Not a genre that I much go for but by accident picked up Jim Harrison's Legends Of The Fall mainly because I'd seen the movie and wanted to read the boook. Loved every story in that book and have read every short story of his I can find. A great, great writer. Have studiously avoided all other short story writers. Larry

Well, I'd say Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories (and they are short stories for the most part) are my favorite. And then there's Mark Twain -- his short stories are quite engaging. Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry are two other favorites of mine.

How about "The Chaser," by John Collier? It gave me the shivers the first time I read it, and I wasn't surprised to find that it was used as the basis for an old Twilight Zone episode.

In addition to the ones mentioned, Poe, of course, and Wodehouse. Zelazny's "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," Heinlein's "All You Zombies," Calvino's Italian Folktales or any collection of fairy tales, Barth's "Chimera," Conrad's "Youth"

I love short stories, but haven't read nearly enough. I picked up a collection of Evelyn Waugh short stories and while enjoyable, none resonated with me.

Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain". Perfect use of the medium, in my opinion.

I used to buy compilations of short stories whenever I came across second-hand ones, as they are great ways of discovering authors. I remember enjoying Saki and PG Wodehouse particularly. My daughter recently had a Gothic Horror collection which included a great Neil Gaiman short story, "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in
the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" - a lovely spoof of the Gothic story.

I love short stories!

My favourites so far are:

Raymond Carver - Kindling; Gazebo; What we talk about when we talk about love; Why Don't You Dance?; The Bath.

Ernest Hemingway - Hills Like White Elephants.

Anton Chekhov - A Boring Story; The Malefactor; Easter Night; Anyuta; Peasant Women; The Lady with a Little Dog.

Henry Lawson - The Drover's Wife.

O. Henry - The Gift of the Magi.

Tim O'Brien - The Things they Carried.

Grace Paley - A Conversation with my Father.

William Faulkner - A Rose for Emily.

Katherine Anne Porter - The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.

Lisa Merrifield - One Lovely Thing.

Katherine Mansfield - The Garden Party.

John Steinbeck - The Chrysanthemums.

Tim Winton - Neighbours.

W. Somerset Maugham - Rain; The fall of Edward Barnard.

Bobbie Ann Mason - Shiloh

Adam.

STAN BARSTOW's short stories are wonderful little classics depicting British working class life from the 1950s on. They have been used for study in secondary schools (High schools?) in UK for the last 30 years. Collections include:

The Desperadoes (the title story is an amazing piece of work where you find, after you've read it, that you've been in the mind of a murderer - and sympathised with him.)

A Season with Eros
The Glad Eye

An Odour of Chrysanthemums by D.H.LAWRENCE (his short stories are wonderful)

I'm also very fond of CHEKOV (The Lady with the little dog is a classic of his)

The Gentleman from San Francisco by BUNIN (a long story, which, amazingly, has no dialogue at all! I keep reading it to see how it works)

Adam, do you know this last one? I'd like to know your thoughts on it if you do. If not, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Dido

Oh, man! I completely forgot about H.P. Lovecraft's short stories! Yes, he's another favorite of mine. Not when I'm alone, mind you. ;-)

The Jilting of Grannie Weatherall Katherine Anne Porter

A Good Man is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor

The Lottery Shirley Jackson

The Great Wave Mary Lavin

I like Hemingway's short stories better than his novels. Along with the ones listed above, I also like "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and "Snows of Kilimanjaro." Faulkner, also mentioned above, is a master, particularly "Wash." James Joyce's Dubliners is wonderful and not at all difficult like his novels; "The Dead" is one of my favorite short stories.

Russ

I love to read short stories, but often don't get the time to give them their fair share of attention. Some that have always stayed with me (outside of some already mentioned above) include:

- The Laugher by Heinrich Boll
- Orientation of Cats by Julio Cortazar (my favorite)
- Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (includes, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings and Innocent Erendira)
- The Changed Man and the King of Words by Orson Scott Card (a twist on the Oedipus Rex myth which still blows my mind when I think about it)

Yes, CMC! Flannery O'Connor is a great favorite, as is Carson McCullers. McCullers "Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is wonderful. Not that I like Southern Gothic, or anything.

Alice Munro is my favourite short story author.

I'm surprised to see no one has mentioned Daphne duMaurier. I enjoy the eerie undertones of her short stories. Particularly, "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now" are mesmerizing, IMO.

Or the short horror story The Blue Lenses. Quite marvellous.

I recently read The Lottery and other stories by Shirley Jackson. I wasn't as impressed by the title story as most people seem to be - it came as no shock at all. But some of the other stories in there are quite beautifully written.

I must, of course, back up Stan Barstow. And Alan Sillitoe's short stories are excellent. Quite often they hardly tell a story - they are just descriptions of normal life in Nottingham - a couple of kids going to a fair; a guy going to the football, coming home and arguing with his wife. But the pictures are accurately and affectionately drawn.

I sometimes feel that a really good short story can be thought of as the literary equivalent of a beautiful picture, whereas a novel is more like a film.

I don't think a short story has to be like a picture; a masterfully crafted short story can really have a beginning, middle and end.

Short stories are not my favorite genre but there are some that have really stayed with me. I was puzzled by how much Sherwood Anderson's The Egg was lauded; I didn't think it was nearly as compelling as Winesburg, Ohio, which was a collection of short stories tied together as a novel.

Dido,

No, I haven't read Bunin's short story. But you have piqued my interest and I will look for it and let you know what I think. Gotta love those Russians!

Adam

I forgot one of my favorites: Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I also like some of Isak Dinesen's gothic tales.

Although I don't read a lot of short stories, of the ones I've ready I would have to say these are my favorites:

Here We Are In Paradise by Tony Earley: A married couple tries to cope with the wife's breast cancer.

Charlotte by Tony Earley: A hilarious story about professional wrestling.

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx: It's the most perfect short story I've ever read. I'm amazed at what she managed to convey in such a small amount of pages.

I know this thread is not specifically about creepy stories but here are some that never fail to give me the willies:

The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

and my all-time favourite, Oh, Whistle and I'll come to you, my lad by M.R. James

Lady Ferry by Sarah Orne Jewett (I'm not really sure what is going on in this long story, but it makes me a bit uneasy)

Other favourite (non-creepy) stories:

"The Wind Blows" by Katherine Mansfield, "The Pupil" by Henry James (actually several stories by James), and many stories by Sarah Orne Jewett such as "Miss Tempy's Watchers".

Thank goodness someone mentioned Alice Munro. My book group recently read her collection Runaway, which was superb. I can't exactly say I loved it; each story left me feeling as though I had been stabbed. But she is a masterful writer.

Another collection I have read recently (and I'm not actually a reader of short stories, so this is rather a fluke) is Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett. Each story is somehow connected to a scientist (usually a biolgist) such as Mendel, Linnaeus, etc. though they might take place in the present. An interesting premise, and though the stories are about people and not about science, it's a good read for people like me who are interested in science.

Judy

Low brow but entertaining, Nightshift by Stephen King.
The Jungle Books by Kipling. The White Seal is my favorite.

I believe that writing a short story is much more difficult than writing a book. The canvas being much smaller and the message being much longer. I adore short stories. what i read depends on my mood at that moment..there is always O.henry when i feel blue,..Roald Dahl and Saki ( munro) when i feel life is so..predictable, Maugham takes you to the darkest corners of human minds, Daphne makes us read at twice the pace, for sheer love towards animals and humans..there is James herriot a vet who warms our hearts...the list is endless !! :-)

I'm just reading a collection of short stories by Joanne Harris called Jigs and Reels. As with most of her work they are all rather dark and not of the 'tight' quality that makes for an out standiing collection. She also includes a preface before each story explaining why she wrote it.

