Big Two-Hearted River
Ernest HemingwayNick Adams walks away from a burned town into the Michigan wilderness, building a camp and fishing the river one careful act at a time.
37 min · Reflective
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
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
Today Is Friday
Ernest HemingwayAfter the crucifixion, three Roman soldiers drink, joke, and circle the question of what it means to endure suffering.
5 min · Bleak
The Mortal Immortal
Mary ShelleyAfter drinking an alchemist's unfinished elixir, a lovesick young man begins to outlive everyone he knows.
25 min · Melancholy
An Unfinished Story
O. HenryA shopgirl living on six dollars a week faces the glittering promise of dinner and the danger hidden behind it.
11 min · Bleak
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
Rocket Summer
Ray BradburyOn the eve of humanity’s first Moon rocket, the man who owns the launch company tries to stop a breakthrough he believes civilization is not ready to use.
20 min · Foreboding
Story of a Fallen Head
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaWounded in a cavalry clash during the Sino-Japanese War, a Chinese soldier rides alone through the Manchurian fields with death suddenly close.
16 min · Solemn
The Badger
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaA moonlit song outside a village house becomes the first chapter in a legend about Japan’s shape-shifting badgers.
5 min · Dreamlike
The Handkerchief
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaA university professor receives a bereaved mother whose composed manner appears to embody the ideal he has made of Japanese restraint.
15 min · Reflective
The Pipe
Ryūnosuke AkutagawaA powerful daimyo’s magnificent gold pipe is the perfect emblem of status—until court attendants discover they can simply ask for one.
14 min · Humorous
11 stories