LitReading - Short Stories and Timeless Tales

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LitReading - Short Stories and Timeless Tales episodes

August 29, 2025 Tobermory–a Classic Short Story by Saki
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 British author, H.H. Munro who was one of true masters of the short story.
We are so honored to have been featured by Apple Podcasts as a great source for summer stories. If you don't want to miss our future stories, please Follow or Subscribe. Also, we have over 100 stories in our back catalog. Enough stories to keep you entertained for weeks.

Looking for even more stories? Check out all out narrative podcasts at shortstoryverses.com

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18 min
August 29, 2025 Gipsy by Booth Tarkington — One Free Spirit Upends a Respectable Household
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 popular Penrod stories, that, during their day rivaled the popularity of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Tarkington is only one of three authors to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction. The other two: Faulkner and Updike.

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15 min
August 28, 2025 Mr. Know-All by W. Somerset Maugham — The Loudest Man on the Ship Keeps One Quiet Secret
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 get to know someone.

Never a darling of the critics, W. Someset Maugham (the W is for William) was a prolific author and playwright. He was best known for his short stories many of which were fictional global travelogues. Because so many of his works were turned into early motion pictures, Maugham was the world’s best paid writer in the 1930s.

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17 min
August 28, 2025 The Whirligig of Life by O. Henry — A Divorcing Couple Discovers They Cannot Stay Apart
A rural mountain couple struggle with their differences, anger, and overpowering love for each other.

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15 min
August 26, 2025 Second Best by D. H. Lawrence — A Young Woman Settles for the Man Who Stayed
A new love springs from the conversations of two sisters and a couple of moles.

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21 min
August 25, 2025 The Fable of the Preacher Who Flew His Kite by George Ade — The Cost of Pleasing Everyone
When a preacher failed to stir the emotions of his congregants he resorts to the time tested tradition of embellishment.

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8 min
August 25, 2025 After Twenty Years by O. Henry — Two Old Friends Keep an Appointment with Fate
Twenty years after heading west to find his fortunes a man returns to meet a long lost friend.

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8 min
August 25, 2025 The Aged, Aged Man by Lewis Carroll — One Old Man Has Far Too Many Ways to Make a Living
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 piece was written a bit differently earlier and changed when added to the book, “Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass.”

This nonsense verse is said to be a parody of a poem by Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence.

Lewis Carroll was the pen name and alter ego of Charles Dodgeson, a well off Englishman in the mid 19th Century. Although not a particularly prolific author – he had myriad passions – Carroll remains of the most popular writers of all time.

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6 min
August 25, 2025 The Fly by Katherine Mansfield — A Grieving Father Tests a Fly’s Will to Live
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.

The Fly is considered one of Catherine Mansfield’s greatest works because it is personal. Mansfield lost her brother in a training demonstration during World War I.
One of the great modernist writers of the early 20th century, Mansfield was both a contemporary and a friend of two other great authors of that period, D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Wolff. Her works are less well known as her career was cut short by terminal tuberculosis at the age of 34.

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16 min
August 24, 2025 Misery by Anton Chekhov — A Cabman Needs Someone—Anyone—to Hear His Grief
Loneliness is painful enough under normal circumstances, but social rejection in the face of a personal crisis can be devastating.

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15 min