She descended into the basement, hunting for the wine her uncle had hidden there. A vintage from 1847. November, no less. Her birthday month. A coincidence? A grand reserve, priceless beyond imagination.
The stairs looked ready to betray her. Narrow. Uneven. Crumbling. Why, why had she worn heels today? Each step felt like a gamble. The railing, thin and wobbly, seemed more dangerous than helpful.
In a quest story the ultimate goal can be a physical object, a place, a person, or an internal change, and the journey often leads to personal growth and self-discovery for the hero (in this case it's a she). The physical object here is a valuable vintage wine bottle. Will our heroine pass the test to obtain this prize possession?
"It was not too long ago that he felt free as a bird. He always had the choice of doing whatever he wanted to do or wherever he wanted to go. No one could stop him, until that one day. He couldn’t stop thinking of the day he met Angela. The first time he laid eyes on her, he thought he was seeing an angel in the flesh. Was it a coincidence that her name was Angela?"
As a fan of mysteries I enjoy writing mysterious narratives. This is just one of a few that I've written.
“A big old ugly witch and I told her to go away and she went away,” the little boy went on, in a quiet narrative to himself, “she came and said, ‘I’m going to eat you up,’ and I said, ‘no, you’re not,’ and I chased her away, the bad old mean witch.”
Although very short (just over 1,400 words), there are enough dark elements in this Shirley Jackson story to unsettle most readers.
Themes in this story include parental inattention, boredom, imagination, witchcraft, innocence and its possible manipulation, violence.
"It's Miss Fairchild," he said, with a smile. "I'll ask you to excuse the other hand; "it's otherwise engaged just at present."
He slightly raised his right hand, bound at the wrist by the shining "bracelet" to the left one of his companion. The glad look in the girl's eyes slowly changed to a bewildered horror. The glow faded from her cheeks. Her lips parted in a vague, relaxing distress.
"Hearts and Hands" is a short story which centers on a chance encounter on a train between a young woman, Miss Fairchild, and an old acquaintance, Mr. Easton.
O. Henry's stories are known for their irony and compassion, and "Hearts and Hands" is no exception.
"It became obvious that this was special occasion and that she had planned a surprise."
"Birthday party" is a brief, observational story about a married couple in a restaurant where the wife attempts a public birthday surprise for her husband.
Katharine Brush's short stories have been compared, in their lack of sentiment and their sharpness, with those of F. Scott Fitzgerald, her more famous contemporary.
"I asked her pardon for the cruel lesson and, to her great surprise, gave her eighty rubles. She murmured her little "merci" several times and went out. I looked after her and thought: "How easy it is to crush the weak in this world!" ("A Nincompoop)"
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) was a Russian playwright and master of the modern short story, known for his laconic precision in probing the hidden motives of his characters.
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) was an influential 20th-century poet and the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. Her short story "Home," later incorporated into her novel Maud Martha, centers around a family's anxiety and eventual relief as they await the outcome of a bank loan application.
With the third week of kindergarten Charles was an institution in our family; the baby was being a Charles when she cried all afternoon; Laurie did a Charles when he filled his wagon full of mud and pulled it through the kitchen; even my husband, when he caught his elbow in the telephone cord and pulled the telephone and a bowl of flowers off the table, said, after the first minute, “Looks like Charles.”
Laurie's parents were worried that Charles might be a bad influence on their little boy.
Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) was an American novelist and short story writer, most famous for her short story "The Lottery" (1948). "Charles" is a favorite of many readers.
Once upon a time, in a far country, there lived a King whose daughter was the prettiest princess in the world. Her eyes were like the cornflower, her hair was sweeter than the hyacinth, and her throat made the swan look dusty.
And so begins James Thurber's unusual fairy tale. The stories of the journalist-cartoonist are deceptively simple and charming in style yet unflinchingly clear-sighted in their appraisal of human foibles.
James Grover Thurber was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was best known for his cartoons and short stories, published mainly in The New Yorker and collected in his numerous books.
His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic.
"The Sniper" is a powerful and concise short story by the Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty, first published in 1923. It's set in Dublin during the Irish Civil War (1922-1923), a conflict that pitted Irish citizens against each other over the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Liam O’Flaherty (1896–1984) was an Irish novelist and short story writer, considered to be a leading figure of the Irish Renaissance. His works combined naturalism, psychological analysis, poetry, and satire with respect for the courage of the Irish people.
