If you are a slightly lazy reader just like me, you'll probably enjoy these 8 short stories that you can read in one sitting.
I'll start this list with the mysterious story entitled William Wilson written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839. It describes the strange events in the life of a young boy who meets another schoolboy who not only has an uncanny resemblance to him but the same name as well. It vaguely reminds me of the chilling struggle between good and evil in Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. If you've watched the Italian series Curon and are attracted to the concept of the doppelganger - the wicked double of a living person - this is the story for you.
Click this link to read it online
The Nightingale and the Rose is a poignant fairy tale of unrequited love and selfless sacrifice penned by Oscar Wilde in 1888. A sympathetic nightingale helps a desperate lovesick student find a red rose for the girl he loves. In this story, Wilde weaves an interesting plot of romance and disillusionment with a powerful description of nature.
Click this link to read it online
An impulsive narrator, a shiny new car and a dark night make How It Happened a compelling short story. Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1918, the story mixes two of the author's passions: cars and spiritualism. Even though Sherlock Holmes is not involved, it is definitely a good read.
Click this link to read it online
Exposing racial prejudices that still haunt our society today, Kate Chopin wrote Désirée's Baby in 1893. It is the heartbreaking story of a mother and her child doomed by the cruelty of racism before the American Civil War.
If Dark, the German series, has blown your mind, Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder will also make you wonder what would happen if we could alter the past. It's not as complex, though. Set in 2055, the plot hinges on a man who travels back in time to shoot a dinosaur and makes a fatal mistake that will ruin his life.
Click this link to read it online
Click this link to read it online
http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/AST389/ASoundofThunder.pdf
If you believe that reading is a pleasurable escape from the ordinariness of everyday life, H.G. Wells' The Door in the Wall (1911) will provide, literally, a fantastic escape from reality. Will the boy, and then the man, in the story succumb to the tantalising door in the wall?
If you believe that reading is a pleasurable escape from the ordinariness of everyday life, H.G. Wells' The Door in the Wall (1911) will provide, literally, a fantastic escape from reality. Will the boy, and then the man, in the story succumb to the tantalising door in the wall?
For those who enjoy Stephen King's style, Strawberry Spring is a horror story that he wrote in 1968. A man recalls a series of brutal killings that happened when he was a student at New Sharon Teachers' College. Even though time has passed, new murders prove that the killer is still out there. By the way, have you watched the series The Outsider based on one of his novels?
Click this link to read it online
Short and sweet, but challenging. A Haunted House (1921) by Virginia Woolf offers her own take on the ghost story. It is a sensory description of a ghostly couple as they glide through the house where they once lived. A story based on perception that might be a bit difficult to decipher at a first reading.
Click this link to read it online
Click this link to read it online
