Short stories | Lecturia

Arthur C. Clarke: Transit of Earth

“Transit of Earth” is a science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke, published in January 1971 in Playboy magazine. Evans is an astronaut stranded on Mars who knows he has less than twenty-four hours of oxygen left. As he waits to record an astronomical phenomenon that occurs only once every hundred years—the passage of Earth across the face of the Sun as seen from Mars—he reflects on his life, his fears, and the memories that haunt him. With the calm of someone who has already accepted his fate, Evans prepares to carry out the mission for which his companions sacrificed their own lives.

Isaac Asimov: Someday

“Someday” is a short story by Isaac Asimov published in August 1956 in the magazine Infinity Science Fiction. Set in a future in which machines have replaced much of everyday work, the story follows Niccolo and Paul, two friends who discover an old Narrator, a device that automatically creates and tells stories. The two friends complain that the machine only tells stories set in a world with horses, cows, and other things they do not recognize. While Paul tries to improve the device, he tells Niccolo that there was once a time—before computers—when people had to do something called “reading” in order to learn new stories.

Albert Camus: The Adulterous Woman

“The Adulterous Woman” (La femme adultère), a short story by the French writer Albert Camus, narrates the introspective and transformative journey of Janine, a woman who accompanies her husband Marcel on a business trip across the Algerian desert. Throughout the journey, Janine experiences a profound sense of loneliness and dissatisfaction with her married and everyday life. The narrative details her observations and reflections on the surroundings, the people they encounter, and especially her own emotional and existential state. Through the vast and desolate landscape of the desert, Janine confronts her repressed desires, her feeling of emptiness, and her search for a deeper meaning in life.

Arthur Conan Doyle: The Ring of Thoth

“The Ring of Thoth” is a mystery and adventure short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle and published in 1890. The story follows John Vansittart Smith, a renowned English Egyptologist who, during a visit to the Louvre Museum to study ancient papyri, falls asleep and awakens after midnight, finding himself alone in the vast museum. Trapped in this mysterious atmosphere, he witnesses a strange and supernatural event that connects him with an ancient story from Pharaonic Egypt.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Wakefield

“Wakefield” is a short story by the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in The New-England Magazine in May 1835. Under the pretext of taking a brief trip, a man abandons his home and his wife and secretly installs himself in a room on the street next to his own. For no apparent reason, he observes from a distance the life he has left behind, becoming an invisible spectator of his own absence. What was meant to be a getaway of only a few days gradually stretches on, as Wakefield sinks into anonymity and indefinitely postpones his return.

Brian Aldiss: Super-Toys Last All Summer Long

“Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” is a short story by the British writer Brian Aldiss, published in December 1969 in Harper’s Bazaar. In an overpopulated and highly technologized world, Monica Swinton lives in a luxurious home that keeps her family insulated from the miseries of the outside world. Despite the comforts she enjoys, Monica is a lonely and dissatisfied woman. While her husband runs a large corporation, she spends her days at home with the only company she has: her son David and Teddy, a mechanized teddy bear. Although David tries to grow closer to his mother, Monica’s loneliness seems to require something more than the child to be filled.