Our Collection – The Short Story Project

USA

“Off there to the right—somewhere—is a large island,” said Whitney. “It’s rather a mystery——” “What island is it?” Rainsford asked. “The old charts call it ‘Ship-Trap Island,'” Whitney replied. “A suggestive name, isn’t it? Sailors have...

The Most Dangerous Game

Richard Connell

32 min

USA

I. THE LAND OF RED APPLES. There were eight in our party of bronzed children who were going East with the missionaries. Among us were three young braves, two tall girls, and we three little ones,...

The School Days of an Indian Girl

Zitkala-Ša

24 min

UK

Such an expression of unhappiness was enough by itself to make one’s eyes slide above the paper’s edge to the poor woman’s face—insignificant without that look, almost a symbol of human destiny with it. Life’s what...

An Unwritten Novel

Virginia Woolf

17 min

UK

The only thing that moved upon the vast semicircle of the beach was one small black spot. As it came nearer to the ribs and spine of the stranded pilchard boat, it became apparent from a...

Solid Objects

Virginia Woolf

9 min

Ukraine

I On the 25th March, 18——, a very strange occurrence took place in St Petersburg. On the Ascension Avenue there lived a barber of the name of Ivan Jakovlevitch. He had lost his family name, and...

The Nose

Nikolai Gogol

36 min

Ukraine

In the department of—but it is better not to mention the department. There is nothing more irritable than departments, regiments, courts of justice, and, in a word, every branch of public service. Each individual attached to...

The Overcoat

Nikolai Gogol

48 min

Iran

The first time she heard of the Aal was from her grandmother. The story itself wasn’t particularly frightening, but the stench of scorched frankincense and stale opium rasping out of her withered throat with every word...

The Smell of a Baby

Miaad Banki

10 min

UK

“Forthwith this frame of mine was wrench’d With a woful agony, Which forced me to begin my tale, And then it set me free. “Since then, at an uncertain hour, That agony returns; And till my...

Transformation

Mary Shelley

27 min

UK

July 16, 1833.—This is a memorable anniversary for me; on it I complete my three hundred and twenty-third year! The Wandering Jew?—certainly not. More than eighteen centuries have passed over his head. In comparison with him,...

The Mortal Immortal

Mary Shelley

21 min

UK

On my fourteenth birthday, My Hunger stepped out of my body and sat beside me at my party. She looked me up and down before wrapping both hands around my red velvet cake and whispered “Well,...

Disappearing Acts

Amanda Miles

8 min

UK

“Deceived in Freindship and Betrayed in Love.” LETTER the FIRST From ISABEL to LAURA How often, in answer to my repeated intreaties that you would give my Daughter a regular detail of the Misfortunes and...

Love and Freindship

Jane Austen

42 min

Sudan

I am fifty now—the same age my mother was when God took her, thirty years ago to the day. I am not recounting her story to mark a thirtieth anniversary, as people do for the mothers...

Me, The Other, and My Mother

Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin

6 min

UK

Letter the first To Miss Webster My dear Amelia You will rejoice to hear of the return of my amiable Brother from abroad. He arrived on thursday, & never did I see a finer form, save...

Amelia Webster

Jane Austen

1 min

UK

a novel in twelve Chapters. dedicated by permission to Miss Austen. Dedication. Madam You are a Phoenix. Your taste is refined, your Sentiments are noble, & your Virtues innumerable. Your Person is lovely, your Figure, elegant,...

The beautifull Cassandra

Jane Austen

1 min

UK

The delight of his youth had become the burden of his old age. Forty years ago Wormald desired nothing better than to spend a whole day in book-hunting. Regardless of fatigue and of shoe-leather, he tramped...

Two Collectors

George Gissing

5 min

USA

What chance, good lady, hath bereft you thus?—COMUS. It was a quiet and still afternoon when I strolled forth in the goodly city of Edina. The confusion and bustle in the streets were terrible. Men were...

A Predicament

Edgar Allan Poe

14 min

USA

When I was eighteen I wanted something to do. I had tried teaching for two years, and hated it; I had tried sewing, and could not earn my bread in that way, at the cost of...

How I Went Out to Service

Louisa May Alcott

23 min

USA

Doctor Franck came in as I sat sewing up the rents in an old shirt, that Tom might go tidily to his grave. New shirts were needed for the living, and there was not wife or...

The Brothers

Louisa May Alcott

33 min

USA

Carlisle Street runs westward from the centre of Johnstown, across a great black bridge, down a hill and up again, by little shops and meat–markets, past single–storied homes, until suddenly it stops against a wide green...

Of the Coming of John

W. E. B. Du Bois

23 min

USA

He stood a moment on the steps of the bank, watching the human river that swirled down Broadway. Few noticed him. Few ever noticed him save in a way that stung. He was outside the world—...

The Comet

W. E. B. Du Bois

20 min

USA

“It is perfectly clear,” said my wife, pointing to the sign on the door. “It is perfectly absurd,” I answered and yet there it stood written: “Prof Johnson, Laboratory in Sociology. Hours 9 until 3.” We...

Princess Steel

W. E. B. Du Bois

19 min

USA

When the call came I remember that I turned from the tele- phone in a romantic flutter. Though I had spoken only once to the great surgeon, Roland Maradick, I felt on that December afternoon that...

The Shadowy Third

Ellen Glasgow

39 min

USA

I had no sooner entered the house than I knew something was wrong. Though I had never been in so splendid a place before—it was one of those big houses just off Fifth Avenue—I had a...

The Past

Ellen Glasgow

39 min

USA

Twilights were wonderful just after the war. They hung above New York like indigo wash, forming themselves from asphalt dust and sooty shadows under the cornices and limp gusts of air exhaled from closing windows, to...

A Millionaire’s Girl

Zelda Fitzgerald

18 min