Classic Stories A Celebration of the Short Story Episodes Episode guide
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Two Friends by Guy de Maupassant
Maupassant’s tragic wartime tale of the friendship and loyalty that binds two friends.
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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s feminist masterpiece about madness and women breaking out.
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The Toys of Peace by Saki
Saki’s satire about children given toys representing normal life rather than war.
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The String Quartet by Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf’s sketch of woman finding emotions and storylines in music.
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The Recruit by Honore de Balzac
Balzac’s tale of maternal love & mistaken identity during the French Revolution.
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The Piece of String by Guy de Maupassant
Maupassant’s fable of a villager who finds a piece of string & is accused of thieving.
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The Oval Portrait by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s tale of a morbidly absorbing painting and the sacrifices made for art.
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The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant’s story about a woman devoting her life to repay a debt she never owed.
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The Mesmeric Mountain by Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane’s fantastical tale of a man who thinks he’s being followed – by a mountain.
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The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe’s macabre tale of Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague.
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The Kabuliwalah by Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore’s tale of a little girl befriending a travelling fruit salesman.
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The Interlopers by Saki
Saki's fable about warring neighbours.
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The Fly by Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield’s 1922 story about a boss and his old employee reliving old times.
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The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry
O. Henry’s parable about a homeless man seeking shelter, and the lengths he goes to.
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The Cone by HG Wells
HG Wells’ twisted tale about a man taking revenge on an adulterer.
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The Christening by DH Lawrence
DH Lawrence’s story of a young unmarried mother, her baby and her stern collier father.
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Tarquin of Cheapside by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s strange Elizabethan-set tale of a young writer is seeking refuge.
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Ma'ame Pelagie by Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin portrait of a woman on a plantation adjusting after the American Civil War.
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How It Happened by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle's ghostly tale of a man and his motor. Who survives to tell the story?
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El Verdugo by Honore de Balzac
Balzac’s tale of French troops taking over a Spanish town during the Napoleonic war.
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Araby by James Joyce
James Joyce’s story from Dubliners about a boy enchanted by a woman and a utopian bazaar.
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An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce’s American Civil War tale about an entrapped Confederate plantation owner.
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A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin’s tale of a woman who spends a windfall on herself, instead of her children.
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A Gentleman Friend by Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov’s fable about a woman’s search for luxury and her encounter with a dentist.
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A Blunder by Anton Chekhov
Chekhov’s sketch about an old couple waiting for a man to propose to their daughter.