The World's Greatest Short Stories

by James Ryan Daley (editor)

Wonderfully wide-ranging and enjoyable, this outstanding collection features short stories by great 19- and 20th-century writers from America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Western Europe. Included are Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," in which two waiters and a lonely customer in a Spanish cafe confront the concept of nothingness; "A & P," John Updike's most anthologized story and one of his most popular; "Borges and I," typical Jorge Luis Borges — imaginative, philosophical, and mysterious; as well as short masterpieces by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Herman Melville, Thomas Mann, Guy de Maupassant, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, D. H. Lawrence, and ten other great writers.Prime examples of the classic short story, these enduring literary treasures will be invaluable to students and teachers as well as to anyone who appreciates the finely turned tale.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Literature, School, Anthologies, Collections

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2006

About the author

James Ryan Daley is a writer, editor, and designer of various paper-based and digital things. Since finishing his MFA at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2004, he has been spending most of his time teaching writing to college students, creating websites about video games, and writing mystery novels about pensive young ne’erdowells. When he's not obsessively poring over pixels and pronouns, he can usually be found arguing with strangers on the Internet or seeking out adventure with his indomitable wife and venturesome daughters.

Reviews

[Cass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I began this, I think this will be the book that starts a love affair with good short stories.

Up until now I had always detested the genre, largely because all the short-stories that I had ever read kind of ended unhappily.

This book was full of amazing classics, and I am going to comment on a few of my favourites.

"The Necklace" Guy de Maupassant
I think would epitomise what I think a short-story should be. I was left with so many question. How does a 7-page story produce so many questions?

"The death of Ivan Illych" Leo Tolstoy
The story was a bit boring, but as always Tolstoy is brilliant. His understanding of character is amazing.

Peter Ivanovich sighed still more deeply and despondently, and Praskovya Fedorovna pressed his arm gratefully. When they reached the drawing-room, upholstered in pink cretonne and lighted by a dim lamp, they sat down at the table -- she on a sofa and Peter Ivanovich on a low pouffe, the springs of which yielded spasmodically under his weight. Praskovya Fedorovna had been on the point of warning him to take another seat, but felt that such a warning was out of keeping with her present condition and so changed her mind.

"The yellow wallpaper" Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Interesting incite into the mind of a woman suffering from an unknown mental illness

"The Prussian Officer" D.H. Lawrence.

Wow. This was an amazing piece of work. The themes were subtle and the ending was thought provoking.

"Mrs Fola and Mr Ponza..." Luigi Pirandello

A funny and light read, but no less thought provoking. This would be a great conversational piece (actually, all of these stories would be). I could talk myself around in circles for hours about it.

"A Hunger Artist" Franz Kafka

This is the first Kafka that I have read and it has made me very keen to read more.

"The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket" Yasunari Kawabata

Just to prove a short-story can be simply lovely... this one was just lovely.

There were many other notables that I have not commented on:
"A&P" John Updike
"A Clean Well-Lighte Place" Hemingway
"The Garden Party" Katherine Mansfield

I am left wishing a short-story book-group existed, just to read and discuss one amazing story each week. Seriously, if you are interested let me know and we will start one.

ETA: There is now, I started one:- https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Minchan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewing Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, Her Son-In-Law by Luigi Pirandello
★★★☆☆
There is only one word to describe this story: confusion. While reading thing short - story I could not help but scrunch up my face with confusion. There are two people accusing each other that they are crazy. One of the two people is a man and the other is his ex-wife. However, the woman refuses to believe that the man is married to another man and keeps on following him. Even by hearing this brief summary is perplexing. Reading the actual story is even more perplexing.

As I emphasised a lot in my previous reviews, I like stories or novels with a realistic and satisfactory ending. This story is definitely not one of them. There is no conclusion to this story, and it ends in a headache-causing mess. Overall, all this short story did was mess my head up and I do not recommend this to anyone.

Reviewing The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant
★★★★★

Yes, the Necklace, the book that shows how I feel when I try very hard on a maths question and solve it until I realize that my answer is not in the answer selection list. I know that feeling very well which made me feel extremely sorry for Matilda.
I'm pretty sure that everyone has read 'The Necklace' at least once. I have read this several times in the library. The unique story that shows the sadness of poverty excellently. The first time I read this, I thought this book or 'story' was going to be a mystery story because of mystery story titles show where the crime happened or what was stolen. Of course, that was before I knew this story was 7 pages.
This story features a poor woman named Matilda and her husband. The story starts when the couple gets an invitation to a ball. Matilda's friend lends her a gorgeous diamond necklace for the occasion. As she comes out of the ball, Matilda realizes that she lost her necklace and manages to get 36000 francs. When she tells her friend about what she had gone through, her friend tells her that the diamonds were fake.
After reading this story, I dearly wished for a second part. The ending was so sudden that it disappointed me. I wonder how Matilda would have reacted when she found out the truth. I expect to take back the jewels and sell them again to buy a fake version of the necklace. This short story was the shortest one I've seen yet, but the most memorable. I don't recommend this to people who don't like twists.

Review of The Yellow Wallpaper
How long could you talk about a disgustingly yellow wallpaper? Maybe a few minutes or two or three pages. There would be nothing much to talk about as we see wallpapers every day and don't even mention them at all. When I first read the short story, I was surprised about the length. I never knew someone would write a story about wallpaper that long.

One thing that I realized was that there is an annoying amount of exclamation marks. I thought I was reding a five-year-old's diary. Also, this story is written in an interesting diary format.

this story was quite hard to understand its full meaning, especially the end part. I don't get how the main character became the woman that has been creeping around. One of my theories is that the woman's sickness has affected her brain, making her go crazy and seeing things. When her husband heard her behind the door, he fainted because he never expected his wife to go this crazy. Or maybe the shadows created by the wall and the women creeping around is just a symbol of the main character feeling imprisoned.

Overall, I have read this story a few times now to understand it. That didn't help me much, so I am convinced that this book requires a lot of thinking to understand. I hope that I can learn what the ending means soon. This story is recommended for anyone who likes to think.


Reviewing 'A hunger artist' - one of many stories in this book.
3 stars.
The past short stories that I have read had pretty short endings, but none had an ending like this. This is one of the reasons that gave this story only three stars.

At first, I thought a hunger artist was a painter who was hungry all the time. So I searched up the word 'a hunger artist' and I realized that a hunger artist was someone that specialized in fasting and that this book is about one particular hunger artist. I don't get how watching a skinny man get skinnier would be entertaining, but it happens that older people did, thus making the job popular in the old days.

The story starts when the job 'hunger artist' began to become unwanted. Everyone thought that doing something else was way more fun rather than watching a person starve. The hunger artist enters a circus and dies soon after. That is the plot.

The way that he dies was so horrifying and the plot was plotless that it shouldn't be considered one of the greatest short story. I think I am missing some kind of teaching that the story is trying to give here. Therefore I recommend this book to anyone who likes to find secret teaching and think a lot.

Araby review
What is Araby? By the title of this short story, it seems like the thing 'Araby' plays a major role in this story. Araby was a very big bazaar that was held in Dublin every year in the late 19 century. The bazaar only stayed open for a week or two, but a lot of people (once over 92,00) went there, making the bazaar a big deal. No wonder why the main character in 'Araby' wanted to go there so much.

However, the boy, who is the main character of 'Araby', does not want to go to the Araby bazaar because he might have a good time there. He desperately needs to go as he has a crush on a girl and promised her to buy her something at the Araby bazaar. But since the boy is only little, he is forced to stay at home until his uncle arrives with the money he needs to go to Araby. Unfortunately, the uncle returns home late, and by the time the boy arrives at Araby, most of the shops are closed, and the girl is nowhere to be seen. At the market, the boy witnesses a woman flirting with two men at the same time and experiences an epiphany that he might not be the only one who likes the girl.

This story was very interesting to read since it shows how a child's pure belief can be broken at a moment. Reading this story was like watching a kid discover that Santa isn't real for the first time. It is such a sad and disappointing moment but by experiencing the epiphany, the person gets one step closer to maturity. If there was two things that I disliked about growing up, one would be taking SATs and the other would be the hard times I will have to go through while doing so.

Also, the fact that the atmosphere changes so dramatically in the story was enjoyable. At the start, everything was hopeful and bright, but as time goes on, the atmosphere got more depressed and gloomy. This almost stopped me from reading on since I don't like depressing endings but it was acceptable as the changing of atmosphere really portrayed the boy's emotions well.

Overall, 'Araby' was an excellent story with an awful twist at the end made enjoyable by the fact that this represents one moment of everyone's life. I recommend this book to anyone who likes seeing a child's belief shatter. (I'm not saying that everyone who likes this story is a psycho)
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Review on The Fortune-Teller
★★★★☆
Fortune telling is literally as old as religion. The oldest recorded fortune-telling was in 4000BC in ancient China. When people started living together; forming community kingdoms and dynasties life wasn't as simple as hunt eat sleep repeat - there were political problems, loving problems and much much more. I guess one of the key differences between humans and animals are having these problems. But anyway, as these problems started to emerge from the darkness of society, people began to feel the need to believe some kind of superstition-something that would mentally stabilise them; something that would always be warm to them. So there was the invention of religion and fortune-telling. A superstition that something higher than us will protect us, and some people could communicate with them. Those special people were called fortune-tellers that, in exchange for money, would look into your destiny and give advice for what you should do to live a happy, successful life.

