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--PROGRESS STATUS--
The stories listed here are in various stages of completion.
- Titles without bullets are complete.
- Bulleted titles marked (In Progress) have been partially completed.
- Bulleted titles marked (Plain) have been posted without editing, formatting, or annotations.
- Bulleted titles marked (plain) have not been posted yet.
--THE STORIES--
Acoma, from Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather (1927)
Cather's great "novel" is actually a series of discrete episodes featuring Bishop Jean-Marie Latour, a fictionalized version of the historical Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the first Catholic Archbishop of Santa Fe, who built the cathedral there. In Part 3, he travels with his Indian guide to the dilapidated church in a pueblo called Acoma, located high on a mesa. In Part 4, as he travels home, another priest tells him how the church at Acoma fell from its former glory.
- Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, The, by Stephen Crane (1898) (plain)
A small-town sheriff in the Old West brings home his new bride and faces down a desperado.
Caballero's Way, The, by O. Henry (1914)
This story introduces the Cisco Kid, who was much more of a mal muchacho (a "bad boy") than the carefree do-gooder we see operating on the edge of the law (and sometimes crossing the line) in films and television through much of the 20th century.
Cask of Amontillado, The, by Edgar Allan Poe (1846)
The famous story in which a madman takes revenge on a "friend" for an imagined slight, luring him into--well, read the story!
- Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The, by Mark Twain (1865) (plain)
Twain's tale of an inveterate gambler being swindled brought him to the attention of a national audience.
Childe Rowland: An English Fairy Tale as told by Joseph Jacobs (1890, but much older)
A "fairy tale" that deserves to be better known, in which a third brother rescues his sister (and elder brothers) who are being held by the King of Elfland.
- Door in the Wall, The, by H. G. Wells (1906) (in progress: notes and characters list added)
A boy finds a green door in a white wall and enters a wondrous garden, but on his return no one believes him. He discovers the door several more times, but is always intent on his duties and never enters it again. In the end, the question is left to the reader whether he has finally entered the door or not. - Momotaro, A Japanese Fairy Tale as told by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1908) (plain)
An elderly couple is blessed with a wondrous boy who brings them good fortune. - Necklace, The, by Guy de Maupassant (1884) (plain)
Bad luck strikes young social climber Mathilde Loisel when she borrows--and loses--her friend's expensive necklace. - Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, An, by Ambrose Bierce (1890) (plain)
A soldier in the American Civil War is to be hanged, but miraculously escapes.
"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad," by M. R. James (1904)
Montague Rhodes James, a medievalist at Cambridge, wrote some of the scariest ghost stories I've ever read, and the scariest of all in my book is this tale of a "rationalist" professor scared out of his wits by--someone in a bed sheet?
- Oshidori (The Mandarin Ducks), by Lafcadio Hearne (1904) (plain)
A hunter shoots and kills the male partner in a pair of ducks, with tragic results. - Outcasts of Poker Flat, The, by Bret Harte (1869) (plain)
Four "improper" people--a gambler, two women of ill repute, and the town drunk (and possible robber)--are banished from the California mining camp of Poker Flat. On their road out of town they meet a pair of runaway lovers. The six spend the night together when a blizzard snows them in (well, most of them). In the ensuing trials, the line between "improper" and noble is blurred. - Penance of Magdalena, The, by J. Smeaton Chase (1915) (plain)
A story of the old mission days in California, when Teófilo, a young artisan, loves Magdalena, the proud daughter of the mission mayordomo. But will their love be sanctioned by the church? - Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, by Rudyard Kipling (1894) (plain)
A British family in India adopts a pet mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. We see his relationship grow with both the family and the other creatures in the garden as he protects his new home. - Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving (1819) (plain)
A lazy villager in Dutch America falls asleep in the mountains after drinking with a group of strangely-dressed men. What will happen when he wakes up? - Soul of the Regiment, The, by Talbot Mundy (1912) (plain)
Good ol' Billy Grogram maintains the regimental colors no matter the sacrifice required. - Speckled Band, The, by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892) (plain)
In Doyle's favorite of all his stories, Sherlock Holms must solve a classic locked-room mystery that threatens to be repeated. - Susanna and the Elders, from The Bible (2nd century BCE, translation 1611, revised) (plain)
In a story from the Book of Daniel--one that's not included in the Protestant Bible--a wise young man must defend a chaste wife against the accusations of two wicked judges. - Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835) (plain)
A decent young man ventures into the woods at night and discovers deep dark secrets involving his neighbors and a family member; as in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne once again exposes the dark underbelly of Puritanism.
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