfully delves into the complexities of domestic violence and gender inequality in early 20th-century America. This short story remains a testament to female empowerment and serves as a poignant reminder of the societal challenges women faced, making it a significant literary work with a powerful message.

39 Pages

The Bet by Anton Chekhov (1889)

At a banker’s party fifteen years ago, a young lawyer defends the position that life in prison is far less humane than capital punishment. The banker disagrees and proposes they bet—two million rubles in exchange for fifteen years of solitary confinement.

The terms of their agreement allow the lawyer to have access to books, food, and wine, and over the course of his imprisonment, he reads widely. Nearing the end of the fifteen years, the banker comes to realize that he will be ruined by the lawyer’s winning of the bet, and both men find their lives changed by the lessons that the bet has taught them.

25 Pages

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835)

While travelling into the forest on an errand, Young Goodman Brown and his wife happen upon a Sabbath for witches where they are offered as new converts, prompting Brown to question his faith and trust in his spouse.

Set in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts, Young Goodman Brown reflects author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s perspective on this dark period of American history.

25 Pages

Araby by James Joyce (1914)

This short story is about a boy who has fallen in love with his friend’s sister. The boy goes to a bazaar and offers to bring the girl a gift. The bazaar ends up not being as he expects.

25 Pages

Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

Lamb to the Slaughter is a short, sharp, chilling story from Roald Dahl, the master of the shocking tale.

In Lamb to the Slaughter, Roald Dahl, one of the world’s favourite authors, tells a twisted story about the darker side of human nature. Here, a wife serves up a dish that utterly baffles the police…

18 Pages

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915)

One morning, ordinary salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant cockroach.

Metamorphosis, Kafka’s masterpiece of unease and dark humour, is one of the twentieth century’s most influential works of fiction.

70 Pages

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

A man confronts himself and an unknown listener with his desire to murder an old man.

In this classic psychological thriller, the reader will find many more questions than answers. Even though this is one of Poe’s shortest stories, nevertheless it has become one of his most highest regarded works. It is a profound and, at times, ambiguous investigation of the paranoia that may lie within the depths of one man’s mind…

31 Pages

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury (1950)

In a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has been wiped out, a fully automated house miraculously survives, carrying out its daily routines as if nothing has changed, unaware that there is no one left to hear it. As nature slowly reclaims the world, the house recites Sara Teasdale’s haunting poem of the same name.

6 Pages

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin (1973)

Some inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.

The story Omelas was first published in New Dimensions 3 (1973), a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story.

21 Pages

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid (1978)

Girl, a short story by Jamaica Kincaid, was originally published in the June 26, 1978 issue of The New Yorker and subsequently included in the short story collection At the Bottom of the River in 1983.

The story deals with the teachings and duties that a dominant mother tries to instil in her daughter, focusing on the significance of familial relationships in shaping one’s individual behavior.

1 Page

The Lady With the Dog Anton Chekhov (1888)

While vacationing in Yalta, Gurov, a married, middle-aged man, becomes enraptured by a lovely young woman on the beach walking her dog. After a brief affair, the couple part, but despite the pressures of their separate lives, both are deeply affected by their fleeting attachment.

15 Pages

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant (1884)

After devoting their energies and income for ten years to replacing a borrowed diamond necklace which they have lost, a woman and her husband learn the irony of their efforts.

10 Pages

The Interlopers by Saki (1910)

Two men, Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym, are both in a forested area on the Carpathian Mountains one night. The men are sworn enemies, embroiled in a generations-old land dispute. On this particular night, each hopes to find the other in order to kill him in defense of their property rights.

6 Pages

The Nose by Nikolai Gogol (1836)

Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov awakens to discover that his nose is missing, leaving a smooth, flat patch of skin in its place. He finds and confronts his nose in the Kazan Cathedral, but from its clothing it is apparent that the nose has acquired a higher rank in the civil service than he and refuses to return to his face.

30 Pages

Before the Law by Franz Kafka (1915)

Before the Law by Franz Kafka is a brief yet profound parable exploring themes of authority, justice, and existential struggle.

