Questions tagged [short-stories]
For questions about stories with a fully developed plot, themes, and characters, but significantly shorter and less detailed than a novel.
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Short story where an older lady realizes that her new beau has been murdering his wives, but decides to go with it
I was reading the TV Tropes entry for The Bluebeard and it made me recall a short story (probably less than 20 pages) I read probably in the early 2000s, I think part of a mystery anthology. The ...
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23 views
Is it true that short stories “must” end without definite conclusions?
In my native subcontinental literature, there is a notion that one of the identifying features of short stories is, it must end without a conclusion. The reader is left guessing. That is, the reader ...
4
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0answers
19 views
Story/children's story about a middle/high school boy asking out two girls to prom
Not exactly a book, but a short story, young-adult maybe. From what I can remember, the story was relatively short, something around 20-30 pages, maybe ? I remember reading the story about 8 years ago ...
4
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0answers
34 views
Has “The Duel” by Joseph Conrad been published in any recent story collections?
I'm a fan of the Ridley Scott film The Duellists (1977) which is based on the story "The Duel" by Joseph Conrad. I would like to read the original story, but whenever I search for paperback ...
3
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0answers
23 views
Typographical inconsistency in James Joyce's “Araby”
Sorry if this a fussy question, but in teaching "Araby" I have found that there is an inconsistency between editions that must be a typo, but I can't figure out which version is correct. Just after ...
6
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0answers
49 views
Is there a canonical order to HP Lovecraft's work?
I've been a big fan of Lovecraft's works of literature and used them as inspiration for a lot of my own writing, but I've been unable to find a proper consensus on how his stories all fit together or ...
0
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1answer
59 views
Trying to find: Short story: Boy meets a man who is about to hang himself
For decades this short story has been stuck in my head. We read it in highschool English class once.
As I remember it, it was about a boy leaving his home to encounter a man who was about to hang ...
1
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1answer
83 views
Explain the bidding in ‘The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker’
The short story ‘The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker’ by Dorothy L. Sayers was collected in Lord Peter Views the Body (Gollancz, 1928). In this extract the characters are playing a game of ...
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53 views
Why does the guard call the inmates “girls” in “The Propagator”?
In Simone Kern's short story "The Propagator", there's a line where a prison guard for those convicted of "reproductive crimes" refers to the inmates as "girls":
The guard leaned towards me, and ...
3
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2answers
59 views
Is there any significance to the name “friends of Lilith” in Simone Kern's “The Propagator”?
Simone Kern's "The Propagator" is set in a future where abortion is illegal, and anyone who tries it is persecuted for "reproductive crimes". During the story, we learn about the "friends of Lilith", ...
2
votes
1answer
53 views
In “Memories of Childhood”, why are two seemingly unrelated excerpts being presented together?
The unit "Memories of Childhood" (a short five minute read) is on my curriculum; I think it consists of excerpts from two different books, one by Zitkala-Sa and one by Bama, presented together.
But ...
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1answer
34 views
What do “current words” mean in 'Roman Fever' by Edith Wharton?
The below paragraph is from "Roman Fever'.
"Alida Slade's awfully brilliant; but not as brilliant as she thinks," would have summed it up; though she would have added, for the enlightenment of ...
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0answers
21 views
What is the logic in this quote about raids in 'Roman Fever' by Edith Wharton? [duplicate]
I am reading Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever.
I have a question which is beyond my understanding, being not a native English speaker.
The phrase is as below from the original text.
"I'd rather live ...
1
vote
1answer
100 views
In 'Roman Fever' by Edith Wharton, why would Grace be raided?
I am reading Edith Wharton’s 'Roman Fever'. I have a couple of question which are beyond my understanding, being not a native English speaker.
"I'd rather live opposite a speakeasy for a change; at ...
2
votes
1answer
74 views
In the short story “Should Wizard hit Mommy” by John Updike,what is the author conveying through his narrated story and contradicting actions
The short story "Should Wizard hit Mommy" by John Updike (a short five-to-ten-minute read) is on my curriculum; it involves a father who tells a nap-time story to his daughter.
It appears to be a ...
3
votes
1answer
45 views
Who's this African soldier? What does Conrad mean?
Joseph Conrad's short story "The Idiots":
Millot was stumbling, laughing, swearing meaninglessly out of pure satisfaction, pleased with himself for having run down that fly-by-night. “As if there ...
4
votes
1answer
64 views
How can Stella Salzman be Christian while her father Pinny Salzman is Jewish?
