Great stories

Articles in this section

• "Lalie’s Story", from Zola’s novel "L’Assommoir" (1877)

  8 May by Emile Zola

  Lalie is an eight-year-old girl living in the room next to Gervaise, the central character of Emile Zola’s novel "L’Assommoir" about life in a working-class district of Paris in the 1850s and 60s.
  She is one of the most unforgettable characters in that masterwork, although she only appears in (...)

• "War" (1918): Luigi Pirandello’s memorable story about parenthood in wartime

  1 March by Luigi Pirandello

  Luigi 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). (...)

• "The Promenade (der Spaziergang)" (1917) by Robert Walser

  15 August 2019 by Robert Walser

  Robert Walser (1878-1956) was a Swiss-German 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 (...)

• "In the Snow" and other stories by Stefan Zweig

  16 June 2019 by Stefan Zweig

  Three dramatic short stories by the author of Letter From an Unknown Woman:
  1. In the Snow (1901) – Word comes to a Jewish community celebrating Hanukah in a small town in medieval Germany that a large group of religious fanatics are on their way with hate in their hearts and blood on their (...)

• "Letter From an Unknown Woman" (1922) by Stefan Zweig

  19 May 2019 by Stefan Zweig

  The great Viennese-Austrian author Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was a prolific writer of short stories, novelettes, novellas, historical studies, essays, memoirs, and letters – as well as several plays, two books of poetry, an opera libretto and one full-length novel .
  In this 14,400-word (...)