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PODCAST

LitReading - Classic Short Stories

Short Storyverses

Litreading delivers classic short stories—carefully selected, beautifully narrated, and updated every week.From Poe to Twain, O. Henry to Wharton, each episode presents a complete tale in a clean, immersive performance lasting anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. These timeless stories are read with clarity, warmth, and just enough character to bring them fully to life.Litreading is part ofShort Storyverses(shortstoryverses.com), a growing collection of podcasts devoted to exceptional

fiction performing arts

All Episodes

11:25

The Arrangement - An Original Short Story by Don...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/03/03

Every crime begins as a solution. At least to someone. This is a story about a solution. A rented room. A promise. And a man who believes he is doing what’s necessary.This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales Told part of Short Storyverses. New Tales Told is made up of totally original modern stories written with the feel of classic short stories (suitable for all ages). There are now fourteen original stories so

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20:22

The Doll's House – A Classic Short Story by Katherine...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/02/24

Published in 1921,The Doll’s Houseis one of Katherine Mansfield’s most quietly powerful stories. Set in a small New Zealand community, it explores class, exclusion, and childhood cruelty through something deceptively simple: the arrival of an elaborate doll’s house.Mansfield does not moralize. Instead, she observes. Through small gestures and overheard whispers, she reveals how social hierarchies are absorbed and enforced — even by children.At its center is a tiny amber lamp. And a moment of

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14:25

Civic Duty - An Original Short Story by Don McDonald

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/02/17

This story is not about the America we live in.It’s about an America that could exist—slowly, legally, and quietly—if people stop asking questions.Civic Duty follows a retired teacher whose life is reduced to data points, compliance scores, and administrative decisions.A speculative warning about what happens when systems replace judgment and loyalty becomes measurable.This story is being presented on Litreading for limited time to help build the audience for its eventual primary home, New Tales

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45:40

To Build a Fire – a Classic Short Story by Jack London

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/02/10

Set in the frozen Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, it follows a man traveling alone through temperatures so extreme they defy ordinary experience. Confident in his judgment and dismissive of risk, he presses forward—unaware of how narrow his margin for error truly is.With stark realism and relentless tension, London explores humanity’s limits in the face of nature’s indifference. This is not a story of heroic triumph. It is a story of judgment, instinct, and the consequences of small mistakes in

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23:18

In My Dreams – An Original Short Story by Don McDonald

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/02/03

Here is a quiet story about love that arrives too late, and lingers in unexpected ways.About two people who find each other where they never expected to meet.And what it means to hold on, even when you know you can’t.Please check out our other short story universes are shortstoryverses.comWe are expanding our universe of short story podcasts on our new podcast channel, Short StoryVerses. Listen to some of Don's new, original short stories on the "New Tales Told" podcast. Look it up on your favorite

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10:58

The Necklace – A Classic Short Story by Guy De...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/01/27

The Necklaceby Guy de Maupassant is a classic tale of ambition, illusion, and unintended consequences.In this short, elegant story, a young woman’s desire for wealth and status leads her down a path she never expected.A quiet masterpiece with a devastating final twist.Guy de Maupassant was a nineteenth-century French writer and one of the masters of the modern short story.He wrote hundreds of stories, known for their clarity, irony, and emotional precision.His work often explored class, ambition,

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19:16

The Right Call – An Original Short Story by Don McDonald

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/01/16

This is a special presentation of my original short story, “The Right Call,” first released on my companion podcast, New Tales Told.For now, I’ll be sharing my new stories here on Litreading as well—so you can hear them easily, without having to go looking.Litreading will always remain a home for classic short fiction. These are simply new stories, told in the same spirit.The Right Call is a work of fiction, loosely inspired by a real turning point in my own life.The events, characters, station, and

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19:08

The Bet – A Classic Short Story by Anton Chekov

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/01/13

The Betis a devastating meditation on freedom, knowledge, money, and the illusions we cling to when we mistake intellect for wisdom and wealth for meaning. Sparse, icy, and quietly explosive, this story leaves no one untouched—not the characters, and not the listener.Anton Chekhov was a Russian physician, playwright, and master of the modern short story. Writing at the turn of the twentieth century, Chekhov rejected melodrama in favor of moral ambiguity, emotional restraint, and brutal psychological

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36:09

The Eternal Code — A Special Presentation of an...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/01/07

This is a special presentation of my new original short story, "The Eternal Code," first released on my companion podcast, New Tales Told.Litreading will continue to feature classic short fiction, just as always. For listeners who enjoy original, contemporary stories, New Tales Told is where I share new work—standalone fiction meant to be experienced in audio. Just search for it on this podcast service or visit shortstoryverses.comNo one remembers the first human thought. But it remembers us.We tell

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0:59

Litreading – Classic Short Stories Live On

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2026/01/01

Every story you've ever loved learned it from somewhere. The plot twist, the heartbreak, the monster in the dark—somebody wrote it first. Narrator Don McDonald brings classic literature back to life, read out loud the way it was meant to be heard. Dickens. Poe. Twain. Wharton. Doyle. Names you know. Stories you think you know—until you actually hear them. Some built entire genres. Some broke every rule. Some are just flat-out better than they have any right to be after a hundred years. No class. No