In the story, a man seeks access to the Law but is denied entry by a gatekeeper, waiting his entire life for permission that never comes. With stark simplicity and unsettling symbolism, Kafka presents a haunting reflection on the elusive nature of truth and the barriers—both real and imagined—that stand in our way.

4 Pages

Roman Fever by Edith Wharton (1934)

While visiting Rome with their daughters, two middle-aged women reminisce about their romantic rivalry for the dashing Delphin Slade. Although Mrs. Slade admits to falsifying the letter that led to her eventual marriage to Slade, Mrs. Ansley holds her own secret regarding the gentleman.

22 Pages

Franny by J.D. Salinger (1955)

Franny by J. D. Salinger was first published in the January 29, 1955 issue of The New Yorker magazine. It is the first of two stories written by J.D. Salinger about the Glass family.

Franny Glass is a pretty, effervescent college student on a date with her intellectually confident boyfriend, Lane. They appear to be the perfect couple, but as they struggle to communicate with each other about the things they really care about, slowly their true feelings come to the surface.

28 Pages

Marigolds by Eugenia Collier (1969)

The story of a young girl who destroys a bed of flowers.

Set during the Great Depression, this thought-provoking story follows Lizabeth who is coming of age.

8 Pages

The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs (1902)

When the White family comes into the possession of a monkey’s paw that magically grant wishes, they do what many people would do—they succumb to vanity and wish for the unneeded. But every wish has a consequence, and the White family finds they are completely unprepared for what comes next.

The Monkey’s Paw is a classic horror tale that gives new meaning to the phrase “be careful what you wish for.”

25 Pages

All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury (1954)

Margot is a nine-year-old girl whose family moved from Earth to Venus when she was four. She remembers the sun shining on Earth, something it rarely does on Venus.

All Summer in a Day takes place on the one day when Venus’s rain will stop, and the sun will shine for a couple of hours only.

6 Pages

The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton (1982)

Two identical doors. Behind one is a blushing beauty. Behind the other, a horrible beast. Which will the young man choose, the lady or the tiger?

10 Pages

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst (1960)

The narrator is six years old when Doodle is born. Doodle is a sickly child, and everyone but Aunt Nicey thinks he will die. Daddy even buys Doodle a coffin. When Doodle has lived for two months, Mama and Daddy name him William Armstrong. The narrator doesn’t think the name suits him, so he nicknames him Doodle.

This is a tragic short story following the narrator as he tries to teach his weak younger brother to walk and play like a normal boy. It was first published in The Atlantic Monthly and won the “Atlantic First” award.

36 Pages

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor (1949)

A Good Man Is Hard to Find is Flannery O’Connor’s most famous and most discussed story. O’Connor herself singled it out by making it the title piece of her first collection and the story she most often chose for readings or talks to students.

It is an unforgettable tale, both riveting and comic, of the confrontation of a family with violence and sudden death. More than anything else O’Connor ever wrote, this story mixes the comedy, violence, and religious concerns that characterize her fiction.

13 Pages

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe (1846)

The Cask of Amontillado(sometimes spelled is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

It is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year (possibly during the eighteenth century) and concerns the revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him.

9 Pages

Through the Tunnel by Doris Lessing (1989)

Vacationing at the seashore, a young boy’s endurance is tested to the limit when he tries to swim through an underwater tunnel.

32 Pages

In the Cart by Anton Chekhov (1897)

In the Cart, also known as The Schoolmistress, follows Marya Vassilyevna, a teacher in Imperial Russia. As she rides in a cart during a difficult journey she reflects on her life and living in a small town.

10 Pages

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain (1865)

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is a wild yarn involving a case of mistaken identity, a gambler who’d bet on anything, and a very unusual frog named Daniel Webster.

10 Pages 

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1959)

The short story, Flowers for Algernon, was published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human subject for the surgery, and it touches on ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

26 Pages

The Open Boat by Stephen Crane (1897)

Following a shipwreck, four survivors are adrift in a leaking dinghy— The Open Boat . The captain is hurt but still able to lead, the cook keeps the boat afloat by bailing, and the correspondent and the oiler—a man whose job it is to oil machinery—take turns rowing.

At first, angry at their situation and inclined to bicker, the men ultimately form bonds of empathy and, united, struggle to survive.

