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The Greatest American Short Stories
392 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
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March 8, 2017
Worth a read. The stories date from the birth of America to the second world war, so don't expect anything too new or exciting. Many felt like they may have been interesting at the time, but by now have become so cliched that they offer little value to the modern reader. There are some real classics in the collection, however, and they are worth picking it up.
Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" is exemplary of the cliches mentioned above. He builds a long slow story whose only payoff can be predicted from the second page by anyone today. Most of the others not mentioned in this review fall under the same category, having not stood the test of time to still provide meaningful value to me.
"Cask of Amontillado" is classic, deliciously creepy Poe. "The Purloined Letter" suffers from similar problems to "Rip", but has aged much better.
"The Celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County", "Haircut", and "Devil and Daniel Webster" are fun, bizarre little pieces whose quaintness is no longer seen in much in fiction today.
"Lady or the tiger?", "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "Paul's case", and "Lost Phoebe" were haunting stories that I enjoyed thinking about for hours afterwards.
"Outcasts of Poker Flat" and "Ambitious Guest" were probably the most memorable for me. It is stories like these, literary achievements and memorable tales from authors I would have never heard of otherwise, that make me happy I found this book.
P.S.
I also found the appendix surprisingly well written, but this is possibly because it is one of the few I've bothered to read.
Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" is exemplary of the cliches mentioned above. He builds a long slow story whose only payoff can be predicted from the second page by anyone today. Most of the others not mentioned in this review fall under the same category, having not stood the test of time to still provide meaningful value to me.
"Cask of Amontillado" is classic, deliciously creepy Poe. "The Purloined Letter" suffers from similar problems to "Rip", but has aged much better.
"The Celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County", "Haircut", and "Devil and Daniel Webster" are fun, bizarre little pieces whose quaintness is no longer seen in much in fiction today.
"Lady or the tiger?", "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "Paul's case", and "Lost Phoebe" were haunting stories that I enjoyed thinking about for hours afterwards.
"Outcasts of Poker Flat" and "Ambitious Guest" were probably the most memorable for me. It is stories like these, literary achievements and memorable tales from authors I would have never heard of otherwise, that make me happy I found this book.
P.S.
I also found the appendix surprisingly well written, but this is possibly because it is one of the few I've bothered to read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review