Before the modern era, there was no clear science that would persuade the majority to stop believing in fortune-telling. Although some people still believe in this superstition, these people mostly consist of older generations. Fortune-telling, as far as we know, has no kind of scientific evidence to how this 'future guessing' works. Some fortune-telling methods can sometimes be pretty convincing but trust me if fortune-telling was real, scientists should have already created a tool we can all use to find out how painfully we die in the future. As it has been over 6000 years and yet we are not even able to predict tomorrow's weather properly, I can confidently assure you that fortune-telling doesn't exist. (Or maybe it does but the government doesn't want us to know so they locked the technology up in Area 51)

In this story, the fortune-teller is able the future with around 50% accuracy. Amazingly impressive, in my opinion. The Fortune-Teller focuses on the emotions that love can brew. To be fair, Camillo did not even worthy to love someone. He has the nerves to love someone who is married, risking the relationship with his friend and the relationship the two married people have. He does not respect any of these and only went the way his heart told him too without critical consideration. Is it really worth so much to love someone? I think not. Even Rita was stressed. If you truly love someone I think a human would take into consideration what the gains and prices for what he/she is about to do, compare those two to decide which side is greater and then do whatever the person decided. The ability to think critically and plan logically about the future is another key difference between animals and humans. Camilo did not think about any of this and paid the consequences thoroughly. I personally think that everything was Camilo's fault. Some people could shield him by saying 'love blinds all thought' but I am sure it doesn't make you entirely forget about the future especially when one of the lovers is married.

The Fortune-Teller is another unsettling warning about the power of love. I guess the moral of the story is to not date with someone who is already married. This seems obvious but it seems like some people might 'blinded by love' and not realise that they are committing something serious. So, my dear readers, if your friend is trying to date a married person, I strongly advise you stop them before some people die. Thank you.

Review on The Sacrificial Egg
★★★☆☆
The Sacrificial Egg is a very very short story. It only contains the events of a few days and there is not much to it. Sometimes I don't know what to expect when reading these short stories. They almost always are never longer than 5 pages, and even a brilliant writer would not be able to squeeze a grasping story in that length. All the writer can do is hope that the story leaves an impact memorable enough on readers.

I personally feel like this story failed to make an impact on me. Because grew up in modern society, all the tribal stuff Chinua Achebe talks about are just mere stories. I don't really feel any connection to these trial stories. Sure, some of them are interesting. Things Fall Apart was an interesting read for me. But that was only because the book was incredibly detailed and had plenty of information that I didn't know. However, this story was too short for me to make some kind of attachment to the character. Sure, there is a miniature character arc and a plot twist at the end, but meh.

Maybe the story could be a bit more appealing if it was not a short story. If we got to know about the background of Julius and his fiancee I might relate to the characters more. Because of the lack of information I got on the characters, the twist didn't really work on me either. (Trying not to spoil) I get that something bad happened to someone, but who cares?

Still, I didn't know what was I was expecting so I wasn't too disappointed. The Sacrificial Egg still contains a solid message on culture.

[Carolyn Song · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fortune Teller:

Even as an atheist, some things just seem unexplainable with science. Like how I managed to keep on doing jump ropes for three minutes and thirty seconds when I always tripped after a minute while practicing. Or like how when I wrote 688 words of my book review I realize that I got a wrong perception of this book and wind up having to rewrite the whole thing from the start and I still don’t know if the perception I have is correct. Yeah. You get the idea.

The events that just seem unjust. That’s what turns us to fortune tellers and superstitions. It is probably what probably led countless Greek kings to throw their kids away, the last of the Czar family to trust on Gregor Rasputin, some parents to name their children some outrageous names.

However, it is questionable whether the fortune teller is actually right. Going to a fortune teller for fun, that’s one story. Believing it wholeheartedly is another story.

For example, some people go to a Buddha statue with a hat that resembles a graduation hat and pray for their child to go to a good university. However, considering that there aren’t any news reports about a large proportion of Seoul National University student have gone in because their parents prayed to a statue. Yet people still choose to believe in such things.

The Fortune Teller is a story about a protagonist who believed in it wholeheartedly until the end.

(While it is in my best interest not to spoil how it’s going to turn out, I must say, as I mentioned before, I am still slightly lost at how it ends. Currently, I have chosen to believe that the entire fortune teller business was a fraud.)

Camillo and Rita are lovers. Nothing would have worried them if they weren’t cheating. Rita was married to Camillo’s best friend Villela, who seemingly had no idea. However, Camillo received strange, threatening letters from an anonymous. Camillo decided to lay low, concerning Rita, who consequently visited the fortune teller. Camillo reproves this, but visits the fortune teller as well, worried about their safety. Fortune teller says it’s okay. Camillo feels better.

Take a guess how it’s going to play out. Here’s a hint. Karma is an overkill.

Apparently this book is about condemning love affairs. But beside the lesson, what could this… fortune telling mean?

There are three ways to interpret this. One, the fortune teller knew the truth—all of it, just didn’t want to tell the truth to a cheater. Two, the fortune teller was a fraud, and karma was at work. Third, there’s no such thing as fortune telling nor karma and it’s just the train of things happening to happen; the possibility of Villela finding out the truth (under the premise he wasn’t the anonymous) and raging like the Cicero lady in Chicago is not zero. And there would be four ways if you count the juvenile theory that the fortune teller that Rita visited was replaced by her evil clone when Camillo visited.

Personally I opt on option three.

People (who actually wholeheartedly believes in fortune telling) visit fortune tellers when something is troubling them. Camillo was troubled for his and Rita’s safety. Camillo asked the fortune teller whether. But why go to the fortune teller when one can just not be in trouble in the first place?

Rita intoxicated Camillo, Camillo says. Reading this is like watching Hamilton sing “how can I say no to this” over and over as he cheats on his wife—a facepalm worthy material. There is no ‘what if’ in a book, as there aren’t in history. But I do wonder, what if Camillo and Rita realized it was wrong? If they applied their common sense before the affection, Camillo probably wouldn’t have had to do something out of his common sense like visiting a fortune teller—and wasting like what, fifty dollars?

The referenced Shakespeare tragedy in this book was Hamlet, but the play that fits this feels like Macbeth. And looking at how Lady Macbeth asking the three witches about turned out, at how ambiguous the fortune teller sounded, it’s not difficult to guess how the ending would play out. I’ll leave it to your imagination.

I give this short story four stars. Because four stars is usually what I give to books that aren't five-star material but still okay.

(by the way, I had to erase my review of Necklace in order to get enough space for this review.)

The Yellow Wallpaper:

Wallpapers. There are so many types of them. Some are white, while some are black. Some have fancy patterns, while others have no particular pattern at all—just white. There are crisp, new ones. And there are the old ones that you can’t tell which color it was in the first place, the ones that start coming off the wall.

The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, was indeed, about a yellow wallpaper. Now, yellow wallpapers are obvious on what it is. It’s a yellow wallpaper. But the short story itself….I just couldn’t put a finger on it. The story was about this lady, who was thought to be a bit unstable and was put in a nursery by her husband. In the nursery, there was this horrid looking yellow wallpaper, and every time she looked at it, it just freaked her out, in a way that she couldn’t explain. But her husband, who didn’t believe in superstitions and stuff, ignored it. The wallpaper annoyed her at first, but then it started ‘moving,’ and the lady thought that there was someone behind the wallpaper, moving the patterns. Then she got so irritated by it, she ripped off the wallpaper. This has one interpretation: she became mad.

Even though I have no clue in why a wallpaper could annoy a person, I had a similar experience, so I guess I shouldn’t talk. When I was in first grade, I had a strange nightmare about upside down pyramids and a piano keyboard. Nothing to say about that, as I still don’t know why that freaked me out so much. It was something about the unbalanced things and all, and again, no explanation on why it was that freaky. But this made it easier for me to feel for the character, who had a nervous depression. (I’m okay now, by the way)

So the thing that annoyed me the most wasn’t the woman’s madness. The thing that made me the most uncomfortable was the husband’s attitude to all this. He told his wife, who was slightly hysterical, that she should get better for his sake. So if he didn’t ‘love’ her, she didn’t need to get better? When he laughed about his wife’s nervousness, I arrived to one conclusion: he had no concern about his wife. All he cared about was himself, and his reputation. Having a ‘mad’ wife would ruin his reputation, so he practically locked her up in a nursery. It reminded me of the play A Doll’s House, John as Torvald Helmer. John didn’t treat the lady as an equal adult. He treated her like he would treat a kid. Torvald Helmer was the same. He called his wife Nora ‘little squirrel’ and nicknames as such. And he thought of Nora as cute and adorable, even though Nora was a fully grown woman. I suppose that back in those days, the husband and the wife never treated other as equal, with the husbands treating the wives as people who generally lacked common sense.

Now, allow me to move onto the symbols. So far with my experiences with short stories, every short story has some symbol or a motif. It was pretty obvious what it was in this short story. The yellow wallpaper. So what does it stand for?

My interpretations might be wrong, so I apologize for it if you think it’s not right. There are many sort of interpretations on this story, after all. The yellow wallpaper stood for the husband’s influence. The lady tried to ignore it, since she loved him, but he cast a dark shadow over her. She could only go as far as the shadow reached. She didn’t know it, but the existence of the shadow creep towards her, as the yellow wallpaper. When she ripped the wallpaper apart, it meant that she broke out of her husband’s restrictions—by turning mad. (This is a very bad interpretation)

Of course, there could be many more interpretations, but this novel was hard enough to read without coming up with interpretations. The overall writing feels…old, I guess. It reminds me of Sherlock Holmes series, the vocabulary hard and the sentences different from the present day writing. It is written in first person narrative, and while my general thought on first person narratives is that it’s easy to understand, this one was not exactly smooth for me.

Overall, it was a very tense short story in my opinion, and it was pretty hard. Not just the vocabulary and stuff, but also the plot. It probably has some deep meaning that I can’t possibly understand now. But it made me feel good about reading it. If you are someone who wants to brag about the stuff that you read, I recommend you this short story.

