Beyond the Wall
Ambrose BierceA man hears a familiar tapping in a room where no one else can be.
15 min · Melancholy
More details
- Themes
- Love · Class & poverty · Guilt
- Style
- Ornate
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
What would you like to read about?
John Bartine’s Watch
Ambrose BierceA physician tests a friend’s fear of an inherited watch and sees how serious it is.
10 min · Foreboding
More details
- Settings
- The home
- Style
- Ornate
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
Staley Fleming’s Hallucination
Ambrose BierceStaley Fleming sees a dog beside his bed every night, but it vanishes when he sits up.
4 min · Eerie
The Haunted Valley
Ambrose BierceA rancher claims he killed his Chinese worker over a simple task, but a local witness tells another story.
19 min · Unsettling
More details
- Themes
- Race & prejudice · Jealousy · Guilt
- Settings
- The frontier · The countryside
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Dialect-rich · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
Ambrose BierceTwo men agree to fight with knives in a house said to be haunted.
15 min · Foreboding
More details
- Settings
- The home · The countryside
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Haunted house · Duels
The Moonlit Road
Ambrose BierceA mother is murdered, a father vanishes, and three accounts tell different parts of what happened.
16 min · Eerie
More details
- Settings
- The home · The countryside
- Style
- Ornate
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Epistolary & diary
- Motifs
- Séances & spiritualism
The Night-Doings at “Deadman’s”
Ambrose BierceAlone in a deserted mining camp, Hiram Beeson waits each night for a visitor from beneath his floor.
14 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Death · Race & prejudice
- Settings
- The frontier · Wilderness
- Tone
- Darkly comic
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
Two Military Executions
Ambrose BierceAfter a private is executed for striking an officer, a battlefield roll call receives an answer no one expects.
4 min · Eerie
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Law & justice · Revenge
- Settings
- The battlefield
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Ornate
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
A Nightmare
Anton ChekhovA comfortable reformer judges a village priest unfit for service, then learns what hunger looks like when pride tries to hide it.
24 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Class & poverty · Self-deception · Guilt
- Settings
- Villages & small towns · The countryside
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
A Transgression
Anton ChekhovA respectable official finds a bundled baby on his doorstep and assumes his secret affair has finally caught up with him.
8 min · Humorous
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Honor & reputation · Self-deception
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Interior monologue
In Passion Week
Anton ChekhovA boy approaches confession with fear, rivalry, hunger, and a vivid hope that absolution will make him new.
9 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Faith & doubt · Guilt · Coming of age
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Descriptive · Lyrical
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
Lights
Anton ChekhovOn a remote railway line, an engineer’s late-night argument leads him to confess the human cost of his youthful nihilism.
70 min · Reflective
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Self-deception
- Settings
- The countryside
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Descriptive · Conversational
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story · Told in dialogue
Old Age
Anton ChekhovReturning to his changed hometown, an aging architect confronts the cost of a divorce he once left others to arrange.
10 min · Melancholy
More details
- Settings
- Villages & small towns
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Plain · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Homecomings
Sorrow
Anton ChekhovDriving his gravely ill wife through a blizzard, a drunken turner discovers remorse only when time is almost gone.
10 min · Tragic
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Addiction & dependence · Death
- Settings
- Wilderness · The countryside
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Plain · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Journeys & quests
The Cossack
Anton ChekhovOn Easter morning, a newly married farmer passes a sick soldier on the road and cannot quiet his conscience afterward.
9 min · Bleak
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Self-deception · Marriage
- Settings
- The countryside · The home
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- The mysterious stranger
The Examining Magistrate
Anton ChekhovOn the road to an inquest, a magistrate challenges a doctor to explain a healthy woman’s precisely foretold death.
9 min · Unsettling
More details
- Settings
- The countryside
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
The Murder
Anton ChekhovAt an isolated railway tavern, two devout cousins clash over faith, money, and family rights as resentment turns dangerous.
56 min · Bleak
More details
- Themes
- Faith & doubt · Guilt · Redemption
- Settings
- The countryside · Prisons & asylums
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Inheritance & wills
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan PoeA condemned man traces his ruin through alcohol, cruelty, and two black cats that seem to expose every crime he hides.
18 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Addiction & dependence · Self-deception · Guilt
- Settings
- The home
- Style
- Ornate · Conversational
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
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
More details
- Themes
- Revenge · Honor & reputation · Guilt
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Ornate
- Pace
- Brisk
- Occasion
- Festivals & carnivals
- Written for
- For adults
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
More details
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Dense · Conversational
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Inheritance & wills
The Telltale Heart
Edgar Allan PoeA murderer explains how he killed an old man, then hears a sound that destroys his confidence when police arrive.
10 min · Chilling
More details
- Settings
- The home
- Style
- Conversational · Spare
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
William Wilson
Edgar Allan PoeA disgraced man recounts how a namesake who looked and acted like him kept appearing whenever he was about to cross a moral line.
36 min · Unsettling
More details
- Themes
- Identity · Guilt · Self-deception
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Hunts & pursuits
The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife
Ernest HemingwayA doctor’s claim to some driftwood is challenged by the lumberman who knows exactly where the logs came from.
6 min · Unsettling
More details
- Themes
- Honor & reputation · Guilt · Self-deception
- Settings
- The home · Wilderness
- Tone
- Detached
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Told in dialogue
A Son
Guy de MaupassantA respected man returns to a Breton inn and confronts the human cost of a long-forgotten encounter.
16 min · Unsettling
More details
- Themes
- Parenthood · Guilt · Class & poverty
- Settings
- Villages & small towns
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults