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I agree that "The Lottery" is a great story, and "A Rose for Emily" is by Faulkner. Here are some of my recommendations:Quote:
Originally Posted by Shea
Anything by O. Henry (especially "The Furnished Room")
"A Worn Path" - Eudora Welty
"The Destructors" - Graham Greene
"Miss Brill" - Katherine Mansfield
"The Lesson" - Toni Cade Bambara
"Eveline" or "The Dead" - James Joyce
"Once upon a Time" - Nadine Gordimer
"Welcome to the Monkey House" - Kurt Vonnegut
I will join those who recommend O'Henry.
The Garden Party and other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson is an interesting collection, which consists of interconnected stories about the inhabitants of a small town.
Also The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories is a very good collection; well worth having in one's personal library.
I don't believe that Flannery O'Conner has been mentioned.
and
Sandra Cisneros has some excellent stories as well.
A good short story doesn't have wasted words. There is plenty of room in a novel to make a mistake and have it blend into the work, as a whole, but short stories don't grant the luxury. Don't think of short stories as novels of small length, although some short stories are just that. Depending on the type of story it is, there are many writers that you might look at as models. Poe was one to the best, but his style look somewhat antiquated now, unless one wants to characterize through language. The others that people have mentioned wrote good short stories. To those I would add Guy de Maupassant, C.M. Kornbluth, L. Sprague deCamp, H.P. Lovecraft, and there are others.Quote:
Originally Posted by TigerTiger
Borges writes nice short stories. And Italo Calvino as well. Angela Carter maybe, also. And of course Julio Cortazar and G.G. Marquez.
Favourites from them: "The Garden of Forking Paths", "The Sign in Space", "The Snow Child", "Continuity of Parks", "Eyes of a Blue Dog". :D
You're right, O'Conner is true original. I enjoyed her story "Everything That Rises Must Converge" (as much for the great title as for the tale itself.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Riesa
These short stories are good
A Ramble in Aphasia by O Henry
The Small Miracle by Paul Gallico
Bertie's Christmas Eve by Saki
A thread just started by Reichenbach should remind us how good a story writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was.
There is One story of Hemingway i learn in school .. i don't remember the name..
it was something with a watch or a clock... in a dinner.. hmmmm.. well don't remember but it was really good...
"A Clean Well-Lighted Place"?Quote:
Originally Posted by Weeping Willow
-- That's one of my favorites. Others:Quote:
Originally Posted by starrwriter
"A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"Powder" - Tobias Wolfe
"A Mother in Manville - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
"A Complicated Nature" - William Trevor
"Revelation" - Flannery O'Connor
"Errand" and "Cathedral" - Raymond Carver
There's a great little anthology called First Fiction, edited by Kathy Kiernan and Michael Moore, that features the first published short stories of writers like Raymond Carver, William Faulkner, Alice Munro, and Margaret Atwood (and many more). It's interesting to read the variety of styles and types of subjects these writers started out with - and can be a good starting point if you want to trace how these writers developed their craft across time.
I forgot to mention "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken. Great short story.
nop.. i lloked.. i think it was about a guy waiting for some people to come and kill him.. and all the time all the characters are looking at the clock above the bar..Quote:
Originally Posted by starrwriter
ring a bell???
I can't believe how i can't find this story... :mad:
It must be "The Killers," a story about some gangsters who come to kill a guy nicknamed the Swede.Quote:
Originally Posted by Weeping Willow
I just thought of another -- "The Other Two" by Edith Wharton. It's an interesting character study told from an interesting point of view.