A&P:

Here’s a question: how short can a book be? I read countless short stories that were about fifteen pages, I wrote a short story that was thirteen pages long, and I once even read that there was a story by a couple amateurs that only consisted of a single chapter. As a kindergarten kid, I read a couple extremely short stories that was basically about a puppy named Bob chasing a butterfly and being sad because the butterfly could fly and he couldn’t. Those books were like, twenty pages, and now thinking about it, even I could write one if someone would draw furry critters for me. So yeah, it would be an understatement to say that I was surprised that the short story that I read this time was, like, five pages. (Is there anything called hyper-short stories? I don’t know.)

If I say too much, I’ll probably say more than the story itself, so I’ll try to sum up this plot. A nineteen-year old guy named Sammy, who works at a shop named A&P. And then in walks three girls, who are wearing bathing suits, because they were just supposed to pick up some expensive drinks for their parents. He observes them, and reports all details about them to the readers. The girls weren’t supposed to wear bathing suits to stores though, so the manager kicks them out. While observing this, Sammy realizes that while his parents aren’t wealthy, the girls’ parents probably are, and that he’d spend the rest of his life in the shop watching rich people come and go if he didn’t quit his job and try for more. As the realization strikes, he becomes an adult.

After reading this, I was, to say the least, confused. This was just the length of a scene I would write for fun. And this was one of the greatest short stories. Strange. But if this made it between the Necklace and all, I supposed that there was some reason behind it. I tried to think of everything possible for the reason.

First, it is very realistic. As much as I would have liked it if there was a fire-breathing dragon coming out of the story and a cool dressed warrior slaying it after an intense battle, those were all fantasy. Something that can never happen, and while it could provide people with entertainment and sometimes, even lessons, it’s unrealistic. Quite a contrary to the fantasy novels l loved and read until they became dog eared by themselves, A&P portrays the boring everyday reality. And maybe that’s why we can feel more for Sammy when he talks about his family’s financial condition. It’s no quest to save a princess from or anything. It’s a problem that probably more than 90% of us feel at least once in our lifetime.

Second, it shows that becoming from an adolescent to an adult is not something as dramatic as they say. No dramatic music plays, and no wind that was blowing suddenly stops. Nothing goes slow-motion, and no one falls to their knees. It’s obvious why. Most people don’t have some twisted family drama that suddenly emerges. One can look at a report card and be hit with sudden realization (I’m not saying that I’m not one of them). And this short story shows how realizations can happen, and how they make people happen, in the plainest way possible.

Third, it’s short. I mean, everyone already knows that, so why mention it now? It’s shorter than the average short story, which can be a singularity that contrasts it from other short stories. Given its length and the other characteristics, it makes it stand out in the middle of so many great short stories.

Besides this, I can’t give any more reasons why this is a great short story. Still, unlike how it was 43% of people who read it liked it, it wasn’t bad, so I give this short story 4 stars separately from everything else. It’s hard to convey everything in such a short length, and I have to appreciate that.

[Ken Rideout · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great collection. I wanted something I could dive into and out of easily over the summer that would get me thinking and perhaps inspire me. Mission accomplished. Quick notes on each story in the collection follows.
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Bartelby the Scrivener (Melville): Probably the most famous story in the collection, it is one of the famous pieces that you might fear its fame ourshines the actual work. Not so, for it is a many layered thing of course. To me, it validates my life-long viewpoint that conformity is death-like and there is nobility in not conforming to society. Obviously there is more to it but anayze it further “I would prefer not to”

The Necklace (deMaupassant): Is this the OG bait-and-switch? I felt I must’ve read this one before but, although it held no surprises, it was surprising to me to be so unforgiving about society and people. Just a nice clear arrow of death to people who live shallowly through life.

The Death of Ivan Ilych (Tolstoy): A novella slipped into this collection of short stories. A life ill-lived, the welcoming of death, possibility of redemption, the pointlessness of suffering, the randomness of life. A primordial work of existentialism if ever there was one.

The Man Who Would Be King (Kipling): Who has not dreamed of being a ruler, a god, or something along those lines. Colonialism embodied in a person. Tragic and a tale often repeated. Shades of “Heart of Darkness” to be written by Conrad in the near future.

The Yellow Wallpaper (Gilman): By coincidence, a student recently told me of this early feminist work that she read for class so I was happy to finally read it myself. Perhaps because of who I am, I found the feminism to be secondary and the primary theme was one of becoming that which you fear the most (and thereby conquering that fear or realizing that which you fear is you yourself). I suppose they are intertwined - the marginalization of the primary character was not just because she was a woman but also because she was mentally ill? If I were an english teacher I would not be able to resist assigning this one year after year…

The Fortune-Teller (de Assis): A commentary on seductive power of belief and magical thinking? Reads like a play to me.

The Lady with a Toy Dog (Chekhov): People change right as you are watching them - you think you know what you are looking at but that is only because you have ignored the fact that people are complicated and ever changing. You read along and you don’t even notice the changes until it is over and you wonder, “Wait, how did we wind up here?”

How Old Timofei Died with a Song (Rilke): Shades of Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist as Young Man” for me: the nature of art and the artist. The sacrifice an artists makes for his art. But also, here in this little gem a story, that the art needs an audience and that the audience knows things about the art even the artist doesn’t know.

The Path to the Cemetery (Mann): Oh boy (ohh, Mann?? Nah, too much). “.. poured out things which had not the remotest conexion with the subject in hand. They dealt with his dissipated life and with religious matters, uttered in a most unwuitable tone and viciously intermingled with curse-word.” How did I wind up with more sympathy for the crazy curmudgeon than for rest of the society? How did a preposterous comedic scene get overlaid over something so tragic? I don’t even understand what just happened.

The Prussian Officer (Lawrence): Men are beasts. At times I was reading a primer for McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian”. Now I’m thinking about Resnais’ classic movie “Mon Oncle d’Amerique”. There it is again I suppose, these common deep themes that keep popping up and manifesting in different places and different times.

Araby (Joyce): “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger”. And, I, a naive reader, thought he was just trying to buy a trinket for his girl at the market… jeeze, maybe I should pay more attention to thing in life…

Mrs. Frolo and Mr. Ponza, her Son-in-Law (Pirandello):This story tell you exactly what it sets out to do and it does it and then tells you again what the point was. Like a well executed speech. “...cannot yet in any way manage to understand which of the two is the crazy one, where the illusion is, where the reality.”

The Mark on the Wall (Woolf): The universe in a nutshell. What is reality and what is imagination? Just the right length of stream of consciousness style writing to be palatable.

A Hunger Artist (Kafka): more about the sacrifices of an artist? A commentary of what entertains in times of plenty? Probably too simplistic of me.

The Garden Party (Mansfield): Somehow creepy and disturbing…

The Grasshopper and The Bell Cricket (Kawabata): A modern fable for adults. A visual poem really.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (Hemingway): Death.

The Sacrificial Egg (Achebe): I’m sorry the dread artist decorated your girlfriend, Julius. What a deft hand: an entire society portrayed in just a few pages.

A & P (Updike): Classic Updike.

Borges and I (Borges): The art is not the artist. The man is not the artist.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5: I was gifted this book a few years ago and wish I had read it sooner. Even though I didn't enjoy every story, they were all very well done and thought provoking, and many were outstanding. I wish there was a part 2, with more modern classic short stories.

[David Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every one of these stories is superb and all written by masters. This short book is one of my favorites.

[Ben Shee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did this one for book club and people got annoyed at me because they didn't like some of the stories. But I have a such a short attention span

[Shayne Bauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, quick read. A real page turner!

[Jason Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hunger artist
A Hunger Artist, according to Wikipedia, “Hunger artists or starvation artists were performers, common in Europe and America in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century, who starved themselves for extended periods of time, for the amusement of paying audiences”. Throughout the book, I once again felt Franz Kafka’s madness, greatness, and his amazing power to write such a memorable story.

I personally think fasting is stupid because I like eating. The hunger will be unbearable. However, hunger artists seem to fast for a long period of time, which I cannot comprehend. Additionally, I believe watching a hunger artist fasting is like watching gladiators in Rome because the hunger artist puts his/her life at stake to give the audience amusement.

Like many of Franz Kafka’s short stories, The Hunger Artist was an interesting read, yet bizarre. I have read many of Franz Kafka’s stories, including the Imperial Message and Die Verwandlung(transformation). Franz Kafka seemed to like including brilliant symbolism in many of his stories. The Hunger Artist was no different. With the help of Sparknotes, I now know that the cage represents the hunger artist’s body, which he strives to escape by death. That is why the hunger artist dies in the end. He has achieved his wish.

Overall, this story was kind of confusing, as many of Kafka’s stories are, but it was a thriller. There was some deep symbolism which made the story even better to read. I would recommend this book to people who want a great refresher in their daily lives.



The Necklace
Is it possible to find and to lose at once? In the modern world, our lives have become more pleasant and convenient than in the past. We have everything our ancestors lacked from wireless internet to automobiles. However, as our needs are satisfied one by one, our greed and needs are increased one by one as well. Additionally, humans feel less and less gratitude each passing moment of this era. What we felt thankful in the past is natural, deficient even. Our ancestors felt gratitude for a single grain of rice. How about us? Guy De Maupassant portrays the bitter irony of human nature in his unforgettable story, The Necklace.

Human needs are like a bottomless well of greed. Most humans have enough to live on. Yet they aspire to acquire what they do not have, such as a new fancy Ferrari or a big house. Matilda is no different. Everyday, Matilda dreams about sitting in a exquisite room, drinking expensive tea while making small talk with rich ladies. She aspires to become one of those rich elite class women, who wear fancy dresses and jewelry to parties.

One day, her husband and Matilda finally got invited to an elite class party. Matilda borrowed a diamond necklace from her friend to look beautiful. However, when she got home after the party, her neck was barren of the necklace. Matilda and her husband buy a new diamond necklace and give it to Matilda’s friend without letting her know that she lost the necklace. They work arduously in order to pay back the harsh debt they owe. After many years, they finally meet Matilda’s friend and tell her the truth. However, Matilda’s friend states her necklace was a fake and they should have told her earlier.

