The Fairy’s New Year Gift – English story of the month – January
The Fairy’s New Year Gift
by Emilie Poulsson (Adapted)
Two little boys, Carl and Phillip, were at play one day when a Fairy suddenly appeared before them and said: “I have been sent to give you New Year presents,” and she handed to each child a package, and in an instant was gone.
The boys opened the packages and found in them two beautiful books, with pages as pure and white as the snow when it first falls.
The Remarkable Rocket – English story of the month – November
The Remarkable Rocket
by Oscar Wilde
The King’s son was going to be married, so there was general rejoicing. He had waited a whole year for his bride, and at last she had arrived. She was a Russian princess, and had driven all the way from Finland in a sledge drawn by six reindeer. The sledge was shaped like a great golden swan, and between the swan’s wings lay the little princess herself. Her long ermine-cloak reached right down to her feet, on her head was a tiny cap of silver tissue, and she was as pale as the Snow Palace in which she had always lived. So pale was she that as she drove through the streets all the people wondered. “She is like a white rose!” they cried, and they threw down flowers on her from the balconies.
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe – English story of the month – October
The Black Cat
by Edgar Allan Poe (edited by Lynne Hand)
FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not – and very surely do I not dream. But tomorrow I die, and today I would unburden my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified – have tortured – have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they have presented little but horror – to many they will seem less terrible than barroque. Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the commonplace – some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.
The Kiss by Kate Chopin – English story of the month – September
The Kiss
by Kate Chopin
It was still quite light out of doors, but inside with the curtains drawn and the smouldering fire sending out a dim, uncertain glow, the room was full of deep shadows.
Brantain sat in one of these shadows; it had overtaken him and he did not mind. The obscurity lent him courage to keep his eves fastened as ardently as he liked upon the girl who sat in the firelight.
The Happy Prince – English story of the month – August
The Happy Prince
by Oscar Wilde
High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.
He was very much admired indeed. “He is as beautiful as a weathercock,” remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; “only not quite so useful,” he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not.