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
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
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
In Another Country
Ernest HemingwayIn a Milan hospital after the fighting, wounded soldiers submit their bodies to machines while trying to imagine who they will be afterward.
10 min · Melancholy
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 Three Day Blow
Ernest HemingwayAs an autumn storm lashes Michigan, Nick Adams and Bill drink by the fire and talk around the breakup Nick cannot quite explain.
14 min · Melancholy
Up in Michigan
Ernest HemingwayIn a small Michigan town, Liz Coates builds a private romance around the blacksmith whose return from a hunting trip changes everything.
9 min · Melancholy
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Herman MelvilleA Wall Street copyist answers every request with "I would prefer not to" — and never leaves.
65 min · Melancholy
The Brother and Sister
Mary ShelleyA banished young Sienese entrusts his sister to the rival who toppled their family.
53 min · Melancholy
The Mortal Immortal
Mary ShelleyAfter drinking an alchemist's unfinished elixir, a lovesick young man begins to outlive everyone he knows.
25 min · Melancholy
The Mourner
Mary ShelleyA prosperous man guards a grave whose story begins with a runaway schoolboy and a haunted young woman.
37 min · Melancholy
The Parvenue
Mary ShelleyA poor steward's daughter marries the lord who saved her from a burning home.
17 min · Melancholy
The Brief Debut of Tildy
O. HenryA plain waitress mistakes one impulsive kiss for her long-awaited entrance into the glamorous world of romance.
10 min · Bittersweet
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 Furnished Room
O. HenryA young man searching for a vanished singer rents a decaying room whose lingering traces seem to answer his longing.
11 min · Melancholy
The Skylight Room
O. HenryA struggling typist finds a small, private universe in the star she watches through the skylight of her attic room.
10 min · Melancholy
I, Mars
Ray BradburySixty years after being stranded on Mars, an old man receives a phone call from the younger self he recorded to survive the silence.
14 min · Melancholy
17 stories