LitReading - Classic Short Stories

Humans have shared stories for millennia. For most of that time, telling tales was a verbal process. A storyteller would regale an audience with accounts of adventure, bravery, compassion, despair, enlightenment, and fear. Stories were a shared experience, until the advent of inexpensive mass-printing processes in the 19th century which allowed most of us to read to ourselves. Yet, that desire to have a story read aloud is still ingrained in our collective soul.

While we still read books for pleasure, most of today’s stories are told via newer forms of visual media like movies and television. Consuming stories via any visual medium requires an active commitment to the process. You probably shouldn’t read a book or watch a TV program while driving, but your brain still craves a good story.

An audio book is suitable for a long road trip. But what about those times when you only have a few minutes? Enter the audio short story.

Allow me to help you fill those moments and fulfill your need for a captivating tale with readings of some of the world’s greatest literary masters best brief works.

My love of the spoken word has been honed by a more than 30-year career in radio and voice acting with a modicum of performance passion from decades of stage performances.

This venture is my hobby (I have a great full-time job), so much of the content is free of cost. I hope you enjoy them.

If you would like to share thoughts or comments, please drop me a line. If you enjoy these stories, please spread the word, subscribe, and leave a review on your favorite podcast service.

Thanks for stopping by,

Don McDonald

Fiction
Performing Arts
Books
76
A Horseman in the Sky by Ambrose Bierce
Early in the US Civil War, families, particularly those in the western part of Virginia (now the state of West Virginia), were torn apart over conflicting loyalties. This story is a fictional account of one young soldier who chose to fight for his...
18 min
77
Pigs is Pigs by Ellis Parker Butler
There is nothing like a corporate bureaucracy to raise someone's ire.
22 min
78
Two Hearts That Beat as One by Frank Norris
There is something special about the Old West. Life is the western United States for much of the 19th century was akin to living in another country, which makes sense as it was cobbled together from many diverse societies. Our next story takes place...
28 min
79
An Angel in Disguise by T.S. Arthur
Without individual compassion, the good, old days were rarely good for orphaned or disabled children.
18 min
80
Dusk by Saki
A young man seeks help from a stranger on a park bench. Does he deserve it?
11 min
81
The Bakers Dozen by Saki
Saki (or H.H. Munro) is considered to be one of the greatest short story masters of all-time for his biting humor and spot on satire as evidenced by the unique story in the form of a playlet. Saki (the pen name of H.H. Munro) was a prolific and...
12 min
82
The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Cri...
What would you do if your conscience no longer nagged you?
38 min
83
Indian Camp by Ernest Hemingway
Thankfully, I can now read Hemingway to you. This story is a powerful way to start. It’s a tale of duty, pain, suffering, racism and so much more. It has myriad twists and turns and all manner of fascinating subplots for such a short story. You may...
10 min
84
Tobermory by Saki
Since we just shared a cat story, how about another one from our story archive? Here is a biting satire of Victorian Era British upper class from the perspective of the family cat who gains a startling new skill. Saki was the pen name of...
17 min
85
Gipsy by Booth Tarkington
Being a dog person, some of my favorite stories feature dogs. It only seems fair to feature a feline character. And you couldn’t ask for a story than one from a two time Pulitzer Prize winner. This story was part of Booth Tarkington’s extremely...
14 min
86
The Looking Glass by Anton Chekov
While forward to the future we often forget the darkness that is part of life.
11 min
87
Love in the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A young man's longing for love is briefly fulfilled on one moonlight evening on the sea off the coast of Cannes.
39 min
88
Mr. Know-All by W. Somerset Maugham
Welcome aboard an early 20th Century trans-pacific ocean liner where one is likely to be stuck for weeks with any number of unusual characters. Of course, we are likely to put a great deal of stock in first impressions when it often pays to wait to...
16 min
89
The Whirligig of Life by O. Henry
A rural mountain couple struggle with their differences, anger, and overpowering love for each other.
14 min
90
The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick
So far, all of our public domain stories were created prior to 1925. However, there are a few newer tales that are no longer copyright protected. From one of the world’s best science fiction writer’s comes a tale of idioms and aliens. Essentially,...
8 min
91
Second Best by D.H. Lawrence
A new love springs from the conversations of two sisters and a couple of moles.
20 min
92
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Grief and heartbreak are the typical reactions to the loss of a loved one, but other emotions may lurk within.
8 min
93
The Fable of the Preacher Who Flew His Kite, Bu...
When a preacher failed to stir the emotions of his congregants he resorts to the time tested tradition of embellishment.
7 min
94
After Twenty Years by O. Henry
Twenty years after heading west to find his fortunes a man returns to meet a long lost friend.
7 min
95
The Aged, Aged Man by Lewis Carroll
I have always loved the work of Lewis Carroll. In fact, Litreading began with my rendition of Carroll’s nonsense poem Jabberwocky. His only foray into shorter works came in the form of poetry, much of which found its way into his Alice books. This...
5 min
96
The Fly by Katherine Mansfield
Grief part of the human condition and we cope with it varies from person to person. When two old men discuss the loss of family members several years after World War I, it is a fly that help illustrate both life’s constant struggles and fragility....
15 min
97
Misery by Anton Chekhov
Loneliness is painful enough under normal circumstances, but social rejection in the face of a personal crisis can be devastating.
14 min
98
A Telephonic Conversation by Mark Twain
This is more a satirical essay than an actual short story, but it makes me smile. The first telephone was demonstrated at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. By 1880, many wealthier families were using the new communication device...
7 min
99
A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin
Money has the power to take us away, if only temporarily, from the due routines of life. However, there is always a price to pay for our fiscal flights of fancy and real life eventually hoists its humdrum head again.
12 min
100
The Other Two by Edith Wharton
We are complex creatures and grow more so with time. Every relationship adds or subtracts from who we are. No relationship is more life changing than marriage and for a woman thrice married in pre-suffrage America the stigma of mutual divorce seems...
47 min