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Approximate Reading Times
Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours
Short Story by Franz Kafka. A frail but dominating father thinks his son is trying to ease him out of their family business. After an argument over the son’s marriage plans and a mysterious friend he communicates with in Russia, the father sentences him to death for selfishness and betrayal.
Short Story by Graham Greene. A boy rationalizes his widowed father’s long absences from home by convincing himself that he is a mysterious adventurer. In reality, his father is a restless author whose unlikely death in an Italian 'street accident' becomes an embarrassment the lad must carry into adulthood.
Short Story by Doris Lessing. The native cook on a Rhodesian family’s farm doubles as a local medicine man. One day, he uses “bush medicine” to save their son’s eyesight. The parents’ gratitude turns to anger when he refuses to reveal the secret of the cure to a greedy scientist.
Novelette by Joseph Conrad. A young sea captain preparing for his first command learns some valuable lessons from a fugitive killer he allows to hide in his cabin. Unlike his guest, the captain is unsure of himself and does not yet project the self-confidence and authority needed for the job.
A Philippine passenger-cargo ship transports a critically injured stevedore to the next port for medical treatment. Tending him are his pregnant wife and her mother. Despite a supposed telegraph request for a doctor meet the ship on arrival, they are left stranded on the dock with no sign of help.
Novelette by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A school “friend” invites a young man to holiday at his luxurious family home deep in the Montana Mountains. The narcissistic family’s wealth comes from a secret diamond mine, which is so rich that strangers who enter their hidden valley can never leave.