How quickly can you tell the story of love? These short story writers have taken on the challenge of condensing love, that many-splendored thing, down into a few thousand words. Some stories take on love’s nuance, others its complications, and still others its pureness. We’ve also added two bonus stories at the end, some of our favorite original stories about love from the Penny Magic archives.
Classic Short Love Stories
Jessamine by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Best known for her book, Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery was a prolific short story writer. In this touching love story, a woman stuck living in the city is given a flower by a sympathetic vegetable man who comes to her door.
Violets by Alice Ruth Moore, also known as Alice Dunbar Nelson
“The violets and pinks are from a bunch I wore to-day, and when kneeling at the altar, during communion, did I sin, dear, when I thought of you?” This quick tale is a story about love, unrequited and forgotten.
Rapunzel by The Brothers Grimm
This classic fairytale has stood the test of time in its simplicity. Rapunzel, who has fallen in love with a prince in spite of the witch who has kidnapped her, learns the lessons of love, its consequences, but also its healing power.
The Kiss by Kate Chopin
This very short story tells the tale of a young woman looking for love—and money. When a romantic man kisses her, it finally prompts an interested millionaire to make his move. How can she have both love and money? Or will she just choose one? This short story is less of a traditional love story and more of a vignette that could be added to a late 1800s adaptation of the 2003 movie Love Actually.
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
This famous short story is all about love in its most ironic form, when two lovers are trying so hard to give the other a gift worthy of their love, they end up stepping on the gift that the other has given them. It is a classic short story that leaves us asking the question of what love looks like, for richer or poorer, in all the ways that can play out.
Penny Magic Original Stories about Love
Sunburn by Natalie Mills
“Sharing a booth is the most personal thing in the world, aside from sharing a kiss or a mausoleum.” This is a simple story from our second volume, A World of Our Own, about finding new love.
The Oyster Girl by Matt Mills
A prince learns to sail the seas and spots a girl gathering oysters off the shore of an island. They trade messages in bottles for years until he is forced to choose: Her or his kingdom?