Shorts On Film
You've seen the film, now read the story. This selection focuses on classic stories that have influenced films. While some celluloid counterparts are simple translations to screen, many add interesting ideas of their own - through a particularly imaginative realisation (The Happy Prince), an expansion (Sleepy Hollow) or an unexpected reworking (Ruthless People).
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The Ransom of Red Chief
. . . O. Henry
. . . 10 pages
Two kidnappers fail to heed the old adage - never work with children.
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The Pit and the Pendulum
. . . Edgar Allan Poe
. . . 14 pages
A first person account of a man's torture at the hands of The Spanish Inquisition.
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The £1,000,000 Bank-Note
. . . Mark Twain
. . . 18 pages
A penniless man is bet that he can't survive for a month - starting and ending with nothing but an implausible, but real, £1,000,000 note. Trading Places, Brewster's Millions. . . . .
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
. . . Washington Irving
. . . 12 pages
The inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow include Ichabod, the lovely Katrina and very possibly a headless ghost.
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The Happy Prince
. . . Oscar Wilde
. . . 8 pages
A modern fairy tale about the selfless acts of a golden statue and a migrating swallow.
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The Background
. . . Saki
. . . 3 pages
When Henri Deplis becomes the canvas for the final masterpiece of the great tatoo artist Andreas Pincini, he finds that life as a living work of art is far from easy.
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The Man Without a Country
. . . Edward Everett Hale
. . . 23 pages
The story - so fully realised that many took it to be true - of a young soldier who curses his country and is sentenced never to set foot in it again.
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Amy Foster
. . . Joseph Conrad
. . . 24 pages
A young girl falls in love with a mysterious stranger, shipwrecked in the bay near her village.
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