What is the best short story of ALL TIME?
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What is the best short story of ALL TIME?
Two of my favorites would be "the tell tale heart' by Poe and "the hunger artist" by Kafka
The Lottery.
I loved C.S. Lewis' Narnia books when I was younger, left a huge impression on me and I still have that set of books many years later and have read them many times.
William Somerset Maughams' Of Human Bondage is a great one too.
Yukio Misihimas' The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea
Margaret Laurences' The Diviners
Edited to add: oops, forgot it was for short story...
I'm actually not a big fan of short stories, I like my book to work for me, get my mind right into it, help me forget time...
John Wyndham and Gabriel Garcia Marquez have written some good ones.
Off the top of my head, most John CHeever stories are ace...can't really pick there.
D.H. Lawrence's "Tickets, please"
I really enjoyed "Mr. Andrews" by E.M. Forster and "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin. (Although that last one is more of a novella.)
I really like O. Henry's stories, some of them are so classic. Poe's short stories, especially "The Tell-Tale Heart", are also good. I can't really give an opinion on "the best short story of all time"; there are so many out there.
All of Kathy Reichs thriller series...they're filled w/ suspense and her book, De`ja Dead, makes you feel like it's really happening.
i like just about anything by poe and asimov, especially "a feeling of power"...i also really like "the yellow wallpaper" by charlotte perkins gilman. i'm also partial to most of the sherlock holmes stories
Balzac's "A Passion in the Desert," any Welty, Flannery O'connor, Faulkner, (getting the picture), Willa Cather.
'Entropy' -- Thomas PynchonQuote:
Originally Posted by Edmond
'The Story of Byron the Bulb' -- Thomas Pynchon
'All The King's Horses' -- Kurt Vonnegut (or anything else in 'Welcome to the Monkey House')
'The Sisters' -- James Joyce
'The Dead' -- James Joyce
I really like short detective stories. The Peter Wimsey ones by Dorothy Sayers are fantastic, but my favorite of all is a Father Brown story by G.K. Chesterton. I believe it's called "The Sign of the Broken Sword".
"The Snowstorm" by Pushkin.
"A lodging for the night" by R.L.Stevenson.
"Two gallants" by Joyce.
"A canary for one" by E.Hemingway.
"The Day We Got Drunk on Cake" by William Trevor.
I like the Cask of Amontillado, and all of Truman Capote's stories are good, especially a Christmas Memory and, I don't think it counts because it's more of a novella, but Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Difficult question, I'd probably have to go for something by Borges on this - "the Library of Babel" with "the book of sands" coming close,
if only such a thing really existed....
Downer
Ernest Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life Of Francis McComber" is a killer. So economical and poignant. You just sit back and let out a big sigh after you finish it.
Sure, F. Scott Fitzgerald is praised for his novels but his short stories are amazing.
I like the cut-glass bowl---it's got an interesting spin on fate and The Off-shore Pirate because it's so funny and great to read out loud
"In the penal colony", Kafka
i remember doing a book of short stories at college and one that struck me was 'rasperry jam' with a young boy and a coupe of mad old women! any one know who thats by?
:)
Poe - The Cask of Amontillado
Vonnegut - The Boy who Hated Girls
Doyle - The Adventure of the Speckled Band
fairy-tales written by Anderen :)
:-?
But I would go with a Philip K. Dick short story:
'Breakfast at twilight'.
A rather discouraging story, but then it was written by Dick!
I'm a big fan of The Lottery, also The Signalman by Dickens. Harrison Burgeron is killer, don't remember who wrote it though. And although I have grown to dislike him somewhat, Stephen King has written some really memorable short stories. There are better ones, but one called Rock and Roll Heaven always springs to mind.
i like a lot of the above, esp Kafka & Poe but my fav all time was "Death of Ivan Illich" (sp?)!!!
JP
Nobody has mentioned Alice Walker ..
I think she is a great writer
her "Kindered Spirits" and "Everydayuse" are awesome ..
I really like Raymond Carver's "Popular Mechanics" and Linda Hogan's "Making Do," but there are so many good short stories that it is impossible to say which one is the best.
I like "Selfish Giant" of Oscar Wilde...and most of his short stories.
I've just finished reading a book of Kafka's short stories and I loved all of them. My favourite from that book, apart from Metamorphosis, which I'm sure I'll hate after writing an essay about it this weekend, are The Burrow, In the Penal Settlement and Investigations of a Dog.
That scene of In the Penal Settlement, when the officer was explaining the execution device enthusiastically to the diplomat while the condemned man just stood there in chains, all in the oppressing sunlight and the intense heat...I just got captured by the atmosphere and tone of the entire story.
The Burrow was appealing to me because of the paranoid hysteria that ensues in the end, and along with Investigations of a Dog it examined human characteristics through the conciousness of animals so well. If anyone else was also captured/entranced, let me know. I'd enjoying talking more about it.
I too like:
The Lottery
Yellow Wallpaper
The Dead
plus:
A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
o. henry's a midsummer knight's dream was brilliant and--for blind little me--brought a sweet and unexpected ending. i'm no expert on short stories, but i'll side with o. henry any day!
Has anyone read Poe's The Black Cat? Woooo, :o :o I just read it last night, how creepy!! I was so afraid that it might give me nightmares, but ironically, I did dream about cats, but it was pleasant. :rolleyes: I wouldn't call this the best short story (it was too creepy for me), I prefered Decent into Maelstrom.
Oh, and I love Shirley Jackson's, The Lottery.
Alice Walker's a fairly good writer, IMO - but no genius, by any stretch of the imagination. I studied the Color Purple last year, it was very vivid, but seemed a bit naive (to me), especially when she rants about politics and religion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ibtihaj
I like Bernice Bobs Her Hair by Fitzgerald, probably my favourite short story.
yes, Borges is a favourite of mine and among his works, the secret miracle, death and the compass and circuar ruins are my favourites, along with the library of babel of course. But to answer the question which started this whole discussion, it has generally been recognised that kafka's metamorphosis was and is the most technically perfect short story. I would, however, go with something by Borges...maybe not the library of babel, but perhaps, death and the Compass or even Pierre Menard..
I can't choose just one...
"A White Heron," Sarah Orne Jewett
"Big Two-Hearted River," Hemingway
"Fleur" and "Saint Marie," Louise Erdrich
"Red Leaves," William Faulkner
"Blackberry Winter," Robert Penn Warren
"Entropy," Thomas Pynchon
Finally another Pynchon enthusiast.
Oh, yes, I find Pynchon fascinating. However, unlike many Pynchon fans, I am not particularly taken with Gravity's Rainbow. I like the short stories, and I really enjoyed Mason & Dixon. :)
GR is easy to get turned off to.
My nominations:
The Child who Was Tired- Katherine Mansfield
Yellow Wallpaper- Gilman
The Wish House- Kipling.
"The old man and the sea" by Ernest Hemmingway.Extremely good writing and well crafted story.
IMHO too long to be considered a true short story...Quote:
Originally Posted by heretic
"The WALL" Jean-Paul Sartre, best short story ever. A classic tale about three men who all know they are going to die...beautiful writing.