“Solipsist” is a short story by the American writer Fredric Brown, published in 1954 in the anthology Angels and Spaceships. Walter B. Jehovah has been a solipsist all his life: he believes that only he truly exists and that the universe is a creation of his mind. After a series of personal misfortunes, he ends up hospitalized and puts his beliefs to the test: as he contemplates the stars, he wishes that everything around him would cease to exist.
“The Smallest Woman in the World” (A menor mulher do mundo) is a short story by Clarice Lispector, published in 1960 in the book Laços de família. In the depths of equatorial Africa, the French explorer Marcel Pretre discovers a tribe of extraordinarily tiny pygmies and, among them, an even smaller woman: a human figure scarcely forty-five centimeters tall, whom he names Little Flower. Astonished by the discovery, the explorer decides to study her, while news and a photograph of the tiny woman spread through the newspapers, provoking a range of reactions among those who gaze upon her image.
“The Cat” is a short story by Juan Carlos Onetti, published in the collection Liminar in 1980. The story follows John, a cynical and distant Englishman, who confesses to a friend the reason behind his decision not to marry. In his account, he recalls a former engagement to Marie, a French woman with whom he was deeply in love. Everything was ready for them to begin their life together, until an unexpected and strange situation changed the course of their plans.
“Boule de Suif” is Guy de Maupassant’s most emblematic short story, the one that marked his rise to literary stardom. Published in 1880, it recounts the flight of a motley group of people from Rouen amid the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War. Among the passengers are three upper-class couples, two nuns, a self-proclaimed revolutionary, and a well-known prostitute nicknamed Boule de Suif. Throughout the journey, Boule de Suif emerges as a shy and generous figure, selflessly concerned for the well-being of her companions. In return, however, she faces disdain, humiliation, and hypocrisy.
“The Fun They Had” is a short story by Isaac Asimov, published in December 1951 in Boys and Girls Page. Margie and Tommy, two children living in a future society, discover something they have never seen before: a real book printed on paper. The two friends—and Margie in particular—are fascinated by this unusual object, which describes a distant time when education was conducted in a way very different from the one they know.
“Jack the Ripper” is a short story by the American writer Shirley Jackson, published posthumously in 1996 in the book Just an Ordinary Day. On a New York night, a man walks down a deserted street when he comes upon a young woman who has fainted beside a bar, apparently drunk. Alarmed by her condition, he goes inside the establishment and tries to get help for her, but he encounters the indifference of the bartender and the other men present, who prefer to wash their hands of the matter, claiming they know her and that she usually sleeps on the street. Faced with this general apathy, the man decides to take matters into his own hands and help the young woman himself.