I was preparing for my exam , in exam solution book I found written like "There is cross cultural relation between Stella and Leo.Because Leo was Jewish and Stella was Christain."
I wander is this a ...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
What is “a Man in the Top” in Crawford's 'The Screaming Skull'?
From 'The Screaming Skull' by F. Marion Crawford:
I ought not to be nervous. I've sailed in a haunted ship. There was a
Man in the Top, and two-thirds of the crew died of the West Coast fever
...
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0answers
55 views
Short story about a girl pursued by a fat man in the hills
The viewpoint is from a small girl who is living near to a gas station maybe in the midwest. It's a hot summer and she hears on the radio that there is a another dead child found. She goes to the gas ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
US Civil War story: man hanged from a bridge
I read a story a long time ago about a Civil War soldier who was being hanged from a bridge but the rope broke and he escaped. It goes through all the things he went through after escaping but then it ...
5
votes
3answers
61 views
What is the language spoken in Babylon?
In the short story "The Lottery in Babylon", Jorge Luis Borges describes an imaginary society where a Lottery decides the fate of the people, with omnipotence and foresight. At the beginning of the ...
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0answers
54 views
“The Apple Tree” ending and the meaning behind it
I've recently been tasked with analysing "The Apple Tree" by John Galsworthy. I've had no major issues with understanding the text, but i really can't grasp the ending.
Up on the top of the hill, ...
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votes
0answers
80 views
Fairy tale about disguised Prince searching for Princess [closed]
I’m searching for a fairy tale I’m almost sure I once read as a child about a Prince who was searching for his Princess. Because all the established Princesses he knew from surrounding kingdoms were ...
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0answers
40 views
Short story by Flannery O'Connor: conversation used in psychology periodical
I'd like the title of the short story by Flannery O'Connor in which a man thinks he is engaging in friendly conversation only to find that his responses are used as data in an article published in a ...
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0answers
28 views
Why the title “Agunot” for S. Y. Agnon's short story?
S. Y. Agnon's first influential story is "Agunot" - in fact, his chosen name "Agnon" comes from the same word.
The word "Agunot" is the plural form of the word "Agunah", which is the term for a woman ...
4
votes
1answer
95 views
How to interpret “body that leaned stiffly” in H. P. Lovecraft's “Azathoth”?
I've just finished reading Lovecraft's fragment "Azathoth" (in Italian translation) and I am astonished by the beauty of the story. Nevertheless I am a little bit confused about the end of it.
In my ...
3
votes
3answers
96 views
Meaning of “rubber” as a verb in O. Henry
"I'm one of the Sole Sanhedrims and Ostensible Hooplas of the Inner Pulpit," says I. "The lame talk and the blind rubber whenever I make a pass at 'em. I am a medium, a coloratura hypnotist and a ...
4
votes
1answer
69 views
Looking for a short story about a person whose conversations run from A to Z
I'm looking for a short story of a person whose conversations all ran alphabetically.
I think it's a rather known short story (I read it initially in German, but don't know, in which language it was ...
4
votes
1answer
81 views
In Penelope Fitzgerald’s short story The Prescription, significance of “Knowledge is good, but what is the use of knowledge without honesty?”
In Penelope Fitzgerald’s short story The Prescription (1982), Dr. Mehmet Bey almost kills his 14-year-old apprentice, Alecco, by forcing him to drink a poisoned prescription after discovering the boy ...
5
votes
1answer
253 views
How is Kimberly Clark a ghost in Janssen's “A Recurring Dream”?
In the short story "A Recurring Dream" (from Unusual Stories from Many Lands by Arlo T. Janssen), a character called Kimberly Clark is accused of being a ghost by an old man.
The man opens the door ...
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0answers
29 views
What does “wisdom that is so often loudly preached” mean in the Parable of the King and the Maiden?
In the first paragraph of "The Parable of the King and the Maiden":
Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden and whose heart was unaffected by the wisdom that is so often loudly preached.
...
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0answers
49 views
How does the author convey the tone of the panic that can be aroused by contemplating the “prenatal abyss”?
In the text of Vladimir Nabokov: The Beginning of Consciousness
How does the author convey the tone of the panic that can be aroused by contemplating the "prenatal abyss"?
The cradle rocks above ...
