An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce Anyone who has ever read 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' is guaranteed to never forget it. - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville Before delving into Herman Melville's 'Bartleby the Scrivener,' it might help to define the unfamiliar term in the story's title... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Christmas Every Day by William Dean Howells In William Dean Howells' short story 'Christmas Every Day,' a little girl asks her father to tell her a story. The father... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Daisy Miller by Henry James In his novella Daisy Miller, Henry James shows how during the late Victorian era, a newly-affluent moneyed middle class began moving into... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Editha by William Dean Howells William Dean Howells' Editha: In the twentieth century, we are all too familiar with the horror of war. We see it emblazoned on our television and... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe In 'Ligeia,' Edgar Allan Poe has written a love story with a bizarre twist. His unnamed narrator is married to a beautiful, dark-haired woman,... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Murders on the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe In Poe's 'Murders on the Rue Morgue,' his fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin, together with Dupin's friend and narrator, read in the... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne In Rappaccini's Daughter, Hawthorne tells the tale of a botanist who has raised his daughter as a rare flower in a clinically-controlled setting. - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Birthmark': Nathaniel Hawthorne saw in his era's fascination with scientific methods, apparatus, and experiments a temptation,... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce In addition to ironic stories of war, Ambrose Bierce also excelled in ironic stories of horror. In 'The Boarded Window,' he draws... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe As in "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" also fails to explain precisely why he is so... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe In the 'Fall of the House of Usher,' Edgar Allan Poe's narrator goes to visit his old school friend Roderick Usher at the decaying and... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Ghostly Rental by Henry James Henry James' "The Ghostly Rental" deals with a young man, a newcomer in town, who loves to take walks for exercise. On one of his... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Men in the Storm by Stephen Crane Stephen Crane's "The Men in the Storm" is a depiction of a group of men outside a soup kitchen during a New York City... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hawthorne begins his odd story 'The Minister's Black Veil' with a dramatic, yet unexplained, change in the appearance of... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Open Boat by Stephen Crane "The Open Boat" is a fictionalized account of a very traumatic personal experience in Crane's life: a ship on which he was a... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe The word 'purloined,' which is no longer in contemporary use, simply means 'stolen.' In this story by Edgar Allan Poe, the letter in question... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Real Thing by Henry James It is frequently difficult to pin down what a work by Henry James is about, not because his stories have no plot, but because they are so... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the author moves away from the typical Gothic writer's fascination with remote and eerie... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The narrator of Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw is a young governess, who has been hired to care for two enchanting children... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Yellow Wallpaper was one of the first works to chronicle the process of going insane. Its harrowing quality... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe One of the best examples of Edgar Allan Poe's obsession with the theme of the 'Doppelganger' or double can be found in his extremely peculiar story... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne In Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown,' a young man from Salem, Massachusetts leaves his bride Faith and goes into the forest on... - Commentary by Karen Bernardo