Short Story Editions

[Dark Muse]

I am going to be taking an English Class in American Fiction to 1914, and our profresser just e-mailed a list of the books which we are going to be reading in class, and several of the books are collections of short stories, and she indicated which editions she would be using (Signet, Bantam, Penguion etc..) but said we could use different editions, as long as we made sure to have all the stories that are to be covered in the class, but the syllabass for the new quarater has not been posted online yet, and I was going to the bookstore Saturday to see if I could find any of the books.

So I was wondering, when it comes to short stories, is there a big difference between editions in what stories they include in thier books, or do they all pretty much have the same stories?

For example, in a collection of Poes work would there be a big difference between the stories inculuded in a Bantam Classics edition, compared to the stories posted in a Signet Classics edition, or would they be pretty close to the same?

[Virgil]

I can't imagne there being a difference Muse. The story is the story. Sometimes there is a really good introduction in an edition, or sometimes there are notes and explanations. Those might be a discriminator.

[Dark Muse]

Yes that is what I thought, but I just wanted to make sure, though I will try to get the editions mentioned by the teacher, I do not know if they will have those extact ones at the book store

[aeroport]

Wait - do you mean collections of works by individual authors, or anthologies that include a range of "standard" short stories? Because in the latter case it would defintely matter.

[Dark Muse]

Collections by individual authors.

Like one of them on the list is The Tell Tale Heart and Other wirtings by Edgar Allen Poe

or

Billy Bud and other Tales by Herman Melville

and so forth

[JBI]

Oh, if they are single author anthologies you shouldn't have a problem. As for collected anthologies like the Norton or Oxford ones, each edition is different.

[Dark Muse]

Ok, thank you

[aeroport]

Yeah, it sounds like you'll be fine with authors like that.

[Dark Muse]

Ok cool

[JBI]

Just out of curiosity, which ones?

[HotKarl]

You know, I would hold off completely on buying the short fiction books until you saw the syllabus. You'll probably be able to find most of the short stories your professor assigns online. You'll probably have to print them out so you can follow along in class, but it'll save you beau coup bucks.

[Dark Muse]

Just out of curiosity, which ones?

The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allen Poe

Billy Budd and Other Tales by Herman Melville

The Turn Screw and Other Short Fiction by Henry James

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and other Short Fiction by Stephen Crane

and there are two novels

The Houe of Mirth by Edith Wharton

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

[PeterL]

I am going to be taking an English Class in American Fiction to 1914,


For example, in a collection of Poes work would there be a big difference between the stories inculuded in a Bantam Classics edition, compared to the stories posted in a Signet Classics edition, or would they be pretty close to the same?

Until I noticed again the period covered "to 1914" I was going to say that there wouldn't be any differences, but it is possible that there were significant differences in early stories, but that isn't a problem, because multiple versions of Poe's stories are available online. I would suggest that you avoid buying any more books than necessary and download the stories from this site or from Gutenberg.org.