6
votes
0answers
157 views
Short story, maybe SF: non-neurotypical girl gets pregnant and older mentor (not the father) marries her
In this story there's a girl who is mentally fragile in some way -- I don't remember exactly how, and I don't think it's spelled out explicitly, but there's something about her that isn't entirely ...
2
votes
1answer
96 views
Why does Sammy feel sorry in Updike's “A&P”?
In John Updike's short story A&P, the narrator Sammy has been ogling a group of customers at the A&P store:
In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. I'm in the third check-...
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vote
1answer
120 views
What is the meaning of this sentence from “Polaris” by Lovecraft?
Below is a sentence from Lovecraft's "Polaris":
I said to myself, "This is no dream, for by what means can I prove the greater reality of that other life in the house of stone and brick south of ...
2
votes
1answer
87 views
Short sci-fi story called “Blood and Lust”
Many years ago I read a short story that I think was titled "Blood and Lust". It featured two entities named Blood and Lust who would travel through history making very small adjustments to see how ...
3
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1answer
145 views
Anthology: one story about an astronaut falling on flowers, another about a wife trying to kill her husband
I am trying to remember the name of a book with short stories inside. I remember 2 stories from it:
There was an astronaut on a foreign planet with flowers all around called floofs or phoofs, I ...
5
votes
1answer
56 views
What kind of “portable telephone” does H. P. Lovecraft write about in his letter to August Derleth?
The letter is called "Letter to August Derleth". He describes a frightful dream he had to Derleth. In this dream, he and his friend Loveman go to a old cemetery to investigate a sepulchre and Loveman ...
4
votes
1answer
134 views
Looking for a shoujo/romance one-shot manga
I am looking for a short manga or a one-shot (not really sure) about the main guy who bumps into a girl on his way to school and the girl drops her hair pin which she got from her crush (childhood ...
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0answers
46 views
Question about a personal interpretation of Mckee's basic elements of Story: events and beats
I would like to propose a "technical/practical" interpretation of Mckee's basic story elements.
My interpretation is some sort of a set theoretical motivated, on which the construction of the next ...
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0answers
71 views
In Going Places by A.R. Barton, does Sophie really meet Danny Casey?
In the story Going Places by A.R. Barton, the plot revolves around the story of a schoolgirl Sophie, who fantasizes over many things, but no one ever believes her.
Can someone please confirm whether ...
0
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0answers
206 views
Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between Ulrich and Georg?
This question comes from the story "The Interlopers" by Saki.
Due to their families’ longtime feud, they both consider each other enemies and trespassers.
They were once friends, but after inheriting ...
3
votes
1answer
100 views
Where did the Grimm brothers' story “The Shepherd Boy” originate?
"The Shepherd Boy" is a very short story by the Brothers Grimm which recently found fame in the world of popular sci-fi by being referenced prominently in an episode of Doctor Who. In general it is ...
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votes
1answer
253 views
What is the significance of “half past two” in Wolfgang Borchert's The Clock and The Bread?
In both The Clock and The Bread by Wolfgang Borchert there is a mention of the events happening at "half past two" in the morning. I have been unable to find a historical event of World War Two that ...
8
votes
1answer
442 views
A short story on two brothers meeting one a criminal one policeman
I read this around 15 years ago in English as a Second Language class in a summer class I was attending in Poughkeepsie.
We were reading short stories from a book (a collection of short stories by ...
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1answer
176 views
How are old horror short stories classified?
When I was young, I had a few books with compiled horror, mystery or macabre short stories. I want to go back and read some of these short stories, and was able to find a few.
I was able to find many ...
5
votes
1answer
100 views
Restaurant serves everything with money back guarantee, patron defeats them by ordering a Twinkie
I'd like to find a short short story, probably only one page long. I've read it on the internet in English less than two years ago, probably around 2018-08-04 when I was binging short short stories.
...
4
votes
1answer
46 views
Radical Canadians and Radio Broadcasts
Long ago, I was told to study a part of a short story. It was about a group of radical Canadians, and radio broadcasts. I want to ID that story, so I can find and study it again. It had a ...
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1answer
100 views
Is “The Most Dangerous Game” Literature?
Way back in high school, many many years ago, our teacher described to us what made something literature or not. This lesson always stuck with me for two reasons: 1) I didn't really think it was ...
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1answer
124 views
What inspired E. M. Forster's short story 'The Machine Stops'?
E. M. Forster's short story 'The Machine Stops' was published in the 1909 edition of the Oxford & Cambridge Review and was prescient in terms of thinking about the downsides of the Internet - well ...
