The Supernatural |

The Fall of the House of Usher

Post category:Short Stories

The Fall of the House of Usher: Short story by Edgar Allan Poe This Edgar Allan Poe story is a masterpiece of the Gothic Horror genre. A man visits a childhood friend in his crumbling family mansion to help him cope with an acute attack of depression. An interdependent relationship exists between the friend, his twin sister and the house (some say a shared soul), which ends in the downfall of all three. The story’s most remarkable feature is the almost total lack of physical action. The feeling of terror and impending doom develops solely from Poe’s descriptions of setting, characters, and atmosphere. Themes: isolation, friendship, fear, madness, the supernatural.

The Mezzotint

Post category:Short Stories

The Mezzotint: Short story by M. R. James In this story by M. R. James, a bookshop sends a mezzotint depicting an early 1800s manor house to a university lecturer on approval. The methodical don, who is also responsible for collecting rare topographical drawings and engravings for the university library, initially dismisses it as being of little interest. However, he soon changes his mind as the image on the mezzotint changes several times over the next day, finally revealing a heinous crime. Intrigued, he feels duty-bound to find the location of the house and discover its secret. Themes include mystery, crime and punishment, revenge, the supernatural.

The Man with the Rose

Post category:Short Stories

The Man with the Rose: Short story by Manuel Rojas In this story by Manuel Rojas, an evangelical priest is predictably dismissive when a man says he has “black magical” powers. The man begs to be put to the test, claiming that, if locked in a room for an hour, he can retrieve any distant object the priest nominates. The priest’s orderly view of the universe is shattered; not only when the man hands him a unique rose he requested from a Santiago convent, but also by what he saw when he unlocked the door and crept into the room twenty-five minutes early. Themes include religion, disbelief, disillusionment, the supernatural.

See top menu for all 1,500+ stories

Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

Other stories you may like:

The Good Doctor
Short Story by Adam Haslett. An idealistic government psychiatrist is frustrated when a depressed woman he has driven two and a half hours to evaluate refuses therapy. The woman, who is running low on medication, insists on facing her demons alone, even if he refuses to write a prescription.
Bullet in the Brain
Short Story by Tobias Wolff. An obnoxious book critic's snide comments get him shot by a bank robber. His moment-of-death memory is about a childhood baseball game, suggesting that the highlights of his life were the simple pleasures of youth before losing his innocence to conceit, disillusionment and cynicism.
Exotic Pleasures
Novelette by Peter Carey. A woman buys a brightly coloured exotic bird that gives a rush of pleasure to those who stroke it. She travels the country selling time with the bird, little realizing that it has a dark side which will destroy her marriage and cause mass destruction.
A Small, Good Thing
Novelette by Raymond Carver. Parents mount a vigil by their unconscious son’s hospital bed. Whenever one of them goes home to freshen up and feed the family dog, they receive prank phone calls mentioning the boy’s name. The boy dies after three days, but the calls continue.
Champoon
Short Story by Dhep Mahapaoraya. A Chinese towkay beats and locks up his daughter after learning she is in love with a young Thai man. The determined girl escapes, but meets a grisly end in the jaws of a crocodile after finding her lover in the arms of a prostitute.

A Christmas Story
Short Story by Walter Dean Myers. An old woman teaches a new police patrolman an important lesson by inviting his family to Christmas dinner. Along with his co-workers, the policeman has a negative view of Harlem. His wife insists on going, and the visit reveals another side of the community.
The Garden of Stubborn Cats
Short Story by Italo Calvino. A neighbourhood cat steals a fish and leads the protagonist to an overgrown garden that provides the last sanctuary for stray cats in his rapidly growing city. When progress tries to claim it, the cats and other animal residents fight back.
A Pilgrim Yankee’s Progress
Novelette by Nick Joaquin. Thanks to a series of misunderstandings arising from different cultural perspectives, an uneasy relationship develops between a Filipino family recovering from the trauma of World War 2 and an American soldier visiting the grave of an uncle who died during the Spanish-American War.
Blacksoil Country
Short Story by David Malouf. An early Australian settler shoots an innocent Aborigine bearing a gift from a neighbor. Shortly afterwards, his twelve-year-old son is brutally murdered. This triggers a racially driven killing spree, which elevates the man from a surly loner nobody wanted to associate with to hero status.
Where I’m Calling From
Short Story by Raymond Carver. Two strangers who meet at an alcohol drying-out retreat assist each other on the road to recovery. After one describes the damage drinking has caused to his life and that of his family, both decide to face up to their demons.