All short stories

“When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water that torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victim’s body…”

“Once upon a time an artist who had painted a small and very beautiful picture placed it so that he could see it in the mirror…”

“It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire…”

“The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun…”

“A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below…”

“One afternoon I was sitting outside the Café de la Paix, watching the splendour and shabbiness of Parisian life…”

“Everything was perfectly swell. There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars. All diseases were conquered. So was old age…”

“I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more…”

“There was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke. Night after night I had passed the house (it was vacation time) and studied the lighted square of window…”

“Three days after I was born, as I lay in my silken cradle, gazing with astonished dismay on the new world round about me, my mother spoke to the wet-nurse, saying, How does my child?…”

“My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself…”

“Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death…”

“True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?…”

“In the shadow of the temple my friend and I saw a blind man sitting alone. And my friend said, “Behold the wisest man of our land…”

“It was quite by accident I discovered this incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. As yet, I haven’t done anything about it…”