Short Stories that I love
Submitted by sk on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 09:59
Tags:
- The Old Man and the Bridge....Ernest Hemmingway
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty....James Thurber
- Silver Blaze.....Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Short Happy Life of Francis McComber...Hemmingway
- A Cask of Amontillado.....Edgar Allan Poe
- The Lottery....Shirley Jackson
- Snapshot of a Dog....James Thurber
- Mars Is Heaven...Ray Bradbury
- Trouble Is My Business....Raymond Chandler
- The Gift of the Magi....O'Henry
Author Comments:
I started this list because of a Listology regular's (are you out there Bertie)comment that he preferred short stories. I thought back to high school days (which seem more distant than once imagined), and recalled that I too preferred the short story at a time. I'm sure that I will add to this list after time to reflect. This will have to do for now.
My family reads "The Gift of the Magi" every Christmas:
"And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house."
Excellent story
My smirk of pride becomes a shame-faced smile:-) Smirk of pride because again I have inspired a list. Shame-faced smile because I can only claim to have read three of the stories on your list. From what you know of my tastes, can you guess which three?
My guess would be the stories by Doyle, Bradbury & Poe. Considering your tastes, (at least as I can divine them from this venue) I heartily recommend the Jackson story. I intentionally left off most sci-fi because I may make another list exclusive to that genre. I found a lot of Hemmingway (especially the "lost generation" novels) tedious. However his sparce prose style really shines in short storys. I, also try to read the O'Henry story at Christmas.
Triple bullseye! Them's the three.
Please do the sf list, I'd be very interested to see it.