Short Stories About Ambition: 10 Classics Explained
Quick answer: Ten classic short stories about ambition, from Paul's Case and The Queen of Spades to The Man Who Would Be King and A Hunger Artist, summarised and compared.
Ambition stories are read by the ambitious, who want a warning they can ignore, and the short story is the right length for one. These writers give the wanting character exactly what they reach for, a kingdom, three cards, a week at the Waldorf, and then stay for the bill.
The collection begins with the dreamers who want to be elsewhere, moves through the men who want to be gods or geniuses, and ends with an artist whose ambition is to be watched. Each title links to a page that summarises the story and explains its ending.
The stories
Paul's Case by Willa Cather. A Pittsburgh schoolboy who lives for his evenings ushering at the concert hall steals a thousand dollars from his employer and takes a room at the Waldorf in New York. He has eight days of the life he wanted before the newspapers reach him.
The Birth-mark by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Aylmer, a scientist of the last century, marries the beautiful Georgiana and then cannot stop seeing the small crimson hand on her cheek. He has his laboratory, and she loves him enough to drink what he prepares.
The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling. Two loafers, Dravot and Carnehan, cross into Kafiristan with twenty rifles and set themselves up as kings and gods. It lasts until Dravot wants a wife, and the girl, terrified, bites him and draws blood.
The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin. Hermann, a careful officer who watches others gamble, learns that an old countess once won with three secret cards and sets out to get them by courting her ward. He plays them on three consecutive nights.
How Much Land Does a Man Need by Leo Tolstoy. Pahom moves twice for more land and is finally offered all he can walk round between sunrise and sunset. He walks a very long way.
The Egg by Sherwood Anderson. A farmer and his wife catch ambition from a newspaper and move to town to run a restaurant that will make them somebody. One night the father tries to impress a customer by making an egg stand on end.
The Black Monk by Anton Chekhov. Kovrin, a scholar who works too hard, is visited in a garden by a black-robed monk who assures him he is one of the chosen. When he is cured of the vision he is also cured of his happiness.
A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka. A professional faster, once a sensation, is moved to a cage on the way to the circus menagerie and forgotten. When they finally clean out the straw, he confesses why he never stopped.
The Remarkable Rocket by Oscar Wilde. A rocket so sure of his destiny that he weeps at his own importance gets damp and is left out of the display. He goes off at last over a ditch with only a duck and a frog to hear.
Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. A student in Padua falls in love with the daughter of a doctor who has raised her among poisonous plants until her breath kills insects. A rival scientist supplies the antidote.
Reading them together
The collection argues that ambition is a story the ambitious tell about the future, and that fiction punishes it by delivering the future early. Paul gets his hotel and Pahom his land and Dravot his crown, and the stories are about how little time each has to enjoy them. Hawthorne twice makes the ambition scientific and the victim a woman who consents, which is the theme at its most uncomfortable.
Kafka and Wilde bracket the rest with two artists of the self: the hunger artist wants to be watched and is forgotten, the rocket wants to be admired and goes off unseen. The comedy and the tragedy are the same story.
If you want to write about ambition
What writers can take from this
- Read Paul's Case first; it is the modern template for the theme.
- Pair The Queen of Spades with How Much Land Does a Man Need for two fables of the last step.
- Hawthorne's two stories are best read together, since Aylmer and Rappaccini are the same man in different rooms.
- The Man Who Would Be King is long; read the frame narrator's scenes closely, since Carnehan's return is the point.
- A Hunger Artist and The Remarkable Rocket can be read in twenty minutes and make a sharp pair for discussion.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a character achieves exactly what they have wanted for years within the first page, and the rest of the story is the first week of having it.
Questions
What is the best short story about ambition?
Paul's Case is the most taught in American classrooms, and The Queen of Spades the most admired in Europe. A Hunger Artist is the one most often written about.
Which short stories about ambition are good for students?
How Much Land Does a Man Need, The Egg, The Remarkable Rocket and Paul's Case are clear and well suited to discussion of wanting and cost. The Man Who Would Be King suits older students.
Which classic story about ambition is the shortest?
The Remarkable Rocket and How Much Land Does a Man Need are the shortest here, each under three thousand words.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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