Great Short Stories: #21-30

21. "The Phantom Rickshaw" (1885) by Rudyard Kipling. In this ghostly yet whimsical story, a man is pursued by the phantom image of a woman he spurned, following him everywhere in her rickshaw. It seems to be a manifestation of his own guilty conscience, believing he drived her to her death, but no amount of psychoanalysis seems able to drive the phantom away.

"The Phantom Rickshaw" can be found in The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories. You can read the text online here.

22. "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. Again delving into novellas, this is Stevenson's great tale of Jekyll letting out his other side, but discovering that the more exercise he grants his baser self, the more powerful it becomes and he faces the threat of losing out to himself.

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" can be found in Three Tales. You can read the text online here.

23. "The Horla" (1887) by Guy de Maupassant. This is easily Maupassant's best-remembered story, one which has been given particular attention because of his own descent into madness (Maupassant suffered from syphilis). A man is haunted by an invisible...something. A Horla. As he becomes more and more convinced of the reality of his premonitions, his actions seem more and more like madness to those around him.

"The Horla" can be found in The Complete Works of Guy de Maupassant. You can read the text online here.

24. "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" (1888) by Rudyard Kipling. This is a sad story about a young boy from India sent to be raised in England. The boy encounters difficulties, partly due to culture shock, but he also develops a horrible persecution complex and when he finds himself punished regardless of whether he does good or ill, he sees no point in trying to be good.

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" can be found in The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories. You can read the text online here.

25. "The Man Who Would be King" (1888) by Rudyard Kipling. This is Kipling's great story of two men who seek to carve out a kingdom for themselves and, against all odds, succeed; the problem is that having become kings by setting themselves up as gods, the fiction can only hold for so long...

"The Man Who Would be King" can be found in The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories. You can read the text online here.

26. "Hautot Senior and Hautot Junior" (1889) by Guy de Maupassant. This is a strangely cynical yet affecting work by Maupassant. As he lies dying from a hunting accident, Hautot tells his son his shameful secret: he kept a mistress. The son sets out to put things right with his father's woman, but discovers she is now like a part of his family.

"Hautot Senior and Hautot Junior" can be found in The Complete Works of Guy de Maupassant. You can read the text online here.

27. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) by Ambrose Bierce. This is Bierce's best-known tale, told with simplicity and forcefulness. During the US Civil War, a man is sentenced to be hung over a bridge. He survives the hanging and a pursuit begins, but...well, as you may already know, the escape occurs only in his mind and the entire tale comprises the hopes of a man at the moment of his death.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" can be found in The Spook House. You can read the text online here.

28. "The Five Orange Pips" (1891) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is one of the most remarkable of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, memorable because it's the story in which the villains are the Klu Klux Klan and that it's one of the few times Holmes solves a mystery, but fails the case!

"The Five Orange Pips" can be found in The Complete Sherlock Holmes. You can read the text online here.

29. "The Graveyard Sisterhood" (1891) by Guy de Maupassant. Another cynical romance by Maupassant; a man comforts a woman weeping over the grave of her beloved and is drawn into a relationship with her; he realizes just a little too late that he's being played.

"The Graveyard Sisterhood" can be found in The Complete Works of Guy de Maupassant. You can read the text online here.

30. "The Red-Headed League" (1891) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is a great Holmes story about a red-haired man who is hired for a job seemingly because of his hair color. After losing the unusual job he asks Holmes to investigate and it turns out the man wasn't wanted for the color of his hair, but for the proximity of his home to the bank!

"The Red-Headed League" can be found in The Complete Sherlock Holmes. You can read the text online here.

Great Short Stories: #11-20

11. "Ethan Brand" (1851) by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this tale, a man seeks to learn what the "unpardonable sin" could be. Tackling the problem as an experiment, he makes test subjects of several people, deceiving them into committing murder and other terrible acts, but in each case he can see how they could be forgiven. The ultimate revelation of his actions is this: intentionally drawing others into evil is the unpardonable sin.

"Ethan Brand" can be found in Twice-Told Tales. You can read the text online here.

12. "A Terrible Night" (1856) by Fitz-James O'Brien. In this disturbing tale, two men go hunting in the woods somewhere in northern Canada. After becoming lost they chance upon a cabin and the reclusive but proud inhabitant allows them to spend the night. However, the two begin to fear that their host has plans to rob and kill them, so they sleep in shifts to keep an eye on him. The ultimate horror of the evening is much worse than they could have imagined.

"A Terrible Night" can be read online here.

13. "The Phantom Coach" (1864) by Amelia B. Edwards. I first encountered this story in a filmstrip back in junior high school and it left quite a mark upon me; bereft of the film's illustrations, I don't think it's as terrifying, but Edwards still weaves what is to my mind the best of the "phantom coach" style of tales, of which there were many in the 19th century (her colleague Dickens wrote a couple). In this tale, a man lost in the snow accepts a lift from a mysterious coach. There's something not quite right about his fellow passengers...

