The Pale Man

The Pale Man: Short story by Julius LongThis is a short horror story by little known author Julius Long. A doctor tells a man suffering from nerves to have a long holiday somewhere quiet. The man checks into a hotel in a small town. However, the townspeople are unfriendly towards him and he finds it a lonely, dreary place. His only hope for stimulating conversation appears to be a tall, pale man staying in another room of the hotel. The pale man has some very strange ways, so the man asks the hotel room clerk about him. The room clerk tells him there is no such guest.

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Marjorie Daw

Marjorie Daw: Short story by Thomas Bailey AldrichThe major theme of this story by Thomas Aldrich is how well-intentioned deception can lead to unexpected results. A wealthy, self-absorbed young man has difficulty adjusting to being confined to a sofa with a broken leg. His doctor asks the man’s best friend, who is holidaying near the sea with his sick father, to write frequently in order to “distract and cheer him up”. The friend complies, beginning with an innocent white lie about the beautiful girl living across the road. Unfortunately, as is often the case, one lie leads to another and soon the distraction grows into an obsession.

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When Darkness Falls

When Darkness Falls: Short story by Ruskin BondOne of Ruskin Bond’s strengths is his ability to portray characters that are so life-like readers can empathize with them. So it is with this tragic story of man so frightfully disfigured by war that he is afraid to leave his room by day, and confines himself to creeping phantom-like around an aging hotel by night. His loves in life are his books and music. The message of the story: before turning away from a grossly disfigured or disabled person, stop to consider the feelings of the human being within. Themes include appearance, fear, despair, the healing power of music.

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Tell Them Not to Kill Me

Tell Them Not to Kill Me: Short story by Juan RulfoJuan Rulfo‘s short stories focus on the violence and hardships of rural peasant life in post-revolutionary Mexico. In this story a farmer (Juvencio) has been on the run for thirty-five years after viciously killing a friend for refusing to share his pasture during a severe drought. The murdered man’s son, now a police colonel, arranges for Juvencio’s capture. Juvencio, showing no remorse, begs for his life on the basis that he has already suffered enough. His grisly summary execution leaves readers to decide whether justice was served. Themes: land reform; endemic corruption; judicial system breakdown; father-son relationships; violence; revenge.

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Letter to a Young Lady in Paris

Letter to a Young Lady in Paris: Short story by Julio CortázarThis surreal story by Julio Cortázar is in the form of a letter from an Argentinean man to a friend who has allowed him to stay in her apartment while she is visiting Paris. His concerns about disrupting the compact order of her rooms become a reality when, on the point of moving in, 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. Themes include phobia (about moving), obsession (with orderliness), depression, alienation, despair.

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A Conversation With My Father

A Conversation With My Father: Short story by Grace PaleyThis story from Grace Paley uses a meta-fictional approach (a story about storytelling) to highlight generational differences between a writer and her aged father. The father, who is confined to bed, asks his daughter to write a simple story just once more, the kind Maupassant wrote. Instead, she relates a minimalist, open-ended tale with several possible outcomes. These artistic differences reflect the ailing father’s coming death. He has accepted that the end is near; she is not ready to. Her story challenges the father’s views on themes such as family, parenting, addiction, and the ability to change one’s destiny.

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Smell / Bu

Smell / Bu: Short story by Saadat Hasan MantoIn this story by Saadat Hasan Manto, a refined Indian man sees a factory worker sheltering under a tree outside his apartment during a rainstorm. He invites her up to dry off and, consensual or otherwise, they have sex. As she spends the night he notices that every part of her body emits an at once foul and sweet-smelling odour. This enchants him so much that sex with other women, including the henna-smelling upper-class wife he marries years later, is less satisfying. Themes include social class/ethnicity, exploitation (rape?), promiscuity, sensuality, smell as an agent for memory and desire.

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Toy Shop

Toy Shop: Short story by Harry HarrisonIn this story by Harry Harrison, an Air Force scientist buys a trick rocket from a toy fair. A thin piece of string makes the rocket rise and fall, and he plans to entertain some other scientists with it at a poker party. At the party, the scientists discover that the trick only works in certain conditions. They are curious as to why, because it seems that the toy may break a basic law of physics. What they don’t know is that this is all part of a plan for them to help make someone else very rich.

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