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Back up to: Classic Stories

1. Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant

   Maupassant’s tragic wartime tale of the friendship and loyalty that binds two friends.
2. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

   Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist masterpiece about madness and women breaking out.
3. The Toys of Peace by Saki

   Saki’s satire about children given toys representing normal life rather than war.
4. The String Quartet by Virginia Woolf

   Virginia Woolf’s sketch of woman finding emotions and storylines in music.
5. The Recruit by Honore de Balzac

   Balzac’s tale of maternal love & mistaken identity during the French Revolution.
6. The Piece of String by Guy de Maupassant

   Maupassant’s fable of a villager who finds a piece of string & is accused of thieving.
7. The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe

   Edgar Allan Poe’s tale of a morbidly absorbing painting and the sacrifices made for art.
8. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

   Guy de Maupassant’s story about a woman devoting her life to repay a debt she never owed.
9. The Mesmeric Mountain by Stephen Crane

   Stephen Crane’s fantastical tale of a man who thinks he’s being followed – by a mountain.
10. The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

    Edgar Allan Poe’s macabre tale of Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague.
11. The Kabuliwalah by Rabindranath Tagore

    Rabindranath Tagore’s tale of a little girl befriending a travelling fruit salesman.
12. The Interlopers by Saki

    Saki's fable about warring neighbours.
13. The Fly by Katherine Mansfield

    Katherine Mansfield’s 1922 story about a boss and his old employee reliving old times.
14. The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry

    O. Henry’s parable about a homeless man seeking shelter, and the lengths he goes to.
15. The Cone by HG Wells

    HG Wells’ twisted tale about a man taking revenge on an adulterer.
16. The Christening by DH Lawrence

    DH Lawrence’s story of a young unmarried mother, her baby and her stern collier father.
17. Tarquin of Cheapside by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    F. Scott Fitzgerald’s strange Elizabethan-set tale of a young writer is seeking refuge.
18. Ma'ame Pelagie by Kate Chopin

    Kate Chopin portrait of a woman on a plantation adjusting after the American Civil War.
19. How It Happened by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    Arthur Conan Doyle's ghostly tale of a man and his motor. Who survives to tell the story?
20. El Verdugo by Honore de Balzac

    Balzac’s tale of French troops taking over a Spanish town during the Napoleonic war.
21. Araby by James Joyce

    James Joyce’s story from Dubliners about a boy enchanted by a woman and a utopian bazaar.
22. An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

    Ambrose Bierce’s American Civil War tale about an entrapped Confederate plantation owner.
23. A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin

    Kate Chopin’s tale of a woman who spends a windfall on herself, instead of her children.
24. A Gentleman Friend by Anton Chekhov

    Anton Chekhov’s fable about a woman’s search for luxury and her encounter with a dentist.
25. A Blunder by Anton Chekhov

    Chekhov’s sketch about an old couple waiting for a man to propose to their daughter.