Featured Stories

The Ant and The Grasshopper

The Ant and The Grasshopper: Short story by W. Somerset MaughamThis story by W. Somerset Maugham takes its name from a famous Aesop fable. The fable carries the message that hard work is rewarded, while laziness leads to disaster. The story presents a more balanced view of the world. Sometimes good things happen to lazy or even quite bad people, causing them to be better off than those who work hard every day. After years of hard work, Gordon Ramsay (the Ant) is rewarded with a comfortable retirement. He thinks it unfair when his brother Tom (the Grasshopper) ends up many times richer after a life of laziness and cheating others.

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The Ultimate Safari

The Ultimate Safari: Short story by Nadine GordimerSet during the Mozambican Civil War, this story from Nadine Gordimer follows a family as they undertake an arduous journey to a South African refugee camp through Kruger Park. The story is told through the eyes of a nine year-old girl who understands little about the war other than that her father is away fighting for the government. Following her mother’s disappearance while buying cooking oil, the rest of her family join a group of other displaced villagers for the dangerous 40-mile (65 km) trek through the park. Themes include family, war, loss, lawlessness, displacement, fear, endurance, hope.

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A Spinster’s Tale

A Spinster's Tale: Short story by Peter TaylorIn this story by Peter Taylor, an aged woman looks back at a traumatic period in her youth that may have shaped her life and led to spinsterhood. Her mother’s religious condemnation of alcohol sets the scene for the story. The subsequent loss of her mother following a still-birth, growing up in a (drinking) male-dominated household, and her phobia about the town drunk at a critical period in her life (as she enters puberty) leave her isolated and in fear of the masculine world. Themes include family dynamics, personal growth, isolation and loneliness, fear, cruelty, sexual conflict.

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Lamb to the Slaughter

Lamb to the Slaughter: Short story by Roald DahlThe title of this story by Roald Dahl may have a clever double meaning. On the one hand, we have a woman who uses a lamb, or rather a frozen leg of lamb, to kill her husband. On the other, it may relate to the English idiom “Like a lamb to the Slaughter”. This would lead to the question: Which of the characters (the husband, the wife or both) could be described as someone going calmly about their business, not knowing that something very unpleasant is about to happen to them? Themes include betrayal, identity/gender stereotyping, injustice and revenge.

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Rain Frogs

Rain Frogs: Short story by Shiga NaoyaIn this story from Shiga Naoya, the naïve wife of a rural businessman is either seduced by or coerced into having sex with a predatory novelist. Surprisingly, in addition to appearing remarkably understanding, the woman’s husband is sexually aroused by her experience. The woman’s reaction is equally surprising. Initially, she is described as being a pleasure to look at but having no light in her tea-brown eyes. After the encounter, she has a knowing smile and “dreamy” eyes, as of someone experiencing a very sweet dream. Themes: tradition, attitudes to women in Japanese society, lack of fulfillment, sexual predation.

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The Storm / At the ‘Cadian Ball

The Storm: Short story by Kate ChopinKate Chopin’s The Storm is widely considered one of her best stories. As a wild storm rages outside, a farmer’s wife (Calixta) and wealthy plantation-owner who had stopped for shelter (Alcée) engage in wild, stormy sex inside. Although both are married, neither feels guilty about the tryst. Afterwards, Calixta continues family life as normal, though seemingly more contented. Themes: family, passionless marriage, lust. In order to fully understand the characters, it is helpful to read the story’s prequel, At the ‘Cadian Ball. Calixta and Alcée were once infatuated with each other, but class and race differences kept them apart.

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The Holiday

The Holiday: Short story by Lily BrettThis chapter from Lily Brett’s book Things Could Be Worse describes how several Jewish migrant couples meet at an inexpensive Australian holiday resort in 1950 and form a close-knit group that holidays together over the next thirty-two years. Despite their growing prosperity, they are still haunted by memories of the past. The group breaks up when a meddling member has a photograph taken that suggests the husband of one couple is having an affair with the wife of another. As couples take sides, relationships are destroyed for both members and their children. Themes include assimilation, friendship, memories, “Jewishness”, gossip-mongering, aging.

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Greasy Lake

Greasy Lake: Short story by T. C. BoyleThis coming of age story from T. C. Boyle is about three nineteen-year-old boys who think it is “good to be bad”. It begins on a lighthearted note. The boys try to look and act tough, but cruise the streets in their parents’ station wagons and get their highs from sniffing glue. One night, an innocent prank goes terribly wrong. A case of mistaken identity results in a stranger being beaten unconscious, an attempted rape, discovery of a dead body, and the trashing of a family car. The events prove the danger of pretending to be someone you are not.

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