Featured Stories

Clean Sweep Ignatius

Clean Sweep Ignatius: Short story by Jeffrey ArcherJeffrey Archer has come up with an almost unimaginable scenario. Nigeria has a new Finance Minister, Ignatius Agarbi, who decides to clean up his country’s reputation for corruption! He does such a good job, without so much as a breath of scandal, that the country’s President commissions him to find out the names of all ministers and government officials with money hidden away in secret Swiss bank accounts. Diligent as always, Ignatius devises a seemingly foolproof plan to find out just how serious Swiss banks are in maintaining their code of privacy. Themes: corruption, creativity, honor.

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Why I Live at the P.O.

Why I Live at the P.O.: Short story by Eudora WeltyThe major themes in Eudora Welty’s comical account of a family squabble are jealousy and sibling rivalry. When a prodigal daughter returns with a two-year-old child in tow the petulant narrator, who has remained at home, is far from welcoming. The story is a dramatic monologue told five days after the events. We only see one very biased side of what happened and, as the narrator is trying to justify her move to the “P.O.”, it is almost impossible to form an opinion as to the accuracy of her account. Other themes: family, isolation, denial, acceptance, pride, independence.

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The Secret Cause

The Secret Cause: Short story by Joaquim Maria Machado de AssisCharacters in Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis stories often have a causa secreta (ulterior motive) for their actions. When a young doctor opens a hospital in partnership with a forty-year-old acquaintance, he is amazed by the older man’s dedication to nursing the most seriously ill and injured patients. A visit to his partner’s house explains why. He is a sadist who finds pleasure in inflicting pain on animals and observing the suffering of others. The doctor suppresses a growing love for the man’s frightened wife, only letting it show on her deathbed. Themes include sadism, cruelty, and secret love.

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Two Dollars

Two Dollars: Short story by Sharona VedolThe major themes of this Sharona Vedol story from Spider Magazine are compassion and generosity. Set during the Great Depression, a young girl accompanies her father to collect rent from families in their apartment blocks. She sees first-hand the hardship being experienced by tenants, and is impressed by the respect and understanding her father shows for each family. She is shocked when they come to a family who have no money left over for food, and worries her father will be angry about something she buys with the two dollars he gives her to buy them groceries.

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MS. Found in a Bottle

MS. Found in a Bottle: Short story by Edgar Allan PoeThis story by Edgar Allan Poe is an MS. (manuscript) found in a bottle tossed into the ocean by a dying man. After outlining his once rational, skeptical outlook on life, he relates the story of how, after a series of misadventures at sea, he found himself on a huge ghost galleon speeding under full sail towards the South pole. He walks around the ship unseen by its crew of infirm old men, who become increasingly excited as they approach their doom. Themes include the power of nature, fear, exploration, rational thinking vs. the supernatural, compulsion to document the unexplainable.

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The Sea of Lost Time

The Sea of Lost Time: Short story by Gabriel Garcia MarquezThe seaside town in this story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a smelly, unpleasant place. With every incoming tide, the ocean brings garbage and rotting fish. Many people have moved away; the town is dying. Things change when a local man, Tobias, notices something different about the sea breeze. It smells like roses. Weekend visitors begin to arrive. There is music and dancing again. One of the visitors is a strange foreigner with bags of money. He gives it away to people who ‘do things’ for him, and one day shows Tobias the secret of what lies beneath the waves.

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The Little Match Seller

The Little Match Seller: Children's story by H C AndersenThis well-known story by Hans Christian Andersen is one of the saddest Festive Season tales ever told. A cruel father sends his little girl out into the snow to sell matches. She crouches between two buildings, afraid to go home because she hasn’t made any sales. As she imagines the people inside their warm houses getting ready for a big New Year’s dinner, a vision of her beloved grandmother appears to take her to a better place. Themes include loneliness, poverty, cruelty, exploitation, indifference to suffering, hope, the power of fantasy, Christianity and life after death.

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April in Paris

April in Paris: Short story by Ursula Le GuinThe central theme of this Ursula Le Guin story is the alienation and loneliness brought about by obsession with work and lack of companionship. A 15th century French scientist, frustrated with being unable to prove a theory he had developed, decides his work is a waste of time. He experiments with black magic and is surprised when his first spell is a success, allowing him to teleport kindred spirits from the past and future to join him. Those who come are so happy in his reality that they have no desire to return. Other themes: the occult, connection.

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