19 short stories from the 19th century and where to find them

The Fall of the House of Usher sees the narrator travelling to the home of his friend, to assist with a mysterious illness that has befallen the house.

A young scientist becomes increasingly obsessed about a small red birthmark on the cheek of his beautiful wife.

The narrator retells a story from a bartender named Simon Wheeler, about a gambling man named Jim Smiley, who trained a frog to jump and uses it in a bet with Wheeler.

The Yellow Wallpaper tells the story of a woman’s deteriorating health as she is forced on a “rest cure”.

The Story of an Hour is about a woman who received news of her husbands death and after experiencing grief, begins to think on the opportunities and freedom the news brings her.

The Lady with the Little Dog tells the story of an adulterous affair between an unhappy banker and a married woman whilst they are both on vacation.

Gooseberries tells the story of a government official who dedicates every action in his life to buying an estate outside of the city, where he can eat as many gooseberries as he likes.

The Overcoat tells the story of a government clerk who has his new overcoat stolen and no one seems concerned enough to help him recover it.

A woman named Mathilde sees herself as part of the aristocracy but in reality is far removed from it. A chance to attend a grand ball presents itself but a borrowed necklace spells disaster for her and her family.

A Parisian Affair is the story of a woman who has a burning desire to visit Paris and experience the luxury, decadence and extravagance it offers.

Le Grande Breteche is a manor house to which no one is permitted to enter. That was the final wish of the late lady of the manor who had a traumatic experience in the house trying to conceal her secret lover from her husband.

The Body Snatcher is the story of a doctor in need of bodies to dissect. It takes inspiration from the infamous Burke and Hare murders which were notorious at the time of Stevenson writing.

The Red-Headed League sees Holmes take on the case of a small business owner who feels he has been conned. He was given the job of copying out a longhand version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which he does for weeks only to find that the league who employed him vanish without a trace.

Rhoda Brook, mother to an illegitimate child conceived with her landlord becomes jealous when the the landlord takes a new wife. When she throws the wife aside in a dream by grabbing onto her arm, she is surprised to see bruises and finger marks on the wife’s arm the next day…

George Stransom devotes his adult life to the memory of his deceased fiancée and all the other people from his life who have passed away. Inside an old church he consecrates an altar for his personal remembrance and one day meets a fellow mourner.

The Poor Clare is a ghost story about an unintentional family curse that a grandmother places on her granddaughter.

The Signal Man is perhaps Dickens most well known short story. In it, the narrator meets a man who has been seeing a strange apparition on the railways.

The Boarding House was one of Dickens first published stories. In it we meet Mrs Tibbs, a landlady who encourages her guests to flirt with each other.

The Dream is the story of two people in love, who cannot marry because their fathers are enemies. An attempt to gain wisdom from Saint Catherine threatens to bring tragedy to them both.