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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

Some Other Stories You May Like

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  • Licked

    Grade 5-6 Story by Paul Jennings. A young boy learns that his father’s boss is coming to dinner. When he overhears his parents making a pact not to criticize his table manners during the meal, he hides a ‘secret weapon’ under the table to put them to the test.

  • Daisy Miller: A Study in Two Parts

    Novella by Henry James. The behaviour of a young, free-spirited American socialite traveling through Southern Europe is scandalous by the standards of the American expat community. A question in the mind of a man smitten by her is whether the enigmatic woman could possibly be as innocent as she appears.

  • Beware of the Dog

    Short Story by Roald Dahl. After parachuting out of his damaged plane, a severely injured World War 2 fighter pilot wakes up in hospital. He is initially relieved to learn that he had landed in England. However, over the next twenty-four hours, he gradually realizes that something is wrong.

  • Old Aeson

    Short Story by Arthur Quiller-Couch. A rich man cares for an old man who almost freezes to death outside his house. The old man has a mysterious power. He begins to suck the life out of the rich man, slowly turning him into an old man as he becomes younger.

  • The Overcoat (The Cloak)

    Novelette by Nikolai Gogol. A windfall allows a Russian man in a low-level job to buy a new overcoat. After a mugger steals it, shortcomings in the justice system and failing health lead to his death. A rumor circulates that his ghost has risen up and is terrorizing the city.

  • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

    Short Story by James Thurber. A meek, middle-aged man with a dominating, nagging wife leads a boring suburban life. His way of dealing with this without going crazy is to escape whenever he can into imaginary worlds where he acts out fantasies involving wondrous feats and acts of bravery.

  • Three Skeleton Key

    Short Story by George Toudouze. Three men are trapped inside an isolated lighthouse, surrounded by a horde of starving rats. One of the men panics and loses his mind. The other two remain calm and, although a serious breach of duty, agree on a desperate course of action.

  • In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried

    Short Story by Amy Hempel. A woman has difficulty coming to grips with a friend’s terminal illness. She visits the friend only once during her months in hospital. The two evade serious conversation, speaking almost exclusively about trivia and, instead of staying the night as expected, she hastens away.

  • The Aleph

    Short Story by Jorge Borges. A man maintains contact with the family of a deceased woman he once loved. He learns that her cousin, an “untalented” poet, is using an Aleph, a point in space that contains all other points, to write an epic poem versifying every place on Earth.

  • The Disappearance

    Short Story by Chitra Divakaruni. After a year of denial, a man accepts that his “disappeared” wife has left him. Their arranged marriage, although blessed with a son, had become intolerable for her. Years later, estranged from their son, he reflects on how much his wife must have hated him.

  • Tiny, Smiling Daddy

    Short Story by Mary Gaitskill. A father reflects on the past after learning that his daughter has written a magazine article about their relationship following her “coming out” as lesbian. The disconnection caused by his cruel, homophobic reaction forces him to assess his performance as a father.

  • The Refugee

    Short Story by K. A. Abbas. Told from the perspective of an elderly Sikh woman, a story comparing the community spirit and tolerance that existed in Pakistan before its Partition from India with the hatred, bloodshed and displacement of Sikh and Hindu families that occurred afterwards.

  • Proper Library

    Short Story by Carolyn Ferrell. A gay, academically challenged African-American boy faces a conflict between doing well at school and his feelings for a former lover. The highlights of his day include learning words with his mother and acting as surrogate “big sister” to the younger children in his house.

  • Diamond Cuts Diamond

    Indian Folktale. A traveler leaves his jewels in the care of a “friendly” merchant. When he returns to collect them, the merchant claims he has never seen the man before. To get the jewels back, he needs help from someone who is even better at cheating than the merchant.

  • The Faithful Wife

    Short Story by Morley Callaghan. A young man is invited to visit the home of a woman he has never spoken to. When he gets there, she encourages him to “make out”. The woman is married, and this is her way of fulfilling a basic need without being unfaithful.

  • The Right Kind of House

    Short Story by Henry Slesar. A man visits the owner of a dilapidated house he badly wants to buy after being told she is asking seven times a fair asking price. He is left with a bitter taste in his mouth when he is forced to agree to her price.

  • The Star

    Short Story by H. G. Wells. A huge planetary fragment from outside the solar system is approaching Earth. At first, people view the new “star” with excitement and anticipation. When a master mathematician makes dire predictions, many flee their cities in panic. But surprisingly, most do nothing until too late.

  • Mowgli’s Brothers

    Grade 5-6 Story by Rudyard Kipling. When an abandoned “man cub” is adopted by a family of wolves, the wolf parents face two challenges: having the child accepted as a member of the Pack, and protecting him from a crazed tiger who does not follow the “Law of the Jungle”.

  • The Fortune-Teller

    Short Story by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. A love triangle exists between life-long best friends and the wife of one of them. When the husband asks his friend to come urgently to his house, the frightened man consults a fortune-teller to make sure that it is safe.

  • Overcoat

    Short Story by Ghulam Abbas. A man with the persona of a well-to-do dandy enjoys a leisurely stroll through the streets of Lahore. Everything falls apart after he becomes fascinated with a young couple “who seemed to have stepped out of the pages of a romantic novel”.

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