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40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology
Gathering forty important short stories in a portable and economical format, the second edition includes even more of the fiction instructors want to teach and more of the help student readers need.
541 pages, Paperback
First published December 22, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
December 29, 2015
Wonderful book! A solid collection of short stories, representing a wide range of short stories, a very clear awareness of cultural diversity. The selection of short stories might be good enough but the literary terms at the end of the book is too elementary, not to mention faulty . There isn't any question or exercise at the end of each story to dig deeper. There is also no details about the writer included in each story. If you want to read it just for fun then the book is fine. But I don't recommend it for a literature class or writing class text book.
August 26, 2021
As someone with minor familiarity with English language literature, this book was a full dive into new and exciting stories that I have never even imagined existed out there.
However, I wanted more contextualization and interpretation of some tales, information on why the editors chose these short stories, and how they became some of the most renowned classics. This, I quickly gathered with a 5-minute google search; after all, these stories are classics and taught to all English-speaking students in the world. But what the book lacked (and I think the blame is to consider it as a part of literature classes and not as a whole book), I could compensate with my own thoughts about the story, how it impacted me, how it resonated with other stories read before. And I think I enjoyed it even more than I would if it was required reading for an English literature class.
However, I wanted more contextualization and interpretation of some tales, information on why the editors chose these short stories, and how they became some of the most renowned classics. This, I quickly gathered with a 5-minute google search; after all, these stories are classics and taught to all English-speaking students in the world. But what the book lacked (and I think the blame is to consider it as a part of literature classes and not as a whole book), I could compensate with my own thoughts about the story, how it impacted me, how it resonated with other stories read before. And I think I enjoyed it even more than I would if it was required reading for an English literature class.
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May 14, 2022This is designed to be a textbook. It includes many famous authors, from Hemmingway to Atwood. In the Preface the editor says the goal was to offer a “wide cultural and artistic variety” and she is pleased that in this edition “nearly one third” of the writers are not Americans.
In “The Bridgegroom” by Ha Jin, a lower level Chinese official, struggles to help his daughter and son-in-law after the authorities discover the son-in-law is gay, which is against the law. It’s an interesting glimpse inside that very restrictive country.
“Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville is pretty dumb. A lawyer hires a man to copy documents. The lawyer later discovers that the man is living in the law office. After a while the man refuses to copy any more documents and he refuses to move out of the office. This goes on for so long the lawyer moves his office to another building. The man continues to live is the first office building, sleeping in the entryway. In the end the man is in prison where he apparently refuses to eat and dies. We never learn how the man came to have no place to live or why he refuses to work. There is no explanation for his behaviour. I saw no point in the story.
“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka is a truly weird one. One day a normal human being wakes up in his bed and he’s a big insect. There is no explanation of how it happened and none of the characters, including the insect, ever wonders how or why this happened. After causing a lot of problems for his family and himself, he eventually dies. I had never read any Kafka, although I had meant to. Kafkaesque – I figure any writer whose name becomes a word in the English language should be read.
In “The Bridgegroom” by Ha Jin, a lower level Chinese official, struggles to help his daughter and son-in-law after the authorities discover the son-in-law is gay, which is against the law. It’s an interesting glimpse inside that very restrictive country.
“Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville is pretty dumb. A lawyer hires a man to copy documents. The lawyer later discovers that the man is living in the law office. After a while the man refuses to copy any more documents and he refuses to move out of the office. This goes on for so long the lawyer moves his office to another building. The man continues to live is the first office building, sleeping in the entryway. In the end the man is in prison where he apparently refuses to eat and dies. We never learn how the man came to have no place to live or why he refuses to work. There is no explanation for his behaviour. I saw no point in the story.
“The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka is a truly weird one. One day a normal human being wakes up in his bed and he’s a big insect. There is no explanation of how it happened and none of the characters, including the insect, ever wonders how or why this happened. After causing a lot of problems for his family and himself, he eventually dies. I had never read any Kafka, although I had meant to. Kafkaesque – I figure any writer whose name becomes a word in the English language should be read.
August 9, 2013
This anthology is a very nice balance of canon and not quite canon, male and female authors, and a very clear awareness of cultural diversity. Of course, an anthology is only as good as the person teaching it however, and I was disappointed in the Genre: Short Story class I took and the professor's insistence on supplementing the anthology with outside works and ignoring many of the less expected works which I was happy to see in this anthology.
