The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins GilmanPrescribed total rest in a nursery with barred windows, a young wife begins to study the wallpaper.
28 min · Unsettling
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan PoeA connoisseur leads his insulter down into the family catacombs to settle a score over a rare sherry.
11 min · Foreboding
A Canary for One
Ernest HemingwayOn a train to Paris, a proudly controlling mother carries a caged bird home while unknowingly passing the wreckage of her daughter’s love.
8 min · Bittersweet
A Simple Enquiry
Ernest HemingwayIn a snowbound military hut, a major’s seemingly casual questions expose the dangerous private anxieties beneath his authority.
5 min · Unsettling
Cat in the Rain
Ernest HemingwayIn a rainy Italian hotel, an American wife goes after a stray cat and discovers how many other things she wants.
5 min · Melancholy
Hills Like White Elephants
Ernest HemingwayWhile waiting for a train through Spain, a couple circles the life-changing decision neither can name directly.
7 min · Claustrophobic
Now I Lay Me
Ernest HemingwayA wounded lieutenant keeps vigil against sleep, replaying memory, prayer, and imagined trout streams to hold his soul together after the war.
14 min · Reflective
Soldier’s Home
Ernest HemingwayA veteran returns to his Oklahoma home after the war and finds that the town, his family, and the future they expect no longer fit him.
13 min · Bleak
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Herman MelvilleA Wall Street copyist answers every request with "I would prefer not to" — and never leaves.
65 min · Melancholy
9 stories