Collection of Stories "About Love and Its Consequences" Part 2

Love is an interesting chemical reaction. If you put some human vice—greed, lust, envy, or simply stupidity—into the retort together with a bright feeling, the process immediately gets out of control and leads to the most unexpected, and sometimes even explosive consequences. But is it possible to have a person without vices, and love without flaws? Or do each of us devotedly love only himself first and foremost?

Contents:
11. Somerset Maugham — “Exactly a Dozen”
Description: An English writer who comes to one of England’s seaside resorts to recuperate meets, on the very first day, on the coast, a nondescript, pale man who looks unremarkable and asks him for a light. After talking to the stranger, the writer learns that the man is a person once widely known and scandalous, the subject of all the English press. But what exactly made this “unassuming” gentleman famous turns out to be a real surprise for the writer.

12. Irwin Shaw — “A Spicy Story”
Description: After watching a theatrical performance, Robert Garvey and his wife Virginia go to a restaurant, where they discuss the production. Virginia casually mentions that Robert clapped a little too enthusiastically when one of the actresses came on at the very end. Why would that be?

13. A. A. Milne — “The Dreams of Mr. Findlater”
Description: Ernest Findlater, a forty-eight-year-old bank manager, often daydreamed. In one dream, he spent romantic evenings with a beautiful native woman on the ocean’s shore; in another, he saw the sudden death of his wife. But everything became far more interesting when a third dream took shape in Mr. Findlater’s mind…

14. Robert Bloch — “The Photograph”
Description: Farley wanted to get Linda Duval so badly that he even struck a bargain with the Devil. Farley knew the Devil could trick him, so before signing the contract, he carefully made sure their deal was clean. So who ends up outsmarting whom?

15. Ernest Hemingway — “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”
Description: The story of a husband and wife whose relationship is based solely on mutual benefit. He is only for her the person who gives her money, and she is a beautiful thing for him. They openly despise each other. But he is a coward to the core, and she is a complete vixen—that’s what keeps them from splitting up. To shake up their stagnant life, they go on safari in Africa…

16. Robert Young — “At the Tents of Kedar”
Description: Eastcliff, owner of the richest lands on the planet Silver Dollar, is dying of an incurable disease. But rumors say about the miraculous healing power of local people, dark-skinned surgeons. After long consideration, Eastcliff decides to trust his life to the race beneath him and go to the local hospital for treatment.

17. Arkady Averchenko — “The Rooster”
Description: A husband may cheat on his wife as much as he likes and still remain the same loving, gentle, jealous husband he was before the infidelity. A moral tale that happened to Petukhov can serve as an example.

18. Ellery Queen — “The Invisible Lover”
Description: Iris Scott, a beautiful New York woman, has plenty of admirers. Attorney Roger Bowen and artist McGavern courted her at the same time. They couldn’t stand each other and often fought—until one day McGavern was found shot with a .38-caliber pistol. Bowen immediately came under suspicion and was put behind bars at once. However, all Roger’s acquaintances insist that he couldn’t have done something like that. The famous detective Mr. Ellery Queen decides to look into this controversial case.

19. Stefan Zweig — “A Summer Novella”
Description: At a hotel in one of the Italian resorts, two men got talking. An older man told a younger man about an amusing episode that happened to him a year earlier in that very same hotel. The man anonymously sent love letters to a young girl, presenting himself as a secret admirer, completely not expecting how it might end.

20. Chuck Palahniuk — “Romance”
Description: If you’re a dull, unattractive fat guy, that doesn’t mean a damn good-looking girl can’t fall for you. If the girl is damn good-looking, that doesn’t mean she’s got her head on straight. And if she doesn’t have her head on straight, that doesn’t mean you won’t find someone who will be happy with her.