One of the strangest stories of its time, a moving account of Gregor Samsa’s sudden transformation into a giant beetle that has retained his sensibility and understanding — but not the ability to express himself in ordinary language that his family can understand — and how he has to contend with the abhorrence of all those around him.
A profound and powerful metaphor of man’s (modern man’s? one man’s? the author’s?) alienation and inability to communicate effectively with his (…)
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"The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka (1915)
1 July 2021, by Franz Kafka -
"Petersburg Tales" - 5 stories by Nikolai Gogol (1835-1843)
19 June 2021, by Nikolai GogolNo doubt the most celebrated collection of short stories in the history of Russian literature. 1. NEVSKY PROSPEKT (1835) Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg is one of the most famous streets in Russia and this account of the goings-on in and around it is one of the most famous stories of all Russian literature. (13,500 words.)
2. THE DIARY OF A MADMAN (1835) Extracts from the diary of an employee in a government office, documenting his frustrations with the rigid hierarchical system of his (…) -
"A Simple Soul (Un cœur simple)" by Gustave Flaubert (1877)
4 June 2021, by Gustave FlaubertGustave Flaubert (1821-1880) is generally considered as one of the greatest French-language stylists of all time because of the elegant, clear and incisive quality of his prose.
During his lifetime he published just four novels (two "mainstream" novels and two historical novels) and one collection of short stories, Trois Contes (Three Tales), containing this novelette and two historical stories.
This powerful account of the life of the poor, uneducated and very unsophisticated servant (…) -
Herman Melville’s masterful story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853)
31 May 2021, by Herman MelvilleThe narrator-lawyer recounts how a young man in his office, the mildest and most inconspicuous person one could imagine, demonstrated the most determined and persistent refusal to obey instructions in a surprising and surprisingly effective way by simply stating in the calmest of tones: “I would prefer not to”.
A statement that becomes the leitmotif of this strange, modern-sounding Kafkaesque story, and a parable of implacable passive resistance to authority at no matter what cost.
Told (…) -
"From the Life of a Good-for-nothing (Taugenichts)" — a Romantic classic by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (1826)
17 May 2021, by Joseph Freiherr von EichendorffIn the first sentence of this masterpiece of the German Romantic movement the youthful narrator rubs the sleep out of his eyes, listens to the twittering of the starlings and the murmurings of his father’s mill and sits on the doorstep to bask in the warm spring sunshine, only to hear his father’s outraged admonition "You Good-for-nothing! There you sit sunning yourself, and stretching yourself till your bones crack, leaving me to do all the work alone. I can keep you here no longer! Off (…)
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"Animal Farm" by George Orwell (1945)
11 May 2021, by George OrwellThis brilliant parable describes in simple, clear and convincing terms the revolt of the animals in an English farm that at first succeeds in establishing an egalitarian society, only to evolve relentlessly into a system of oppression under the leadership of a small group of intelligent, well-organised and very articulate manipulators, the pigs.
This parable of the rise and fall of revolutionary dreams is told in such a straight-forward, linear manner that it has achieved richly-deserved (…) -
"War": Luigi Pirandello’s memorable story about parenthood in wartime (1918)
1 March 2020, by Luigi PirandelloLuigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was celebrated in his native Italy as a short-story writer before he achieved international acclaim towards the end of his career for ground-breaking modern plays such as Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), Henry IV (1922) and Tonight We Improvise (1930).
He was one of the most prolific short-story writers of all time, with a total of 237 stories published during his long and fruitful career.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1934.
This powerful (…) -
"The Promenade (Der Spaziergang)" by Robert Walser (1917)
15 August 2019, by Robert WalserRobert Walser (1878-1956) was a Swiss poet and author of novels, short stories and essays who is remembered particularly for his delicate and yet somehow powerful poems [1] and this quite wonderful monologue about his encounters and observations and thoughts during a pleasant stroll on a sunny day in his peaceful and prosperous Switzerland - we are in 1917 and whole generations are being destroyed just across the nearby borders in France, Germany, Austria and Italy, but Switzerland had made (…)
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"The Bottle Imp" - a South Sea fable by Robert Louis Stevenson (1891)
11 May 2019, by Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), author of the immortal Treasure Island (1883) and other notable works such as Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879), Kidnapped (1886) and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), was born and educated in Scotland and remained deeply attached to his homeland and its culture all his life.
But all his too-short life he suffered from ill health, and after a first voyage through the South Seas in 1888 where he had been commissioned to (…) -
A selection of 3 of Nelson Algren’s best short stories
21 July 2018, by Nelson AlgrenNelson Algren (1909-1981), author notably of the novels Never Come Morning (1942), The Man With the Golden Arm (1949) and A Walk On the Wild Side (1956), of the essay Chicago, City on the Make (1951) and of the short-story anthology The Neon Wilderness (1947), had a special talent for the short-story format, where his fascination with the low, low side of street life in the America of the thirties and forties, his innate empathy with the dropouts and losers of those rough days, his (…)