Short stories | Lecturia

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.

Fredric Brown: Solipsist

“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.

Clarice Lispector: The Smallest Woman in the World

“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.

Juan Carlos Onetti: The Cat

“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.