30 Pages

EveryDay Use by Alice Walker (1973)

Alice Walker’s early story, Everyday Use, has remained a cornerstone of her work. Her use of quilting as a metaphor for the creative legacy that African Americans inherited from their maternal ancestors changed the way we defined art, women’s culture, and African American lives.

By putting African American women’s voices at the center of the narrative for the first time, Everyday Use anticipated the focus of an entire generation of black women writers.

10 Pages

Charles by Shirley Jackson (1948)

First published in Mademoiselle in 1948, Charles by Shirley Jackson follows Laurie, and his alter ego, Charles. The story is  loosely based on Jackson’s son Laurence and is told from the mother’s point-of-view and focuses on Laurie’s search for identity. It begins with Laurie’s mother describing her son’s first day of kindergarten.

5 Pages

Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson (1885)

London, Christmas 1884. The story opens in an antique store, with Markheim wishing to buy a present for a woman he will soon marry. The dealer presents him with a mirror. Markheim is strangely reluctant to end the transaction, but when the dealer insists that he must buy or leave, he consents to stop tarrying and review more goods. The dealer turns his back to replace the mirror, and Markheim pulls out a knife…

25 Pages

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (1890)

“I will not read it; I should never sleep again”

A doctor performs an experiment on a young woman that goes horribly wrong, and a series of increasingly strange events follow: sinister woodland rituals, disappearances, suicides…

What is now the first chapter in the novella published in 1894, the original short story was first published in Whirlwind magazine in 1890.

7 Pages

The Ice Palace by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)

The Ice Palace is a story of cultural conflict between Sally – a Southern woman and her Northern lover. Sally decides to change the slow routine of the South and join the North by engaging to Harry Bellamy. Will she be able to adapt?

27 Pages

The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke (1953)

Tibetan monks hire 2 engineers to program a computer so that it will  list all nine billion possible names of God. They believe that doing so will fulfill humanity’s purpose and end the universe.

10 Pages

The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe (1842)

In this story of artistic obsession, a wounded man finds shelter in an abandoned château in the Appenines and with his valet settles into a small apartment in a remote turret. The oddly shaped room is full of paintings, and on his pillow the man finds a small book that appears to tell their stories.

One painting in particular, of a beautiful girl, holds him spellbound, and, consulting the history book, he learns the startling secret of the oval portrait’s extraordinary execution.

24 Pages

The Old Man at the Bridge by Ernest Hemingway (1938)

Set near San Carlos, Spain, The Old Man at the Bridge is narrated in the first person by an unnamed soldier on the dawn of incipient civil war. It tells of an old, worn-down man sitting near a make-shift pontoon bridge. The man, unable to go any further, confesses his troubles to the soldier, and contemplates the bleak outlook of the next step to take.

5 Pages

The Father by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1860)

The Father follows a wealthy man who visits his priest four times over the course of 25 years. The visits are for his son Finn’s baptism, confirmation, wedding, and a funeral.

5 Pages

Beware Of the Dog by Roald Dahl (1946)

Beware of the Dog is a short, gripping story of life in wartime. It tells of an injured pilot recovering in hospital who makes a disturbing discovery . . .

Beware of the Dog is taken from the short story collection Over to You, which includes nine other dramatic and terrifying tales of life as a wartime fighter pilot, and is drawn from Dahl’s own experiences during the Second World War.

19 Pages

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut (1961)

It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212 and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.

One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government and to a place unknown. But what happens in the aftermath will challenge the status quo and inspire his peers about the hidden potential within one’s own individuality.

9 Pages

The Small Assassin by Ray Bradbury (1946)

The Small Assassin by Ray Bradbury is a short story that was first published in the November, 1946 issue of Dime Mystery.

When Alice Leiber almost dies giving birth, she is convinced that someone is trying to killer.

15 Pages

The Faery Handbag by Kelly Link (2004)

The Faery Handbag is a short story in which the main character, Genevieve, tells about her grandmother’s handbag.  This enchanted handbag contains an entire faery village.

25 Pages

A Horseman in the Sky Ambrose Bierce (1898)

On a warm afternoon in the fall of 1861 Carter Druse is on picket duty on top of a cliff overlooking a valley where five regiments of the Union army are resting. The enemy is near, and the Union force means to surprise them in the night unless “accident or vigilance” forewarns them.

