Stories of characters having to deal with terrible pain caused by others. Equality is one of the great and lauded aims of a just society. It is rarely achieved. The system is there to be exploited by those with too much money and too many resources. Or maybe just a grudge. Our classic authors including Anton Chekhov, O Henry, Susan Glaspell, Arthur Morrison and others turn their pens to the nature of abuse. It may be gentle or laced with searing pain but always told with the sharpest of pens. 1 - Short Stories about Abuse - An Introduction2 - Hop Frog by Edgar Allan Poe3 - Aloysha the Pot by Leo Tolstoy4 - A Harlem Tragedy by O Henry5 - Vanka by Anton Chekhov6 - A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell7 - Gentle Breathing by Ivan Bunin8 - Tony's Wife by Alice Dunbar Nelson9 - The Bishop of Hell by Marjorie Bowen10 - A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane11 - The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe12 - Tales of Mean Streets. Lizerunt by Arthur Morrison