January 30, 2022
This is an amazing collection of short stories from some of the finest authors. I happened to pick this edition up in a Little Library - no idea what a treasury it is. For anyone studying short story form I highly recommend it. Hmmm. I’m tempted to simply hang onto it.
October 14, 2010
I forgot how gratifying short stories can be!
March 22, 2020
If you are looking for perfect stories in the style of O. Henry—incredibly finely crafted, clever, with the snap of a brilliant plot reveal, like biting into a hot sausage—look elsewhere. There is a classic Poe story in this volume, and a few others suggestive of that style. But most of the stories here are gut punches of reality. They are stories of the lives of black people, women, the poor, the aged, the troubled, the powerless. Some are hard to take.
A few mini-reviews:
- “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Ann Porter. Portrays dementia from the inside. It is devastating.
- “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. A man's brother goes to prison, then comes home, then tries to make himself understood. I read this in two sittings. After reading the first, painful part, I figured I knew what kind of story it was—a story about anguish and doom—and couldn't take the rest, and set it aside. I was wrong. It is one of the best things I’ve ever read, full of charm, on its way to someplace beautiful.
- “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro. There is a girl. A man drifts into town. Easy, sweet, wonderful. Slightly Southern, in a way that rings true—this is rare.
- "Woman From America" by Bessie Head. Extremely short and admiring of some aspects of the American spirit in a dreamy old sort of way. I of course love this.
Many others are about as good as these. Some, it’s hard to express what’s good about them. Some, I don’t know what’s good about them.
It’s a good collection. A bit of a hodge-podge. I think wasn’t meant to be read it from cover to cover like I did, but it is a rewarding journey.
A few mini-reviews:
- “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Ann Porter. Portrays dementia from the inside. It is devastating.
- “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. A man's brother goes to prison, then comes home, then tries to make himself understood. I read this in two sittings. After reading the first, painful part, I figured I knew what kind of story it was—a story about anguish and doom—and couldn't take the rest, and set it aside. I was wrong. It is one of the best things I’ve ever read, full of charm, on its way to someplace beautiful.
- “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro. There is a girl. A man drifts into town. Easy, sweet, wonderful. Slightly Southern, in a way that rings true—this is rare.
- "Woman From America" by Bessie Head. Extremely short and admiring of some aspects of the American spirit in a dreamy old sort of way. I of course love this.
Many others are about as good as these. Some, it’s hard to express what’s good about them. Some, I don’t know what’s good about them.
It’s a good collection. A bit of a hodge-podge. I think wasn’t meant to be read it from cover to cover like I did, but it is a rewarding journey.
July 21, 2018
I haven't spent a lot of time with short stories in the last 40 years or so, but this college textbook collection offers a nifty batch of famous and not famous ones with which to catch up. Authors include Margaret Atwood, Nathaniel Hawhtorne, Alice Walker, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cynthia Ozick, Willa Cather, and Joyce Carol Oates, to name a few. The devil appears, people turn into insects, a little boy picks winners of horse races by rocking on his toy horse, a town draws lots to decide who will be stoned to death each year, a Chinese man learns about homosexuality, and a group of African-American youths are forced to fight amongst themselves for the entertainment of whites. At least seven out of forty stories end with the sudden death of the protagonist from whose point of view the story is told. I didn't universally love every story here, but none were dull, and I enjoyed the opportunity to read a wide variety of styles and viewpoints in one book.
February 6, 2023
Grabbed this secret beauty in a thrift store. Didn't have high hopes but was VERY pleasantly surprised. I will keep revisiting it and can't seem to stop thinking about it!
My favorite stories are :
A very old man with enormous wings - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A worn Path - Eudora Welty
The Chrysanthemums- John Steinbeck
Where are you going - Joyce Carol Oates
Cathedral: Raymond Carver
Woman from America - Bessie head
My favorite stories are :
A very old man with enormous wings - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A worn Path - Eudora Welty
The Chrysanthemums- John Steinbeck
Where are you going - Joyce Carol Oates
Cathedral: Raymond Carver
Woman from America - Bessie head
July 13, 2017
A very good read. Each one thought provoking.