The starting point of Matilda’s misery was when she borrowed the necklace from her friend. She refused to wear those flowers her husband gave her. Maybe her life was misery from the start. Before she went to the party, every day she dreamed of being a rich man’s wife. She wanted more than the life her “normal” husband gave her. She did not love her life and neither herself. If Matilda had loved herself in the first place, this would not have happened. She was too blind to see the light of herself. In the party, she believes it was the diamond necklace that gave her celebrity status. However, it was her personal beauty. She was the true diamond, not the necklace.

The necklace was Matilda’s dog collar. As the dog collar hinders the dogs’ freedom, the necklace vanished with Matilda’s freedom. She sacrificed her whole life for a necklace, not even a real diamond necklace. The collar still hangs around Matilda’s neck, holding on to her till the end of time. Guy De Maupassant portrays Matilda as the typical greedy human who wants more each time they acquire what they want.

Human needs have two aspects and bitter irony. One, that fuels our society’s revolutions and inventions. Most inventions started with human needs. The light bulb was invented to fulfill the desire to see through the dark. Two, that fuels our greed. Most humans want more. We are pitiful creatures who think they are powerful. Humans are not powerful. I would recommend this book to people who are obsessed with something and has negative consequences in their lives because of it.

The Yellow Wallpaper
People go crazy. You cannot deny it, no one can. Sometimes it is because of too much grief or too much guilt. Sometimes it is because of absolutely no reason. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, it is because of horror. Compared to the happy cheerful sunny yellow we know today, yellow appears as a horrifying color of fungi.

I do not have much to say about this story. I have read this story four times but I partly still cannot comprehend what is happening. Compared to The Necklace, which had a concrete story and a message, this book was vague, very vague.

The main character is woman who believes she is sick. She has a husband named John who is a physician. John pretends to care about her but does not respect her will or needs. He is not exactly what you would call a great husband. Everyday she looks at the wallpaper filled with yellow fungi and becomes depressed. Then the story ends with almost nothing happening. I believe this book is the type where it makes people ponder and enlarges the story. It is an interesting type, however, not my style.

I noticed that the story tends to take a similar form to The Telltale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. In The Telltale Heart, the main character kills an old man whom he finds “disturbing”. Finally, he becomes mad and starts to hear a strong heartbeat from the floor, where he buried the old man. This book is similar. Throughout the book, the main character seemed to be going slightly mad by the yellow wallpaper. She starts seeing women creeping up on her and starts to believe that the wallpaper actually moves, leaving a long yellow trail behind. In the end, she locks the door and desperately rips out the wallpaper.

Overall, this book was not as great as the necklace, however, it still had its own unique taste and style. I would recommend this book to people who loves reading Edgar Allan Poe or just wants to have fun.

A&P
What makes a story interesting? One might say dramatic action or a beautiful story that causes us to see the world more optimistically. Most of the fiction bestsellers, even the books without fantasy and sci-fi elements, have action that keeps readers thrilled or crying. However, A&P is not about a person struggling against all odds or a hero that has to defeat a dragon. It is about a simple worker in the A&P store seeing some not-so-decently dressed girls. The manager asks them to leave due to their violation of the dress code. This is the end of the story. A&P was too short for me, however, it was amazing that the author captured a moment like a camera and wrote a story.

A&P starts with a young man named Sammy watching three girls coming into the store. They are wearing nothing but bathing suits and Sammy observes them. As the girls go to the drink section, the manager finds out about them and asks them to leave. It is that precise moment that Sammy realized the girls’ parents are rich, while his parents are not. Then he quits suddenly, startling some of the customers. Sammy feels the manager’s iron stare on his back and realizes how hard the world is going to be for him. Sammy has become an adult now, which illustrates the “coming of age” theme.

I quite enjoyed A&P. For me, it was surprising to see a story so simple yet so interesting. A&P had so much depth and meaning for a short story. I agree that his story is one of the world’s greatest short stories. Much like Herman Hesse’s works, it shows the concept of “coming of age” rather drastically. Sammy was a young man, however, his mind was still of a boy’s. He finally grew up mentally when he quit A&P to explore the outside world. I wonder how Sammy will overcome his difficulties in the future. It is so sad that this story is short and does not have a sequel. Although I believe it might be better if Sammy remained a “mysterious” character and we did not know much about him.

Would Sammy have been happier if he did not see those girls and stayed in the A&P store? This answer solely depends on John Updike and Sammy’s. Herman Hesse said “The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must destroy a world.” in his novel . Sammy destroyed his egg, which was the A&P store and the dependence on his parents and was reborn. I would recommend this book to everyone.

My rating: 4 stars

The Fortune Teller
One of my favorite quotes from “The Terminator” is "The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves." In movies such as “The Terminator”, “The Matrix”, and also “Harry Potter”, the concept of fate compared to an individual's choice makes an appearance. The main message is our future is decided by our decisions, not an incomprehensible force such as God. Even in ancient times, the theme of fate vs choice is displayed in Oedipus’s myth. Fate compared to choice was a question that has been asked by humanity throughout history. This short story, “The Fortune Teller”, is asking the same question. Was Rita meant to die, or was it her husband’s choice that killed her?

The story was so short that the abrupt and cruel ending gave me more shock than usual. Although there were so many questions that were not answered, the story itself was satisfying. I believe the beauty of a short story appears in the reader’s imagination. If Camillo had gone to Rita’s house immediately, would Rita have been killed? The most plausible scenario that I could think of is when Villela confronted Rita about her affair, an argument broke out, with Villela killing Rita on impulse. If Camillo had been there, he would have stopped Villela. Although Rita and her husband get divorced and a precious friendship is lost forever, the three characters would still be alive. Therefore, it was Camillo’s choice that killed her as much as Villela’s gun did. Was it fate that she died? No, it was their choice.

One of the most confusing aspects of this story is the fortune teller. According to Rita, the fortune teller does not seem to be a fraud. The fortune-teller, However, then why did the fortune teller tell Camillo that nothing will happen to the lovers? This is not revealed due to the limited length of this story, however, this remains the biggest question that plagues readers. My theory is although the fortune teller foresaw the death of Rita and Camillo, she chose not to tell. Why she made that choice I will never know.

Overall, this was a story influenced by the decisions of the characters. It was a twisted love story with disastrous consequences, and I enjoyed it. I would recommend this book to people who like short stories.

rating: four stars

[Alex Racapé · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely some 5 star stories in here. I liked the variety and the exposure to so many classic artists. Favorites were Borges and I, the Hunger Artist, and Bartleby.

[Alor Deng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you James Daley for culling together these sublime short stories! I feel that the short story is the most difficult art of literature because it requires the delicate counterbalance of prolixity and succinctness. These authors do just that, well most of them at least. The greatness of this collection is twofold; first is the array of great stories that stretch across many cultures, and second is the new authors that one (in this case me) discovers.

It is from this book that I discovered one of my favorite authors- Machado De Assis. In the 'Fortune-Teller' you will find one the best short stories ever written, certainly the best that I have ever read. Because of this story I went on the read his novel, Dom Casmurro, which is simply an elongation of his short story in terms of its greatness. If you are to only read one story from this collection, read this.

I will now talk about some of my other favorites. "Bartleby the Scrivener" is the first piece of writing by Herman Melville that I've read and it has now made me look at my copy of Moby Dick with more inclination. I read the entire story with the voice of "Frasier Crane" from Frasier narrating it. That surely must have been the voice Melville imagined when writing it. I can't remember laughing so much during a story. Perfectly written.

Anton Chekhov has never disappointed me and he continued the trend with "The Lady with the Toy Dog." Truly the master of the short story.

"The Man Who Would Be King" by Rudyard Kipling is an engrossing tale of two men who desire to be Kings, even Gods.

If these four don't satisfy you, there are others that were great but didn't shine as brightly as the aforementioned. "The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield, "A&P" by John Updike, "The Prussian Officer" by D.H. Lawrence and "The Necklace" by Guy De Maupassant.

From these that I've listed, I promise you nothing but enjoyment and awe at the prose and artistry of these geniuses.

[Celine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The World's Greatest Short Stories
Edited by James Daley
235pp.USA
Dover Publications INC $3.50
ISBN: -486-44776-2

Tired of reading everyday fiction and fantasy books? Then this collection of short stories is the way to go. The World's Greatest Short Stories is a compilation of classics from the nineteenth and twentieth century that are very thought provoking and mysterious.

"The Necklace" is one of the most interesting stories in the collection. It is a French story that tells of a woman who is pretty, but unfortunately poor. She is invited to a party but has no piece of jewelry to wear.As embarrassing as it is, she then goes to borrow a necklace from a friend. Donning the beautiful necklace, she is the center of all attention and praised by all at the party. When the party is over however, she discovers that the necklace went missing. Becasue it was her fault and felt it was her responsibility to repay her friend, she quickly went to buy the same necklace to "return" to her friend. As pricey as it was, this young lady took years to repay the debt which she had borrowed to buy the necklace. Alas, at old age and the debt is payed, she visits her friend and confesses the truth of the night at the party. At that time, she learns something even more shocking-the necklace wasn't real.
This is my favorite story in the collection because it teaches the reader to confess and tell the truth. The ending was also very surprising and unexpected. Because the young lady in the story didn't fess up, she ended up paying debts for nearly her entire life when it wasn't necessary in the first place.

I would recommend this book to anyone in or over high school. The stories were written in a very sophisticated language and were pretty challenging for me to read due to the abundance of vocabulary. However, the stories are worth reading in that they teach lessons.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, 'The World's Greatest Short Stories' is a book that tied various short-span stories from famous authors all around the world. I was kind of looking to read this book, because some of the authors were really famous ones, like Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, reading this book was not the easiest times for me. Some stories were somehow hard to understand, and the stories seemed to use mostly 'advanced English.' So it made me use a lot of energy when reading the book, but there were some really good stories. So I will do a review of some of the best stories in my opinion in this collection.

