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Day had broken cold and grey, exceedingly cold and grey, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath...
USA
Bitter things dried behind the eyes of Miss Ella like garlic on a string before an open fire. The acrid fumes of sweet memories had gradually reddened their rims until at times they shone like the used places in copper saucepans. Withal she was not a kitchen sort...
USA
Day had broken long ago. The mountains on whose peaks black clouds settled sparkled under a cold blue as though reporting that the pause given during the night by the snow that had snowed thus for days was about to end. A pencil of feeble sunlight getting ready...
Turkey
In Rue Las Cases it was as quiet as during the height of summer, and every open window was screened by a yellow blind. The fine weather had returned: it was the first Sunday of spring, a warm and restless day that took people out of their houses...
France
On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for...
UK
Found among the Papers of the Late Diedrich Knickerbocker. A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, Forever flushing round a summer sky. CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. In the bosom...
USA
Envy, like all our feelings, had been dulled and weakened by hunger. We lacked the strength to experience emotions, to seek easier work, to walk, to ask, to beg… We envied only our acquaintances, the ones who had been lucky enough to get office work, a job in...
Russia
IT was noon of a bright winter’s day. The air was crisp with frost, and Nadia, who was walking beside me, found her curls and the delicate down on her upper lip silvered with her own breath. We stood at the summit of a high hill. The ground...
Russia
Prison more like, said Madeleine. Come now, said Mr Kramer. If I run away they bring me back, said Madeleine. Yes but, said Mr Kramer. Mr Kramer often said, Yes but to Madeleine. Something to concede, something to contradict. Now he said again how kind everyone...
UK
Short Stories from around the world |
Short Stories from around the world |
Short Stories from around the world |
Hidden Gems
USA
Patricia Highsmith
8 min
8 min
France
Romain Rolland
15 min
15 min
Russia
Leonid Andreyev
11 min
11 min
UK
Henry James
23 min
23 min
USA
O. Henry
6 min
6 min
Russia
Mikhail Bulgakov
8 min
8 min
USA
Jack London
28 min
28 min
What was it—I paused to think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered
/ The Fall of the House of Usher
“Everyone strives after the law,” says the man, “so how is that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?” The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I’m going now to close it”
/ Before the Law
They faltered, wavered, broke down, were silent. Again they were conscious of the boundless, questioning dark. Again, there they were–two hunters, bending over their fire, but hearing suddenly from the jungle beyond a shake of wind and a loud, questioning cry...
/ Psychology
“Someday we must die, also.” Roger Bentley hurried on. “Hard to believe. We’re spoiled. But Susan was right. Dog died to tell us this, gently, and we must believe”
/ No News, or What Killed the Dog?
Our Classics
Czech Republic
Jaroslav Hašek
4 min
4 min
Canada
Lucy Maud Montgomery
15 min
15 min
UK
Oscar Wilde
55 min
55 min
Ireland
James Joyce
6 min
6 min
Brazil
Machado de Assis
14 min
14 min
USA
Edgar Allan Poe
28 min
28 min
Catalonia
Jaume Cabré
12 min
12 min
UK
W.W. Jacobs
15 min
15 min
USA
Kate Chopin
5 min
5 min
India
Rabindranath Tagore
8 min
8 min
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