Featured Stories

The Judgment (The Verdict)

The Judgment: Short story by Franz KafkaOn the surface, this story by Franz Kafka is about a troubled man’s relationship with his frail but dominating father. The father thinks his son is trying to ease him out of their successful business. The son communicates regularly with a ‘friend’ in Russia, who may be an imaginary alter ego. The father says the friend would be more a son after my own heart, and judges his son guilty of selfishness and betrayal. He sentences him to death by drowning, which the son promptly carries out. Themes: loneliness, insecurity, bachelorhood vs. marriage, patriarchy, father-son relationships, crime, guilt, punishment.

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Eleonora

Eleonora: Short story by Edgar Allan PoeIn this atypical Edgar Allan Poe story there is madness, but not the destructive kind; death, but not the gruesome kind; and a spirit, but not a frightening one. Also unusual is Poe’s extensive use of poetic prose. His description of the idyllic valley may be an allusion to the Garden of Eden, leaving readers to wonder if the couple’s incestuous lovemaking beneath the serpent-like trees was the “apple” that destroyed their paradise. Themes: the beauty of nature, innocence, passion, love, death, moving on. Poe’s message: true love endures; despite the loss of a loved one, life must go on.

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A City of Churches

A City of Churches: Short story by Donald BarthelmeThis story begins with a woman talking to a realtor about moving to the city of Prester to open a car rental business. As they talk, she notices that every building in the city is a church of some kind. Typical of Donald Barthelme, things get stranger. Nobody rents cars in Prester, but the city has a problem. It needs a girl to work in its car-rental agency to make the town ‘complete’. The girl has a special talent; she can will her dreams. When told she cannot leave, she threatens to dream the life [they] are most afraid of.

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Sunanda

Sunanda: Short story by BanaphoolThis story by Banaphool opens with a young Indian woman dreaming about what might have been… the power and prestige that comes with a good education. The dream ends with her contemplating revenge on a man who had recently rejected her as a prospective bride. We don’t learn the outcome, because she wakes to the grim reality of her miserable existence. Despite excellent grades at school, her father denied her a tertiary education. As her poverty-stricken family desperately tries to marry her off, she takes drastic action. Themes include poverty, the importance of education, rejection, despair.

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Young Archimedes

Young Archimedes: Short story by Aldous HuxleyThis tragic story from Aldous Huxley is about an English family renting a secluded Italian villa. When their young son is befriended by Guido, the son of a farm-worker, his father notices that in addition to being musically gifted, Guido has the makings of a math prodigy. While the family are holidaying in the Swiss Alps the childless, status-seeking wife of their landlord tricks Guido’s father into letting her take the boy away for musical instruction. The selfish woman tells Guido a terrible lie, with tragic results. Themes: greed, genius, family, class, social status, manipulation, abandonment, suicide.

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Birthmates

Birthmates: Short story by Gish JenLife for Gish Gen’s Chinese-American protagonist is not looking good. A salesman in a dying industry, he has recently divorced due to different “perspectives” on racism at work and his inability to grieve over his wife’s two miscarriages and a medical termination. Upon arrival at a sales convention, he finds that he has booked into a welfare hotel where playful children assault him the following morning. The kindness of one of its residents and a lost job opportunity cause him to finally face the loss of his wife and “child”. Themes: paranoia, self-esteem, alienation, loss, grief, cultural differences, racism, desperation.

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Knock

Knock: Short story by Fredric BrownThis story by Fredric Brown begins and ends with what may be the shortest horror story ever written: The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door… A scientist wakes to find himself alone in a cell. The previous night Alien invaders had collected 217 animal species, including him, for study. They then destroyed all other animal life on the planet. He convinces them that Earth is a dangerous place to live. After they have gone, he hears the second knock on the door. Themes include exploration, genocide, deceit, solitude, “duty”.

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A Kidnapped Santa Clause

A Kidnapped Santa Clause: Short story by L. Frank BaumThe major theme of this Christmas story by L. Frank Baum is the triumph of good over evil. Five daemons (creatures that thrive on naughtiness) are angry with Santa Clause because his gifts and messages of goodwill discourage children from visiting their caves. Upon realizing that Santa will never change, they kidnap him as he begins his Christmas deliveries. When Santa’s assistants notice this, they complete his rounds and return with an army of magical immortals to rescue him. Other themes: loyalty, duty and (as reflected in the names of the daemons) selfishness, envy, hatred, malice and redemption.

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