Number 1: The Necklace
This story, is a process of how a young nice lady had turned into a poor, old lady. So the main character of this story is Matilda, a young lady who adorns herself but is not satisfied with her surroundings(house, accessories, etc.) This kind characteristics of Matilda sounded funny. She was always jealous of those richer women, thinking of the 'beautiful' herself in fine clothes. She would suffer from her lack of 'richness.' One day, her husband brings Matilda an invitation to a party. And Matilda, as always, is worried because she doesn't have fine dress. So her husband spends four hundred francs for it, which was for a gun to join a hunting club. What an innocent and kind husband Matilda has. It it was me, I would rather choose to use in the way I want. So Matilda's husband sacrificed his precious money, but that wasn't enough. Matilda wanted a necklace. So this time, she visited her friend to lend a necklace from her.
So Matilda went to the ball with fine clothes over her, and she got what she wanted for her whole life: attention and admiration to her. After the triumphant ball, Matilda and her husband went back to their house to find out that they have lost the necklace. Matilda tried her best to find it, but it was all failure. So They decides to do the worst thing they could do: earning thirty-four thousand francs. It was a miserable amount of money for them, but Matilda and her husband sold almost everything they had and worked hard for 10 years. Now that is a long, torturing times. After the long years, Matilda became rougher, and she became very shabby and even more poorer than before. The last scene, where Matilda meets her friend and finally realizes the truth that the necklace was worth no more than five hundred francs, I felt sorry for Matilda, but I also felt like the destiny had thought Matilda a harsh lesson. Be satisfied with what you have, and never be greedy.
Wondering what the next scene of the second part of The Necklace(if it did exist), I give this story 5 stars.

Number 2: The Tell-Tale Heart
This short tale is supposed to be scary, I think. If you just swipe over the story. It might be a story of a strange man doing strange stuff in the middle of a night to murder someone. But if you read over the metaphors and scenes that the author had hid, this story is a creepy one. For sure. This story start with a man introducing himself, saying that he was haunted by a malicious disease and assuring himself that he is not crazy. Then he brags about his 'careful and cunning process' to kill an old man. Does this man seems like a normal man now? turns out calling himself 'not a mad man' was the evidence that he was 'mad' which is kind of funny. The mad man creeps up the stairs, so quietly and carefully to murder the old man without waking him up. So the old man is probably renting a room from this mad man's house. The mad man continues his way to the victim, he talks to himself about the old man's 'evil eye' and insists that it 'horrified' him. I mean, is there any relationships between the eyes and murdering someone? The next part when the man creeps into the old man's room and gets his 'goal' it's a bit disturbing because of the detailed description of the murder and how the mad man split the old man's body and hid it under the floor, but this is the part where the actual purpose of the mad man unveils. After his murder, some police officers visited his house, and the mad man welcomed them nicely. Of course, he wouldn't want to look suspicious. He will get punished severely when his crime is released. Then, he feels guilt. It is shown as 'the sound of the old man's heart.' But it was probably the sound of the fast beating of mad man himself. The story ends with the mad man accepting his crime. I found this story short but interesting, because it's written at the point of the murderer. Usually in a typical mystery novel, a murderer is shown as a dark, emotionless character. It's usually the story of people who tries to prove the crime. Every murder is mad. It isn't normal to murder someone. One thing that I learned in this story is that murderers are humans too. Some of them could actually feel guilty after their crime. I think the guilt is the feeling that makes them kill more people sometimes. Even though It was a bit disgusting and weird, I rate this one 5 stars.

Number 3: The Fortune-Teller
I chose this mainly because of its shocking end. To basically put this story into some important words, is the anonymous writer, Villela and Rita, and the fortune teller. The main character of this story, Camilio, was killed by his loving one, Villela. I felt weird reading through this story, how a friendship turned into love and caused Villela to murder both of Camilio and Rita. I think this story is trying to tell us that you shouldn't rely on someone too much. It can take only a day for someone you had love turns into a savage. When Camilio felt worried if something bad would happen to him, so he visited the fortune-teller. I think that is kind of a dumb thing to do, because in fact, no one can look to the future through their powers. Camilio wasn't able to recognize the danger that lay close to him, which the anonymous letters had tried to tell. Instead, Camilio visited a fortune-teller who only wants money. He believed the fortune-teller's 'vision,' and what came back as a result was murder. A good advice should not be ignored. This book is somewhat shocking and exciting, so I rate this story about 5 stars too.

It is ironic that I rated 5 stars to these three stories, then I gave the whole book only 4 stars. The reason is the same as I said on the start of this review. The overall stories are good and remarkable.
But there were some points that I was not able to understand, and most of the settings of the stories seem to be from long ago, so some of the stories doesn't really fit with the 'modern perspectives.' And that is the reason why I gave this book 4 stars. However, this collection is a readable one.

[Lisa Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still more to read in this collection, though I have put on pause for now. Read "Bartleby, the Scrivener" ("I would prefer not to"), "The Garden Party" (very good), "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (a reread that reminded me how masterful Hemingway short stories are), "The Sacrificial Egg" (didn't understand and will probably reread). My favorite was "Araby" by James Joyce. Such a beautiful story of growing up that captures the absurdity and torment of the adolescent transition ("Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.") Love that line!!!

[Aliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

am an indie author whose published short stories. I ordered this book, to hone my fiction writing skills.

This book is a collection of the best short stories from Europe and America. The stories are masterfully told and they represent writing at its best. The tales are melancholic, but the narration is superb. If you enjoy short stories, then you would appreciate the art of storytelling which is superbly demonstrated through this collection.

This low cost thrift edition is a Godsend, for those who seek good literature at low prices.

[Hanzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, Her Son-in-Law

3.5 stars

Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, her Son-in-Law is about why at least one of the two main characters must be crazy. The story goes like this. Mrs. Frola’s daughter married with Mr. Ponza and Mrs. Frola moved to a town where Mr. Ponza and her daughter lives to be near her daughter. But Mr. Ponza forbids her to see her daughter. Neither Mrs. Frola or Mr. Ponza hates this, but they have different statements about this and think each other is crazy.

In the first page of the story, the writer of the story keeps saying that one of the main characters must be crazy, and that the citizens were frightened. That brought interest and curiosity to me and I thought at least one of them would be evil. But actually, whether they are mad or not, they care and respect for each other a lot. According to Mrs. Frola, she knows she is right-that her daughter is alive-and she knows she’s not mad. Whether it’s true or not, she endures things like not being able to see her daughter. Mr. Ponza says his wife had died and Mrs. Frola is mad, but he endures his pains too, like being told as a cruel man. So, I think if one of their statements is right, both of them are very caring and patient to each other.

I think the woman who might be Mrs. Frola’s daughter or Mr. Ponza’s second wife is also very patient. If I was her, I would probably have tried to run away. Well, actually it’s not so strange-being kept from your own mother or being locked up on a house, which is like being in a jail, and doing all the house chores, are not very endurable situations, I think. No matter how Mr. Ponza loves her, I think it’s too much for her. Yet according to Mr. Ponza, she agreed on this and if he’s right, that means she is very patient, but I can’t understand her. So, maybe Mr. Ponza’s statement is not true, I think.

Overall, this short story was quite good. It’s good for people who are looking for a light read and I also like light books, which is why I think it’s quite good. But in the very first place, the font size kind of scared me away. And though the story line was interesting, I didn’t enjoy it so much and I couldn’t find it unique. Maybe because it was short and it wasn’t very detail. So, I gave it 3.5 stars.

The Fortune Teller

4 stars

A fortune teller is a person who foretells future events. Fortune telling has many different types. A fortune teller sometimes uses a bundle of cards. They also look at people’s faces and palm lines often. Fortune-telling has no scientific proof, of course, and it can be both right and wrong. It does have a benefit. If you hear some good news from a fortune teller, you feel good. But I don’t believe in fortune-telling. I think even if the fortune teller is right, it’s just a luck. But in many stories, especially in classical stories, fortune tellers foretell the future exactly. So, when I first saw the title of this book, I thought this book was going to be a story about a fortune teller where a fortune teller foretells some bad events exactly and people related to the event worrying and trying to prevent the event.

Actually, it was quite different. In this story, the main character is Camilo. Camilo fell in love with his friend Villela’s wife, Rita, who also loved him. They began to date. One day, however, Camilo received an anonymous letter denouncing him. So, the couple started to feel afraid and they went to consult the fortune teller one by one.

The theme of this book is common. In many books and stories, one person loves and dates with another person who are already married. This storyline is also often seen in TV, in dramas and movies. The husband or the wife of one of the lovers, who is Villela in this short story, almost always finds out. The married couple might divorce, but sometimes a person in Villela’s position forgives or don’t let the unmarried couple marry by not divorcing. So, the main storyline wasn’t so new to me. One thing that was different in this story was that Villela chooses a very scary option. In fact, that was the scariest option he could choose. Also, the fortune teller plays a role. It’s not a big role, but it makes the ending look more sudden. I think that was the role of the fortune teller in the story.

I liked this story’s ending. This story ends with a shocking scene. And that shocking scene appeared too suddenly, in the last paragraph. Because of this suddenness, the twist of this story became more interesting and I couldn’t expect it. I think the writer did this to give impact, using the short pages. This is not a detective story. The main event is a love affair and the anxiety and tragedy caused by the date. But the mood contains some mystery. I think the purpose of reading this story is to read the end of the story. Therefore, if you want to enjoy this story, don’t look at the ending before reading the whole story.

Overall, this book had some difficult vocabularies but it was just okay to read. I gave this book 4 stars because it had a shocking ending. Although it wasn’t precise with many details, I enjoyed the book and I also think that the suddenness made the story more interesting. But the main storyline and the theme was common and I couldn’t get excited or concentrated very much while reading. Therefore I didn’t give it five stars.

