I agree one of the best short stories of the time, had me laughing histarically in the middle of English class, when you can hold a 17 year old kids interest for 2 and a half hours, I applaud.
O.Henry has great short stories if you'd want surprise endings. Edgar Allan Poe is obviously a good writer in that genre. My favorite right now is Continuity of Parks by Cortazar.
Time tells us that we shouldn't dream yet eternity tells us that dreams are what keeps him alive.
I know not what or who I can be, all that I'm sure of is what I am.
Just realized that you said best play ever, yeah it is a play but also a very short read, thats what I was trying to portray, haha.
It has to be Hemingway's Big Two Hearted River. How can a story that's essentially about nothing be so beautiful, captivating and mesmerising?
In fact all of Hemingway's short stories are excellent.
In close second place is Faulkner's Two Soldiers. I sometimes feel that his short fiction misses the mark, but this is the exception.
Third goes to JD Salinger - For Esmé - with Love and Squalor. Again, I'm fairly indifferent to his short stories, but this was fantastic.
Zippy.
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"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." Anais Nin.
Thanks. I'll have to visit the used bookstore. I seem to have traded my copies of both The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles when I bought this huge collection, figuring all of the best stories would be in it. They aren't!Ah, editors. An author cannot exist with them or without them!
Comedy short stories are great as well. For them I recomend Patrick F. McManus.![]()
Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us smoke
Some of us lie
But it's all just the way
that we cope with our lives...
"Americans should know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls."
-Walt WhitmanThey have their worries, they’re counting the miles, they’re thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they’ll get there—and all the time they’ll get there anyway, you see.
-Jack Kerouac
Yes, that's it! It's called "Kaleidoscope." Thanks, TEND.
'...A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.' --Dr. Mortimer, The Hound of the Baskervilles
I actually liked. The Lottery. I can never remember the author, but it was well written. I didn't have an idea of the ending, it took be by surprise.
"Yes, Mati. That was exacshully what I was saying."
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
I haven't read a large number of short stories, but my favorite that I've read so far is The Telltale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe.
So what is The Lottery about? I think I might have to give that one a look.
Hell is other people.
~Jean-Paul Sartre, "No Exit"
Hugh B. Cave writes a lot of really good short stories, usually dark and ghostly. I don't really have a favorite but The Twisted Men is excellent. Finding his stories would be the problem, as they are usually scattered among anthologies.
Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us smoke
Some of us lie
But it's all just the way
that we cope with our lives...
I would have to say Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" or "An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce.
"An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce probably does have one of the best twist endings of all time!![]()
Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us smoke
Some of us lie
But it's all just the way
that we cope with our lives...