A Very Short Story
Ernest HemingwayA wounded soldier and a nurse fall in love in wartime Milan, trying to make a future together before the front and the armistice pull them apart.
3 min · Tragic
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
Ten Indians
Ernest HemingwayA boy’s holiday glow collapses when his father reveals that the girl he loves has chosen someone else.
7 min · Melancholy
The End of Something
Ernest HemingwayOn a moonlit fishing trip, Nick and Marjorie circle the quiet truth that their relationship has stopped being what it was.
7 min · Melancholy
The Elder Son
Mary ShelleyAn orphaned heiress's secret promise entangles her with two brothers divided by inheritance.
47 min · Foreboding
The Invisible Girl
Mary ShelleyA grieving traveler follows an unexplained beacon to an abandoned Welsh tower.
26 min · Eerie
A Service of Love
O. HenryTwo young artists quietly sacrifice for each other when money runs out and their shared creative life is threatened.
10 min · Tender
By Courier
O. HenryA young man sends a street boy to plead his case to the woman who has forbidden him to write or speak to her.
6 min · Romantic
Lost on Dress Parade
O. HenryA young architect spends his carefully saved evening posing as a wealthy clubman when he invites a stranger to dinner.
11 min · Romantic
Mammon and the Archer
O. HenryA millionaire father bets that money can solve his son's romantic dilemma, while the young lover searches for one uninterrupted moment.
11 min · Romantic
Springtime à la Carte
O. HenryA struggling typist finds spring, memory, and a lost love hiding among the daily dishes on a restaurant menu.
10 min · Romantic
The Cactus
O. HenryAfter watching the woman he loves marry another man, a proud bachelor reconstructs the misunderstanding that destroyed his chance.
6 min · Melancholy
The Coming-Out of Maggie
O. HenryA shy paper-box worker arrives at her Saturday dance with a glamorous escort and suddenly becomes the center of attention.
11 min · Humorous
The Count and the Wedding Guest
O. HenryA boarder in mourning attracts a would-be suitor with a tale of a dead count, but wedding plans bring other secrets to light.
11 min · Humorous
The Gift of the Magi
O. HenryDella has one dollar and eighty-seven cents, and one day left to buy her husband a Christmas present worth giving.
9 min · Tender
The Green Door
O. HenryA young man devoted to adventure follows a mysterious green door and finds a chance to make romance matter.
13 min · Romantic
The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein
O. HenryA timid pharmacist helps his rival elope with the woman they both love by preparing a very questionable love potion.
8 min · Humorous
The Princess and the Puma
O. HenryA ranch foreman tries to impress a fearless cattle king's daughter when a dangerous lion interrupts their evening in the prairie.
11 min · Adventurous
The Romance of a Busy Broker
O. HenryA relentlessly busy Wall Street broker finally pauses long enough to make a romantic gesture to his quiet stenographer.
6 min · Humorous
Transients in Arcadia
O. HenryTwo working New Yorkers spend a week pretending to be wealthy guests at a Broadway hotel and find an unexpected kindred spirit.
9 min · Romantic
While the Auto Waits
O. HenryA chance meeting in a city park lets two strangers imagine love beyond the boundaries of wealth and social rank.
9 min · Romantic
Witches’ Loaves
O. HenryA lonely baker imagines that a quiet customer is a struggling artist and finds a tender way to help him.
6 min · Humorous
21 stories