A prototypical modernist short story with complex metaphors and imagery. Somewhere in northern Spain an American man and a young girl are having drinks at a bar in a train station. They are waiting for a train to Barcelona, where she is going to have an abortion. She seems to be afraid of the procedure, […]

Prototypical modernist short story on class issues, wealth and self-reflexion with complex metaphors and imagery. The Sheridan family is preparing a party in the garden of their mansion, when the news arrives that Mr. Scott, their neighbor, died in an accident. Laura, the daughter of the Sheridans’, wants to cancel the party – but her […]

A modernist short story adressing alienation, confrontation and illusion that follows Miss Brill, who works as an English teacher in France. Every Sunday she visits the public gardens to sit on a bench observing her surroundings. She imagines the whole scenery as a theatre play in which everybody – including herself – has a particular […]

A witty, lighthearted short story about vanity, desire and competition that satirized the manners of the Edwardian upper class. Mrs. Packletide, an English aristocrat of the Edwardian era, wants to demonstrate her superiority to her social competitor Mrs. Bimberton and therefore plans to hunt a tiger. With the help of an entire village and a […]

A light-hearted short story about a ghost who hasn’t slept for 300 years and desperately fails to be scary at all. The US-American Otis family moves into Canterville Chase, a haunted house in England. Soon after their arrival, a ghost of an English nobleman named Sir Simon de Centerville reveals himself and tries his best […]

Peter Rabbit and his three siblings Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail discover their surroundings and experience adventures in nature. In “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” they are told by their mother not to enter the vegetable garden of Mr. McGregor. While his siblings listen to their mother, Peter – who is a far more adventurous and […]