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10:59

Uncle Richard’s New Year Dinner – A Classic Short...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/12/30

Uncle Richard’s New Year Dinneris a tender, early-20th-century family story about estrangement, reconciliation, and the quiet power of kindness. Set over the course of a single winter evening, it explores how long-standing rifts are rarely healed by grand speeches—but sometimes by a warm stove, a shared table, and a willingness to begin again. It’s a story of kindness, humanity, and hope that arrives without ceremony.Lucy Maud Montgomery(1874–1942) was a Canadian author best known for her enduring

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19:34

The Boy with the Box – A Classic Christmas Story by...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/12/23

This holiday story will only be available for a limited time on Litreading, but will always be available on our holiday story podcast, Season's Readings.First published in 1905, “The Boy with the Box” is a gentle Christmas story about childhood pride, unexpected generosity, and the quiet ways kindness reshapes a heart. It captures a winter world of skates and shop windows, family love and small sacrifices—where the true gift arrives not in a box, but in understanding.Mary Griggs Van Voorhis

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36:43

On Christmas Day in the Morning – A Classic Christmas...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/12/16

This story is only available here during the holidays, but can be heard year-round at Season's Readings, a part of Short Storyverses at shortstoryverses.comOn Christmas Day in the Morningis a story about family—not as it is imagined, but as it is lived—and the gifts that arrive without wrapping. It was written with music already echoing between its lines. The traditional song of the same name appears directly in the story, assumed to be familiar to its original readers.For this performance, the

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14:09

A Chaparral Christmas Gift – Classic Western...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/12/09

This story is only available here during the holidays, but can be heard year-round at Season's Readings, a part of Short Storyverses at shortstoryverses.comOut on the western chaparral, Christmas doesn’t soften the land so much as sharpen what’s already waiting there—old grudges, old loves, and old wounds that never healed quite right. Madison Lane and Rosita McMullen have built a life together in the years since their wedding was interrupted by a jealous suitor… and a bullet. But Christmas Eve has

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28:46

The Burglar's Christmas – A Classic Holiday Tale by...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/12/02

This story is only available here during the holidays, but can be heard year-round at Season's Readings, a part of Short Storyverses at shortstoryverses.comThe Burglar’s Christmasis Willa Cather’s deeply human Christmas tale—published under the pseudonym Elizabeth L. Seymour—about a young man who has utterly failed in life and reached the end of his rope on a slushy Chicago Christmas Eve. Hungry, cold, and convinced he has squandered every opportunity he ever had, he turns to theft as a last act of

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10:28

The Purple Dress – A Classic Holiday Story by O. Henry

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/11/25

This story is only available here during the holidays, but can be heard year-round at Season's Readings, a part of Short Storyverses at shortstoryverses.comO. Henry often found the heart of a story in the everyday moments most people overlook.The Purple Dressis one of those pieces — a small, vivid glimpse into life in early-1900s New York, told with his familiar mix of humor, warmth, and gentle surprise.William Sydney Porter, or O. Henry, wrote more than six hundred short stories marked by humor,

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18:41

The Law of Life – a Classic Short Story by Jack London

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/11/18

Jack London takes us into the frozen silence of the Yukon and leaves us beside an aging chief who has reached the appointed end of his trail. As the tribe moves on, Old Koskoosh remains behind with only a small fire, a dwindling stack of wood, and the memories of a life spent obeying the relentless rhythms of nature. This is a stark, almost ceremonial meditation on aging, duty, and the brutal simplicity of the natural world.The Law of Lifeis one of London’s most quietly devastating works—not because

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11:46

Hills Like White Elephants – A Classic Short Story by...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/11/11

Ernest Hemingway’s“Hills Like White Elephants”is one of the most celebrated short stories ever written — a masterclass in subtext, restraint, and emotional tension.Set at a train station in Spain, it captures a quiet conversation between two lovers waiting for a train — a moment in which everything that matters lies between the lines.Presented byLitreading, part ofShort Storyverses— where classic and original tales are read with depth and heart.We are expanding our universe of short story podcasts

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17:28

The Skylight Room – A Classic Short Story by O. Henry

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/11/04

O. Henry had a gift for wrapping heartbreak in humor. His stories feel light, almost playful—until that last line hits and you realize he’s been quietly aiming for your chest the whole time.InThe Skylight Room, we meet a bright, hopeful young woman renting the smallest, loneliest room in New York. But she still finds a way to fill it—with imagination, with laughter, and with a star she namesBilly Jackson.What happens next is pure O. Henry: tender, tragic, and—somehow—still kind of beautiful.We are

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38:28

The Hanging Stranger–a Retro Sci-Fi Horror Story by...

LitReading - Classic Short Stories ·

2025/10/28

This is one of those scary stories that sneaks up on you. Itlooks like just another day in small-town America, sometime around the early 1950s. But then, something is wrong. Something is hanging there. And what’s most unsettling isn’t the horror itself — it’s how calmly everyone else reacts.Philip K. Dick wrote The Hanging Stranger in 1953, and it remains one of his most chilling short stories. It’s about paranoia, conformity, and the terrifying idea that maybe you’re the only one who sees the

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157 results

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