Showing results by publisher "Simply Media" in Anthologies & Short Stories

> Comfortable is a coming-of-age story about a young girl who learns in her senior year that her parents are getting divorced; wants to find a proper romantic relationship; studies martial arts for self-defense; and is confronted by two attackers, whom she takes out and kills in self-defense. It features a rather stunning conclusion.

Here is one of Oscar Wilde's wonderful fairy tales, about a giant, the children he meets, and the Christ Child. A moving story, good to hear all year 'round - but especially in the Christmas season.

>"The Cop and the Anthem" may be the third most widely read O. Henry story in grammar, middle, and high school. "The Ransom of Red Chief" rates number one, "The Gift of the Magi" number two, and "A Retrieved Reformation" number four. Young readers enjoy this story a lot because of the hilarious plot of Soapy, the only named character, trying to get arrested so he can spend the winter in jail. Adults tend to like the ironic approach of Soapy’s potential victims....

One of Oscar Wilde's best-loved short stories, which includes romance, love, and murder. The discussion of murder is light-hearted and witty, in typical Wilde fashion. A must listen for fans of the author.

"The Gift of the Magi" is not read or heard widely after one leaves high school, which is a shame, because it is such a magical story about expectations being crushed by realities, and the turn of events, which O. Henry was so masterful at achieving. The interesting twist is that these two people both sacrifice for each other, but that means neither of their gifts works out as planned. However (and O. Henry is full of howevers), the two are deeply in love and shrug it off and move on in their happiness.

Four of Oscar Wilde's best stories - perhaps his best work of all. In any case, these selections are well worth hearing for their wide range of thoughts, emotions, and wit. An afterword is included for those interested. (American accent narration.)

"The Ransom of Red Chief" may be the most widely read story in grammar, middle, and high school. Young people can relate to 10-year-old Red Chief, his father, who makes the kidnappers pay him back in order to take Red Chief off their hands....

"To Be Read at Dusk" is one of Dickens better ghost/phantasm stories, complete with disappearances and people lost forever through other worldly influences or death. A story within a story told by couriers, go-betweens in the age of Dickens.

"A Faint Heart" is a testament to the author's brilliant sense of style and subtle sense of psychology. Two men have a passionate and loving relationship but are not homosexuals. The narrative is about a young clerk who can not reconcile his own personal happiness at marrying a lovely young woman while the rest of the world is not equally as happy. He winds up institutionalized and his beloved marries another, but falls to the ground weeping when meeting his dear friend two years later.

Considered one of the great American short stories; Kurt Vonnegut said it was the best. Set in the Civil War with a Southwestern humor twist worthy of Mark Twain, but much grimmer. The story of betrayal as a Northern Scout in the Civil War lures a planter to blow up a bridge so he can be caught and hanged. Short, concise, worthy.

God Sees the Truth, But Waits engages a subject that would have suited Dostoyevsky. But Dostoyevsky would have written it with a tone of fist-waving anger and frustration, while Tolstoy wrote this story with an accepting, non-violent attitude toward the grievances described. The protagonist has been wrongly accused of murder, separated from his family for 26 years, and by circumstance meets the real murderer in Siberia.

"The Holly Tree" is a warm Christmas story by Charles Dickens and a listening treat for adults during the holiday season or almost any time of year. Full of wonderful Dickensian words, phrases, and irony. The story contains a strain of great truth, and love for Americans, who Dickens depicts over-friendly but warm, kindly, generous, and warm hearted.

"Paul's Case" was first published in 1905 in Cather's first collection of short stories, titled The Troll Garden. Similar to "The Enchanted Forest" featured in her Nine Stories published by Simply, it is one of the great writer's stories accessible to most young people in high school and college. It relates to what they feel, think, and want to be. Perhaps just as importantly, it depicts young people upset by their current circumstances, their families, and the drabness they perceive in their own lives.

Young readers enjoy this story a lot, because of the safecracking plot. Adults tend to like the growing up part: starting a shoe store, succeeding, getting the girl, and going straight.

"An Experiment in Misery" in a story similar to "The Men in the Storm" except that it focuses on one character, and a new fellow traveler called the Assassin, who struggle for warmth and a place for the night. The main character stops first at a saloon for free soup with a beer, where he meets the Assassin. The Assassin accosts the man seeking a few cents for a room.

Chickamauga is a heart-rending Civil War story told through the eyes of a lost boy. The child bears witness to the atrocities of war. He sees dying men crawling across the ground, and later returns to his old homestead, only to find it has been largely destroyed. A must read for people interested in the Civil War and Americana in general, this short story by Ambrose Bierce sheds new light war and its aftermath.

>"The Queer Client" is a desolate story about death and revenge. The tragedy of the story is that every character in the story dies or loses - or both. "The Queer Client" is a remarkable and powerful work about the grim realities of debtor's prison and the fertile ground for despair and revenge found therein. Read by an American voice, by listener request.

"Flanagan" is a story not dissimilar from "The Open Boat", except that the captain dies in "Flanagan" but not in the "Open Boat". Flanagan is hired to take a ship, aptly named the Foundling, down to Cuba to run guns and people into that country. He does so in a rickety old boat and does a good job. A gun boat finds them and barrels at them at top speed. Rather than just running, the natural instinct, Flanagan turns his ship towards the small gun boat, an unexpected chess move....

Mark Twain, America's acknowledged greatest writer of fiction, was a master of writing short stories as well as novels. Twain influence almost every subsequent American writer from Hemingway and Fitzgerald, to Cather and Robert Frost. These are four of his best short stories, starting with his most famous, "The Notorious Frog", and including three of his other favorites.

>"Killed at Resaca" is the story of a brave man, loved by his fellow soldiers and driven by a heartless, beautiful woman. Full of Bierce's infamous sense of outrage and morality, this is a classic Civil War story.