My favorite 3 (darn, so limiting, oh well):
"Diary of a Madman" or "The Portrait" by Nikolai Gogol
"The Gift Of The Magi" ... by O. Henry
"The Metamorphosis" ... by Franz Kafka
Note that here, within LitNet, we have some awesome short story writers, Captain Pike and Steven Hunley come to mind first. A lot of talent, right here at your fingertips!
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty
~Albert Einstein
In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka
The Killers by Ernest Hemingway
The Dead by James Joyce
Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes.
hmmm... "The Dead" has come up more than once... I will make a point of reading that!
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty
~Albert Einstein
"In The Penal Colony" Franz Kafka
"The Dead" James Joyce
"The Hills Like White Elephants" - Ernest Hemingway
And some runner-ups
"White Nights" - Feodor Dostoevsky
"The Caucasus" - Ivan Bunin
"The Overcoat" - Nikolai Gogol
"The Lady With The Dog" Anton Chekhov
"The Hunger Artist" Franz Kafka
It is hard to narrow down like this...
A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor
Young Goodman Brown - Nathaniel Hawthorne
After the Ball - Leo Tolstoy
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Machine Stops - E M Forster
Edit: I think might substitute Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu for The Machine Stops, or maybe Carmen by Prosper Mérimée.
Last edited by kev67; 10-14-2017 at 07:01 AM.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
An Outpost of Progress (Joseph Conrad)
The Wall (Jean Paul Sarte)
Counterparts (James Joyce)
Other strong contenders:
The Killers (Ernest Hemingway)
Ivy Day in the Committee Room (James Joyce)
The Compartment (Raymond Carver)
Some of my favorite short stories written in English:
The Christmas Tale-Dickens
The Dead-J. Joyce
A Rose for Emily- Faulkner
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
"The Rats in the Walls" by Lovecraft
"Bartelby, the Scrivener" by Melville
"Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" by Kurt Vonnegut
Runners up: "The Metamorphosis", "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber", "The Yellow Wallpaper", "An Outpost of Progress", "The Call of Cthulu", "Fall of the House of Usher".
For recent stuff, I just read the latest Best American Short Fiction collection and there was standout stuff by people like Louise Erdrich, Andrea Barret, Meron Hadero, and Karen Russell.
I'm looking forward to getting around to the Roberto Bolano collection soon, and I wouldn't mind revisiting a few of tbe other Kafka heavy hitters.
Is everyone on here really that fond of The Dead, or is this follow the leader?
I am not saying The Dead is not a great story, but it is one of Joyce's longest and slowest short stories, and one of the more complex and symbolic. It got listed here a couple of times, then it got mentioned by the OP, then it started appearing even more regularly among posters' all time favorites. Suspicious. I personally do not buy it. It is not the kind of story people flock to and leave fascinated by, in general, forever impacted. It will put most people to sleep.
If half the people on here could legitimately not find a short story they liked more than The Dead, then either an abundance of literary mavens are posting in this thread, and abundance of beginners who have read very few short stories, or an abundance of people who cannot make up their minds and list The Dead because others are and it is supposed to be of high literary quality.
I would rate The Dead no higher than sixth out of the stories in The Dubliners, when the criterion was how much I enjoyed them. For literary grade and depth, The Dead may be Joyce's top effort in the short story medium. But that would not make it everyone's favorite. It would make it the Joyce short story with the most critical reputation. That's it.
Last edited by desiresjab; 09-27-2017 at 10:25 PM.
When the memory of a past lover stands out against the banality of life...
"one of the more complex and symbolic" stories by James Joyce
But not everyone has to like it, though many do, it seems.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner -- Sillitoe
The White People -- Machen
Yellow Wallpaper -- Gilman
Wow, I have never heard of those stories. My bad...Originally Posted by Cauldbairn
You're ugly too - Lorrie Moore
Mr. Voice - Jess Walter
The Rotifer - Mary Ladd Gavell
All very modern, 'cept the last one
The Good Samaritan
The Miller's Tale
The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat
Voices mysterious far and near,
Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
Are calling and whispering in my ear,
Whifflingpin! Why stayest thou here?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote