【英文短篇小说】The Ledge（1）

THE LEDGE 'Go on,' Cressner said again. 'Look in the bag.' We were in his penthouse apartment, forty-three stories up. The carpet was deep-cut pile, burnt orange. In the middle, between the Basque sling chair where Cressner sat and the genuine leathe

【英文短篇小说】YOU'RE UGLY, TOO

You had to get out of them occasionally, those Illinois towns with the funny names: Paris, Oblong, Normal. Once, when the Dow Jones dipped two hundred points, a local paper boasted the banner headline NORMAL MAN MARRIES OBLONG WOMAN. They knew what w

【英文短篇小说】WHERE I'M CALLING FROM（2）

J.P. gets real quiet again. I mean, he's hardly breathing. I toss my cigarette into the coal bucket and look hard at J.P., who scoots farther down in his chair. J.P. pulls up his collar. What the hell's going on, I wonder. Frank Martin uncrosses his

【英文短篇小说】WHERE I'M CALLING FROM（1）

WE ARE ON the front porch at Frank Martin's drying-out facility. Like the rest of us at Frank Martin's, J.P. is first and foremost a drunk. But he's also a chimney sweep. It's his first time here, and he's scared. I've been here once before. What's t

【英文短篇小说】The Ledge（2）

Narrated by John Glover It was time to do it. Talking was done. I let myself think of Marcia one last time, her light-brown hair, her wide grey eyes, her lovely body, and then put her out of my mind for good. No more looking down, either. It would ha

【英文短篇小说】SANCTUARY（1）

I The vicars wife came round the corner of the vicarage with her arms full of chrysanthemums. A good deal of rich garden soil was attached to her strong brogue shoes and a few fragments of earth were adhering to her nose, but of that fact she was per

【英文短篇小说】THE ABOMINABLE HISTORY OF THE MAN WITH COPPER FINGERS（2）

Varden paused, and put away a good mouthful of whisky. Well? cried several breathless voices. Well, said Varden, Im not ashamed to say I went out of that house like an old buck-rabbit that hears the man with the gun. There was a car standing just out

【英文短篇小说】THE ABOMINABLE HISTORY OF THE MAN WITH COPPER FINGERS（1）

The Egotists Club is one of the most genial places in London. It is a place to which you may go when you want to tell that odd dream you had last night, or to announce what a good dentist you have discovered. You can write letters there if you like,

【英文短篇小说】SANCTUARY（2）

Im coming now, said Bunch, to the most important thing of all. The reason why Ive really come here today. You see, the Eccleses made a great fuss about having his coat. We took it off when the doctor was seeing him. It was an old, shabby sort of coat

【英文短篇小说】THE GIRL DETECTIVE

Quote: The girl detective looked at her reflection in the mirror. This was a different girl. This was a girl who would chew gum. -- DORA KNEZ, in conversation The girl detective's mother is missing. The girl detective's mother has been missing for a

【英文短篇小说】The Raft（1）

Narrated by Frank Muller It was forty miles from Horlicks University in Pittsburgh to Cascade Lake, and although dark comes early to that part of the world in October and although they didn't get going until six o'clock, there was still a little ligh

【英文短篇小说】The Raft（2）

Narrated by Frank Muller It's trying to get under the raft, Deke said grimly. What's this shit, Pancho? Randy lookedhe looked very carefully. He saw the thing nuzzling the side of the raft, flattening to a shape like half a pizza. For a moment it see

【英文短篇小说】'Quitters, Inc.'（1）

Part One Morrison was waiting for someone who was hung up in the air traffic jam over Kennedy International when he saw a familiar face at the end of the bar and walked down. 'Jimmy? Jimmy McCann?' It was. A little heavier than when Morrison had seen

【英文短篇小说】'Quitters, Inc.'（2）

Part Two After Donatti let him out, Morrison walked for over two hours in a complete daze. It was another fine day, but he didn't notice. The monstrousness of Donatti's smiling face blotted out all else. 'You see,' he had said, 'a pragmatic problem d

【英文短篇小说】A Casual Affair（1）

I am telling this story in the first person, though I am in no way connected with it, because I do not want to pretend to the reader that I know more about it than I really do. The facts are as I state them, but the reasons for them I can only guess,

【英文短篇小说】THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimon

【英文短篇小说】David Sedaris Reads From His 'Santaland Diaries'

DAVID SEDARIS: I wear green velvet knickers, a forest green velvet smock and a perky little hat decorated with spangles. This is my work uniform. I've spent the last several days sitting in a crowded, windowless Macy's classroom, undergoing the first

【英文短篇小说】MATCHLESS: A CHRISTMAS STORY

On an island so far north that it snowed from September to April, a boy named Frederik kept himself warm by keeping a secret. Some mornings, the top of the water in the kitchen jug had frozen into a disc of ice. Frederik had to smash it with a wooden

【英文短篇小说】WOLF CHRISTMAS

I was sleeping with my brothers, Tanglefoot and PeeWee. We were warm and cozy, snuggling under the snow. Mama was sleeping nearby, and Aunt Fang and our older brother Robert, all covered by mounds of snow. Papa was somewhere nearby, watching over us.

【英文短篇小说】WHAT WOULD THEY SAY IN BIRMINGHAM

It all started in the bathroom in the back of the bookstore in Florinna, Alabama, the store owner Mrs. Horne gesturing magnificently at the blank wall and talking about Arabian stallions, and the mural painter, Lucy, backed up against the toilet, nod