This question has probably been asked before but I can't seem to find the thread.
I'm totally into short stories right now. And I'm running out of material. What's your favorite short story writer? Or do you even have a favorite short story? I'd love to know why you like it/him/her that much.
I love O. Henry (probably best known for "The Gift of the Magi"). His stories always make me smile because they all have some ironic twist of fate (well, almost always; some of his stories have a dark side). And I like that most of them deal either with cowboys or city life.
Arnold Bros. (est. 1905) has spoken!
Poe has always been one of my favorites for short stories. Stienbeck is great too (if ya consider Cannery Row or Tequilla Flats short stories).
Classics: Hawthorne all the way. I enjoy his short stories far better than Poe's. My favorite would be a tie between "The Minister's Black Veil" and "The Birthmark."
Modern: Cisneros. She's won me with "Woman Hollering Creek." I love the way that she integrated the story of "La Llorona" in her modern exploration of women's roles.
litjunkie
-reader and writer-
www.litjunkies.com/booktalk
I don't mind O'Henry, but a lot of his work just seems so similar to me at times.
I much prefer Checkhov who writes fantastic short stories, some of the collections by Guy de Maupassant and Dubliners by James Joyce are also superb.
Poe is the best short story writer. I also like Julio Cortazar. He's just amazing. His stories are pretty weird and it's great fun reading them. Sometimes a bit depressing too.
In dreams begin responsibilities.
margaret atwood has some great short stories, as does hemmingway and faulkner. my personal fave's are the respledant quetzal, a clean well lighted place and a rose for emily (in the order of the authors mentioned)
Then we sat on the edge of the earth, with our feet dangling over the side, and marvelled that we had found each other.
Agreed. And I'll take his short fiction over his novels every day of the week. "Young Goodman Brown" is his best, IMO.Originally Posted by litjunkie
Modern: Harlan Ellison - Excellent craftsman and his concerns don't lessen with time.
Me, obviously.
LARISSA VOLOKHONSKY and RICHARD PEVEAR just translated some of the early Checkhov stories and a lot of his plays. They did a wonderful job, I think. I can't be sure, because I don't know Russian, but it just feels right. The flow is better than in other translations.
Dubliners is great!
I too love Chekhov's short stories. It seems to me the fascination is created by him taking some ordinary occurence and writing about it in an extraordinary way so that the most mundane things become interesting. He seems to be addicted to characterisation and his stories are more based around the intricies of their characters, rather than any particular happenings. Here he is writing about not being able to sleep from 'A Dreary Story' translated by Constance Garnett:
'As regards my present manner of life, I must give a foremost place to the insomnia from which I have suffered of late. If I were asked what constituted the chief and fundamental feature of my existence now, I should answer, Insomnia. As in the past, from habit, I undress and go to bed exactly at midnight. I fall asleep quickly, but before two o'clock, I wake up and feel as though I had not slept at all. Sometimes I get out of bed and light a lamp. For an hour or two, I walk up and down the room looking at the familiar photographs and pictures. When I am weary of walking about, I sit down to my table. I sit motionless, thinking of nothing, conscious of no inclination; if a book is lying before me, I mechanically read it without any interest - in that way not long ago, I mechanically read through in one night, a whole novel, with the strange title 'The Song the Lark was Singing'; or to occupy my attention I force myself to count to a thousand; or I imagine the face of one of my colleagues and begin trying to remember in what year and under what circumstances he entered the service. I like listening to sounds. Two rooms away from me my daughter LIza says something rapidly in her sleep, or my wife crosses the drawing room with a candle and invariably drop the match box, or a warped cupboard creaks; or the burner of the lamp suddenly begins to hum - all these sounds, for some reason, excite me. To lie awake at night means to be at every moment conscious of being abnormal, and so I look forward with impatience to the morning and the day when I have a right to be awake. Many wearisome hours pass before the **** crows in the yard. He is my first bringer of good tidings. As soon as he crows I know that within an hour the porter will wake up below, and coughing angrily, will go upstairs to fetch something. And then a pale light will begin gradually glimmmering at the windows, voices will sound in the street...'
There isn't really a rude word in this..only the word for a male hen but the automatic censor has dirty mind!
Last edited by Miranda; 08-22-2004 at 05:05 PM.
omg....i cant read that.....
my eyes hurt. i have to go wash them now
edited to add: thank you thank you thank you....
i shall try again!
Then we sat on the edge of the earth, with our feet dangling over the side, and marvelled that we had found each other.
Sorry VBM, I was playing around with the fonts - you must've seen my post a minute after I posted it and just before I retrieved it. It looked okay with a white background but green and orange...oh! Sorry VBM - I am very bored tonight.
me too, which is probably how i saw it before you edited it....
may i suggest some shroomz for boredom.....
http://services.gametrust.com/webgames/shroomz/
Then we sat on the edge of the earth, with our feet dangling over the side, and marvelled that we had found each other.
I never had any shroomz before...but I'm still bored cos the link wont work for me and all I got was a lovely page of black. Anymore ideas... VBN> I bin bored all day!! Glad tis nearly bedtime...
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