The Great Stories Collection

This Trinity Forum Reading Collection includes:

Babette’s Feast | Isak Dinesen’s classic story of grace, generosity, and hospitality in a rural Norwegian village that invites readers to reflect on the arts—their powers and their limits and their role in our lives.

The Golden Key | This fairy tale by George MacDonald  tells of the boy Mossy who finds a golden key at the edge of a forest and sets out to discover its lock. 

Ex Tenebris | This early Kirk story, tells the tale of elderly Mrs. Oliver, who retires to a cottage in the now-abandoned English village of her childhood and is harassed by the local planning officer until someone emerges from the shadows to intervene on her behalf. 

Hannah & Nathan | Excerpts from Hannah Coulter, a novel set in Wendell Berry’s fictional Port William, Kentucky, as Hannah narrates the events surrounding her courtship and marriage with Nathan Coulter after the death of her first husband in World War II.

How Much Land Does a Man Need? | A short story written later in Tolstoy’s life after a profound spiritual crisis and deals with the sometimes insidious and sometimes overt destructiveness of greed.

Joy Cometh in the Morning | Wodehouse’s humorous short story “Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend,” written in his characteristic light but perfectly crafted style, with an optimism that Bottum calls Western civilization’s best answer to Friedrich Nietzsche.

Purchase of a Soul | An excerpt from the beginning of Victor Hugo’s beloved novel Les Miserable which chronicles the events that led to the radical transformation of its hero, Jean Valjean. 

Revelation | O’Connor’s short story is an example of her characteristic “comedy of the grotesque” and portrays a woman blind to her own pride and self-satisfaction.

Strangest Story in the World | Excerpts from The Everlasting Man, one of G.K. Chesterton’s most widely read books, offering Chesterton’s view of human history and its radical alteration after the coming of Christ.

Telling Truth to Kings | Written in the 1930s to speak out against the totalitarianism of the Nazi regime, Schneider’s short story illustrates the high cost of truth-telling through the tale of a humble priest who challenges imperial Spain’s treatment of “new world” peoples. 

The Celestial Rail-Road | Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story raises questions about the authority and public dimensions of faith which are vital not just for Christians but for all the citizens of the United States and the West at large. 

The Grand Inquisitor | A chapter from Dostoevsky’s great novel The Brothers Karamazov, is a modern parable told by the doubting brother Ivan that deals with ideas of human nature and freedom.

The Oracle of the Dog | This entertaining short story is among the best of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries and shows us that common sense is not as common as we wish.

The White Mare | McLaverty’s story of an aging Irish farmer introduces us to some universal themes—including work and our relation to it, beauty and suffering, and the transitions of life.

Two Old Men | In this short story, Tolstoy explores a wide variety of themes, from family relationships to personal habits to money, allowing for multiple lessons and insights on every page.