Carmilla – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

The Zulu and the Zeide
A South African businessman employs a “raw” Zulu from the countryside to keep his senile father out of trouble. The Zulu does such a good job that the old man begins to depend upon him. This infuriates the son, who expresses his anger by humiliating the poor Zulu.
A Shocking Accident
Short Story by Graham Greene. A boy rationalizes his widowed father’s long absences from home by convincing himself that he is a mysterious adventurer. In reality, his father is a restless author whose unlikely death in an Italian 'street accident' becomes an embarrassment the lad must carry into adulthood.
We Are All One
Chinese Folktale. A rich merchant offers a large reward to anyone who can cure his painful diseased eyes. With help from a magical centipede and thousands of ants a poor candy peddler becomes “One” with, he earns a large reward and lives happily ever after.

Sacred Duty / Mugaddas Farz
Short Story by Ismat Chughtai. Two sets of manipulative parents are put in their place after a Muslem girl opts out of an arranged marriage and elopes with a Hindu boy. In a comic situation, the boy and girl are each pressured against their will to embrace the other’s religion.
The Three Wonderful Beggars
Serbian Folktale. Three old men come begging to a rich man’s door. They foretell that a baby boy in a nearby village will one day own all the rich man’s money and land. Although the rich man tries several times to kill the boy, the prophesy comes true.
The Bet
Short Story by Anton Chekhov. Following an argument about capital punishment, a banker bets a young lawyer a small fortune that he couldn’t survive being locked up for many years with minimal contact with the outside world. Towards the end of the period, the banker visits him with murderous intent.
The Lighthouse
Short Story by H. E. Bates. A man recovering from a troubled marriage begins a passionate affair with a lonely woman working at beach-side café. The climax is his sense of confusion, anger, and betrayal when, having lied and told her he is single, he learns she is also married.

Sleeping Beauty
European Folktales. A reverse chronology of the three folktales behind this classic children's story: the Brothers Grimm’s Briar-Rose (1812); Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (1697); and Giambattista Basile’s Sun, Moon and Talia (1634). As might be expected, the further back you go, the more brutal the storyline.
The Story of a Letter
Short Story by Carlos Bulosan. Like his two brothers before him, a young, illiterate Filipino man flees the harshness and unpredictability of life in his own country to seek a better life in America. Instead of the equality and opportunity he expected, he faces language barriers, racism, exploitation and mistreatment
Letter to a Young Lady in Paris
Short Story by Julio Cortázar. A man housesitting a friend’s apartment becomes concerned when he vomits up a tiny rabbit. This is normally an occasional occurrence, but ten more bunnies pop out over the following weeks. As they grow and begin to trash the place, he contemplates drastic action.