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Reading path

The Art of the Short

Proof that a handful of pages can contain a universe. The short story is literature at its most concentrated: every word earns its place, every silence carries weight. This path gathers the masters of the form, writers who could devastate in ten pages what others needed five hundred for. Precision, economy, and the shock of an ending that changes everything that came before it.

In the app a path keeps your place, marks what you have read, and hands you the next work when you are ready for it.

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The first button needs the app on this device; the second gets it there.

The route

  • 1. The NoseNikolai Gogol, 1836
  • 2. The OvercoatNikolai Gogol, 1842
  • 3. The Fall of the House of UsherEdgar Allan Poe, 1839
  • 4. The Tell-Tale HeartEdgar Allan Poe, 1843
  • 5. Boule de SuifGuy de Maupassant, 1880
  • 6. The KissAnton Chekhov, 1887
  • 7. Ward No. 6Anton Chekhov, 1892
  • 8. The Lady with the DogAnton Chekhov, 1899
  • 9. The DeadJames Joyce, 1914
  • 10. The MetamorphosisFranz Kafka, 1915
  • 11. A Hunger ArtistFranz Kafka, 1922
  • 12. Hills Like White ElephantsErnest Hemingway, 1927
  • 13. The Library of BabelJorge Luis Borges, 1941
  • 14. The AlephJorge Luis Borges, 1945
  • 15. The LotteryShirley Jackson, 1948
  • 16. Gimpel the FoolIsaac Bashevis Singer, 1953
  • 17. A Good Man Is Hard to FindFlannery O'Connor, 1953
  • 18. Sonny's BluesJames Baldwin, 1957
  • 19. Where Are You Going Where Have You Been?Joyce Carol Oates, 1966
  • 20. CathedralRaymond Carver, 1983
  • 21. Ghost Stories Of An AntiquaryM.R. James, 1904
  • 22. Winesburg, OhioSherwood Anderson, 1919
  • 23. Bartleby the ScrivenerHerman Melville, 1853
  • 24. DecameronGiovanni Boccaccio, 1353
  • 25. DublinersJames Joyce, 1914
  • 26. Aesop's FablesAesop, 560 BCE
  • 27. Scenes of Clerical LifeGeorge Eliot, 1858
  • 28. The Unknown MasterpieceHonoré de Balzac, 1831
  • 29. At the BayKatherine Mansfield, 1922