June 20, 2018
A top of the line short story anthology. Stories from distant past to near present.
April 22, 2019
An excellent collection of some classic short stories. I enjoyed them all!
June 12, 2020
"'Ghost,' she said sharply, 'who you be the ghost of? For I have heard of nary death close by.'"
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January 1, 2021Read this for a class in college and kept it because I really enjoyed it.
March 15, 2025
Great stories that can be read over and over.
April 16, 2024
For a text book was very good tbh I loved all the short stories !!
May 22, 2018
There were some good stories in here that I’d like to look up and read the full version of it. That being said, I absolutely hated the class I took that I needed this book for.
February 19, 2008
I don't really remember where I got this book (most likely at school somewhere or a yard sale), but I've had it a few years. Since then the stories hae become good friends. I read some stories over and over, but I will admit there are a few I have yet to take on. It's like the long and lovely process of getting to know someone.
Out of the stories, I would highly recommend "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, "Bartelby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, and "Happy Endings" by Margaret Atwood. This is a diverse selection made up of some of my all-time favorites. Also, they are quite useful reads, since many high school and college courses will at least mention them at some point, if not for sheer literary merit and style, for the ways they can be utilized in a classroom setting.
I am unsure if the collection is widely available, although it has several editions, but if you find it is not within your reach, I would suggest getting the table of contents, because I believe there is a little something for everyone.
Out of the stories, I would highly recommend "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka, "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, "Bartelby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville, and "Happy Endings" by Margaret Atwood. This is a diverse selection made up of some of my all-time favorites. Also, they are quite useful reads, since many high school and college courses will at least mention them at some point, if not for sheer literary merit and style, for the ways they can be utilized in a classroom setting.
I am unsure if the collection is widely available, although it has several editions, but if you find it is not within your reach, I would suggest getting the table of contents, because I believe there is a little something for everyone.
September 25, 2012
This collection is certainly not as good as "The sincerest form - writing fiction by imitation" by Nicholas Delbanco. The selection of short stories might be good enough but the literary terms at the end of the book is too elementary, not to mention faulty . There isn't any question or exercise at the end of each story to dig deeper. There is also no details about the writer included in each story.
If you want to read it just for fun then the book is fine. But using it for a literature class or writing class text book is a bad idea.
If you want to read it just for fun then the book is fine. But using it for a literature class or writing class text book is a bad idea.
January 19, 2008
Some of the best short stories ever composed are compiled in this gem of a book. My all time favorite "Yong Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a must read. Also included: "Bartleby, the Scivener" by Herman Melville, "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck, "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oats, the list goes on.
August 24, 2012
I loved most of the short stories. I read this a couple semesters ago at my college and we didn't get to go through all of the stories. I rented the book as soon as the class began, so I wasn't able to keep it when the class was over. My favorite stories were "Where are You Going, Where Have you Been" and "A & P."
January 20, 2015
I love how portable it is. I used it for my Intro to Lit. class and will use it again because it has all the stories in common anthologies without the huge anthology. However, I'd like a little more information about each text and also discussion questions etc. It's great for what you get, just wish it had more.
June 5, 2016
Good resource for teachers looking for short stories to use in class. A good introduction to the format as well. Nice historical coverage and a diverse assembly of authors. Great collection.
As a teacher, I wish it included analysis questions like Bedford St. Martin's outstanding 50 Essays Portable Anthology, but you can't have everything...
As a teacher, I wish it included analysis questions like Bedford St. Martin's outstanding 50 Essays Portable Anthology, but you can't have everything...
January 22, 2009
American Short Stories from some of the finest authors our country has to offer. Short stories are a great accompaniment to the stack of books on your nightstand; quick to read, but the messages permeate.
October 19, 2016
Lots of good short stories in here! Favorites were: Yellow Wallpaper by Gillman, Hills like White Elephants by Hemingway, and Battle Royal by Ellison. This was my textbook for my short story/novel class. Now to move on to the novel part of the class.
August 10, 2021
Good selection of (mostly) good short stories.
September 8, 2007
Intro to Fiction Writing textbook--a good, basic collection
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January 27, 2008great things
October 22, 2008
A good, standard short fiction anthology.
Currently reading
December 25, 2008Tons of great stories! Many I have read, many I really should've read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews