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All Short Stories (119)

The Adventure of the Empty House
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1903 story The Adventure of the Empty House opens, the year is 1894. A shocking and bizarre murder has taken place, but Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective in Britian ...
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The Musgrave Ritual
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affe ...
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The Gloria Scott
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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"I have some papers here," said my friend Sherlock Holmes, as we sat one winter's night on either side of the fire, "which I really think, Watson, that it would be worth your while to glance over. Th ...
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The Super Man and the Bugout
By Cory Doctorow
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"Mama, I'm not a super-villain," Hershie said for the millionth time. He chased the last of the gravy on his plate with a hunk of dark rye, skirting the shriveled derma left behind from his kishka. Ev ...
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Home Again, Home Again
By Cory Doctorow
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The kids in my local bat-house breathe heavy metals, and their gelatinous bodies quiver nauseously during our counseling sessions, and for all that, they reacted just like I had when I told them I was ...
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Shadow of the Mothaship
By Cory Doctorow
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It's the untethering of my parents' house that's on my plate today. The flying of a kite on a windy Toronto Hallowe'en day and the suspension of worry for a shiny moment. And sail surface isn't even a ...
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Return to Pleasure Island
By Cory Doctorow
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George twiddled his thumbs in his booth and watched how the brown, clayey knuckles danced overtop of one another. Not as supple as they had once been, his thumbs -- no longer the texture of wet clay o ...
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The Miller's Daughter
By Émile Zola
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Pere Merlier's mill, one beautiful summer evening, was arranged for a grand fete. In the courtyard were three tables, placed end to end, which awaited the guests. Everyone knew that Francoise, Merlier ...
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Captain Burle
By Émile Zola
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It was nine o'clock. The little town of Vauchamp, dark and silent, had just retired to bed amid a chilly November rain. In the Rue des Recollets, one of the narrowest and most deserted streets of the ...
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The Death of Olivier Becaille
By Émile Zola
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It was on a Saturday, at six in the morning, that I died after a three days' illness. My wife was searching a trunk for some linen, and when she rose and turned she saw me rigid, with open eyes and si ...
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The Locket
By Kate Chopin
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One night in autumn a few men were gathered about a fire on the slope of a hill. They belonged to a small detachment of Confederate forces and were awaiting orders to march. Their gray uniforms were w ...
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A Pair of Silk Stockings
By Kate Chopin
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Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars. It seemed to her a very large amount of money, and the way in which it stuffed and bulged her worn old porte-monn ...
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A Respectable Woman
By Kate Chopin
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Mrs. Baroda was a little provoked to learn that her husband expected his friend, Gouvernail, up to spend a week or two on the plantation. They had entertained a good deal during the winter; much of th ...
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Beyond the Bayou
By Kate Chopin
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The bayou curved like a crescent around the point of land on which La Folle's cabin stood. Between the stream and the hut lay a big abandoned field, where cattle were pastured when the bayou supplied ...
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Desiree's Baby
By Kate Chopin
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As the day was pleasant, Madame Valmonde drove over to L'Abri to see Desiree and the baby. It made her laugh to think of Desiree with a baby. Why, it seemed but yesterday that Desiree was little more ...
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The Kiss
By Kate Chopin
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It was still quite light out of doors, but inside with the curtains drawn and the smouldering fire sending out a dim, uncertain glow, the room was full of deep shadows. Brantain sat in one of these sh ...
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Ma'ame Pelagie
By Kate Chopin
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When the war began, there stood on Cote Joyeuse an imposing mansion of red brick, shaped like the Pantheon. A grove of majestic live-oaks surrounded it. Thirty years later, only the thick walls were s ...
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The Camel's Back
By F. Scott Fitzgerald
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The glazed eye of the tired reader resting for a second on the above title will presume it to be merely metaphorical. Stories about the cup and the lip and the bad penny and the new broom rarely have ...
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