Masters of the Short Story Volume I

by Charles Dickens

This literary collection offers 22 of the greatest short stories ever written, featuring literature’s finest authors.

Contents:

HORATIO SPARKINS by Charles Dickens
DAISY MILLER by Henry James
THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND by H.G. Wells
MISERY by Anton Chekhov
THE SQUIRE’S STORY by Elizabeth Gaskell
THE FALSE GEMS by Guy de Maupassant
THE GREEN DOOR by O. Henry
MASTER AND MAN by Leo Tolstoy
BLUEBEARD’S GHOST by W.M. Thackeray
THE HAPPY PRINCE by Oscar Wilde
THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN’S STORY by Thomas Hardy
THE PRUSSIAN OFFICER by D.H. Lawrence
THE GOLD-BUG by Edgar Allan Poe
ARABY by James Joyce
AMY FOSTER by Joseph Conrad
THE HONEST THIEF by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
TO BUILD A FIRE by Jack London
THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG by Mark Twain
A SOCIETY by Virginia Woolf
METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka
IVAN MATVEYITCH by Anton Chekhov
BABYLON REVISITED by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Updated with various corrections and NCX toc feature.

Genres: Short Stories, Anthologies

467 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 16, 2012

About the author

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.

Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.

Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.

On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Likhitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are too many stories to review, on whole the anthology was admirable.