Tales and Fables

Echoes from the Ruins and Decaying Palaces of Orchcha.

In this 1965 story, Qfwfq places a sign in the Milky Way to mark a point in space and revisit it at the end of a galactic revolution. Will he return to find the sign?

Published in 1900, Forgotten Dreams involves a chance encounter between a woman and a man who knew each other in youth.

The Porcelain Doll is an 1863 letter by Tolstoy to his wife's sister Tatiana that is often considered to be a short story and included as such in his short story collections.

Originally published in Spanish in 1956, The Night Face Up travels between a world that we recognize as ours and a world from ages ago - a world of chase, hunt and human sacrifice. Which one is real and which one a dream?

Set in Moscow, a student writes letters between Teresa and her imaginary lover Boles.

Originally published in Spanish in 1941, this story imagines a total library - with every possible combination of 25 orthographic letters, stretching endlessly in hexagonal sections. All past, present and future of everyone and everything must surely exist in some volume in some hexagon in a unique combination!

Published in 1915, this story takes place in a Kyoto in decline. Rashōmon also forms the framing story for the movie by Akira Kurosawa.

Published in 1905, this is a story about a couple who go about buying Christmas gifts for each other with the meagre savings they have.

What is the best fortune that can befall a man? Mark Twain says it is to be born lucky. Listen to this humorous story and find out why.

Published in 1931, the story gives an account of the building of the Great Wall of China. Kafka never travelled to China. Moreover, it was impossible for Kafka and any writer to travel back in time to when the Great Wall was being built. So how did he imagine his China?

Published in 1987 by the Chinese writer Yu Hua, On the Road at Eighteen (also translated as Leaving Home at Eighteen) narrates the first encounter between a newly adult boy and the strange world that he must now inhabit.

Published in 1918 by Chinese writer Lu Xun, A Madman's Diary (also translated as the Diary of a Madman) delves into the inner thoughts of a man to reveal the predicaments of a people.

Published in 1989 by Russian writer Anton P. Chekhov, the Bet tells the story of a young man who submits to voluntary imprisonment to prove that it is better than capital punishment. Does he succeed? What does he find out? Listen to find out! Subscribe to listen to a new story every day.