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Fortunatus Rex and co
UK
There was once a lady who found herself in middle life with but a slight income. Knowing herself to be insufficiently educated to be able to practise any other trade or calling, she of course decided,...
Fortunatus Rex and co
Edith Nesbit
20 min
The Invisible Man
UK
In the cool blue twilight of two steep streets in Camden Town, the shop at the corner, a confectioner’s, glowed like the butt of a cigar. One should rather say, perhaps, like the butt of a...
The Invisible Man
G.K. Chesterton
25 min
The Deliverers of Their Country
UK
It all began with Effie’s getting something in her eye. It hurt very much indeed, and it felt something like a red-hot spark – only it seemed to have legs as well, and wings like a...
The Deliverers of Their Country
Edith Nesbit
19 min
The Monkey’s Paw
UK
Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about...
The Monkey’s Paw
W.W. Jacobs
15 min
The Real Thing
UK
When the porter’s wife (she used to answer the house-bell), announced “A gentleman—with a lady, sir,” I had, as I often had in those days, for the wish was father to the thought, an immediate vision...
The Real Thing
Henry James
42 min
The Rocking-Horse Winner
UK
There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck. She married for love, and the love turned to dust. She had bonny children, yet she felt they...
The Rocking-Horse Winner
D.H. Lawrence
21 min
Blowing Up Trains
UK
{ Excerpts from Seven Pillars of Wisdom }   By November, 1917, Allenby was ready to open a general attack against the Turks along his whole front. The Arabs should have done the same in their...
Blowing Up Trains
D.H. Lawrence
15 min
A Toy Princess
UK
More than a thousand years ago, in a country quite on the other side of the world, it fell out that the people all grew so very polite that they hardly ever spoke to each other....
A Toy Princess
Mary de Morgan
12 min
The Cat that Walked by Himself
UK
Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was...
The Cat that Walked by Himself
Rudyard Kipling
16 min
The Mark on the Wall
UK
Perhaps it was the middle of January in the present year that I first looked up and saw the mark on the wall. In order to fix a date it is necessary to remember what one...
The Mark on the Wall
Virginia Woolf
12 min
Red Enters the Eye
UK
Before she went to Nigeria Julie bought twelve pairs of sharp dressmaking scissors. Good equipment showed respect. And buying things made it easier not to panic. She was afraid the women would resent her swanning in,...
Red Enters the Eye
Jane Rogers
15 min
The Lady of the House of Love
UK
At last the revenants became so troublesome the peasants abandoned the village and it fell solely into the possession of subtle and vindictive inhabitants who manifest their presences by shadows that fall almost imperceptibly awry, too...
The Lady of the House of Love
Angela Carter
27 min
A Strange Christmas Game
UK
It was the middle of November when we arrived at Martingdale, and found the place anything but romantic or pleasant. The walks were wet and sodden, the trees were leafless, there were no flowers save a...
A Strange Christmas Game
Charlotte Riddell
7 min
The Universe of Things
UK
The alien parked its car across the street and came and sat down in the waiting room. He must have seen this happen, peripherally. But he was busy settling the bill with a middle-aged woman with...
The Universe of Things
Gwyneth Jones
17 min
Philomel Cottage
UK
“Good-bye, darling.” “Good-bye, sweetheart.” Alix Martin stood leaning over the small rustic gate, watching the retreating figure of her husband, as he walked down the road in the direction of the village. Presently he turned a...
Philomel Cottage
Agatha Christie
31 min
Light and Space
UK
The object is a pillar of resin, 10 feet in height, four feet in diameter. It is glossy enough that if the light is at your back, you can see your reflection, but also translucent enough...
Light and Space
Ned Beauman
12 min
An Anarchist
UK
That year I spent the best two months of the dry season on one of the estates – in fact, on the principal cattle estate of a famous meat-extract manufacturing company. B.O.S bos. You have seen the three magic letters on...
An Anarchist
Joseph Conrad
24 min
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
UK
August 6th 1983 APRIL 25th 1982, DOWNING STREET: Announcement of the recapture of South Georgia, in the Falkland Islands. Mrs Thatcher: Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of State for Defence has just come over to give me...
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Hilary Mantel
22 min
Esme
UK
“All hunting stories are the same,” said Clovis; “just as all Turf stories are the same, and all–” “My hunting story isn’t a bit like any you’ve ever heard,” said the Baroness. “It happened quite a...
Esme
Saki
6 min
Odour of Chrysanthemums
UK
The small locomotive engine, Number 4, came clanking, stumbling down from Selston—with seven full waggons. It appeared round the corner with loud threats of speed, but the colt that it startled from among the gorse, which...
Odour of Chrysanthemums
D.H. Lawrence
22 min
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It
UK
This rock was perhaps an island once, but now all that is left is a dowager’s hump breaching the ocean sheer on all but one side and on that side it slopes so that you can...
An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It
Jessie Greengrass
5 min
From the Diary of Sherlock Holmes
UK
Baker Street, January 1 Starting a diary in order to jot down a few useful incidents which will be of no use to Watson. Watson very often fails to see that an unsuccessful case is more...
From the Diary of Sherlock Holmes
Maurice Baring
5 min
Through the Fire
UK
The Policeman rode through the Himalayan forest, under the moss-draped oaks, and his orderly trotted after him. ‘It’s an ugly business, Bhere Singh,’ said the Policeman. ‘Where are they?’ ‘It is a very ugly business,’ said...
Through the Fire
Rudyard Kipling
5 min
Tamagotchi
UK
My son’s Tamagotchi had AIDS. The virtual pet was rendered on the little LCD screen with no more than 30 pixels, but the sickness was obvious. It had that AIDS look, you know? It was thinner...
Tamagotchi
Adam Marek
11 min
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