A spirited discussion springs up between a young girl who insists that women have outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era and a colonel who says that they haven’t.
“A woman’s unfailing reaction in any crisis,” the colonel says, “is to scream. And while a man may feel like it, he has that ounce more of nerve control than a woman has. And that last ounce is what counts.”
There has always been a debate on man versus woman under a crisis. In "The Dinner Party" we can draw our own conclusions as to who shows greater control.
"The Dinner Party" by Mona Gardner was first published in The Saturday Review of Literature in 1941.
Leo Rosten (April 11, 1908- Feb. 19, 1997) was a Polish-born American author and social scientist best known for his popular books on Yiddish and for his comic novels featuring the immigrant night-school student Hyman Kaplan.
He wrote "The Path Through the Cemetery" under the pen name of Leonard Q, Ross.
In the story, the lieutenants' challenge sets into motion Iván's attempt to master his fear.
"Oh dear, no," said the old man. "It would be no good charging that sort of price for a love potion, for example. Young people who need a love potion very seldom have five thousand dollars. Otherwise they would not need a love potion."
John Collier (1901-1980) was a British-born author and screenwriter, primarily known for his darkly humorous and often macabre short stories. "The Chaser" remains a popular example of Collier's talent for crafting concise, impactful stories with a dark edge and a memorable twist.
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, and social reformer, known as a founder of analytic philosophy and a Nobel Prize winner.
His early life was marked by tragedy, losing his parents, sister, and grandfather by age six, after which his grandmother cared for him and his brother.
In the essay "How to Grow Old," Russell gives the reader advice on growing old (but it's really more on "how not to grow old").
"No ... no .. ." Jacques said softly. "None of us knew. Only one knew--a friend of his named Joseph ... It was a secret, I think, just between those two."The author of "A Secret for Two," Quentin James Reynolds, was an American journalist and World War II war correspondent. As an associate editor at Collier's Weekly from 1933 to 1945, Reynolds averaged 20 articles a year. He also published 25 books.
Uncle Basil had heard all the words they called him because he wasn't as deaf as he made out. He knew he was a mangy, stingy, penny-pinching screw, scrimp, scraper, pinchfist, hoarder, and curmudgeon (just to start with). There were other words, less gentle, he'd also heard himself called. He didn't mind. What galled him was the oft repeated warning, "You can't take it with you." After all, it was all his.
Eva-Lis Wuorio' s work was principally for children and young adults. “You Can’t Take It With You” is a cautionary tale about the dangers of greed and the idea that material wealth is ultimately transient. It is from a collection of short stories called Escape If You Can.
Isaac Asimov was a prolific writer, contributing significantly to science fiction and popular science literature. He wrote or edited about 500 books, including the renowned Foundation and robot series. His story "Nightfall" (1941) is considered one of the greatest science fiction short stories. Asimov's work on the Three Laws of Robotics greatly influenced the portrayal of robots in literature.
Despite its brevity, "The Fun They Had" packs a punch. This science fiction story is about the school experience of two children, Margie and Tommy, living in 2155. Tommy has "found a real book!" The children are fascinated with the find.
He was wild and lost to the world as he painted, his only thought was to complete a perfect likeness of his beautiful young wife to be captured for eternity.
"The Oval Portrait" was one of Poe's briefest stories in the genres of mystery and the macabre.
Link to podcast episode 4:
Ernest Hemingway was an influential American novelist and short-story writer, born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero, Illinois, and died on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, recognized for his impactful prose style and adventurous life. Hemingway's writing is noted for its intense masculinity and concise, lucid prose, which significantly influenced 20th-century American and British fiction. "The Old Man at the Bridge" is a prime example of his narrative style.
Toni Morrison was a celebrated American writer known for her exploration of the Black experience, particularly the Black female experience. She became the first Black female writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993).
The short story “Sweetness” was originally published inThe New Yorkerin February 2015. It became the opening chapter of her novelGod Help the Child. The story is narrated in the first person by a woman named Sweetness, reflecting on her relationship with her daughter, Lula Ann.