Druse had been sleeping but wakes to see a man on a horse surveying the activity in the valley below. He sights his rifle, but hesitates when the rider turns and seems to look straight at him. In a crisis of conscience, Druse questions where his duty lies.

25 Pages

The Flowers by Alice Walker (1973)

The Flowers by Alice Walker is a short story following Myop, a 10-year-old African American girl living on a sharecropper farm. One day the is exploring the woods and discovers the corpse of a lynched man.

2 Pages

Man From the South by Roald Dahl (1948)

In Man from the South, Roald Dahl, one of the world’s favourite authors, tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature. Here a man takes part in a very unusual bet, one with appalling consequences . . .

17 Pages

The Diary of a Madman by Guy de Maupassant (1886)

The Diary of a Madman is a short psychological thriller story about a man who has gone mad. He believes that his brothers and the people in his town are cannibals and want to eat him.

7 Pages

Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor (1955)

Mrs. Hopewell is a country farmer and her estranged daughter Hulga has a degree in philosophy. A stranger arrives and convinces them both that he’s a naive Bible salesman. They’re wrong and the consequences are particularly humiliating for Hulga.

15 Pages

Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant (1883)

Two Friends is a short story by the French author Guy de Maupassant, published in 1883. The story is set in Paris in January 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, when the city lay under siege.

The story examines French bravery, German stereotypes, and, unusually for Maupassant, discusses the nature and justification of war in the form of a conversation between the two protagonists.

12 Pages

The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce (1891)

A deserted cabin deep in the woods. One door, one window. The window is boarded up. The former resident – a recluse – is deceased. Is there a story here?

Estate liquidators make a living disposing of the personal effects of deceased persons. Typically these are elderly people who may have lived alone, and were considered a bit strange because of their aloofness. But as the liquidator goes through the effects of the deceased, they occasionally find a story. Letters, pictures, and other artifacts prove that this person was once young, vibrant, sexy, full of hopes dreams, and possibilities, intriguing and mysterious.

12 Pages

The Flying Machine by Ray Bradbury (1953)

The Flying Machine is a short story about an inventor and who has built a flying machine and an emperor. While the inventor is excited about innovation, the emperor is fearful and concerned about safety.

3 Pages

The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick (1953)

It was quite by accident I discovered this incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. As yet, I haven’t done anything about it; I can’t think of anything to do.

Nobody blends satire and science fiction like renowned luminary of the genre Philip K. Dick. This short but utterly memorable tale tells the story of a man who is utterly convinced that the world is being overrun by aliens. Is he correct, or wildly off-base?

4 Pages

Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver (1977)

Originally titled, Mine, Popular Mechanics is a short story about a husband and wife engaged in an argument after deciding to separate. What happens next is a violent struggle over the custody of their baby.

2 Pages

A Descent Into the Maelstrom by Edgar Allan Poe (1841)

Inspired by the Moskstraumen, it is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb.

The story is told by an old man who reveals that he only appears old – “You suppose me a very old man,” he says, “but I am not. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves.”

The narrator, convinced by the power of the whirlpools he sees in the ocean beyond, is then told of the “old” man’s fishing trip with his two brothers a few years ago.

30 Pages

After Twenty Years by O. Henry (1906)

Two friends decide to meet again after a 20-year separation – with very unexpected results. It is a story of friendship and duty.

20 Pages

Recitatif by Toni Morrison (1980)

Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest.

Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

19 Pages

The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)

A classic adventure from the casebook of Sherlock Holmes, the world’s most famous private detective.

When Helen Stoner hears the same low whistle and strange metallic clang that heralded the death of her twin sister Julia, she knows of only one man who can unravel the mystery and prevent a second death in the family – the great Sherlock Holmes.

32 Pages

The Boscombe Valley Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1891)

Lestrade of the Yard summons Holmes to a community in Herefordshire, where a local land owner has been murdered outdoors. The deceased’s estranged son is strongly implicated. Holmes quickly determines that a mysterious third man may be responsible for the crime, unraveling a thread involving a secret criminal past, thwarted love, and blackmail.

24 Pages