Here I go again with a 2025 Deal Me In Challenge. I skipped a year but this year I have someone to keep me company and push me to actually accomplish something. So we’ll see how it goes.
2025 Deal Me In Challenge
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Category Archives: Short Stories
A Christmas Supper in the Marais & Other Christmas Stories by Alphonse Daudet
I’ve always wanted to read Alphonse Daudet, Lettres du mon Moulin, but time to plod through it in French hasn’t materialized. However, given the season, and coming across this compilation of Christmas stories in English translation, I thought I’d give it a whirl.
Place Royale, Paris – Augustus Pugin
~ source Wikimedia Commons
I just have to summarize the whole stories as they’re so good, so I’ll give a spoilers warning here.
A Chaparral Christmas Gift by O. Henry
“The original cause of the trouble was about twenty years in growing.”
A Chaparral Christmas Gift is the eighth story in the Everyman’s Pocket Classics Christmas compilation of 20 short stories.
The story begins on Christmas Eve with a tale of unrequited love. Rosita McMullen, daughter of the owner of the Sundown Sheep Ranch, was courted by numerous men, however only two held her admiration: Madison Lane and Johnny McRoy who is later called the Frio Kid. Rosita chooses Madison and on their wedding day, McRoy appears, tries to shoot both of them but is prevented, then shoots an innocent man and flees, screaming of his vengeance and hatred. He thus becomes the Frio Kid.
The Burglar’s Christmas by Willa Cather
I believe this is the third Christmas that I’ve continued reading the Christmas short stories from Everyman’s Pocket Classics. The stories are written by well-known classic authors and each one so far has been excellent. This is the seventh story in the compilation, written by Willa Cather, and is set on a cold Christmas Eve in the city of Chicago
The Listerdale Mystery by Agatha Christie
The Listerdale Mystery: “Mrs. St. Vincent was adding up figures.”
Detective: None, as these are various tales of murder & suspense
Published: June 1934
Length: 192 pages
Setting: various
The Hound of Death and Other Stories by Agatha Christie
The Hound of Death: “It was from William P. Ryan, American newspaper correspondent, that I first heard of the affair.”
Detective: None, as these are tales of the supernatural
Published: October 1933
Length: 218 pages
Setting: various:
A compilation of 12 short stories, The Hound of Death and Other Stories are not mysteries, but instead are tales of the macabre, tales of the supernatural, tales that are linked to the scary unknown. The tales were as follows:
The Christmas Present by Richmal Crompton
“Mary Clay looked out of the window of the old farmhouse.”
I’ve deviating from my Everyman Christmas compilation with a Christmas story out of a collection of Librivox short stories. The Christmas Present was written by Richmal Crompton, an English woman author, and is a curious story in more ways than one. Let’s find out why …
Where Love Is, God Is by Leo Tolstoy
Where God Is, Love Is
Martin Avdéitch is an honest and hard-working shoemaker who lives in the basement of a building with only one window where he can gaze out on the street and see people’s feet passing by. Although his work keeps him busy with little time for socializing, he recognizes the people from seeing their boots as they pass. His wife, poor dear, is dead, as are his many children, however one little boy is still with him and while he thinks of sending him to live with relatives, he decides to keep him with him for company. Yet, alas, his son passes away from an illness and Martin is left all alone.
Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope
Christmas at Thompson Hall
Those of you who have read Anthony Trollope’s novels know that he is a master of the art of character creation. Each of the people who populate his novels have distinct personalities that bring them alive to the reader and draw them into his world. With a short story, however, I wondered if Trollope’s fine skills would hold up using a smaller palette. And so I began to read Christmas at Thompson Hall with a somewhat apprehensive curiosity.
The Blue Carbuncle by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Blue Carbuncle
Two days after Christmas, Watson calls on Sherlock Holmes only to find him scrutinizing an old battered hat. Holmes reveals that Peterson, a commissionaire, saw a man with a goose over his shoulder being assaulted by some ruffians. The man raised his cane to defend himself and broke a window behind him; when he saw Peterson running towards him, he hastily fled, leaving his hat and the goose behind. Peterson sought Holmes for help finding the owner of these treasures, but the only physical clues they discover are a tag on the goose, reading, “For Mrs. Henry Baker” and the initials H.B. inscribed on the inside of the hat.