Category: short stories

Ingredients for a Simple Life: Arnold Bennett’s Short Story, ‘Hot Potatoes’

The shame we occasionally feel over our simple and sometimes odd ways is often misplaced. When we embrace these simple ways, we can face life with humility and a healthy sense of humor. Arnold Bennett contemplates this shame over simple things in his short story, “Hot Potatoes.” He shows the need for humility and humor…


The Courage to Endure: Cornelia A. P. Comer’s Short Story, ‘The Preliminaries’

The standards that we set for ourselves and our lives can be extremely daunting, depressing, and seemingly impossible. Yet with courage, we can achieve and reach them all, measure by measure. In her short story “The Preliminaries,” Cornelia A.P. Comer follows Oliver Pickersgill as he strives to obtain the consent to marry Ruth Lannithorne. Comer…