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Looking for a steady supply of historical fiction short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

3320+ Historical fiction Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Whether you’re looking to step back into ancient civilizations, the 19th-century, or anywhere in between, our collection of historical fiction stories is here to keep you riveted.

Historical fiction Short Stories – Page 4 of 222

The Fire Inside

Submitted to Contest #300

My Beloved Lucius,You have always seen the fire inside me, a smouldering beacon rising to the heavens that not even the gods could quench. I will never forget that, you know.Many leering eyes have beheld mine, each one a piece of rope tying me down to the columns of the temple of expectation. Yours, azure like a summer sky, lift me to Jupiter’s throne room, there where time bends to the will of his thunderbolts. Whilst the city views me as but a mere glass doll, — delicate, decorative, hollow — you cut through my silken tunics and find a hea...

47 likes 34 comments 34
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The Final Journey of Thomas Hodgkin

Submitted to Contest #300

Jaffa, 1866Dr. Thomas Hodgkin was sixty-seven years old when he returned to the Holy Land.This was his second journey—and he knew, with quiet certainty, that it would likely be his last. The damp air of London had grown heavy on his lungs, and he no longer had the strength to pursue all the hopes that had once stirred his heart. Yet when Sir Moses Montefiore, his friend of more than forty years, invited him to accompany him on one final philanthropic mission to Palestine, Hodgkin did not hesitate.Sunlit waves glistened as the steamship ancho...

24 likes 10 comments 10
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We Were Never Silent

Submitted to Contest #300

The first time someone called Amara Louis-Jean resilient, it felt like a curse disguised as a blessing.Lieutenant Grover, after morning drills, stood ramrod straight, cap low over steely eyes, the faint trace of a smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. His voice, sharp as steel, cut through the morning fog: “You’ve got grit.”As if she were forged from metal, not memory. As if the way she kept pace without complaint was strength, not survival.She stood tall on the wet gravel of the parade ground, sweat cooling down her back like prayer wat...

5 likes 3 comments 3
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We Hold These Truths

Submitted to Contest #300

Everyone from New Jersey has a different explanation as to why the state doesn’t deserve the reputation it gets. “If you lived here, you’d understand…it’s not like what you see in ‘____’, on ‘____’ TV show, at ‘_____’ rest stop.” Personally, I stand up for my home state because it represents what its country represents as well—the organized chaos of everything shoved into one place. By “everything”, I mean every type of person, landscape, political belief, class. We make it work. We have our loyalties and our grievances. We truly are not lik...

16 likes 9 comments 9
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A Mother’s Charge

Submitted to Contest #300

Caution-My short story recaptures sad memories of Argentina’s Dirty Wars of the 1970’s. A Mother’s ChargeCamila Ávila adjusted the bouquet of white roses in her arms as she guided her two childrenthrough the winding paths of La Recoleta Cemetery. The mausoleums stood like silent sentinels, their stone facades weathered by time, the faint scent of moss and damp stone lingering in the air.The sky was a bright, indifferent blue, as if unaware of the grief buried beneath it. When they reached the grave of her mother, Teresa Ávila, Camila knelt a...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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Royal the Dancing Sea Lion on the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Submitted to Contest #299

Royal the Sea Lion knew he could out-blubber all the other sea lions. He could out-roar them too. He loved the satisfaction of hearing his own guttural voice echoing over the ocean."So musical," he thought.He hauled his 1000 pounds of wobbling blubber across the sand to the ocean with ripples bouncing. He paused, and raised his head and neck in his favorite pose so he could be admired."Aaarrrrrgggghhh."He sent a raspy bark across the the water.Then he erupted like a volcano and spewed out another one even louder."AAAAaaaaaaarrrrrgggh." He si...

29 likes 21 comments 21
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Whiskey Canvas

Submitted to Contest #299

[Warning: Substance Abuse, Language, Suicide, Physical Violence]Face-down in Goliath’s elephant pen, Gus Harper was a masterpiece of ruin—sprawled amid piles of feces, clown suit faded, one shoe dangling. His orange wig clung, torn. The pen’s rusted metal poles framed him, a grotesque portrait in dirt and despair, as if the circus itself had vomited him out.“Hey! Get up, drunk! Clown car’s in twenty minutes!” Benny Walsh’s voice cracked from above, his lean frame perched on the fence. Another clown, makeup smudged but dignified, Benny eyed G...