The Sacrificial Egg

1 star

The Sacrificial Egg. By reading Chinua Achebe’s name under this title and noticing the main character’s last name (Obi), I thought this would be something about Nigeria’s culture and customs. I also thought that it wouldn’t be very unique to me, as I already read the book by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. I didn’t think the Nigerian culture wouldn’t feel new to me anymore. Anyway, I started to read it.

The story went like this. Julius Obi is a clerk in a European trade center. He always looks down to the market when the chief clerk isn’t looking. It was always busy like an anthill, except that day. That day, nobody was on the street because of smallpox. However, Julius is careless of the warning about Kitikpa, the smallpox god, and goes outside. Eventually, he accidently steps on a sacrificed egg. I won’t spoil the rest of the story.

I finished it really quickly since this story was only four pages long. And I didn’t feel anything while and after reading except a ‘Not again…’ when I noticed the words, “palm-oil” and “kola nuts”. That’s why I’m sitting in front of my desk not knowing what to write right now. That’s also why it took much longer to write this review than reading the whole story. Now I feel like a robot struggling to write about what it felt after watching a movie.

It’s not that I couldn’t think about anything that the writer was trying to talk about, or some symbolisms. In this book, an egg is sacrificed for the smallpox god. But Julius steps on it. I thought there would be a reason why it was an egg besides the fact that an egg breaks very easily. So, I googled about what eggs symbolize. It said that eggs symbolize life, especially a new life and rebirth. Probably, the writer chose an egg because he wanted to make Julius stepping on the egg and breaking it symbolize stepping on his own life and ruining it.

Also, the story reflected what Chinua Achebe thought about the breakdown of Igbo culture and strangers coming. In the book, it says that “there is good growth and there is bad growth”. The writer thinks that Nigeria and further, Africa experienced “bad growth” when strangers, and especially whites came. Also, it says that the “young sons and daughters of Umuru soil, encouraged by schools and churches were behaving no better than the strangers”. This shows what happened after colonization to people of Nigeria and Africa and how the writer thinks about it. After reading Things Fall Apart, it also seemed like an epilogue for the novel. It would actually be an epilogue if you just change the name of the village to Umuofia.

Finally, the theme “smallpox” is mentioned in the book. Achebe maybe wanted to make readers learn about how serious smallpox was in Africa. Smallpox was one of the diseases introduced by colonialism. The Portuguese introduced it. But smallpox isn’t a widely known topic, compared to slavery. So, this story tells the seriousness of it, along with describing the post-colonial Africa with details.

So, there is a symbolism about the egg and some things the writer tries to talk about. Maybe there are more things than I noticed. I really admire the writer for putting so many ideas and thoughts into a four-page-long short story. I could understand that Achebe is a great writer and novelist, and also why he got the Booker prize.

But this story is certainly not my type. If I’m going to give many stars for this story, I have to feel something good about it. I really wanted to feel something about this story, no matter what it is, after reading this story. But I couldn’t. That means this story didn’t really have some impact on me. Therefore, I gave this story only one star. However, I do recommend this story to people who like Achebe’s novels and stories or people who are tired of human feelings.

[Seoyeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Necklace
So overall I think Necklace is a comedy, because at the end she discovers that the so pretty diamond necklace she thought was real was fake. Its only comedy if you read the end part because she did all of that work for nothing, and the work was she had to be a servant for ten years. When she meets her friend agin she liked bumped into her, and she looks ugly and the friend looks pretty, and she tells her that shocker, but also funny.

The thing is the first part is not like a comedy book only where it was nearer to the end. Also I thought the moral of the book was be confident then you can do anything.But the best thing is it is comedy I think, and I love comedy for everything.But l think the lesson is be honest.

The yellow wallpaper
So at first l thought it was boring, but then l felt a laugh, the feeling, this might be a comedy book. But at first l really thought it was boring, I also did not understand what the author was trying to say. Then I kind of thought the moral was you are unique. But the first part of the story was like an introduction, how? I knew because it was telling us where they lived, who are they and dreams.

But the story had two boys, that had different views. And John was the oldest and they were very different. But it is all because of the house. Also at the end its not so pleasant to me but it was ok. Overall 4 stars out of 5,
Also l do not know what the lesson was.

Araby

The book araby is a book with lots of things going on at first it did not seem much but it is a lot but the part l understand is the last page where he finally gets the money but like much later than expected and everywhere was closed and l think was going to buy the girl a present or something to give her and only this shop was open and the owner was talking to 2 men and asked him would you like to buy something but he refuses. I first thought why not say yes l mean in the books description it sounded like a pleasant place, then later on l thought that he was disappointed with being to late but then l had a question why would the train that only allows people to get on if they are going to the bazaar but why would they still be doing that when the bazaar is already closed? Well correction nearly closed only one shop selling and the other counting there money I mean come on.

However the first page I did not understand that much l did not get the foundation of the story l do not know if l was just whooping through the page but do not seem to get it the only thing l got was there were these boys in two houses and all was usual until they set them free and there we’re two empty houses and them hiding and sneaking around and the rest. I also after l read the book thought well what was the moral of the story and thought get organized or get things on time l mean l am only just assuming what it is sometimes l did not think there was even a moral but l do not know what other people think they just might tell me well the moral is so obvious but l am just going with the flow. Anyway I was also thinking that is the whole story just trying to get to the bazaar to get a present, well if that is l do not know how it is in the worlds greatest short stories l mean it was a short fun Storie but greatest l don’t know may be not but all I am doing is assuming so do not blame me.

However for the final result l think it was a very fine book not the greatest but fine good ok.

A & P
This book is a book that is very, all over the place. By going there and going there and so on, to me it feels like that. It basically talks about looking and describing the girls, walking past.
Describing them of how they look. Though it was interesting it was also quite weird, what l mean by that it that why would you describe girls in a story, not normally like, she is pretty or she is wearing a blue dress, but like getting into real detail. Also why talk about girls going somewhere? Why not a family? Or men and women?

This book also has these people that have hard times and there describing them, If you are a person who is sooo into literacy, and love the part were you learn how to describe somebody you are going to like this book. Well quite like this book.

Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, Her Son-in-Law
Everyone may have their own definition of crazy, it depends on the matter of opinion. Mine is someone who stands apart from the crowd, sometimes not in a good way.

This story has many twist’s, lies and truths, like how Mrs. Frola fakes about her daughter being alive and how her son is stopping her see her own daughter. I actually thought that this was true because it was shown in a possible way.
I don't exactly know what I felt about this book, I had parts when I was confused, happy and interested. I think I felt this because I did not really understand what this story was trying to deliver, so I went onto a search on the internet. I found many things, some made sense and others were something else. One said that this was a story about one of them lying, this kind of makes sense and I do understand a lot better now, though there are areas where it is a little vague.

This was a short story with a lot of impact, it demonstrates how life can go on a very different path than others. However, something that questioned me the most was “Who was narrating?” I never found the answer, so I still don’t know who. I am guessing that it was a neighbor or someone who worked with Mr. Ponza.

I did quite enjoy this story as it was narrated like I was actually talking to the person in real life. This brought some joy in, as when your alone you don’t feel so lonely anymore. Unfortunately, this again is based on ones thought.

Overall, I think I don’t have much to say as the story is only a few pages though many emotions where delivered. I say this this is quite a fun short read.

The Fortune teller

What do you think life’s meaning/purpose is? Many people can have a different answer though, many could think of its simpler things. They might think of it as politics, education, being there and love. This book has a storyline which confused me at first, I thought that first this short story will be about two people arguing throughout the book. I went on it had many turns though who could have thought what happened next?

I always thought that letters would always have a good meaning. What I mean by that is the receiver of the letter is always happy to have some post. In this case it was the opposite, the letter impacted the hatred of life and may have ended one’s life also.

I really enjoyed the fun read and still had thoughts in my head. It was a short read though I kept wondering “why was the book's title called the fortune teller?” I thought that it was because the words inside the letter were telling something that when happened would impact their own life a lot? This was my first lucky guess attempt.

I just had to search on the internet.

The internet obviously had no direct answers. It had some very vague answers meaning that most of them were summaries of the story. I know now that the title is the title as it captures attention and gives very little information about the story.

In the end, I think that this book was good. I wish that there were more details to this story so I decided to give this 3.5 stars as it was not the best book though I would still recommend it.
3.5 stars

The Sacrificial Egg
Africa used to have a strong sense of culture however was it ever able to maintain that culture. The Africans once got all organised again the whole place and everything with another strong culture known everywhere in the world, Christian. I thought it will be like other stories I have read about Africa like their history or their myths.

This story confused me at first, it went straight with the story with not much descriptions about the setting. So, I had to research, and I found out that a lot of the names were actually the names of gods and it goes through the story of worshipping the Christians but still believing in Igbo culture gods. This story goes through the journey of where it’s a ‘tug-of war’ between two cultures. Even in a short story it gave many examples of what had happened to the Africans when the Christian missionaries came. It had no big problem though when a character stepped on the egg which was a sacrifice to the god, it can con to big consequences and punishment. Julius think at first 'death' I thought why death and the story kept on explaining in such a short time I was amazed by the story. Even though at first it was confusing because of a new culture intervening. The European trade centre as the main setting it had so much going which amazed me.

Hence, I think this is a great little story showing the history and the feeling from the people who got impacted themselves. Teaching a great lesson to everyone who reads this. Therefore, I give this book 3.7 stars.

[Serim · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Fortune Teller

Many people in the world believe in fortune tellers, but not me. When I read the title of this short story, I assumed it would be about fate going wrong, maybe the main character consulted a fortune teller, got his/her fortune told, and realized the fortune teller didn’t tell the truth about his future and his life would change.

