An Encounter
James JoyceTwo boys skip school in search of adventure and meet a stranger who unsettles their day.
15 min · Unsettling
More details
- Themes
- Coming of age · Friendship
- Settings
- The city
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
How the prose reads.
Clay
James JoyceMaria leaves the laundry for a Halloween visit with the family she helped raise.
12 min · Bittersweet
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- Settings
- Offices & workplaces · The home
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Occasion
- Festivals & carnivals
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Vignette & sketch
Counterparts
James JoyceAfter clashing with his boss, a Dublin clerk looks to an evening of drinking to restore his pride.
19 min · Bleak
More details
- Themes
- Addiction & dependence · Work & labor · Parenthood
- Settings
- Offices & workplaces · The home
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Eveline
James JoyceEveline must decide whether to leave her family and sail away with the man she hopes to marry.
8 min · Claustrophobic
More details
- Themes
- Women’s independence · Confinement & escape · Duty
- Settings
- The home
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Interior monologue
Grace
James JoyceAfter a drunken fall, a salesman’s friends try to guide him back toward the church.
34 min · Humorous
More details
- Themes
- Addiction & dependence · Hypocrisy · Friendship
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain · Dialect-rich
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
Ivy Day in the Committee Room
James JoyceOn the anniversary of Parnell’s death, campaign workers shelter from the rain and argue over Irish politics.
24 min · Humorous
More details
- Themes
- Hypocrisy · Empire & colonialism · Betrayal
- Settings
- Offices & workplaces
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain · Dialect-rich
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
The Boarding House
James JoyceA boarding-house owner decides how to handle her daughter’s relationship with one of her lodgers.
13 min · Claustrophobic
More details
- Themes
- Marriage · Honor & reputation · Hypocrisy
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Sisters
James JoyceA boy waits for news of an ailing priest and struggles to understand the adults’ uneasy silences.
14 min · Eerie
More details
- Themes
- Death · Coming of age
- Pace
- Measured
- Occasion
- Funerals & wakes
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Vignette & sketch
A Respectable Woman
Kate ChopinA woman is surprised by her attraction to the friend her husband has invited to stay.
7 min · Reflective
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- Themes
- Marriage · Temptation · Honor & reputation
- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Ripe Figs
Kate ChopinBabette may visit her cousins when the figs ripen, and she watches the trees each day.
1 min · Tender
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- Themes
- Family · Nature & wilderness
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For all ages
- Craft
- Vignette & sketch
With the Violin
Kate ChopinOn a bitter Christmas Eve, an out-of-work watchmaker hears a violin through the wall just as he loses hope.
7 min · Hopeful
More details
- Themes
- Class & poverty · Isolation · Friendship
- Tone
- Moralizing
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Occasion
- Christmas
- Written for
- For children
- Craft
- Frame story
A Retrieved Reformation
O. HenryA celebrated safecracker tries to build an honest life under a new name, but his old skills are not finished with him.
13 min · Hopeful
More details
- Themes
- Redemption · Love · Identity
- Settings
- Villages & small towns · Offices & workplaces
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
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
More details
- Settings
- The home · Offices & workplaces
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
After Twenty Years
O. HenryTwo old friends keep a twenty-year appointment, but the lives they built have carried them to opposite sides of the law.
6 min · Bittersweet
More details
- Themes
- Friendship · Loyalty · Law & justice
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain · Conversational
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
Hearts and Hands
O. HenryOn a train crossing the West, a chance reunion forces a young man to choose between truth and the image he once hoped to become.
4 min · Bittersweet
More details
- Themes
- Love · Appearance vs reality · Honor & reputation
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain · Conversational
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
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
More details
- Themes
- Love · Class & poverty · Appearance vs reality
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
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
More details
- Themes
- Love · Wealth & money · Fate & chance
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
One Thousand Dollars
O. HenryA carefree young heir must explain how he spends a thousand-dollar bequest before learning what the money may truly be worth.
10 min · Bittersweet
More details
- Themes
- Love · Wealth & money · Sacrifice
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Inheritance & wills
The Clarion Call
O. HenryA detective recognizes an old friend as a murderer, but an unpaid debt makes arrest more complicated than duty should allow.
12 min · Suspenseful
More details
- Themes
- Law & justice · Loyalty · Greed
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Cop and the Anthem
O. HenryA homeless New Yorker tries every trick he can think of to secure a warm winter bed behind bars.
10 min · Humorous
More details
- Themes
- Class & poverty · Law & justice · Redemption
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
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
More details
- Themes
- Love · Appearance vs reality · Self-deception
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Occasion
- Weddings
- Written for
- For adults
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
More details
- Themes
- Love · Class & poverty · Fate & chance
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
The Last Leaf
O. HenryIn a Greenwich Village artists' colony, a gravely ill young painter ties her fate to the last leaf on a neighboring vine.
11 min · Bittersweet
More details
- Themes
- Friendship · Illness · Sacrifice
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Sentimental
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Pendulum
O. HenryWhen his wife unexpectedly leaves for the night, a bored husband discovers how much of his ordinary life he has taken for granted.
8 min · Humorous
More details
- Themes
- Marriage · Love · Self-deception
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults