Novelette by Daniel Keyes. A touching short story about a mentally handicapped man who undergoes experimental surgery to enhance his intelligence. The operation’s initial success highlights an interesting aspect of intelligence: the very gifted can be as out of touch with reality and friendless as the intellectually challenged.
Short Story by Ismat Chughtai. Two sets of manipulative parents are put in their place after a Muslem girl opts out of an arranged marriage and elopes with a Hindu boy. In a comic situation, the boy and girl are each pressured against their will to embrace the other’s religion.
Short Story by Guy de Maupassant. A widowed man of modest means learns that his seemingly perfect wife had been living a decadent secret life. When he discovers that her “fake” jewels are real, he enjoys a night of "gay frolic" that leads to a new life of much sorrow.
Novelette by Julie Orringer. A teenage Jewish girl raised in a secular environment spends her school holidays living in the Orthodox community of an aunt. She adjusts well to the Orthodox way of life while her rebellious, similar-aged cousin, beginning to explore her sexuality, breaks the community’s strict behavioral rules.
Quick Read by Margaret Atwood. The six “mini-stories” in this short meta-fictional narrative satirize a common element of the story form. The message seems to be that the ultimate denouement of a story matters little; the key is in its exposition and “How and Why” of events in between.