18 likes 22 comments 22
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Behind in My Work

Submitted to Contest #299

It began as just another day at the clinic. I work for Dr. Rebecca Buchanan at the Virginia City Hospital. Oh, my Lord. I get paid to work with the best boss in the world. Can you imagine, she’s a proper doctor, and she knows more than any of the previous doctors in the town? I’ve never learned so much or had more fun than working with this woman. She trained Back East and worked on the front lines in the Civil War. She mentioned she even performed amputations in the field tents. Nothing got to her—she was a rock. My husband went to fight f...

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To the Rescue

Submitted to Contest #299

Sir Riley Fenwick paced back and forth wringing his hands. “Hurry up, Ole Chap! We'll never find her again if you take all day getting your shirt back on.”“Don't despair, Mate. In this crowd she can't be moving very fast. Help me tie this confounded cravat. The least this boxing venue could have done is provide a mirror back here if they expect a gentleman to strip to his bare chest to participate in a match. How is one ever supposed to go out in public again half undressed?”“Don't need to get fancy, Carlton. We're not headed to a ballroom. ...

8 likes 7 comments 7
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Constance Power Tibbins Will Not Stand For It

Submitted to Contest #299

As I watched the man once again smoking his pipe full of candied peel and haranguing the air with great vigour, it seemed to me that in this world one could be purposeful, even whilst being quite thoroughly mad.I thought, moreover, he was hard of hearing, as he produced two tiny trumpets, placing one in each ear, before announcing himself with the prodigious volume of the extremely deaf.‘Wassup?’ he said, to nobody.He spoke often of blessings, which led me to consider whether he was a holy man. His attire was not that of the clergy - he in f...

16 likes 14 comments 14
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The Real Hitler Diaries

Submitted to Contest #299

Author’s note: For those not old enough to remember the 1980’s, one of the most astonishing events of that decade was the discovery of diaries kept by Adolph Hitler. Stern Magazine, Newsweek and the Sunday Times in London all planned to serialize and publish and were prepared to hand over millions of dollars to the man who found them. There was one problem though: The diaries were fake, forged by a petty but talented criminal by the name of Konrad Kujau. Well respected experts enthusiastically endorsed the find before some finally recognized...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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Lyle

Submitted to Contest #298

Lyle paced in the FBI agent’s office, an old fashioned leather duffel bag sat on the floor by the chair. It contained the few things he was taking into his new life. He had just testified against his boss for immunity in an accounting scheme. He still couldn’t figure out how his fingerprints got on ledgers he had never even seen. “Are you ready?” Agent Burrows walked into the room and smiled at Lyle. “Mr Corrupt has left the building. I can get you to the train station without him seeing you.” “The train station? I'm going on a train.” “Yo...

4 likes 2 comments 2
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Coyaba

Submitted to Contest #298

“Once upon a time, long ago and far away in the distant wilds of South America, there grew a flower. It sat, buried deep beneath thick tree canopy, howling monkeys, and stringy vines, in a perfect circle of sunlight at the heart of the jungle. The clearing surrounding the flower was full of life. Flowers bloomed, ferns covered the forest floor, and animals chittered all around. Predator and prey alike followed the peaceful nature of this clearing- no animal died or felt fear here. It was a safe haven, protected and sheltered by this flower. ...

4 likes 1 comment 1
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Mask

Submitted to Contest #298

A wall of faces stared out at me from their eyeless sockets. There must have been at least a hundred of them, this army of visages, each one unique. Some missing a nose, even the entire lower half, a cursed few with mouths wrenched open in a permanent scream. They horrified me, and I instinctually lifted my hand to my own face, to the cavity there, the twisted roadmap of scars and knotted flesh. “Good boy, you’re right on time.” The sculptor emerged from the back room, holding two cups of steaming black tea, one of which she pressed into my...

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Do Over

Submitted to Contest #298

Do OverPrivate First Class U.S. Engineer Corps Frederick O'Reilly stepped down the steps of the train onto familiar ground. Eighteen long months from the time he left. Basic training and special engineer training followed by a heart rendering tour of duty behind front lines shuffling the wounded and the dying from wrenched trenches to overcrowded tent hospitals left him a changed man. The war to end all wars was finally brought to an armistice on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. American troops in Europe were sent...

13 likes 13 comments 13
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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