Selected Stories

Twelve stories published during E.M. Forster’s lifetime, including "The Machine Stops", a dystopian parable about technology and isolation over a century before the advent of social media

Best known for his novels, Howards End, A Room with a View, and Passage to India, E.M. Forster was also the author of many remarkable short stories that he referred to as "fantasies". This collection of twelve stories published in his lifetime — featuring "The Machine Stops", a prophetic glimpse into our contemporary world of social media and the growing influence of AI, decades before other dystopian classics like 1984, Brave New World, and We — displays Forster’s fascination with myth, magic, and the connections that make us human. Rich in irony and alive with sharp observations on the surprises life holds, the stories often feature violent events, discomforting coincidences, and other disruptive happenings that throw the characters' perceptions and beliefs off balance. In their keen introduction, David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell discuss Forster's place in both the short-story tradition and the canon of gay literature.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.