"The Phantom Coach" can be found in Classic & Victorian Ghost Stories. You can read the text online here.

14. "The Trial for Murder" (1865) by Charles Dickens. In this story, a juror finds himself strangely compelled by the case he's been made to sit in on. He never knew the victim, he does not know the defendant. How is it that he seems possessed of the full details of the crime and is assured of the defendant's guilt? And is there really a 13th juror?

"The Trial for Murder" can read online here.

15. "The Signal-Man" (1866) by Charles Dickens. This eerie story relates the plight of a railway line signal-man who has premonitions of disaster and lives in perpetual fear that his premonitions will come true; the story's protagonist tries to convince him that his fears are groundless, yet he unwittingly has a part to play in the man's future.

"The Signal-Man" can be found in Three Ghost Stories. You can read the text online here.

16. "Green Tea" (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu. Le Fanu is not a well-known name but he's well-regarded by those who know him and stories like "Green Tea" exhibit the reason why. It's a psychological ghost story written in an open, conversational style that may even make you laugh...until the story's phantom monkey appears.

"Green Tea" can be found in Green Tea and Other Strange Tales. You can read the text online here.

17. "Sire de Maletroit's Door" (1877) by Robert Louis Stevenson. In this story, a young cavalier fleeing from his enemies steps inside an open door; he soon has cause to regret this action when he finds himself in the home of a wealthy man determined to find the person who impregnated his daughter. As a criminal, the cavalier cannnot expose his motivation without incriminating himself and so is given a choice: marry his daughter or die.

"Sire de Maletroit's Door" can be found in New Arabian Nights. You can read the text online here.

18. "The Suicide Club" (1878) by Robert Louis Stevenson. Here's where I'm fudging the definition of "short story" just a little. "The Suicide Club" is more properly a novella or even a mini-anthology; it is essentially three short stories which together tell one great story. However, it's mainly the first of these stories which I'm enamored with - "The Young Man With the Cream Tarts." It's this part of the story which is really about the titular Suicide Club. In it, a young prince out to enjoy himself in secrecy joins a club where suicidal people unable to kill themselves play cards every night to choose from amongst their ranks a killer and a victim. The prince's problems really begin when he is chosen to be a victim! This was a story I first encountered on the radio show Escape, but protagonist Prince Florizel turned up in a few more of Stevenson's works.

"The Suicide Club" can be found in New Arabian Nights. You can read the text online here.

19. "A Ruse" (1882) by Guy de Maupassant. Really, this is an awful, tasteless, cynical and terrible story. And yet, it's told with such zest and audacity that I do rather like it. A physician relates a story about an evening where he was called to aid a married woman whose lover had unexpectedly died. He must contrive a means to get the body out of her home before her husband returns. It's all a build-up to an awful punchline, but so far as cynical humour goes, this is one of Maupassant's best.

"A Ruse" can be found in The Complete Works of Guy de Maupassant. You can read the text online here.

20. "Markheim" (1885) by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is a great crime story telling the desperate actions of a killer trying to escape the scene of the crime but plagued by self-doubts and fears of capture. His own conscience stirs against him as he comes closer and closer to discovery.

"Markheim" can be found in Three Tales. You can read the text online here.

Kidnapped: softcover coming!

This December, celebrate Christmas with the softcover edition of Kidnapped!

KIDNAPPED! GN-TPB

Written by ROY THOMAS (based on the novel by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON) Penciled by MARIO GULLY Cover by GERALD PAREL

A STOLEN INHERITANCE! ABDUCTION AT SEA! AN UNSOLVED MURDER: These are the elements that Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, wove together in Kidnapped, his novel set upon the ocean and in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands in the middle of the 18th century. Young David Balfour tries to claim his rightful inheritance from a treacherous uncle determined not to share it—and is kidnapped aboard a ship bound for the American colonies, where he’ll be delivered into slavery. He escapes in the company of a dynamic Scottish rebel named Alan Breck Stewart, and the two of them forge a powerful and memorable friendship—fighting all foes side by side, and triumphing in the end. Collecting KIDNAPPED! #1-5. 128 PGS./Rated T+ ...$14.99 ISBN: 978-0-7851-3532-6

Check out the Kidnapped hardcover

This recent release collects the Marvel Illustrated adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped, as rendered by Roy Thomas and Mario Gully. It's the classic tale of young David Balfour, who is kidnapped and pawned off on a ship's crew, only to find a heroic ally in the Jacobite Alan Breck Stewart.

This hardcover collection also contains a special feature - a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson written by a distant relation of his: yours truly (according to family lore).

I campaigned for this feature on the strength of my family ties, but I'd really like to try my hand at adapting a Stevenson story myself - the Suicide Club, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Markheim, the Bottle Imp - there are still plenty of great tales by Stevenson worthy of adaptation.