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Twelve Songs as Good as Any Short Story (In No Particular Order)
1. Bob Dylan, “Talkin’ World War III Blues” First off–yes, the entire list could be comprised of Dylan songs. I choose this one simply because it’s one of my favorites, and also from the first Dylan...
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“Latin Americans have become contemporaries with the rest of the world”| A...
This is the 2nd part of my conversation with Ilan Stavans about The Plain in Flames, his translation of Juan Rulfo’s short story collection El Llano en Llamas. Catch up with part 1 here. Lauren Flinner...
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“Vertical Motion”— Can Xue
We are little critters who live in the black earth beneath the desert. The people on Mother Earth can’t imagine such a large expanse of fertile humus lying dozens of meters beneath the boundless...
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Read Clarice Lispector’s short story “Report on the Thing”
In advance of New Directions’ forthcoming Clarice Lispector collection The Complete Stories, Vice has published “Report on the Thing” in a new English translation by Katrina Dodson (who translated the...
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“Shrove Tuesday,” a tale by Anton Chekhov
“Shrove Tuesday” by Anton Chekhov English translation by Constance Garnett from ‘The Cook’s Wedding’ and Other Stories “PAVEL VASSILITCH!” cries Pelageya Ivanovna, waking her husband. “Pavel...
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Read “Love on the Bon-Dieu,” an Easter story by Kate Chopin
“Love on the Bon-Dieu” by Kate Chopin from Bayou Folk (1894) Upon the pleasant veranda of Père Antoine’s cottage, that adjoined the church, a young girl had long been seated, awaiting his return. It...
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She left the orbit, sighing: ‘Eyes of a blue dog. I’ve written it...
Then she looked at me. I thought that she was looking at me for the first time. But then, when she turned around behind the lamp and I kept feeling her slippery and oily look in back of me, over my...
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Illustration for Oscar Wilde’s “The Remarkable Rocket” — James Hill
James Hill’s illustration for “The Remarkable Rocket” by Oscar Wilde. From The Short Stories of Oscar Wilde, Heritage Press, 1968. “The Remarkable Rocket” by Oscar Wilde The King’s son was going to be...
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Illustration for Oscar Wilde’s “The Birthday of the Infanta” — James Hill
James Hill’s illustration for “The Birthday of the Infanta” by Oscar Wilde. From The Short Stories of Oscar Wilde, Heritage Press, 1968. “The Birthday of the Infanta” by Oscar Wilde It was the...
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Illustration for Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince” — James Hill
James Hill’s illustration for “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde. From The Short Stories of Oscar Wilde, Heritage Press, 1968. “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde High above the city, on a tall column,...
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“Macadam”— Lucia Berlin
“Macadam” by Lucia Berlin from A Manual for Cleaning Women When fresh it looks like caviar, sounds like broken glass, like someone chewing ice. I’d chew ice when the lemonade was finished, swaying...
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William Faulkner’s short story “Carcassonne”
“Carcassonne” by William Faulkner And me on a buckskin pony with eyes like blue electricity and a mane like tangled fire, galloping up the hill and right off into the high heaven of the world. His...
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“Dante and the Lobster,” a short story by Samuel Beckett
“Dante and the Lobster” by Samuel Beckett It was morning and Belacqua was stuck in the first of the canti in the moon. He was so bogged that he could move neither backward nor forward. Blissful...
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Illustration for Oscar Wilde’s “The Model Millionaire” — James Hill (…and...
James Hill’s illustration for “The Model Millionaire” by Oscar Wilde. From The Short Stories of Oscar Wilde, Heritage Press, 1968. “The Model Millionaire” by Oscar Wilde Unless one is wealthy there...
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Read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Ethan Brand”
“Ethan Brand: An Abortive Romance” by Nathaniel Hawthorne Bartram the lime-burner, a rough, heavy-looking man, begrimed with charcoal, sat watching his kiln, at nightfall, while his little son played...
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“The Gorgon’s Head,” a myth retold by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Danaë and her son Perseus put in a Chest and Cast into the Sea, Arthur Rackham, 1914 “The Gorgon’s Head” excerpted from A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne Perseus was the son of...
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Read Robert Coover’s satirical short story “Invasion of the Martians”
Robert Coover’s “Invasion of the Martians” is a wonderful little satire of contemporary American politics. Read the full thing at The New Yorker (or listen to Coover read it there). First two...
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“The Hyena,” an ecstatic abject fable by Paul Bowles
“The Hyena” by Paul Bowles A stork was passing over desert country on his way north. He was thirsty, and he began to look for water. When he came to the mountains of Khang el Ghar, he saw a pool at...
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“The Scorpion,” a strange fable by Paul Bowles
“The Scorpion” by Paul Bowles An old woman lived in a cave which her sons had hollowed out of a clay cliff near a spring before they went away to the town where many people live. She was neither happy...
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Read Robert Louis Stevenson’s weird fable “The Yellow Paint”
Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife, John Singer Sargent, 1885 “The Yellow Paint” by Robert Louis Stevenson In a certain city there lived a physician who sold yellow paint. This was of so singular a...
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