Featured Stories

The Master Thief

The Master Thief: Norwegian folktale from Andrew LangThis Norwegian folktale is about a young man whose poor father sends him out into the world to earn a living. He joins a group of robbers, and is so good at stealing that he becomes their leader. The Master Thief returns home a rich man and decides to marry the Governor’s daughter. In order to marry the girl, he must prove how good a thief he is. This story goes against the English idiom: Crime doesn’t pay. The moral seems to be that crime does pay… but only if you are very good at it!

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The Company of Wolves

The Company of Wolves: Short story by Angela CarterThe early part of Angela Carter’s Company of Wolves comprises background and several anecdotes which build anticipation and atmosphere. The main story, which doesn’t start until one-third of the way through the text, is an adult-oriented adaption of Charles Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood. Carter reinforces Perrault’s original theme through eroticism. The addition of the wolf choir outside the cabin (“Who has come to sing us carols, she said.” “Those are the voices of my brothers, darling; I love the company of wolves.”) reflects the feminist view (and Carter’s?) that all men have an innate desire to deflower young women.

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Looking for Mr. Green

Looking for Mr. Green: Novelette by Saul BellowA major theme of this story by Saul Bellow is work ethic. Times are tough in 1930s Chicago. An intellectual white man starts a much-needed job delivering unclaimed welfare checks to people in a depressed black neighborhood. On his first day his younger supervisor implies that, as a city worker, he isn’t expected to “push too hard”. That’s not the way he works: he wants to do well for doing-well’s sake, and goes above and beyond in a quest to find the elusive Mr. Green. Other themes include poverty, race, suspicion, duty, tenacity, identity.

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The Flight

The Flight: Short story by Kamala DasThere are two “flights” in this story by Kamala Das. The first occurs after a successful sculptor finds city living and her city models devoid of inspiration. Once dependent on her husband, who is now disabled and dependent on her, she has a new sense of control over her life. They move to a dream house by the sea where, re-inspired, she becomes infatuated with a seventeen-year-old nude model. She once again “takes flight” upon finding her husband having sex with the girl, this time into the sea. Themes include marriage, lust, gender roles, control, art, betrayal.

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The Luck of Roaring Camp

The Luck of Roaring Camp: Short story by Bret HarteIn this story by Bret Harte, strange things happen when a Californian gold prospecting camp “adopts” an orphaned baby born to its only woman resident, the camp prostitute. The birth brings a streak of good fortune to the camp, resulting in the baby being named Thomas Luck. The Luck’s presence inspires the men to clean up the camp, their habits, and themselves. The camp prospers, and there is even talk of encouraging families to move there for the sake of the child. Unfortunately, the Luck’s luck cannot defeat nature. Themes: isolation, lawlessness, community, change/redemption, the inconstancy of luck.

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The Age of Lead

The Age of Lead: Short story by Margaret AtwoodIn this story by Margaret Atwood, a frozen 150-year-old body buried in the permafrost provides a lesson for the living. The story uses the solution to mystery cause of death of members of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition to highlight the dangers of consumerism and modern technology such as soil and water pollution, toxic waste and acid rain. The issues are brought home in the parallel story involving the the protagonist’s frustrating relationship with her eccentric, possibly gay lifetime friend who dies of an unknown viral infection. Themes include tragedy, side effects of consumerism and technology, individuality, friendship/unfulfilled love.

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Young Goodman Brown

Young Goodman Brown: Short story by Nathaniel HawthorneIn this story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a pious young Puritan named Goodman Brown travels into the forest one night to prove that he can resist evil. There he meets a man implied to be the devil, who demonstrates that most of his townspeople, including his wife Faith, embrace witchcraft. Thanks to Brown’s belief in his moral superiority, he accepts everything he sees without question. He fails to appreciate that the visions may have been a dream, contrived by the devil as a way of deceiving him. Themes: temptation (good vs. evil), dreams vs. reality, deceit, paranoia, loss of faith, alienation.

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Il Colore Ritrovato

Il Colore Ritrovato: Short story by Mark HelprinThis story by Mark Helprin explores the theme “the price of fame”. An ageing impresario reflects on how he transformed a contented young laundry worker into the greatest opera singer in the world. He has just come across an innocent young street performer who could be even better, and faces a dilemma. Although his first discovery has found fame and fortune, he is unhappy about how it affected her. Should he immediately launch his excited new find into stardom, or insist that she takes time to consider the consequences? Other themes include entrepreneurship, responsibility, regret, compassion, redemption, art and beauty.

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