Short classics and novellas

A Scottish general’s pursuit of the crown through murder provides a concentrated choice about ambition.

A hopeful young man confronts cruelty and disaster, making his beliefs the centre of this selection.

Werther’s consuming love for an engaged woman makes this a focused choice for readers drawn to longing.

A walk into the Catskill Mountains leads to a strange sleep and an encounter with changed America.

A schoolteacher’s hopes of marriage meet a rival and the shadow of a headless rider.

A soldier declared dead seeks legal help to recover his identity, property, and marriage in Paris.

A visit to an ill childhood friend in a decaying mansion concentrates attention on illness and fear.

Scrooge’s lonely life and ghostly Christmas visions offer a focused story about how a miser faces himself.

A copyist’s refusals disturb a lawyer’s orderly office, keeping attention on an increasingly difficult working relationship.

A solitary former official’s confession turns attention inward, towards pride, contradictory feelings, and self-defeating choices.

Alice’s pursuit of a White Rabbit opens a world of changing sizes and overturned ordinary rules.

A widow’s charm and deception drive marriage plans for herself and her daughter in this focused selection.

A mysterious guest’s arrival at Laura’s secluded castle brings affection, illness, and fear into one household.

An American traveller’s easy friendliness unsettles social expectations, placing personal freedom and suspicion at the centre.

A Square’s geometrical world connects social restrictions with the possibility of dimensions beyond his own.

A lawyer’s investigation links a respected doctor with a violent stranger, giving this selection a clear mystery.

One man’s suspicion that an invisible being controls him gives this story an intimate source of fear.

An American family’s refusal to fear a house ghost offers a different approach to supernatural encounters.

A death in an empty London house draws Holmes and Watson into a mystery rooted in revenge.

A journey into the distant future centres on a traveller’s encounter with a divided humanity.

A governess’s belief that ghosts threaten her charges places fear and responsibility at the story’s centre.

Marlow’s river journey towards an ivory agent brings the cruelty of colonial trading into view.

Buck’s passage from a California estate to a northern sled team gives this adventure a direct survival focus.

A farmer’s marriage and love for another woman provide a tightly focused choice about conflicting attachments.

An ageing writer’s absorption in a boy’s beauty unsettles the strict discipline that has ordered his life.