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True! -- nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses -- not de…
Evidence note
The narrator claims sanity while every action demonstrates the opposite, forcing readers t…
Unreliable Narrator
by Edgar Allan Poe · 1843 · 2,100 words
An unnamed narrator insists upon their sanity while describing the methodical killing of an old man. Driven mad by the old man's "vulture eye," the narrator commits the act with precision, dismembers the body, and hides it beneath the floorboards. When police arrive, the narrator's guilt manifests as an unbearable phantom heartbeat, leading to a confession.
“True! -- nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses -- not destroyed -- not dulled them.…”Read the full story
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The complete text
“True! -- nervous -- very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses -- not destroyed -- not dulled them.…”
2,100 words · 8 min · 1843 · public domain
Edgar Allan Poe · 1843
An unnamed narrator insists upon their sanity while describing the methodical killing of an old man. Driven mad by the old man's "vulture eye," the narrator commits the act with precision, dismembers the body, and hides it beneath the floorboards. When police arrive, the narrator's guilt manifests as an unbearable phantom heartbeat, leading to a confession.
Kate Chopin · 1894
Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband's death in a railroad accident. After initial grief, alone in her room she discovers an unexpected feeling of freedom and independence. She whispers "free, free, free!" and begins to imagine a self-directed future. When her husband unexpectedly walks through the door alive, she collapses and dies - doctors say of "joy that kills."
O. Henry · 1905
Della and Jim are a young married couple too poor to buy Christmas gifts. Della sells her beautiful long hair to buy a platinum watch chain for Jim. Jim, meanwhile, sells his treasured pocket watch to buy decorative combs for Della's hair. Each sacrifices their most prized possession for the other, only to find their gifts are now useless - yet their love is the true gift.
Guy de Maupassant · 1884
Mathilde Loisel, a middle-class woman who dreams of wealth and luxury, borrows a diamond necklace from a wealthy friend for an elegant ball. She loses the necklace and, rather than confessing, she and her husband secretly replace it with an identical one, going deeply into debt. After ten years of grueling labor to repay the debt, Mathilde encounters her friend who reveals the original necklace was paste - worth almost nothing.
Ambrose Bierce · 1890
Peyton Farquhar, a Confederate sympathizer, stands on the Owl Creek bridge about to be hanged by Union soldiers. A flashback reveals he was tricked by a disguised Federal scout into attempting to burn the bridge. At the moment of execution, Farquhar appears to escape: the rope breaks, he plunges into the creek, evades gunfire, and treks through the wilderness toward home. Just as he reaches his wife, the narrative reveals the entire escape was a dying hallucination — Farquhar hangs dead from the bridge, his neck broken.
W.W. Jacobs · 1902
Mr. and Mrs. White acquire a magical monkey's paw from Sergeant-Major Morris, who warns them that its wishes come with devastating consequences. Their first wish for two hundred pounds is fulfilled when their son Herbert is killed in a factory accident and the company pays that exact sum in compensation. Grief-stricken, Mrs. White insists on using the second wish to bring Herbert back. When a terrible knocking begins at the door, Mr. White realizes what horrors may await and uses the third wish to undo the second before his wife can open the door.
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