Featured Stories

You Were Perfectly Fine

You Were Perfectly Fine: Short story by Dorothy ParkerThis entertaining “morning after” story by Dorothy Parker describes an embarrassed young man’s reactions as he tries to piece together what happened the night before. The beauty of the story is that, depending on how the reader interprets the dialogue, it can be taken several ways. One is that the woman is exaggerating or even making up events to teach the man a lesson. Another is that the events are true but she is playing them down because she wants to believe something he said during the cab ride home. Themes include alcohol abuse, memory, relationships, guilt, happiness and regret.

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A Dead Woman’s Secret

A Dead Woman's Secret: Short story by Guy de MaupassantWe get a sense at the beginning of this Guy de Maupassant story that the dead woman lying peacefully in her bed may not have led as ‘saintly’ a life as is described. She has been hiding something from her family for most of her life. When going through some old letters, her son and daughter discover the secret. The son, a sanctimonious magistrate, judges her harshly. The daughter, who has devoted herself to the Church, says nothing but may harbor a secret of her own. Themes: things are not always as they seem, passion, adultery, rash judgement, hypocrisy, forgiveness

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Servant Girl

Servant Girl: Short story by Estrella AlfonIn this story by Estrella Alfon, a hard working Filipino servant girl works for a mistress who is a heavy drinker and often verbally and physically abusive. She rejects a local man who says he loves her, and is infatuated with an “angelic” cochero who once helped her after a fall. After a particularly brutal beating, she runs away to look for the cochero, who she fantasizes is in love with her. She finds him, but he doesn’t remember her. Seeing things more clearly, she returns home. Themes include social class, innocence, workplace abuse, humiliation, perseverance, fantasy, violence, enlightenment.

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Five-Twenty

Five-Twenty: Short story by Patrick WhiteIn this story by Patrick White, a woman with very low self-esteem spends her life at the beck and call of a rancorous, dominating husband. As they age and he gradually wastes away, they spend their days “traffic watching” from the veranda of their small house on a busy road. She becomes obsessed with a strange-looking man who drives by at five-twenty every day and, following a chance meeting after her husband dies, experiences what may be her first passionate stirrings. Sadly, death comes between them. Themes include patriarchy, gender roles, aging, loneliness, lack of passion and fulfilment, freedom, loss.

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The Kimono

The Kimono: Short story by H. E. BatesIn this story by H. E. Bates a fifty-year-old man looks back on his life from the day, shortly before his marriage, he had an unexpected sexual encounter with a seductive woman in an orange and green kimono. Three weeks later, he left his new bride and moved in with the other woman. So began twenty-five years of bliss and heart-ache as it became clear that, despite their strong feelings for each other, his free-spirited partner could never be happy in the arms of just one man. Themes include female sexuality, desire, passion, infidelity, choices and consequences, regret.

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The Higgler

The Higgler: Short story by A. E. CoppardIn this story by A. E. Coppard, a higgler (peddler) faces a difficult choice. Although not formally engaged, he has been “keeping company” with a girl everyone expects him to marry. Life gets complicated when one of his suppliers, a wealthy widow in poor health, asks him to marry her beautiful, well-educated daughter. Though strongly attracted to the girl, she has shown little interest in him. He makes his decision thinking the mother’s offer must have a hidden catch. When she dies, he learns something that may have changed his mind. Themes include struggle, choices and consequences, suspicion, unconsummated love.

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Cranes

Cranes: Short story by Hwang Sun-wonHwang Sun-won’s Cranes shows how humanity can outweigh ideology. Two childhood friends find themselves on opposite sides in the Korean War. One, a village commander, is captured and the other assigned to take him for interrogation and probable execution. When asked why he did not flee, the captured man talks about his aged father’s connection to the land. The other man can relate to this, because he carries the guilt of having left his family when he went away to war. This prompts the captor to suggest they go off on a crane hunt, as they did once as boys.

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Lullaby

Lullaby: Short story by Leslie Marmon SilkoAlthough this story by Leslie Marmon Silko takes place over a single evening, some of the events described span three generations. An aging Native American woman searching for her alcoholic husband reminisces about her life. Although her childhood memories are pleasant, her adult memories are full of loss and tragedy. Her husband has been exploited by a “white rancher” and, having lost at least three children to natural causes and one to war, her last two were removed by “white doctors”. Themes: memories, tradition and change, language barriers, racism, oppression and exploitation, motherhood, death and loss.

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