I've recently gone back over my collections of short stories and want to recomment the following:

The Necklace - Guy de Maupassant
The Darling - Anton Chekhov
The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
How Beautiful with Shoes - Wilbur Daniel Steele
The Nightingales Sing - Elizabeth Parsons
Yellowstone Park - Mary McCarthy
Joe, the Vanishing American - Harvey Swados
Then We were Three - Irwin Shaw
Boy in the Summer Sun - Mark Shorer

I've just remembered a short story which moved me very much when I read it, many years ago. I think it was called 'Things' - it chronicles the life of a couple by the possessions they acquire through the years, including a Schiaparelli dress (the only individual Thing I remember now). It is quite melancholy. Does anyone here know who wrote it?

I enjoyed a collection by SF writer Ursula K. Le Guin called The Wind's Twelve Quarters. My favorite story there (I think it is in that collection) is called "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas".

I also really like "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence, not usually a favorite writer of mine, but this story really impressed me.

Rosefolly

Here is a link that might be useful: The Rocking Horse Winner

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs and The Garden Party by Mansfield. Both great reading.

Adam

Another vote for "The Dead" by James Joyce.

Also, "Tobermory" by Saki (H. H. Munro).

How could I not remember Joyce's Dubliners. Yes, The Dead is brilliant, but my favourite in the collection is Araby.

Adam

I don't think I have any favourites, but I quite liked some of Angela Carter's short stories from The Bloody Chamber and Fireworks.
I loved Kurt Vonnegut's stories in Welcome to the Monkey House.

Sarah Orne Jewett's Country of the Pointed Firs, which is usually presented as a novel but is basically a collection of stories. Also a couple that have already been mentioned here - James's "Oh Whistle" and Joyce's "The Dead."

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is not a short story but a short novel; however I love it so much that I will mention it anyway.

Hi Siobhan, I agree with your description of Jewett's novel, The Country of the Pointed Firs, one of my all-time favourite books. Have you read her book Deephaven? It is very similar in that there is a lot of "atmosphere", though little actually "happens".

I would also recommend the story, "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki.

After reading this post I found my old college Norton Intro to Lit book and reread several of the stories above. I really do like this form of prose.You can finish a story in a few minutes, and ponder the message for the rest of the day.
I popped into my favorite used bookstore(again) yesterday and picked up Jhumpa Lahiri's collection "Interperter of Maladies" and "Bad Dirt" by Annie Proulx and am enjoying both.
Penny

My favorite short story, since high school, is "The Lottery". I also liked the Sherlock Holmes short stories and just re-read "999 - New Stories of Horror and Suspense". I like to keep a short story book at work to read at lunchtime for when I'm not involved in a novel. I'll have to go through this thread again and write some of those that are listed above down. Although, I'm good for re-reading a lot of my books.

I like Eudora Welty's short stories. "Why I Live at the PO" is probably my all-time favorite. Love Joyce's Dubliners, too. Though I've never been as keen on short stories as novel-length, and can't put my finger on why that is...

Gotta love Raymond Carver's Short Cuts. (The movie was really good, too. It had an all-star cast: Lily Tomlin, Jack Lemmon, Andie McDowell, Julianne Moore, Robert Downey Jr., etc.)

I also really enjoyed Any Small Thing Can Save You: A Bestiary by Christina Adam. Each chapter is about humans interacting with a different animal-one for every letter of the alphabet. My favorite story was about this woman in her fifties who had been horse-crazy when she was a girl, until she read The Red Pony by John Steinbeck (that book ended my horse craziness, too). One day, she decides to buy a Tennessee Walking horse. And so she goes out and does it. Her husband thinks she's nuts, but she's happy. It gives me hope that I, too, will own a horse someday. I like that she still had the capability to surprise herself. All the stories in that book are gems of this caliber.

I Thought my Father Was God and Others True Tales from NPR's National Story Project

In 1999 paul auster cooperated to a radio station. He was asked to write a story each week, but he refused because he thought the task was too hard.
But one evening, talking wiht his wife about it, she said "why don't you ask to the listeners to write a story? So he did and the only rule he asked to the listeners was that the story had to be absolutely true. the outcome was that he receveid thousands of stories, in which were told little anectodote , bizarre facts or tragic ones, storie about feelings or animals and so on. He pick out about 400 and published them. All of them are very short, one sometimes two pages no more.

Here is a link that might be useful: I thought my Father Was God