The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones

The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones: Short story by Stephen Leacock This story by Stephen Leacock takes a sarcastic look at the themes of shyness and polite social conventions. Many readers mistakenly associate Melpomenus’s refusal to give a false reason to leave the house with his being a clergyman. Not so! In the introduction we are told the young curate was too modest (shy) to tell a lie. His downfall is because of shyness, not honesty. However, the absurd outcome is as much the over-polite hosts’ fault as it is Melpomenus’s. If anyone was responsible for his spirit rushing from the house like a hunted cat, it was them.

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Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime: Short story by Oscar WildeThis dark comedy from Oscar Wilde involves a gullible young aristocrat who believes a palm-reader’s prediction that he will commit a murder. Out of consideration for his fiancé, he decides that he should postpone their marriage until he can get the deed out of the way. Convinced that he is merely fulfilling his destiny, the young man feels no guilt in planning and preparing for murder, or indeed remorse afterwards. When he later learns that the palm-reader was a charlatan, he still has no regrets. Themes: the shallowness and hypocrisy of the Victorian upper class, destiny, murder, morals, karma.

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Like the Sun

Like the Sun: Short story by R. K. NarayanThe major theme of this story by R. K. Narayan is the nature and consequences of truth. After observing that relationships involve tempering truth so as not to hurt one another, the protagonist adds that life is not worth living without telling nothing but the truth at least one day each year. On one of these days, his honesty upsets three people. The first two are needlessly hurt; the third, although unhappy, benefits from his frankness. The story shows that truth is indeed like the sun: most of the time warm and nourishing, but also capable of causing serious damage.

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Death by Scrabble

Death by Scrabble: Short story by Charlie FishYou know that a story which begins It’s a hot day and I hate my wife is not going to end well for one of them. In this story by Charlie Fish, a bored couple sit down for a “friendly” game of scrabble. As the competition intensifies, the man notices something strange. The words the couple put down on the board seem to be coming true in the room around them. To test the theory, he puts down the letters Q-U-A-K-E. As the ground begins to shake, he realizes too late that his wife has made the same discovery.

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Outside

Outside: Short story by Etgar KeretEtgar Keret’s Outside was published in July, 2020, just over six months into the Covid-19 epidemic. Eighteen months later, we are now into our third wave of the disease. The story is a humorous account of the effects of being locked-down at home. The experience so traumatizes the protagonist that, along with thousands of others, he refuses to leave home when things improve. Forced outside by the army, he struggles to remember where to go and what to do. Fortunately, a chance encounter on the way to an ATM triggers a conditioned response that immediately brings him back to normal.

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Chivalry

Chivalry: Short story by Neil GaimanThis Neil Gaiman fantasy features a nice old lady with nice friends, who lives in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. She was also living a nice, peaceful life until one day her routine was interrupted by Sir Galahad on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Having recently bought the Grail at an op-shop, the woman refuses Galahad’s offers of the Sword of Invincibility and Apple of (eternal) Life in exchange. Fortunately, the lad finds two other items she thinks would look better on the mantelpiece. Themes include civility and respect, patience, perseverance, and contentment in old age.

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Filboid Studge

Filboid Studge: Short story by H. H. Munro (Saki)This story is from Saki is a spoof on modern advertising. A businessman who had invested all his money into a failed breakfast food requests help from an impoverished artist who wants to marry his daughter. The artist gives the product an unappetising name and promotes it with a poster of celebrities in Hell clamouring for the unpalatable dish “they cannot buy now”. Sales take off, and the businessman sells the company and marries his daughter to someone a “vast deal higher” than the hapless artist. Themes include despair, the power of advertising, branding (appeal to duty/guilt), social class, ingratitude/betrayal.

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The Baby (The First Thing the Baby Did Wrong)

The Baby (The First Thing the Baby Did Wrong): Short story by Donald BarthelmeThis story by Donald Barthelme may be confronting for some readers because it appears to make light of an example of child abuse. Through exaggeration and humor, Barthelme leads us to his central theme: the coming of a baby can change the whole dynamics of family relationships. Most parents like to think that they are the ones in control. However, all too often they find themselves dancing to their child’s tune. By the end of the story, this baby has totally turned the tables. Some might even say that it has been guilty of a form of parental abuse!

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