This story is narrated by a man named Camillo. Camillo was in love with his friend(Vellila)’s wife, named Rita. The story started when Camillo laughed at Rita for turning to a fortune teller for help. Camillo didn’t believe in fortune tellers, so he had thought Rita was crazy for believing in them. Rita had thought Camillo would forget her, but the fortune teller answered that there would be no reason to have fear.

All went well until the letter from Vellila.

It was an urgent letter, telling Camillo to come immediately to Vellila’s house. As soon as I read this part, I sensed something wrong, and Camillo did too. First of all, what was happening? Why was Vellila calling him? Second, why did he tell Camillo to come to his house instead of his office?

I was convinced this was a trap, and that something dramatic and unpredictable would happen. Maybe Vellila had a secret he wanted to share in private. Or he found out Camillo’s love for Rita.

Camillo headed for his house, but then suddenly stopped where the fortune teller was. He seemed to be wondering if Rita really was telling the truth that fortune tellers existed. That’s when I sensed that he was going to consult the fortune teller.

He did, and he even asked if anything was going to happen to him and Rita.

Camillo seemed to have forgotten that he had to meet Vellila, but I didn’t know if that was a good thing. I couldn’t say which one was worse: talking to a fortune teller or following the letter, so I couldn’t help but keep reading.

Camillo was told that nothing would happen. It seemed suspicious. Nothing bad will happen? But what about that strange letter from Vellila? That’s when Camillo realized what I had been thinking. He was late for his meeting with Vellila so he hurried to Vellila’s house.

But something wasn’t right. Vellila showed no emotion, and he just let Camillo inside the house. That’s when Camillo saw something that changed his life forever.

I will not spoil the rest of the story, because it is the most dramatic part. When I finished this story, I thought of this as a mystery. There are small problems leading to the climax and there are many mysterious characters in the story. Then I wondered, why is this story called The Fortune Teller? I assume it is because the fortune teller changed everything for Rita and Camillo’s lives.

This story has a shocking ending. It was not worth risking someone’s life for the fortune teller’s words. Even after I finished this book, the imagery from the book stayed in my mind for a while. It presents exotic plots and keeps the reader continuously intrigued. This is why I gave this story 4 stars.


Mrs.Frola and Mr.Ponza

I thought reading a short story would be easy, but I was dead wrong. The story started talking about one topic, and then suddenly switched to a totally different topic. One thing I was puzzled about the most was, Mrs.Frola and Mr.Ponza had different stories about the same situations. Also, I didn’t fully understand the people’s attitude towards them. Let me go through the reasons why I thought I couldn’t give a higher score for the story.
The book started with an introduction about how the people of Valdana thought Mrs.Frola and Mr.Ponza were crazy. The story didn’t even clearly state why they thought so! After the introduction, the narrator talks about how Mr.Ponza and Mrs. Frola got settled in this new town. Mr.Ponza became a secretary and moved to a cozy but small apartment, and rented another flat just for Mrs.Frola to live there by herself. And then the author gave a thorough description of Mr.Ponza and Mrs.Frola’s appearance and personality. As I read further though, I started to form many questions and confusions about the story. Here were some of the questions that I had when I first read the book:
1.Why do the people of Valdana think Mrs.Frola and Mr.Ponza are crazy?
2.Why does Mrs.Frola think her daughter is disguised as someone else while Mr. Ponza thought she was actually dead?
3.What kind of anxiety had the people of Valdana lived through?
When I read this story a second time, I found some answers for my questions. The answer for question 1 would be, either Mrs.Frola or Mr.Ponza don't know the difference between reality and illusion. The answer for question 2 could be Mrs.Frola actually doesn’t want to believe that her daughter is dead because I think her death made her devastated. I felt some sympathy for her when I realized this.. Finally, I think the answer for the third question is that they were worried about the fact that between Mrs.Frola and Mr.Ponza, one of them was crazy but they didn’t know who it was. I think if the author explained how some events happened, like how Mr.Ponza’s real wife died, or stayed on one topic, then I would have interpreted the story more. Even though this book was a little hard to read, I would say that when I read this the second time, I understood it way better than the first time

The Sacrificial Egg: 2.5 stars

Even the smallest event you witness or do could cause an unexpected problem. I am not talking about if someone falls from a high place, or if someone gets hurt by a hard ball. I am talking about the tiniest ones you make almost everyday, like spilling drinks, or like in The Sacrificial Egg, breaking an object. In life, we move on if we make a small mistake, but in this short story, because the main character moved on, he didn’t know about the tragic problem he would be depressed about later on. I think The Sacrificial Egg was intriguing, however a bit dull and confusing.

Julius Obi is a clerk who works in the Niger company. He likes to stare at the empty market when his boss is asleep. The market used to be filled with people from “all sides of the world”, but now, because of smallpox and Kitikpa, it is empty. Kitikpa “decorated” dead bodies, mostly people who died from smallpox, according to Julius’s Obi’s imagination of Kitikpa being a terrible artist. The word, Kitikpa, is dreaded in Julius’s village, and Kitikpa is proud of his reputation. He is now in “charge” of the village, for he made strict rules and punishments, and no one tries to break them because they are frightened of what Kikitpa would do when he realizes what they’ve done.

There is no huge climax in the story, but there is a small mistake Julius makes that has a significant meaning. When he was walking home, he accidentally stepped on an egg offered to Kitikpa for sacrifice, and the egg broke. At first, I moved on, thinking it was a small detail. Then, I realized that this story only has a few pages, so why would Chinua Achebe include a useless mistake Julius made and extend it to a whole paragraph? This meant the egg breaking had an important and memorable meaning, and it would probably be referred to again at the end of the story.

In the story, when Julius broke the egg, the first word that popped into my mind was, “death”. If Julius stepping on the egg was death, that meant the egg was life. I thought the egg represented Julius’s life, but later on, I realized, the egg could represent a friend’s life, or even a stranger’s. I will not spoil the rest of the story because it is shocking, a bit confusing, but also interesting.
After I finished the story, I was impressed at Achebe’s structure and style of writing, because of the “red herrings”. Breaking the egg tricked me it was nothing, because egg is a normal food everyone sees in life. But the egg had a significant meaning, and I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t kept reading.

The reason this story deserves 2.5 stars is the lack of information and confusion. Even though some people might not have read other books by Chinua Achebe, I have, and this almost has the same type of food, behavior, lifestyle and more as his other books. I have read books about Nigeria by him and the same information appears in this story. For example, the Igbo tribe and kola-nuts are mentioned. Almost nothing I learned was new, so I don’t think I enjoyed this story very much. Also, when it comes to the paragraphs with metaphors and smilies, it is hard to decode what the characters feel, say or do, because the metaphors are sometimes too vivid.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Araby
The narrator, an unnamed boy, describes the North Dublin street on which his house is located. He thinks about the priest who died in the house before his family moved in and the games that he and his friends played in the street. He recalls how they would run through the back lanes of the houses and hide in the shadows when they reached the street again, hoping to avoid people in the neighborhood, particularly the boy’s uncle or the sister of his friend Mangan. The sister often comes to the front of their house to call the brother, a moment that the narrator savors.

The narrator is obsessed with Mangan's sister.Every day begins for this narrator with such glimpses of Mangan’s sister. He places himself in the front room of his house so he can see her leave her house, and then he rushes out to walk behind her quietly until finally passing her. The narrator and Mangan’s sister talk little, but she is always in his thoughts. He thinks about her when he accompanies his aunt to do food shopping on Saturday evening in the busy marketplace and when he sits in the back room of his house alone.

One morning, Mangan’s sister asks the narrator if he plans to go to Araby, a Dublin bazaar. She notes that she cannot attend, as she has already committed to attend a retreat with her school. Having recovered from the shock of the conversation, the narrator offers to bring her something from the bazaar. This brief meeting launches the narrator into a period of eager, restless waiting and fidgety tension in anticipation of the bazaar. He cannot focus in school. He finds the lessons tedious, and they distract him from thinking about Mangan’s sister.

On the morning of the bazaar the narrator reminds his uncle that he plans to attend the event so that the uncle will return home early and provide train fare. Yet dinner passes and a guest visits, but the uncle does not return. The narrator impatiently endures the time passing, until at 9p.m. the uncle finally returns, unbothered that he has forgotten about the narrator’s plans. Reciting the epigram “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” the uncle gives the narrator the money and asks him if he knows the poem “The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed.” The narrator leaves just as his uncle begins to recite the lines, and, thanks to eternally slow trains, arrives at the bazaar just before 10p.m., when it is starting to close down.


A&P
'A & P' tells the story of Sammy, a grocery store clerk who comes of age. In the story, Sammy encounters three girls who come to the store in their bathing suits. Three teenage girls, wearing only their bathing suits, walk into an A&P grocery store in a small New England town. Sammy, a young man working the checkout line, watches them closely. He appraises their looks and notes even minute details about the way they carry themselves. He also speculates about their personalities and their motivation for entering the store dressed the way they are. Sammy is particularly interested in the most attractive girl, who appears to be the leader of the group. This girl, whom Sammy dubs “Queenie,” has a natural grace and confidence, in addition to her beauty. As the girls roam the aisles of the A&P, they create a stir. As Sammy points out, the store is in the center of town, nowhere near the beach, where the girls’ attire would attract less notice. Sammy’s coworker Stokesie ogles the girls as well, joking around with Sammy as he does so. Sammy jokes along with him, but he feels the contrast between himself, still single, and the married Stokesie. Stokesie is resigned to a life of working at the A&P, whereas Sammy, although admitting that he and Stokesie are much alike, seems to feel that such a future is beneath him. As yet another of his coworkers begins to admire the girls, Sammy feels a twinge of pity for them for having compromised themselves this way, most likely without realizing it. This feeling is quickly supplanted by pure excitement as the girls choose Sammy’s checkout line to make their purchase.

