Great Short Stories: #31-40

31. "A Scandal in Bohemia" (1891) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One of the best Sherlock Holmes stories, this is the famous tale of Irene Adler, the woman who outsmarted Holmes. It's a great story that shows Holmes at his best, even though he meets his match. Much has been made of Moriarty as Holmes' ultimate nemesis, but Adler is the only one of his adversaries who proved a genuine intellectual equal.

"A Scandal in Bohemia" can be found in The Complete Sherlock Holmes. You can read the text online here.

32. "Lot No. 249" (1892) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is a mummy story, although it follows some of the traditional zombie story maneuvers as well. A young man has found a way to command a mummy to do his bidding and he sees it as his opportunity to eliminate all of his rivals.

"Lot No. 249" can be found in Return From the Dead. You can read the text online here.

33. "Lost Hearts" (1893) by M.R. James. This is one of James' earliest tales and it's rather unlike the main body of his work (I'll be listing a lot of them over the next two days). A poor child is taken in by a doctor who provides for his every need. But it seems that children have a way of disappearing around his home...

"Lost Hearts" can be found in Complete Ghost Stories. You can read the text online here.

34. "How the Brigadier Won His Medal" (1894) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Of all the great Brigadier Gerard stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this is certainly one of them. If you know Doyle for Holmes or the Lost World you should try a Brigadier Gerard story, they're quite different and very funny. In this tale, Gerard is sent on what could only be an impossible task - impossible for any man but Gerard! The only problem is his superiors meant for him to be captured. Poor Gerard, ever bringing competance to the job of an incompetant.

"How the Brigadier Won His Medal" can be found in Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard. You can read the text online here.

35. "Canon Alberic's Scrap Book" (1895) by M.R. James. Now then, this is another M.R. James story, but it follows a formula he used time and again thereon. A researcher visiting an old church befriends the parson, who shows him an incredible text full of rare illustrations from chuch history. He's quite eager to be rid of it...and before the day is over, the researcher learns why...

"Canon Alberic's Scrap Book" can be found in Complete Ghost Stories. You can read the text online here.

36. "The Open Boat" (1897) by Stephen Crane. Based on an incident which occurred to Crane, this is the story of four men cast adrift in a lifeboat trying desperately to save themselves as the situation grows increasingly bleak.

"The Open Boat" can be found in The Open Boat and Other Stories. You can read the text online here.

37. "The Damned Thing" (1898) by Ambrose Bierce. A fine combination of wit and horror, this quick tale recounts the circumstances surrounding the unusual death of a hunter who believes there are things existing slightly outside man's ken, but not necessarily beyond that of nature.

"The Damned Thing" can be found in The Spook House. You can read the text online here.

38. "Drums of the Fore and Aft" (1898) by Rudyard Kipling. An excellent story about two young men who play in a regiment band and find themselves stranded on the battlefield when the rest of their party retreats. The duo see only one course open to them: they march, trying to inspire their forces to come back and continue the fight.

"Drums of the Fore and Aft" can be found in War Stories and Poems. You can read the text online here.

39. "Captain Rogers" (1901) by W.W. Jacobs. A familiar tale with a twist; a good man raising his daughter alone is confronted by a figure from his past who knows him as "Captain Rogers," a wanted man. He uses this information as blackmail to get whatever he wants from the man, gradually forcing him out of his own home and property and threatening to take his daughter as well. It all leads up to a well-earned twist...

"Captain Rogers" can be found in The Lady of the Barge and Other Stories. You can read the text online here.

40. "An Adulteration Act" (1902) by W.W. Jacobs. A humourous story of a doctor and a lawyer who are shanghaied and forced to serve aboard a ship at sea. The two men are ill-prepared for lives of drudgery and to regain their old lives they use the only strengths they have - those of their normal vocations.

"An Adulteration Act" can be found in The Lady of the Barge and Other Stories. You can read the text online here.

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.