Featured Stories

The Verger

The Verger: short story by W Somerset MaughamThis story by W Somerset Maugham is about man named Albert who has worked hard as a church official for 16 years. When a new vicar learns Albert cannot read or write, he tells him that he must leave the job. Rather than go home immediately, Albert walks the streets trying to think of what he can do. During the walk, he decides to open a business. He soon proves that you don’t need a good education to be a success. All you need is the ability to think creatively, and the courage to back your ideas.

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The Sea of Lost Time

The Sea of Lost Time: Short story by Gabriel Garcia MarquezThe seaside town in this story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a smelly, unpleasant place. With every incoming tide, the ocean brings garbage and rotting fish. Many people have moved away; the town is dying. Things change when a local man, Tobias, notices something different about the sea breeze. It smells like roses. Weekend visitors begin to arrive. There is music and dancing again. One of the visitors is a strange foreigner with bags of money. He gives it away to people who ‘do things’ for him, and one day shows Tobias the secret of what lies beneath the waves.

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The Flying Machine

The Flying Machine: Short story by Ray BradburyIn this story by Ray Bradbury, a Chinese Emperor learns that one of his subjects has invented a “flying machine”. Thinking that the invention could be used against him if the “technology” fell into the wrong hands, he has the man executed, the kite destroyed, and the whole episode hushed up. Written shortly after the end of World War II, by which time the Soviets had already replicated America’s atomic bomb, the story could be considered a parable warning of the risk of developing weapons of mass destruction. Themes include the potential danger of technology, fear of progress, shortsightedness, selfishness/control.

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The Three-Century Woman

The Three-Century Woman: Short story by Richard PeckIn this humorous story by Richard Peck, a fourteen-year-old girl accompanies her mother and aunt to visit her great-grandmother on her 102nd birthday. Because of the great-grandmother’s “three-century” status (born in 1899, living through the 1900s, and still alive in 2001), her room in the usually quiet nursing home is surrounded by press. Anticipating this, the normally sleepy, forgetful old woman is not only propped up in bed dressed for an interview, but has prepared an elaborate prank to play on them. Themes include playfulness, taking the aged for granted (the aged are more than their memories!), change.

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A Choice of Butchers

A Choice of Butchers: Short story by William TrevorIn this confronting story from William Trevor, a seven-year-old boy is faced with several issues he is far too young to understand: a hard-drinking, overbearing father he catches passionately embracing their maid; a monetary gift and unexpected good-night kiss from their soft-spoken, empathetic lodger; and a perpetually tired, unaffectionate mother who appears to passively accept her lot. Add to this that he is an “afterthought child” with both parents in their fifties and the question of why a butcher’s family would need a maid, and the story becomes an amateur psychological sleuth’s dream with some serious unstated themes.

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The Far and the Near

The Far and the Near: Short story by Thomas WolfeThis story from Thomas Wolfe is about perception, connection and disappointment. A railway engineer works the same route for over twenty years. Every day, he pays particular attention to a small, well-kept farmhouse from which a woman, and later a woman and child, emerge to wave cheerfully as the train passes. He feels a special connection with them, which helps through the monotony and occasional tragedies encountered in his work. On retirement, he decides to pay the woman a visit. This does not go as he had planned. Themes: appearances, false assumptions, confusion, isolation, suspicion, disillusionment, regret.

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Thus Were Their Faces

Thus Were Their Faces: Short story by Silvina OcampoIn this surreal, rather abstract story by Silvina Ocampo, a seemingly confused (or perhaps mentally disturbed) narrator describes the bizarre behavior of children at a boarding school. The students begin to act as if they want to become equal, and increasingly lose their individuality. Seemingly directed by a collective consciousness, they strive to look and act the same and develop a strange fascination with wings. In the “miraculous” climax, we learn that all children attending the school share a common characteristic: it is a school for the deaf! Themes include identity, equality, freedom, the supernatural.

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A Fish Named Dog

A Fish Named Dog: Short story by Christyne MorrellLike many children, the girl in this story by Christyne Morrell for Spider Magazine dreams of having a pet dog or cat. Unfortunately, this is not to be. Her parents give her a goldfish instead! To make sure her mother and father know what she really wanted, she names the fish “Dog.” This must have hurt the fish’s feelings because, much to the girl’s surprise, it begins to live up to its new name. By the end of the story the girl and fish are happy, her friends are amazed, and some readers may never want to eat fish again.

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