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May 26, 2022 · Brave New World Aldous Huxley. Buy the book. 7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) We said: One of the greatest and most prescient dystopian novels ever written, this should be on everyone’s must-read list. You said: Given the exponential growth of AI, Machine Learning & Robotics, Huxley's vision acts as a warning.
- Free Short Stories to Read Right Now
- “Lamb to The Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
- “How to Become A Writer” by Lorrie Moore
- “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian
- “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
- “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Symbols and Signs” by Vladimir Nabokov
- “Sticks” by George Saunders
- “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
These individual short stories are the best of the best — and the even better news is that they're available for free online for you to peruse. From classics published in the 1900s to a short story that exploded in late 2017, here are ten of the greatest free short storiesfor you to read.
While not exactly a philosophical or political tale like our first two examples, this twisty short storyfrom Dahl does delve into some shady moral territory. We are introduced to Mary Maloney: a loving wife and dedicated homemaker. In just a few short paragraphs describing how she welcomes her husband home, Dahl makes us sympathize with Mary — befo...
A perennial feature in many a high school syllabus, Shirley Jackson’s best-known short storyclinically details an unusual ritual that takes place in a small town. There’s not exactly a lot of plot to spoil in The Lottery — but within a few short pages, Jackson manages to represent the mob mentality that can drive reasonable people to commit heinous...
Told in the second person point of view, this story from Moore’s debut anthology Self-Helptakes an honest look at the inner life of a struggling artist. Through the use of an unusual POV, the author manages to turn her reader into a confidante — making it abundantly clear that the ‘you’ the narrator is speaking about is actually herself. This story...
In the Social Media Age, no short story has gone viral the way this New Yorker contributionfrom Roupenian has. Arriving at the height of #MeToo, it begins with 20-year-old Margot embarking on the early stages of flirtation with an older man, Robert. As she gets to know more about this man (as well as filling in the gaps with her imagination), the p...
First published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1981, “Cathedral”is today known as one of Raymond Carver’s finest works. When it opens, we meet a narrator whose wife is expecting a visit from an old friend, a blind man. Dissatisfied and distrusting of people not like him, our narrator struggles to connect until the blind man asks him to describe a cathe...
Innocuously titled, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”is nevertheless Flannery O’Connor’s bleakest — and most famous — work. It begins unassumingly with a Southern family who’s planning to go on a road trip. Yet the journey is rudely interrupted when their car overturns on an abandoned dirt road — and they are met by an enigmatic group of three men, comi...
The famous author of Lolita wrote “Signs and Symbols”in 1948. Its premise is seemingly simple: an elderly couple visits their mentally ill son in the sanatorium in America. Yet their background and trials come into sharp focus as the story develops, until an explosive ending disrupts everyone’s peace of mind. As you might expect, the somber “Symbol...
Not so much a short story as it is flash fiction, “Sticks”is written from the perspective of a young man whose father has an unusual habit: dressing up a crucifix that’s built of out a metal pole in the yard. One of America’s greatest living short story writers, George Saunders explained: "For two years I'd been driving past a house like the one in...
If there’s anyone who you can trust to deliver thought-provoking, terrifying science fiction on the regular, it’s Ray Bradbury. In “The Veldt,”George and Lydia Hadley have bought an automated house that comes with a “nursey,” or a virtual reality room. Worried about the nursery’s effect on the kids, George and Lydia think about turning off the nurs...
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Jun 15, 2020 · The perfect lockdown reading choices for whatever your state of mind. Cath Pound picks bite-size tales to reassure, comfort, or unsettle.
- The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. The Lottery is one of the most well known short stories of all time for good reason. It’s got an eeriness that creeps up on you, but isn’t clear entirely why until the very last paragraph.
- The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. I’ve always loved Poe’s short stories, and The Tell-Tale Heart is probably my favorite. It’s about a tormented, paranoid man who is racked with guilt.
- The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant. The Necklace is a classic short story that’s been adapted to stage and film many times. It’s a story about vanity and honesty.
- The Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. You may have seen or heard of the not-great movie adaptation of The Sound of Thunder that came out a while ago, but please don’t let that dissuade you from reading this classic science fiction short story which deals with some of the same themes as the concept of Chaos Theory (more popularly known as the Butterfly Effect).
Winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart is a powerful, heart-wrenching portrait of 1980s working-class Glasgow, seen through the eyes of young Shuggie, a boy growing up amidst poverty and addiction. At the heart of the novel is Shuggie’s relationship with his mother, Agnes, a proud but deeply troubled woman whose ...
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Oct 9, 2024 · The Great Gatsby. by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Buy the book. The book that best captures the flamboyance, the carelessness and the cruelty of the wealthy during America’s Jazz age. Evoking the glitz, glamour and the dark side of 1920s, The Great Gatsby is a cynical look at the limits of the American Dream. Don't Miss.
