{"code":"literary","header_2":"The deep, the difficult and the detailed.","header_1":"The Best Literary Short Stories of History","description":"The best literary short stories of history. Read or download. My Uncle Jules by Guy De Maupassant, Black Fog by Aleksandr I. Kuprin, The Mantle by Nikolai Gogol.","stories":[{"story":"my-uncle-jules","description":"This tale from French author Guy de Maupassant is a cynical exposé on people and how they treat family. The poverty-stricken Davranche family holds out hope that an estranged uncle will return from America with a large fortune, after they receive a letter saying he has turned his life around and will repay his debts to the father."},{"story":"black-fog","description":"Kuprin writes on the clash of a city man and a country man in *Black Fog*. A rambunctious Ukrainian barges back into Petersburg and his old friend’s life determined to ‘Conquer’ the city."},{"story":"the-blood-of-the-martyrs","description":"*The Blood of the Martyrs* examines the difficulty of standing by your own morals and truths in the face of persecution. In this story, a Professor Malzius is imprisioned by a regime of an unspecified nation whose name becomes increasingly obvious as the story unfolds. The professor is given the chance to return to his research and experiments at his old university, in exchange for giving up certain information."},{"story":"a-slav-soul","description":"Like James Joyce for Ireland, and Banjo Patterson for Australia, Alexander Kuprin tries to capture the soul of the people around him in his stories. *A Slav Soul* follows a man’s boyhood memories of his fathers servant, who despite his odd quirks and deficiencies manages to capture the essence of the ‘Slav Soul’."},{"story":"the-mantle","description":"*The Mantle* (Also known as *The Overcoat*, or *The Cloak*) is considered the keystone short story of Russian literature. Despite the simple structure of the plot, much of both beauty and suffering are packed into this story of a poor man planning on buying a new coat."},{"story":"if-i-were-a-man","description":"Charlotte Perkins Gilman was always looking at the story of gender. And once again she sheds new light on the matter. In *If I Were a Man*, Mollie Mathewson suddenly finds herself seeing the world through her husbands eyes, and discovers the perspective of men."},{"story":"the-man-in-a-case","description":"In *The Man in a Case*, Byelikov the schoolteacher finally comes upon a woman interested in him, but he hesitates at the idea of marriage. Chekhov presents a character perfectly representing the kind of man that never takes risks, never opens up, and inevitably ruins his own opportunity to become more than he was."}],"title":"Best of Literary","subroute":"literary","authors":["aleksandrikuprin","antonchekhov","guydemaupassant","charlotteperkinsgilman","stephenvincentbenet","katechopin"],"has_text":true,"quote":{"quote":"“I had heard about him since childhood, and it seemed to me that I should recognize him immediately.” * My Uncle Jules","code":"my-uncle-jules"},"image_code":"my-uncle-jules","image_alt":"Drawing of a crowd watching an arriving ship","collection_type":"genre"}