Featured Stories

The Madness of Doctor Montarco

The Madness of Doctor Montarco: Short story by Miguel De UnamunoThis story by Miguel De Unamuno highlights the danger of defying societal expectations in culturally backward, late 1800s Spain. When a highly respected physician begins to publish increasingly bizarre satirical short stories as a pastime, his patients express concern over his ability to treat them. Despite assurances from another doctor, they desert his practice and question his sanity. Such talk eventually leads to him entering an asylum where he spends the rest of his life a confused, broken man. Themes include individualism, intellectual complacency (of the Spanish masses), duality (logic and practicality vs. fantasy and satire), the nature of madness.

Continue ReadingThe Madness of Doctor Montarco

The Rocking-Horse Winner

The Rocking-horse Winner: Short story by D. H. LawrenceThis tragic story by D. H. Lawrence is about a boy whose parents seem more interested in their social position than their children. The only adults who have time for the boy are an uncle and the family’s young gardener, both of whom are passionate followers of horseracing. The boy desperately wants his mother’s love and approval. As she is constantly complaining about not having enough money, he comes up with an unusual approach to winning some that costs his life. Themes include family/parental responsibility, materialism and appearances, greed, selfishness, “luck” vs. hard work.

Continue ReadingThe Rocking-Horse Winner

Strawberry Spring

Strawberry Spring: Short story by Stephen KingIn this story by Stephen King, a serial killer stalks women in a small college community. The murders, which always take place at night, become increasingly vicious. Set in a rare false (strawberry) spring, thick fog provides perfect cover for the killer. Panic sets in as students realize the killer could be anyone on campus. When the weather breaks, the murders stop. Eight years later, during the next strawberry spring, they begin anew and, in a memorable twist, the narrator thinks he knows the identity of the killer. Themes include violence, fear, rumor and paranoia, confusion, memory, dissociation.

Continue ReadingStrawberry Spring

Lajwanti

Lajwanti: Short story by Rajinder Singh BediThanks to a 2006 tele-film, this has become Urdu writer Rajinder Singh Bedi’s signature story. Set in the violent upheaval of British India’s 1947 partition, it follows Sunderlal, a Hindu activist whose wife, Lajwanti, is abducted into Pakistan. The ironic descriptions of domestic life (Lajwanti considered vicious beatings from Sunderlal “normal”, and appears confused by the kind treatment of her Muslim captor) highlight traditional Indian attitudes towards women at the time. A second irony is that although Sunderlal campaigns for the rehabilitation of abducted women, he refuses to discuss Lajwanti’s experiences with her, preventing both from finding closure.

Continue ReadingLajwanti

Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown: Short story by Nathaniel HawthorneIn this story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a pious young Puritan named Goodman Brown travels into the forest one night to prove that he can resist evil. There he meets a man implied to be the devil, who demonstrates that most of his townspeople, including his wife Faith, embrace witchcraft. Thanks to Brown’s belief in his moral superiority, he accepts everything he sees without question. He fails to appreciate that the visions may have been a dream, contrived by the devil as a way of deceiving him. Themes: temptation (good vs. evil), dreams vs. reality, deceit, paranoia, loss of faith, alienation.

Continue ReadingYoung Goodman Brown

The Return

The Return: Short story by Roberto BolanoRoberto Bolaño’s The Return is not your usual Gothic ghost story. The mood (though not the storyline) is more like the Patrick Swayze movie Ghost, which is referred to in the story. When a man’s ghost finds that it can communicate with a famous French fashion designer, it decides to spend its time on earth with him. The two hadn’t known each other in real life, and only met because the fashion designer had paid to have sex with the man’s corpse! Themes: death, the afterlife, necrophilia, disillusionment, insecurity, isolation, empathy.

Continue ReadingThe Return

Cinderella

Cinderella: European folktale from Charles PerraultCinderella, perhaps the world’s best-known children’s story, has its origins in folklore. The version immortalized by Disney was first published in Charles Perrault’s 1697 book Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals, also known as Tales of Mother Goose. (Yes, Mother Goose was a man!) There are said to be over 1,000 variants of the story across the world. Perrault took the original framework, which has been around since the days of the pharaohs, and added the three elements for which his version is famous today: a fairy godmother, a pumpkin-carriage, and glass slippers.

Continue ReadingCinderella

Naming the Names

Naming the Names: Short story by Anne DevlinSet during the Irish Troubles, the major themes of his story by Anne Devlin are love, loyalty and betrayal. Other themes include identity, the cyclical nature of violence, urban change/devastation, taking responsibility for one’s actions, and the humanization of terrorism. The plot is non-linear, with regular flashbacks to earlier times. An insecure woman who has been indoctrinated in the Republican cause since childhood joins the IRA. She plays a minor role until a decision is made to target a prominent British official, and finds herself perfectly placed to lure his son (who is also her lover!) into a deadly trap.

Continue ReadingNaming the Names