Welcome to 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales!

Episodes

Aug. 27, 2025

2 B R 0 2 B by KURT VONNEGUT

(to be or naught to be) In a future where death is volunteered and the population is controlled, a soon-to-be father waits for his triplets to be born—and he must find three volunteers to die in order for them to live.. Expli...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 24, 2025

A MYSTERY OF HEROISM by STEPHEN CRANE

meAmidst a raging battle taking place over an otherwise peaceful glen, a soldier, having been taunted by others, decides to run under shell and rifle fire across an open meadow filled with dying men and horses to a nearby wel...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 20, 2025

MR.VINCENT EGG AND THE WAGE OF SIN H.C. BUNNER

An elder man living out his latter days in Paris and working part time writing for a tour guide spends one week every month drinking himself into a stupor between writing jobs and having no concern for other people's problems...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 17, 2025

MY WATCH and MY FIRST LITERARY VENTURE by MARK TWAIN

MY WATCH: A humurous piece describing the narrator's futile efforts to get his watch fixed MY FIRST LITERARY VENTURE: An autobiographical piece describing Twain as a young typesetter in Hannibal who gets a rare chance to writ...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 13, 2025

THE UNFAMILIAR by RICHARD CONNELL

A small, broze-skinned man shows up mysteriously in a small Connecicut farming town wearing strange clothes and speaking very little english. A local farmer rescues him from a trip to the jail by offering to be responsible fo...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 10, 2025

O.HENRY DOUBLE PLAY: DOUGHERTY'S EYE OPENER and LITTLE SPECK IN GARNE…

Big Jim Dougherty was a sporting man, but he hadn;t been much of a husband to Del. After three years of marriage she finally had to ask him to take her out to dinner. She dressed to impress. A great New York in 1905 short sto...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 10, 2025

1001 STORIES FROM THE GILDED AGE STARTS ROCKIN' TODAY! FOLLOW AT YOU…

Starting now ANNE OF THE ISLAND EVERY MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY AT NOON EASTERN- Anne is headed for college 1001 Stories From The Gilded Age Now Mon-Wed-Fri (Fri is short story) all at noon EDT Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.a...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 9, 2025

COMING SOON TO 1001 STORIES FROM THE GILDED AGE: ANNE OF THE ISLAND

It's "Back to School" time for Anne Shirley of Green Gables- as well as your kids and neighbor's kids-Coming Sunday Aug 10 (tomorrow as I write this) at noon EDT -Chapter 1 of the 3rd 'Anne of Green Gables' story- called 'An...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 6, 2025

HUCKLEBERRY by FRANK STOCKTON A TALE OF RIDDLES

Frank Stockton not only gave us some great short stories but also some very well-loved children's tales. Frank Stockton (1854 - 1902) was an American writer and humorist, best known for his allegorical fairy tales for all age...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 3, 2025

THE AUNT AND THE SLUGGARD by P.G. WODEHOUSE

"The Aunt and the Sluggard" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in the Saturday Evening Post in the United States in April 1916, a...

Listen to the Episode
July 26, 2025

THE VANISHING OF VAUDREY A FATHER BROWN MYSTERY (W BONUS PRELUDE)

In one of GK Chesterton'slast collections, the Wisdom of Father Brown, Father Brown, while visiting a retired Flambeau in Spain, explains to a curious guest how he solves murders. Then he begins to recall past events, one sto...

Listen to the Episode
July 23, 2025

A TRIVIAL INCIDENT by ANTON CHEKHOV

A Trivial Incident- An Earlybird Release Our narrator and his friend enter the woods on a large estate to hunt woodcock but are soon told that the owner does not allow hunting. The narrator's friend once knew the lady owner s...

Listen to the Episode
July 20, 2025

THE GOLD and THE CAT BY MARY E. WILKIINS FREEMAN

The Gold - The Colonies had recently gone to war with the Old Country and New England coastal residents were hearing that british ships were raiding small towns. One married couple, having just received a large inheritance of...

Listen to the Episode
July 16, 2025

SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER (PT 2) HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER BY HENRY …

In part two our narrator, Joe, now older, heads out to the outback to raise sheep with his best friend who has just married a girl they had grown up with. Upon leaving she asks Joe not to let her new husband go near a drink- ...

Listen to the Episode
July 13, 2025

SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER (PT 1) by HENRY LAWSON

Henry Lawson was one of Australia's greatest short story writers (I think the best) and poets, and hisn stories tell much about the people who settle Australia and fought the tough climate and barren landscape to farm and ra...

Listen to the Episode
July 9, 2025

THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST by H.G. WELLS

Two unscrupulous Englishmen murder a group of Chinamen who are about to find a treasure in gold ingots but find the treasure better protected than they thought... Join us at www.bestof1001stories.com to brose all 12 of our 10...

Listen to the Episode
July 6, 2025

THE TRANSFERRED GHOST by FRANK STOCKTON

Amild mannered man falls in love with a young lady named Madeleine but doesn't have the courage to tell her, mainly because her father is a mean old guy who wants to keep her by his side as he grows older. The father goes awa...

Listen to the Episode
June 29, 2025

THE ADVENTURE OF THE FINAL PROBLEM A SHERLOCK HOLMES ADVENTURE (2025)

In this story Dr. Watson narrates a tragedy involving Holmes as it appears Holmes has been killed by his mortal enemy, Dr Moriarty, on the eve of a trial that would convict Moriarty and his henchmen of a number of crimes. NO...

Listen to the Episode
June 25, 2025

EXTRICATING YOUNG GUSSIE A BERTIE WOOSTER/JEEVES STORY FROM P.G. WOD…

"Extricating Young Gussie" is a short story by the British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. It was first published in the United States in the 18 September 1915 issue of The Saturday Evening Post and in the United Kingdom in the...

Listen to the Episode
June 22, 2025

A QUESTION OF POSSESSION by ANDY ADAMS

Another great western short story by cowboy author Andy Adams telling of a rancher who had worked for years to build a good ranch with his own brand of horses- who suddenly has an old judgement come up against him- forcing th...

Listen to the Episode
June 18, 2025

BEST OF (#68 of 573) THE MILLION DOLLAR BOND ROBBERY AGATHA CHRISTIE

A million dollars worth of nonds disappear from under a young man's nose and now he's being held accountable- a great Poirot mystery short story from Agatha Christie

Listen to the Episode
May 25, 2025

A RUDYARD KIPLING DOUBLE PLAY COURAGE and FALSE DAWN

'Courage' is actually a very moving poem- a father's advice to his son. False Dawn had me holding my sides through parts of this story as our narrator, who we presume is working at a government post in India, accompanies a sm...

Listen to the Episode
May 21, 2025

THE ACTOR AND THE ALIBI A FATHER BROWN MYSTERY by G.K.CHESTERTON

Mundon Mandeville runs a thoroughly disliked repertoire theater company and is murdered inside a windowless room in the building although everyone involved has an alibi. Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and a...

Listen to the Episode
May 18, 2025

THE JELLYBEAN by F.SCOTT FITZGERALD

The story was written as a sequel to “The Ice Palace,” and Clark Darrow appears in both. The omniscient narrator, who ensures that close observation is paid to Powell’s story, draws in the reader. The opening line – “Jim Powe...

Listen to the Episode