Looking for short stories with twist endings? This collection gathers classic tales by O. Henry, Saki, Guy de Maupassant and Ambrose Bierce, where the final line changes everything.
These are the stories writers still study to learn how a plot twist works. "The Gift of the Magi", "The Open Window" and "The Necklace" all turn in the last paragraph, yet every clue was there from the start.
Most of them take less than 20 minutes to read, so you can finish one tonight and keep thinking about it tomorrow. Every book is free to read online or download as PDF.
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O. Henry
O. Henry Short Stories
O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter, made the surprise ending his signature. Start with "The Gift of the Magi" or "The Ransom of Red Chief", then move on to his full New York collections.
A young couple with almost no money each sells a prized possession to buy the other a Christmas gift. O. Henry's most famous story, with an ironic ending you can read in 15 minutes.
Two small-time crooks kidnap a banker's son for ransom and soon learn the boy is worse than any punishment. A comic twist on the kidnapping story, and the deal ends in a direction nobody expects.
O. Henry's first collection: 25 stories about ordinary New Yorkers, including "The Gift of the Magi", "After Twenty Years" and "The Cop and the Anthem". Almost every one closes on an ironic turn.
Includes "The Last Leaf", the story of a sick young artist and the ivy leaf she believes will decide her fate, plus 24 more tales of shop girls, clerks and dreamers in New York.
The collection that includes "The Ransom of Red Chief", along with 23 more stories set from Texas ranches to New York boarding houses. O. Henry at his most playful, with plots that spin around in the final lines.
Saki, born Hector Hugh Munro, wrote some of the sharpest twist endings in English fiction. "The Open Window" and "Sredni Vashtar" are short enough for one sitting and dark enough to stay with you.
A nervous visitor hears a chilling story from a calm young girl about the window that stays open every evening. The textbook example of a twist ending, and it takes less than ten minutes to read.
A sickly boy secretly worships a polecat-ferret he keeps in the garden shed, hidden from his strict guardian. Saki's darkest tale, with a final scene that is hard to forget.
Two men locked in a lifelong feud over a strip of forest end up pinned under the same fallen tree on a winter night. A story about pride and reconciliation with one of the most famous last lines in English.
At a country house party, a guest teaches the host's cat to speak, and Tobermory starts repeating everything he has overheard. Saki's sharpest satire of polite society.
A bachelor on a train tells three restless children about a girl who was horribly good, and the story does not end the way their aunt would like. A witty tale about what children really want from a story.
Some writers built a career on surprise, others landed one perfect twist. These classic short stories with unexpected endings include "The Monkey's Paw", "The Story of an Hour" and Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
A mummified paw grants the White family three wishes, and each one comes true in the worst possible way. W. W. Jacobs' 1902 tale is the model for every story where getting what you want is the twist.
A young man who dared to love a princess must open one of two doors: behind one waits a bride, behind the other a hungry tiger. Stockton's 1882 story ends with a question readers have argued about ever since.
Louise Mallard learns that her husband has died in a train accident and spends one hour alone in her room. Kate Chopin's 1894 story is only a few pages long, and its last sentence changes everything.
In antebellum Louisiana, a proud planter turns against his wife when their baby's features raise questions about her origins. Chopin's story about race and pride saves its real revelation for a final letter.
A London lawyer investigates the strange bond between the respected Dr. Jekyll and the brutal Mr. Hyde, and the answer arrives in one of literature's most famous reveals. Our own Project Aldus edition, carefully edited and typeset.
Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" may be the most taught twist ending of all time. His tales of pride, money and bad luck often turn on a single line of bitter irony.
Mathilde borrows a diamond necklace for one glamorous night and loses it. Maupassant's best-known story and its famous twist ending, ready to read in ten minutes.
A grieving man spends the night at his lover's grave and sees the dead rise to rewrite their own epitaphs. A short ghost story with a cruel final line.
Two Parisian friends sneak past the lines to go fishing during the Prussian siege, and run into the enemy. A short, devastating war story often read in school.
Ambrose Bierce turned the Civil War into stories with shocking final pages. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is still the model for every tale where reality and illusion trade places.
A Confederate planter stands on a railroad bridge with a rope around his neck, and then the rope breaks. Bierce's most famous story takes 20 minutes to read and has one of the great twist endings in fiction.
Two of his best war stories in one volume: a young officer who rides alone toward a hidden enemy, and a Union sentry who has to choose between his duty and his father. Includes an introduction by the writer W. C. Morrow.
A small boy wanders into the woods playing soldier and meets a line of wounded men crawling away from the battle. A short, brutal story about one of the bloodiest fights of the Civil War, seen through the eyes of a child.
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