Looking for fantasy short stories you can finish in one sitting? This collection gathers classic tales of gods, dreamers, sorcerers and fairy kingdoms, from dark fantasy to literary fairy tales.
These are the short story collections that shaped modern fantasy, by Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, Oscar Wilde and George MacDonald. Dunsany invented whole pantheons in a few pages, and Lovecraft built his Dream Cycle on that example.
Most of these fantasy stories for adults take less than an hour to read. Every collection is free to read online or download as PDF.
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Classics
Classic Fantasy Short Stories
Before fantasy turned into long series, it lived in short, strange tales like "The Door in the Wall" or "The Bee-Man of Orn". These classic fantasy short stories open a door to another world and close it before the last page.
Eight stories by H. G. Wells where something impossible slips into an ordinary life. The title tale follows a man haunted by a green door to an enchanted garden he found as a child.
Fanciful tales by Frank R. Stockton, including the Bee-Man who is turned back into a baby and a griffin who visits a quiet country town. Gentle, witty fantasy first published in 1887.
Eight stories of childhood by Kenneth Grahame, including The Reluctant Dragon, about a dragon who would rather write poetry than fight. Warm and gently funny.
Dark fantasy keeps the magic and the invented kingdoms, but adds dread. Here you'll find doomed cities, cursed books and sorcerers who pay a high price for their power.
Early tales by Clark Ashton Smith, including The Abominations of Yondo and Sadastor, set in deserts and worlds at the edge of time. Rich, ornate prose from one of the masters of dark fantasy.
Ten linked stories built around a forbidden play that ruins anyone who reads it, with Carcosa, Hastur and the Yellow Sign. Its first four tales shaped modern dark fantasy and weird fiction.
Fourteen short tales by Lord Dunsany about thieves, gods and cities at the edge of the world, most of them ending badly for the hero. Each one reads in under ten minutes.
A girl's secret green book records her initiation into a hidden world of rituals, nymphs and old magic. Arthur Machen's story is often named among the finest weird tales ever written.
A literary fairy tale is written by one author, not collected from folklore. Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince" and George MacDonald's "The Light Princess" carry magic and a quiet lesson in a handful of pages.
Five fairy tales by Oscar Wilde, including The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Selfish Giant. Short, beautiful and quietly heartbreaking.
Three fairy tales by George MacDonald: a princess with no gravity, a giant who hides his heart, and The Golden Key, a journey through Fairyland. His stories inspired C. S. Lewis and Tolkien.
The complete fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, from The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling to The Snow Queen. More than 900 pages of the most famous literary fairy tales ever written.
John Ruskin's 1841 fairy tale about two greedy brothers, their kind younger brother and the strange little king of a golden river. This edition keeps Richard Doyle's original illustrations.
Sword and sorcery is fantasy at its most physical: one warrior, one ancient evil and very little rest. Robert E. Howard created the genre with Conan, and these stories are where it started.
The very first Conan story, from 1932: King Conan faces a band of rebels and an ancient sorcery inside his own palace. This is where sword and sorcery began.
A witch steals the throne of her twin sister, Queen Taramis, and Conan is left crucified in the desert. It holds one of the most famous scenes Robert E. Howard ever wrote.
Conan scouts a wild frontier while a Pictish wizard gathers beasts and warriors in the forest. Many readers consider it the best story Robert E. Howard wrote.
A thousand years after the men of Sarnath destroy a neighbouring city, the debt comes due. Written in a deliberately archaic register that shows the Dunsany influence clearly.
Lord Dunsany's first book, from 1905: an invented mythology of the gods of Pegana and the drummer Skarl, who beats his drum so their maker never wakes. It inspired Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.
More myths of the gods of Pegana, at war with Time over the dream city of Sardathrion. Lord Dunsany's 1906 collection reads like scripture from a world that never existed.
Lord Dunsany's 1908 tales of heroes, doomed cities and dreams, including The Sword of Welleran and The Fall of Babbulkund. Some of the earliest fantasy short stories in English.
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