A bit obvious, but that'd be my pick too.Originally Posted by Tabac
I also liked this one (really) short story by Neil Gaiman. Here it is:
http://jeniong.multiply.com/journal/...eplies=reverse
A bit obvious, but that'd be my pick too.
I also liked this one (really) short story by Neil Gaiman. Here it is:
http://jeniong.multiply.com/journal/...eplies=reverse
__________________
"Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
-Pi
To me this seems almost excessively long to be considered a "short story." Stuff like Of Mice and Men and Metamorphosis are already long, but isn't this at least 150 pages? It might be closer to 200.
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury
"By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet
I love these two stories. I find them really beautiful and moving.
I just thought of two others.
"Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed" by Ray Bradbury
"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
T.C. Boyle's short stories are fabulous!
Most recently I read WALKING OUT by David Quammen. Superlative!
"He lives most gaily who knows best how to deceive himself. Ha-ha!"
- CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
According to me: 1.The Dead (James Joyce)
2.The Hunger artist(J.Kafka.Jerome)
I am the author of Parmethia
Abelardo Castillo has some interesting ones, but I guess you have to know Spanish to read them unless you get a translation :/ Anyhow, his stories are quite original and after reading one for school, I ended up buying the whole book
I love short stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov such as "Ward No. 6" and Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "Markheim" and "The Body Snatcher". My favourite book of short tales is Kafka's "The Metamorphosis and Other Stories".
"I should like to know what people fear the most: whatever is contrary to their usual habits, I imagine." -Fyodor Dostoevsky
"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul" -Franz Kafka
Long Walk to Forever by Kurt Vonnegut: A wonderful, near-perfect short story. I just found the ending to be rather unsubtle and cliched.
The Moments of Dominion
That happen on the Soul
And leave it with a Discontent
Too exquisite — to tell —
-Emily Dickinson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVW8GCnr9-I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckGIvr6WVw4
I always enjoy Kafka's short stories and I think my favorite has to be "The Hunger Artist."
Not sure if it has been mentioned, but "That Evening Sun" by William Faulkner.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
Oh, yes "The Hunger Artist" is one of my favourites, too! Also, "A Country Doctor" and "An Old Page" are also great reads.
"I should like to know what people fear the most: whatever is contrary to their usual habits, I imagine." -Fyodor Dostoevsky
"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul" -Franz Kafka
These are some of my favorites so far (maybe note the best of all time but all awesome):
"Araby" - James Joyce
"Lost in the Funhouse" - John Barth
"Omnibus" - Julio Cortazar
"The Library of Babel" - Jorge Luis Borges
"Assumption" - Samuel Beckett (his very first published story)
All aboard. All souls at half-mast. Aye-Aye. -Samuel Beckett, More Pricks Than Kicks
"Good Advice is Rarer Than Rubies," by Rushdie and "A Clean Well Lighted Place," by Hemingway. I like stories that are deceptively simple. I also like "Private Tuition by Mr Bose," by Anita Desai and the work of Raymond Carver, a minimalist short story writer. Also agree with many of the choices that have been mentioned here. There are many, many great short stories.
Every once in a while, I get the gift of reading a story which reminds me why I wanted to write -- even though the particular work is so outstanding that I realize that I never could achieve its level of greatness.
Do yourself a favor and read "The Emporer of the Air" by Ethan Canin, the title short story in a collection Ethan Canin wrote when he was only 27 years old! This short story reaped many literary awards when it was first published around 1987, and once you read the story, you'll know why it won so much praise.
The vibrant language of the narrator, an aging high school science teacher, is unpretentious yet rich with evocative description. Whatever preconceived notions you may have about the title will vanish, as you realize that the title is perfect. What is remarkable about the plot is that what the reader expects will happen doesn't, but what does happen will touch an emotional chord, the same way
James Joyce's "The Dead" affects discerning readers.
Here's just a short passage to show the power of the narrator's voice:
Miracles. This is true everywhere in nature. The evolution of 500 million years is mimicked in each gestation: birds that in the egg look like fish; fish that emerge like their spineless, leaflike ancestors. What it is to study life! Anybody who had seen a cell divide could have invented religion.
And the short story genre may have been invented for stories just like this one.
The Country of the Blind by HG Wells, is full of adventure and suprises, and has the status of a truly great short story.
My personal favourite is "The Voyage" by Katherine Mansfield, a simple tale, not much happens, but totally captivating.
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