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Recommendations based on An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgeby Ambrose Bierce
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The Lottery and Other Stories
by Shirley Jackson
A collection of short stories exploring the dark side of human nature and society's norms.
The Lottery , one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker . "Power and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical ... (Goodreads)
The Lottery
by Shirley Jackson
A small village's annual lottery reveals a dark secret, with sinister implications.
Details of contemporary small-town American life are embroidered upon a description of an annual rite known as "the lottery". In a small village of about 300 residents, the locals are in an excited ... (Wikipedia)
The Most Dangerous Game
by Richard Connell
A hunter's game of survival and strategy, as he pursues and is pursued by his prey.
Big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford and his friend, Whitney, are traveling to the Amazon rainforest for a jaguar hunt. After a discussion about how they are "the hunters" instead of "the hunted," ... (Wikipedia)
To Build a Fire
by Jack London
A man's struggle for survival in the harsh Alaskan wilderness.
"To Build a Fire" is one of Jack London's most beloved short stories. A heartbreaking tale set in the vast wintry landscape of the North, it endures as one of the greatest adventures ever written. ... (Goodreads)
Harrison Bergeron
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A dystopian future where equality is enforced through handicapping citizens.
In the year 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than ... (Wikipedia)
The Cask of Amontillado - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story
by Edgar Allan Poe
A tale of revenge and retribution, forcibly trapping a foe in a ghoulish crypt.
The story's narrator, Montresor, tells an unspecified person, who knows him very well, of the day he took his revenge on Fortunato (Italian for "the fortunate one"), a fellow nobleman. Angry over ... (Wikipedia)
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
by Cormac McCarthy
A violent and bloody western epic, exploring the depths of human depravity.
An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A collection of short stories exploring the struggles of women in a patriarchal society.
Best known for the 1892 title story of this collection, a harrowing tale of a woman's descent into madness, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote more than 200 other short stories. Seven of her finest are ... (Goodreads)
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems
by T.S. Eliot
A collection of poetry exploring themes of melancholy and despair.
Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless ... (Goodreads)
The Invisible Man
by H.G. Wells
A scientist's journey to invisibility which leads to a descent into madness.
A mysterious man, Griffin, referred to as 'the stranger', arrives at the local inn owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hall of the English village of Iping , West Sussex, during a snowstorm. The stranger wears a ... (Wikipedia)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
An epic poem exploring the power of supernatural forces and the consequences of human action.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere") is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the ... (Goodreads)
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells
A Martian invasion of Earth, exploring the limits of human resilience.
The narrative opens by stating that as humans on Earth busied themselves with their own endeavours during the mid-1890s, aliens on Mars began plotting an invasion of Earth because their own resources ... (Wikipedia)
The Story of an Hour
by Kate Chopin
A woman learns of her husband's death and experiences a brief moment of freedom before a tragic twist.
In these four stories, Kate Chopin subtly captures the intricate interior lives of a generation of women. From the famous proto-feminist tale "The Story of an Hour" to the subtly sexy "A Respectable ... (Goodreads)
The Island of Dr. Moreau
by H.G. Wells
A shipwrecked man's encounters with a mad scientist's experiments in animal-human hybridization.
The Island of Doctor Moreau is the account of Edward Prendick, an Englishman with a scientific education who survives a shipwreck in the southern Pacific Ocean. A passing ship called Ipecacuanha ... (Wikipedia)
A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
by William Faulkner
Collection of short stories exploring the complexities of Southern life, often with dark and tragic themes.
The story opens with a brief first-person account of the funeral of Emily Grierson , an elderly Southern woman whose funeral is the obligation of their small town. It then proceeds in a non-linear ... (Wikipedia)
Lysistrata
by Aristophanes
Women of Greece uniting to end the Peloponnesian War through a sex strike.
These lines, spoken by the Athenian Lysistrata and her friend Calonice at the beginning of the play, , set the scene for the action that follows. Women, as represented by Calonice, are sly hedonists ... (Wikipedia)
The Yellow Wall-Paper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A woman's descent into madness due to oppressive social expectations.
A woman and her husband rent a summer house, but what should be a restful getaway turns into a suffocating psychological battle. This chilling account of postpartum depression and a husband's ... (Goodreads)
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London
A dog's adventure in the wilderness, confronting the primal struggle for survival.
The story opens in 1897 with Buck, a powerful 140-pound St. Bernard – Scotch Collie mix, , , happily living in California 's Santa Clara Valley as the pampered pet of Judge Miller and his family. One ... (Wikipedia)
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke
An interstellar journey of exploration, confronting humanity's place in the universe.
A mysterious alien civilization uses a tool with the appearance of a large crystalline monolith to investigate worlds across the galaxy and, if possible, to encourage the development of intelligent ... (Wikipedia)
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A satirical exploration of human folly, exposing the dangers of unchecked science and technology.
Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ... Dr Felix Hoenikker, ... (Goodreads)
Paradise Lost
by John Milton
Epic poem of the Fall of Man, exploring the depths of human nature and the consequences of sin.
John Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of ... (Goodreads)
The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
A lighthearted comedy of manners, full of witty dialogue and satirizing Victorian society.
Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The ... (Goodreads)
Batman: The Killing Joke
by Alan Moore
Dark tale of psychological warfare between Batman and the Joker.
Critically acclaimed author Alan Moore redefined graphic novel story-telling with, Watchmen, and, V for Vendetta,. In, Batman: The Killing Joke, he takes on the origin of comics' greatest ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Raven and Other Poems
by Edgar Allan Poe
A collection of dark, gothic poems, exploring the depths of the human psyche.
A chilling, thrilling collection of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry, introduced by best-selling author Philip Pullman The Raven . . . Annabel Lee . . . Ulalume . . . these are some of the spookiest, most ... (Goodreads)
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.
The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)
The Lost World
by Arthur Conan Doyle
An expedition to a remote region of South America, filled with prehistoric creatures and danger.
Edward Malone, a young reporter for the Daily Gazette , asks his editor for a dangerous assignment to impress the woman he loves, Gladys, who wishes for a great man capable of brave deeds and ... (Wikipedia)
Hamlet: Screenplay, Introduction And Film Diary
by Kenneth Branagh
A reimagined version of Shakespeare's classic play, told through film.
Often credited with creating a popular movie audience for Shakespeare, Kenneth Branagh has wanted for many years to bring to the screen the complete, full-length version of Hamlet , Shakespeare's ... (Goodreads)
Red Dragon
by Thomas Harris
A serial killer stalks the night, and a former FBI agent is the only one who can stop him.
In 1975, Will Graham , a brilliant profiler of the FBI , captured the serial killer Hannibal Lecter . However, Graham suffered serious injuries from the encounter and retired afterwards. Four years ... (Wikipedia)
Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction
by Edith Wharton
A collection of short stories exploring the complexities of human relationships and societal expectations in the early 20th century.
On a bleak New England farm, a taciturn young man has resigned himself to a life of grim endurance. Bound by circumstance to a woman he cannot love, Ethan Frome is haunted by a past of lost ... (Goodreads)
