Berenice
Edgar Allan PoeA reclusive scholar's fixation on his cousin's teeth grows stronger as illness changes her body and mind.
15 min · Chilling
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- Settings
- Country houses & estates
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Leisurely
- 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.
Mellonta Tauta
Edgar Allan PoeA bored passenger on a future balloon tour writes a letter full of confident errors about the nineteenth century.
25 min · Humorous
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- Themes
- Science & progress · Autonomy & control · Personhood
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Dense
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Epistolary & diary
- Motifs
- Journeys & quests
Mesmeric Revelation
Edgar Allan PoeA dying skeptic submits to mesmerism and uses the trance to answer questions about God, matter, pain, and life after death.
17 min · Reflective
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- Themes
- Faith & doubt · Death · Science & progress
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Dense
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
The Colloquy of Monos and Una
Edgar Allan PoeTwo reunited lovers discuss humanity's collapse and what one of them experienced as his body died, decayed, and lost its senses.
16 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Death · Love · Science & progress
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Edgar Allan PoeTwo souls meet after Earth’s destruction, and one explains how a newly discovered comet ended the human world.
9 min · Foreboding
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- Themes
- Science & progress · Fate & chance · Faith & doubt
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue · Frame story
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan PoeA mesmerist tests whether hypnosis can hold a dying man at the point between life and death.
16 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Death · Science & progress · Illness
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Dense · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Forbidden experiments
The Gold-Bug
Edgar Allan PoeA reclusive naturalist follows a cryptogram from a found parchment into the South Carolina woods in search of pirate treasure.
62 min · Adventurous
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- Themes
- Wealth & money · Friendship · Appearance vs reality
- Settings
- Wilderness
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Dense · Dialect-rich
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Buried treasure
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan PoeA condemned man argues that people are sometimes driven to do what they know will destroy them.
11 min · Unsettling
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- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Dense · Conversational
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Inheritance & wills
The Landscape Garden
Edgar Allan PoeA wealthy young man rejects status and politics to treat landscape gardening as an art and a plan for a happy life.
16 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Art & artists · Wealth & money · Nature & wilderness
- Settings
- The countryside
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Vignette & sketch
- Motifs
- Inheritance & wills
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan PoeWhen two women are brutally killed in a locked Paris room, Dupin tests the evidence that the police dismiss.
63 min · Suspenseful
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- Themes
- Appearance vs reality · Law & justice
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Wry
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Hunts & pursuits
The Power of Words
Edgar Allan PoeTwo newly immortal spirits cross the stars while one explains how every word and action continues to shape the universe.
6 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Science & progress · Art & artists · Love
- Settings
- Space & spacecraft
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
The Purloined Letter
Edgar Allan PoeA stolen royal letter remains inside a minister's home despite months of secret police searches, and Dupin asks what they failed to see.
32 min · Suspenseful
More details
- Themes
- Appearance vs reality · Autonomy & control · Revenge
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Dense · Conversational
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
The Sphinx
Edgar Allan PoeDuring a cholera outbreak, a nervous man sees a monstrous creature crawling down a distant hill.
8 min · Foreboding
More details
- Themes
- Appearance vs reality · Superstition
- Settings
- The home · The countryside
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Dense · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Von Kempelen and His Discovery
Edgar Allan PoeA journalist reports that an obscure chemist has found a way to turn lead into pure gold.
13 min · Humorous
More details
- Settings
- Offices & workplaces
- Tone
- Deadpan
- Style
- Dense · Conversational
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Forbidden experiments
Feminine Men
Guy de MaupassantA caustic observer attacks Parisian politicians, journalists, and friends whose charm masks fickle loyalties and flexible principles.
6 min · Humorous
More details
- Themes
- Hypocrisy · Identity · Friendship
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Conversational · Dense
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Vignette & sketch
Letter from a Madman
Guy de MaupassantA man asks his doctor whether reason has led him to an invisible world—or into madness.
9 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Madness · Obsession · Appearance vs reality
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Dense
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Epistolary & diary
Monsieur Jocaste
Guy de MaupassantA man defends an unforgivable marriage by tracing the grief, resemblance, and desire that brought a father to it.
7 min · Unsettling
More details
- Themes
- Obsession · Family · Self-deception
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Moralizing
- Style
- Dense
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
Solitude
Guy de MaupassantOn a nighttime walk through Paris, a convivial dinner guest argues that no friendship or love can breach the solitude of the mind.
9 min · Bleak
More details
- Themes
- Isolation · Love · Self-deception
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Earnest
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
The Olive Orchard
Guy de MaupassantA respected village priest receives a ragged visitor whose face and faded photograph reopen the betrayal that drove him into the Church.
41 min · Tragic
More details
- Themes
- Parenthood · Guilt · Faith & doubt
- Settings
- The countryside · Villages & small towns
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Descriptive · Dense
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- The mysterious stranger
Useless Beauty
Guy de MaupassantA beautiful countess rebels against the husband who has used pregnancy to control her, choosing a revenge designed to poison his certainty.
32 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Marriage · Women’s independence · Autonomy & control
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Dense · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
A Slip Under the Microscope
H. G. WellsA poor scholarship student makes one accidental movement during an exam and must decide whether winning matters more than his principles.
32 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Honor & reputation · Class & poverty
- Settings
- Schools
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Dense · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Love triangle
Filmer
H. G. WellsThe timid inventor of a working flying machine becomes a public hero—and discovers that everyone expects him to risk the first flight.
30 min · Tragic
More details
- Settings
- Offices & workplaces
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Dense
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Argonauts of the Air
H. G. WellsAfter five years and most of his fortune, Monson must decide whether his flying machine is ready—or whether ridicule has forced the decision.
20 min · Tragic
More details
- Themes
- Ambition · Science & progress · Pride
- Settings
- Offices & workplaces · The city
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Descriptive · Dense
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Plattner Story
H. G. WellsA chemistry accident sends an ordinary schoolmaster into a shadow world that overlaps the lives of everyone he knew.
35 min · Eerie
More details
- Themes
- Death · Appearance vs reality · Science & progress
- Settings
- Schools · Wilderness
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Descriptive · Dense
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story