I agree with those who said "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "To Build a Fire" by Jack London. Both of these are great stories.
The #1 Best Short Story of All Time/Favorite Short Story
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"For sale: Baby shoes, never worn." - Hemingway
"Epithet: Stupid humans. Never escaped earth." - Victor Vinge
"Epithet: Stupid humans. Never escaped earth." - Victor Vinge
Been lurking here for a while, but somehow never saw this thread before. Very cool. I haven't read many non-speculative fiction shorts (I certainly shall now that I have links to follow), but a few of my favorites are:
Almost Home by Terry Bisson
Jeffty is Five by Harlan Ellison
Fruiting Bodies by Brian Lumley
Bread and Bombs by M. Rickert
And, of course, pretty much anything by Bradbury (the King of short stories, IMO).
Almost Home by Terry Bisson
Jeffty is Five by Harlan Ellison
Fruiting Bodies by Brian Lumley
Bread and Bombs by M. Rickert
And, of course, pretty much anything by Bradbury (the King of short stories, IMO).
I'm sure they are listed earlier, but I'll go for a couple of obvious ones.
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
This is really difficult and completely contingent on my fluctuating preferences at any given moment to choose one as the "best", but right now I am in an Edgar Allan Poe mood, so...(drum roll please)...
"Tell Tale Heart" wins!
(Also, as a side note, I really liked a lesser known one by him called "The Sphinx" too if any of you like his work.)
"Tell Tale Heart" wins!
(Also, as a side note, I really liked a lesser known one by him called "The Sphinx" too if any of you like his work.)
This is a medium I love- to read, to write, to work with as an editor. Just a few favorites below:
"Baba Iaga and the Pelican Child" by Joy Williams
"Mute" by Stephen King (in Just After Sunset)
"A Sudden Trip Home in the Spring" by Alice Walker
"Ardour" by Jonathon Keats
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
"The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Oval Portrait" by Edgar Allan Poe
"Baba Iaga and the Pelican Child" by Joy Williams
"Mute" by Stephen King (in Just After Sunset)
"A Sudden Trip Home in the Spring" by Alice Walker
"Ardour" by Jonathon Keats
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
"The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Oval Portrait" by Edgar Allan Poe
Nominated by two different people now, and I've never heard of it. Therefore, must read it. Where can I find it?
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I have two. First is a short story by. . . is it Bradbury? About this kid at a carnival who's harrassing a chimp in a cage and later, the kid's riding the ferris wheel and falls off, getting wedged on the side and the only one who sees him is that chimp, watching. For some reason, that scares me so much.
The second is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, The Fir-Tree, saddest story I've ever read, ever. Heartbreaking.
The second is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, The Fir-Tree, saddest story I've ever read, ever. Heartbreaking.
I don't read a ton of short stories, so nothing I'm about to say is at all obscure to anyone here, I'm sure, and I would never claim to have the refined tasted to label anything as "#1" but...
I really love Sherlock Holmes, so I would have to say one of them, but...it's hard to choose, so I'll just say my favorite, which is "His Last Bow." It's British patriotic propoganda at it's best, and told from third-person instead of from Watson's POV, but it has amazing atmosphere, and I love the idea of an elderly, seemingly-retired Holmes fighting spies during WWI.
I also love Neil Gaiman, and my favorite short stories of his are: Chivalry; and Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire. It's a mouthful, I know.
Other than that, I don't know. I've seen others mention The Tell Tale Heart by Poe, and that's definitely one of my favorites of his, if not my favorite.
Weights and Measures by Jodi Picoult made me think about stories in a whole new way. Prismatica by by Samuel R. Delany was probably the most fun I've ever had reading a short story, and I would really love to read something similar to it one day.
If anyone could recommend me something else along those lines, I'd be grateful. I'm getting into short stories more and more as time goes on, but I don't know where to look. Anthologies? Which are good? And tracking down single short stories to read sounds like a chore.
I really love Sherlock Holmes, so I would have to say one of them, but...it's hard to choose, so I'll just say my favorite, which is "His Last Bow." It's British patriotic propoganda at it's best, and told from third-person instead of from Watson's POV, but it has amazing atmosphere, and I love the idea of an elderly, seemingly-retired Holmes fighting spies during WWI.
I also love Neil Gaiman, and my favorite short stories of his are: Chivalry; and Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire. It's a mouthful, I know.
Other than that, I don't know. I've seen others mention The Tell Tale Heart by Poe, and that's definitely one of my favorites of his, if not my favorite.
Weights and Measures by Jodi Picoult made me think about stories in a whole new way. Prismatica by by Samuel R. Delany was probably the most fun I've ever had reading a short story, and I would really love to read something similar to it one day.
If anyone could recommend me something else along those lines, I'd be grateful. I'm getting into short stories more and more as time goes on, but I don't know where to look. Anthologies? Which are good? And tracking down single short stories to read sounds like a chore.
Ah, so many great suggestions.
I second all the recs for Jhumpa Lahiri, especially "Sexy", and also add:
Miracle Polish by Steven Millhauser
"Some Women" by Alice Munro
"Demonology" by Rick Moody
I second all the recs for Jhumpa Lahiri, especially "Sexy", and also add:
Miracle Polish by Steven Millhauser
"Some Women" by Alice Munro
"Demonology" by Rick Moody
Short Story Competition
For all you short story lovers who also like to write them: Take a look at this new short story competition. The proceeds are for an autistic charity, the judges are awesome, and the prizes promise to be BIG.
http://bit.ly/Wri4Aut
For all you short story lovers who also like to write them: Take a look at this new short story competition. The proceeds are for an autistic charity, the judges are awesome, and the prizes promise to be BIG.
http://bit.ly/Wri4Aut
8 pages and this is the only mention of Philip K Dick
?I'd like to add 'The Days of Perky Pat', or 'Do Android's dream of electric sheep?'.
This thread makes me want to read more
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I have two favorites, can't chose just one.
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" Ursula K. LeGuin
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" Ursula K. LeGuin
I've recently gone back to writing short stories so I'm also trying to read more short stories. Right now, I'm reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman's stories (not many of them), but my all-time favorite is "The Yellow Wallpaper". It still amazes me how Gilman nailed the feeling of claustrophobia and psychosis that an artistic woman would have felt confined to the expected role of wife and mother in Victorian America. It still chills me.
I also read her story, "If I Were A Man", which is a bit more didactic in terms of its obvious suffragist bent, but it's still an interesting story about a woman who becomes a man one day and her perspective on what it's like to be a man and in a man's sphere and what they really think of women. While the ideas are definitely Victorian in terms of what men and women were, some of it still (sadly) rings true today.
Djuna
I also read her story, "If I Were A Man", which is a bit more didactic in terms of its obvious suffragist bent, but it's still an interesting story about a woman who becomes a man one day and her perspective on what it's like to be a man and in a man's sphere and what they really think of women. While the ideas are definitely Victorian in terms of what men and women were, some of it still (sadly) rings true today.
Djuna
Tried two random short stories by W. Somerset Maugham. "The Verger" and "The Traitor". Both excellent and I'll certainly be reading more of his short stories.
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I just finished Clive Barker's Inhuman Condition (Books of Blood Vol. 4 in the U.K.) and loved every bit. Technically, I think the stories are out of the short story range, maybe novelette(?), but I just ate them up. This was my first encounter with Barker's fiction, and I can't believe I let this fly under my radar for so long.
Must find more Books of Blood...
Must find more Books of Blood...
My Top 5 (not in order)
The pit and the pendulum is pretty good, Occurance at owl creek bridge, Tell tale heart, flowers for algernon, and The Raven
The pit and the pendulum is pretty good, Occurance at owl creek bridge, Tell tale heart, flowers for algernon, and The Raven
Can never pick a best of anything, but I really love "Fire in the Hole" by Elmore Leonard. The entire TV series Jusitfied is based on that one story.
There were six in total, which brought me back into horror and then SF/F after most of the 80s away from the genres. My copy is two omnibus editions, three books in each.
Some of the writing is a bit clunky early on - you can see that he was on a learning curve - but the power of his imagination and imagery is evident from the outset. He hasn't written much short fiction since, no doubt due to novels and films being a higher and much more remunerative priority in his career. That's a pity, as he can write excellent short fiction, though as you say more like novelettes and novellas than short stories.
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