Featured Stories

The Ass, the Table, and the Stick

The Ass, the Table, and the Stick: English folktale from Joseph JacobsIn this English folktale, a young man works for a year and earns a magic donkey. An innkeeper tricks him out of it, so he works for another year and earns a magic table. The same innkeeper tricks him out of this. For his next job, the boy earns a magic stick. This helps the young man get his donkey and table back, as well as to marry his true love. Unfortunately, in winning the girl the young man shows a side of his personality that will make readers wonder if he really deserved all the magical help!

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Mary Postgate

Mary Postgate: Short story by Rudyard KiplingSet in World War 1, Rudyard Kipling‘s Mary Postgate, can be interpreted in a number of ways, each of which suggests a different reason for the unusual reaction of the protagonist (a prim, proper, middle-aged spinster) to watching the slow, painful death of a seriously injured pilot. Her almost orgasmic physical response and subsequent behavior – a luxurious hot bath before tea – indicate that she found it an uplifting experience. This suggests that her bitterness was directed at not only the enemy, but also other aspect(s) of her life. Themes: the brutality of war, repression, loss, anger, revenge, release.

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The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper: Short story by Charlotte Perkins GilmanThis partly autobiographical story by Charlotte Gilman describes the experiences of a creative, imaginative woman suffering from post-natal depression. She follows the then (1890s) generally accepted medical advice to spend her time “resting” in semi-isolation. Gilman skillfully uses the setting to turn an otherwise clinical account of a mental breakdown into a chilling psychological horror story. Although living in a colonial mansion amid idyllic countryside, the poor woman spends most of her time in a prison-like room with creepy wallpaper. Major themes include the fallibility of doctors and our reluctance to question them, mental illness, freedom and self-expression, and gender roles in society.

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The Delicate Prey

The Delicate Prey: Short story by Paul BowlesThis controversial story by Paul Bowles is not for the squeamish. Two leather merchants and their nephew set off across the Algerian desert to sell their wares. After several days a stranger fearful of bandits in the area approaches and asks to accompany them. One night, the stranger lures the merchants away from camp on the pretext of going hunting. He ambushes and shoots them, then tortures and kills the youth. The crime is discovered when the stranger tries to sell their distinctive leatherworks. Tribal justice is swift and brutal. Themes include greed, deceit, extreme violence, vengeance.

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Window

Window: Short story by Deborah EisenbergThis award-winning story is a wonderful example of Deborah Eisenberg’s unusual writing style. Starting and ending at the same place, the back-story is provided in disjointed fragments that generate a sense of increasing menace as the full picture emerges. A directionless, insecure eighteen-year-old leaves an unfulfilling waitress job to live in an idyllic, off-the-grid cabin with a seemingly perfect man and his infant son. She flees several months later after a brutal beating, leaving readers to ponder the reasons for and wisdom of her abduction of his child. Themes: family, friendship, loneliness, isolation, fear, quest for fulfillment.

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The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze: Short story by William SaroyanSet in San Francisco during the Great Depression, this story by William Saroyan describes the final day of a young aspiring writer dying of starvation. His creative inspiration comes from dreams, and the story begins with a stream-of-consciousness list of places, people and scenes he has dreamed about but never encountered. Weak with hunger, he spends the day desperately looking for work. Unsuccessful, he tries to write An Application for Permission to Live. Too weak to complete it, he returns home and surrenders himself to a final dream. Themes include poverty, artistic struggle, pride, alienation, despair, existentialism, sleep and dreams.

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Voodoo

Voodoo: Flash story by Fredric BrownThis story by Fredric Brown explores the use of black magic to solve a marriage problem. Mr and Mrs Decker have decided on a divorce. Love has turned to hate, and the break-up is not friendly. The biggest issue they need to agree on is the financial settlement. Mrs Decker wants half of everything; Mr Decker thinks this is too much. She knows voodoo, and tells him she could use it to kill and him and get everything if he didn’t agree. This leads to an all-or-nothing bet. Themes include hatred, divorce, greed, the supernatural.

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The Tenant

The Tenant: Short story by Bharati MukherjeeIn this story by Bharati Mukherjee, a young Indian-American college professor struggles to make a new life after a series of “indiscretions”. She has sullied her reputation among her Brahman caste by marrying and later being left by an American graduate student, and compensated for the loss and shame through promiscuity. She finds solace as the lover of her armless landlord but, in the hope of reconnecting with her culture, abruptly leaves him when re-contacted by a “god-like” Indian man she had met through a matrimonial advertisement. Themes include identity, cultural confusion, social class, nonconformity, rejection, shame, alienation, loneliness, connection.

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