Short Story by Franz Kafka. A frail but dominating father thinks his son is trying to ease him out of their family business. After an argument over the son’s marriage plans and a mysterious friend he communicates with in Russia, the father sentences him to death for selfishness and betrayal.
Short Story by Isak Dinesen. A recently married nineteen-year-old woman’s innocent, child-like view of the world is shattered by a chance encounter with a man covered in blood who is on the run for theft and murder. The triggers a re-evaluation of her naïve views on life and marriage.
Novelette by Nikolai Gogol. A government clerk starts to exhibit strange behavior. He becomes infatuated with his Department Head’s daughter, stalks the poor girl after overhearing a conversation between two dogs, reads their (the dogs’) letters, and finally suffers delusions of grandeur, believing himself to be the King of Spain.
Novelette by Edgar Allan Poe. A seemingly insoluble locked-room mystery in which: the wrong man is arrested for the violent murder of two women; Poe’s amateur detective Dupin demonstrates the importance of critical thinking in problem solving; and an “Ourang-Outang” makes a monkey out of the police.
Short story / novel by William Faulkner. A story of a ten-year-old’s boy’s growth into manhood. He becomes a skilled woodsman, has several encounters with a mystical bear, and is confronted by issues such as land and people ownership, racial identity, and loss of the wilderness.