The Penguin Book of American Short Stories

The Penguin Books of Short Stories

by James Cochrane (Editor)

Short stories included:

The Legend of sleepy hollow by Washington Irving
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The fall of the house of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
Bartleby by Herman Melville
The man that corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain
The outcasts of Poker Flats by Francis Bret Harte
One of the missing by Ambrose Bierce
The real thing by Henry James
An unfinished story by O. Henry
The bride comes to yellow sky by Stephen Crane
Neighbor Rosicky by Willa Cather
To build a fire by Jack London
Death in the woods by Sherwood Anderson
Who dealt? by Ring Lardner
Flowering Judas by Katherine Anne Porter
The rich boy by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Delta autumn by William Faulkner
The battler by Ernest Hemingway
The jewbird by Bernard Malamud
Children on their birthdays by Truman Capote
Wife-wooing by John Updike

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Anthologies, American

423 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of short stories, most of which I had read before (so nothing that really surprised me), but a more recent collection would have to be a lot more diverse. Two women and no people of colour at all—American fiction is a lot more diverse and contains a lot more voices than this collection suggests.

[Tom Croskery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby” and Bernard Malamud’s “The Jewbird” are standout favourites in this collection. Honourable mentions to “Delta Autumn” by William Faulkner and “The Battler” by Ernest Hemingway.

[Dominic Stastny · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much variety in stories. I loved it.

[Mohammad Aboomar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good one as collections go. It had what seemed a balanced story collection covering various aspects of American literature.

[John Tetteroo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the short stories in this bundle are literary classics. Sadly most did not age well in my opinion, I found myself frequently bored and distracted. Apart from that, even placing the stories in their proper timeframe I found myself frequently annoyed by the open racism therein. I guess it is really time for the winds of change to start blowing the cobwebs of the past away so we can start to clean up our act.

Saying this I still did enjoy a few of the stories of which the legend of sleepy hollow was a pleasant surprise because of the situational comedy and the humorous descriptions of what goes through the head of the protagonist. The fall of the house of Usher by E.A. Poe is wonderfully moody and strange. Bartleby by Melville could have inspired the office in its absurdness and the jewbird by Malamud was also extremely funny, and satirical in a surrealistic manner. The last one worthy of mention is Children on their birthday by Truman Capote, in which the wise little Miss Bobbit loves the devil, but doesn't let the devil love her. I must not forget O. Henry's fierce indictment of underpaying young ladies by rich store owners (complete with O. Henry twist)

If you want to read up on some classics, go right ahead. If you are easily distracted or particularly sensitive to the casual racism of yesteryear this is not for you.

[Jens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Get in the time machine and hit that "random" button!

This is what reading this collection of short stories felt like. Turn a page and you're in the Wild West. Or postcolonial New England. During a cold snap in the Yukon Territories. A painter's studio in [checks notes] London. A dinner among neighbors.

You never know what you're gonna get. What you can rely on, however, is that this book contains "well written" stories, at least to me. The topics vary wildly, but the writing is always engaging, and at the end of each story I thought "Huh, now that's something!" (usually in a good way).

Importantly, the diversity among the authors is minimal: They're middle aged men, most of them, as was customary in large portions of American literary history. These sure are "the classics", with the usual limitations of that term. Older stories also carry their era's stereotypes and prejudice against various minoritized groups, making for an unpleasant but also instructive reading experience.

If this doesn't hold you back, fire up the figurative time machine and get ready to be swept away.

[Natalia Sánchez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

A little bit of a hard read at times, for me, but I did quite enjoy most of these short stories. The ones I really liked are:

🔅The legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving
🔅The fall of the house Usher - Edgar Allan Poe
🔅Bartleby - Herman Melville
🔅The real thing - Henry James
🔅The bride comes to Yellow Sky - Stephen Crane
🔅Neighbor Rosicky - Willa Cather
🔅To build a fire - Jack London
🔅Death in the woods - Sherwood Anderson
🔅Flowering Judas - Katherine Anne Porter
🔅The battler - Ernest Hemingway
🔅Children on their birthdays - Truman Capote

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed with great stories from a wonderful mix of writers, like: Poe, Twain, Faulkner and Hawthorne for example.

[Blanca · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with compilations often, specially with the ones that do not focus on a theme, I think having so many types of stories leaves you with the sensation that it is an irregular book in terms of how much you like it.

Some of the stories I loved ("Children on their birthdays", "The Man that Correputed Hadleyburg", "The Real Thing", "Bartleby" or "Neighbor Rosicky"), some were merely ok, and a couple bored me to tears ("Delta Autumn", I'm looking at you).

[Unicat · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I only bought this book for Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow, and that is the only short story I read in it. I do not know if I will read the other stories or not.
I quite liked the Sleep Hollow story, even though it felt a bit long at times. I really liked the plot, but not the author's prose that much. But that is only my point of view.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read all of the stories but most of the ones that I did, I loved; such as Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and John Updike. Possibly this is not a fair rating because I didn't read the whole book but that's another reason I enjoyed it because of the flexibility to be selective.

[Gutemann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag with some goodies in it.
Here are the good ones:
"Children on their Birthdays" by Truman Capote
"To build a fire" by Jack London
"The man who corrupted Hadleyburg" by Mark Twain
"Bartleby" by Herman Melville

[Alex | paperbacksplenty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irwing 2.5 stars
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne 3 stars

[Ilse · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars