In this story by Milan Kundera, a Czechoslovakian college lecturer “rewards” an amateur researcher’s gushing praise by going to great lengths to avoid telling the truth about a substandard paper he has submitted for review. Having spent several years on the paper, the man needs the lecturer’s endorsement to have it published. He refuses to give up, resulting in a comic series of events that culminate in the lecturer not only being charged with immoral conduct by his local communist party committee, but losing his job and the partner he belatedly realizes he loves. Themes include hubris, deception, manipulation, persistence. More…
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The Horla
This story by Guy de Moupassant describes a man’s slow descent into madness, convinced that an invisible being he unknowingly lured from a passing ship is preying on his mind. As the entity (supposedly an otherworldly species of vampire that feeds on the life force of those it attaches to) gets stronger, he begins to lose his free will. Unable to flee, he traps it in his bedroom and burns his house to the ground. When this doesn’t work, he contemplates an even more extreme solution. Themes include reality vs. illusion, the unknown/supernatural, terror, madness, despair. More…
Old Woman Magoun
In this story by Mary R. Wilkins Freeman an old woman takes drastic action to prevent her granddaughter’s father from trafficking her to settle a gambling debt. The girl’s mother had died shortly after she was born. Wary of the shiftless, hard drinking men of the town, the grandmother had raised her in sheltered isolation. Now fourteen and innocent to the ways of the world, her father demands that she be handed over. Desperate, the grandmother turns to nature to “spare” her. Themes include patriarchy and gender roles, overprotectiveness, alcohol abuse, human trafficking, innocence, piety, love, despair, mercy killing. More…
The Teacher
In this story by Catherine Lim, an English teacher frustrated by the lack of progress in one of his students misses vital clues that may indicate problems at home. He reads three compositions exhibiting poor grammar to a colleague. The first two, which describe her desire to become a nurse and help her family, express concerns about her father’s drinking and violent tendencies. In the third, which he misinterprets as being off topic, she describes her father as having become a cruel, violent “stranger” who continually beats her mother and herself. Themes include frustration, insensitivity, ambition, oppression, domestic violence, suicide. More…
Sredni Vashtar
In this dark story by Saki, a sickly ten-year-old boy masks his hatred for the “Woman”, a controlling guardian who thwarts his every pleasure in his life. To cope, he acts out fantasies in a disused tool-shed in a forgotten corner of her garden. There, in response to the Woman’s religious zeal, he worships a caged polecat-ferret named Sredni Vashtar. When she notices his absorption in the tool-shed and tries to clear it out, Sredni Vashtar answers his prayers. Themes include oppression vs. freedom, isolation and loneliness, imagination vs. reality, religion, rebellion, revenge. More…