Lengel, the store manager, approaches Sammy’s checkout lane. Lengel chastises the girls for entering the store in bathing suits, citing store policy. The girls are embarrassed, and Queenie protests that her mother wanted her to come in and buy some herring snacks. In this statement, Sammy gleans insight into Queenie’s life. He imagines her parents at a party, everyone dressed nicely and sipping “drinks the color of water.” He thinks about his own parents’ parties, where people drink lemonade or cheap beer.

As the girls begin to leave the store, Sammy suddenly turns to Lengel and quits his job, protesting the way Lengel has embarrassed the girls.

[Youngseo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, her son in law
3 stars

In this book, the main characters are Mrs. Frola, who is an elegant lady, and her son-in-law Mr. Ponza, who moved into town with his wife and mother-in-law. They both have their own world of illusion that they believe. Mrs. Frola thinks that Mr. Ponza is a crazy person because he doesn’t let her see her own daughter out of jealousy and selfishness, and also believes that her daughter is his second wife. And Mr. Ponza says that Mrs. Frola is the one who is crazy. He says that her daughter died four years ago and Mrs. Frola got crazy because of the shock of her daughter’s death. Each of them has a suitable reason, so nobody knows who is right and who is really crazy.

When I first read this book, the first thought I had was that Mr. Ponza’s wife is suffering greatly, no matter who is right, Mrs. Frola or Mr. Ponza. If Mrs. Frola was right and Mr. Ponza was not, she would have to pretend that she is someone else. It would be so depressing, unable to be ‘herself’. And if Mr. Ponza was correct, then she would have a hard time pretending to be Mrs. Frola’s daughter. Because volunteering and sacrificing for Mrs. Frola can only go so far. Also, she can’t go out and have to do all the household jobs by herself because Mr. Ponza doesn’t let her go out

This story’s style is a parable. Parables are simple stories designed to teach a lesson, like the stories in the Bible. I think the moral of this book is that you have to respect people’s privacy because if there is no absolute truth, then we have no rights to judge other people with of our beliefs and stereotype. When I first read this book, it was hard to understand what the author was trying to say because the book’s style was so different from any other books that I had read before. But when I read the story again and thought a little bit more, I understood the story’s meaning.

This story was a little bit tricky to analyze but it was a fine story. The style, plot, and characters were very new to me because I had never seen stories like this before. I enjoyed reading it and I am looking forward to reading more short stories like this. (less)


The Fortune-Teller
3 stars

‘The Fortune-Teller’ is a short story written by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. The story starts with Rita having just come back from a visit to a fortune-teller, who had told her that her lover, Camillo will never leave her. I didn’t know what was going on at first, but when I read one more page, I understood. Rita was married to Villela, but she was on a love affair with a close friend of his, Camillo. This is when I guessed that the ending would have a twist. I read a bit more, and I found out the reason Rita had visited the fortune-teller. Camillo had received an anonymous letter warning him that what he did was known to all, and frightened, he had stayed away from Rita for quite a long time. Camillo gets a few more letters and he gets more scared and uncertain than ever, until an urgent letter from Villela asks him to come to his house. At Villela’s house, something very shocking happens.

After I finished reading the story, I had to imagine what would have happened for a minute. I think what had happened with Villela was this. He didn’t have any suspicions at first about Camillo and his wife meeting. He was just glad that they liked each other. But Rita would have probably shown some strange signs, like going somewhere out very often, or not smiling at him like the way she used to. Then, Villela would have started to suspect Rita first, he could have spied on her, or asked someone about it. He would soon think Camillo was suspicious, but he wouldn’t have wanted to believe the thought. And then he would have finally found out the truth.

And my opinion is that Villela wrote the anonymous letters. When he figured out the truth, he would have been so angry at Camillo and Rita. Especially Camillo, because he was his true friend, and he betrayed him. Villela would have been mad enough to stomp to them and kill them right away, but he sent the anonymous letter to Camillo instead, intending to give him another chance. This shows that he trusted his friend greatly. I think this was a wise move from him, giving one more chance, because there was a slight chance that he was mistaken. However, despite getting a chance, Camillo doesn’t understand the true meaning of the letter until he meets Villela.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this story a lot. It had many hard words, and I slightly expected the ending, but the way it focuses on the close relationship between the three characters was very new to me, and I hadn’t seen any stories like this before. I found out that the author of this story wrote more than 200 short stories, and I am planning to try other stories written by him.


The Sacrificial Egg
3 stars

This is a short story by Chinua Achebe. The main character Julias Obi looks out over the big market, Nkwo. He remembers his conversation with Ma about myths like the mammy-wota who are women too perfect. The market is empty today because of smallpox. Later, he paces up and down the riverbank, and worries about Ma and Janet, the girl he going to marry with. Suddenly, a gong rings, announcing the night-masks. To avoid them, he tries to hurry back home. While he rushed through the dark, he accidently crushes on an egg, which was left as a sacrifice by someone who was trying to get rid of their bad luck. He hears the mask call and throws himself into a field and hears their footsteps. A week later, a terrible thing had happened.

After I read this story I really wanted to know more about the author Chinua Achebe. I hadn’t read many African books, so I was definitely curious about the author, especially because I had read his most famous book, “Things Fall Apart” and it was great. Chinua Achebe was raised by his parents in the town Igbo. He began writing stories of African culture as a university student. After graduating he wrote many famous books like “Things Fall Apart” and “No Longer at Ease”. His books focus on the traditions of the Igbo society, the effect of Christian influences and also the clash of Western and African societies. Later he worked as a professor of Bard College.

Smallpox is a big issue in this story and I think it means how terrible colonialism was to Africans. It was confusing so after I read the story several times I realized that “the dread artist who decorates its victims” and “Kitikpa” meant smallpox. Most short stories had a moral or meant something, so I thought about smallpox. Then I remembered that smallpox came with the crowds of strangers, the White People. So I think smallpox is a symbol of colonialism. The land in the story, around Nigeria were colonized by Great Britain. Britain pushed their language and religion on the native people. And they brought smallpox with them. Smallpox is very deadly and destructive, so maybe it means that the European colonizers were very destructive to Africa. Julias lost people he loved because of smallpox, and Africa lost the chance to grow big because of colonization.

Overall, this story was great and new to me because I hadn’t read many books about African literature. It was a little confusing because there were some Igbo words which was hard to understand, so I recommend reading it multiple times to understand it better. Because I read this story I now know that African literature is interesting, and I really want to read more African literature by Chinua Achebe.

[Shuggy L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to Modernist writers (early twentieth century) and their immediate nineteenth century forebears.

Virginia Woolf (Mark), Katherine Mansfield (Party) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman capture the interests of early twentieth century upper middle class women.

They discuss writing, social class and mental health. War features with concern, but distantly, in the Woolf's story, via the newspaper.

Children feature in Yasunari Kawabata (Grasshopper) story of the same era.

James Joyce's Araby is also about the trials of youth. Recounts a young man's personal feelings and for a young women, whom he hardly knows, and his subsequent embarrassment.

Moving away from private life, Rudyard Kipling (King) writes about the British Empire and one of its wars in Afghanistan.

The British abroad also features in Chinua Achebe's story about a Umuru's market (Niger River, Nigeria) emptied out by small pox.

D. H. Lawrence (Prussian) writes about an over sensitive and abusive relationship between members of the army. Feelings are conveyed through telepathy rather than words.

European stories convey life experiences which suggest a lack of meaningfulness, such as in Maupassant's Necklace and Kafka's (Hunger).

Older people experience indifference from others: Luigi Pirandello (Mrs. Frola), Thomas Mann (Cemetery) and Rilke (Timofei).

Rainer Maria Rilke goes further and says families don't event care for each other. Timofei doesn't care properly for his wife and child.

Russian stories convey a similar social milieu: Leo Tolstoy's Ilyich and Anton Chekov's Lady with the Lap Dog.

The Americas give us a slightly more traditional love triangle in Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis's Fortune Teller.

Earnest Hemingway (Place) and Borges (Borges and I) give sparse accounts of the human experience of life's legacy, and an ongoing awareness of the inevitability of death.

Many of the stories introduce elements of modern writing techniques and styles including the earlier Herman Melville's Bartleby.

John Updike's A&P presents a view of young people in opposition to old religious conservative traditions but the behavioral patterns are not looking very favorable.

The young people aren't focused on their education and contributions to society.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

About Araby :

Mood is dark. The first sentence was "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street." The atmosphere was gloomy, boy's feeling had been gloomy and everything was so gloomy. Even where the boy lives in ( his house ) is where the priest have died before. Now you may get that this story is not a happy ending story. Book Araby is never sweet, nor joyful. However the boy had an epiphany.
There is a poem called 'falling blossoms.' What happened to the speaker of this poem seems like a bad case. He or she has breaked up. Normally, these stories continue with how the main characters deal with their pain after the end of their love. But in this poem, the speaker says that she is blessed. For that, she said that her inside could mature to reason why. Araby is maybe simillar.

The boy-main character of Araby-learned that the world what he knew was only a dream, a fantasy. This sudden realization, we can call it epiphany.
In the last sentence, you can read this. "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." I love this passage.
I think it has well addressed the feeling 'rage' and therefore emphasized the main topic, his epiphany. Most of all, 'derided by vanity' comes to my mind-it tells how bad the boy has actually felt after the Araby incident. He must have been shocked-according to what I read-he regarded things such as love to be holy.

I wonder what you may felt about the boy while reading this book. Some may feel a sort of pity of him. Yeap, his uncle has been a problem.But if he has arrived a bit faster, if he didn't forget, and if the boy didn't get late, could the consequence been better? I would say no. It's the boy who's foolish. Being to pure, that doesn't only mean to be good. One day, he had to realize and face the reality that something other than a true love does exist. And that the plan doesn't always go well enough, what you expect to happen sometimes does not happen at all. Imagine is not a reality. So I liked the ending. The boy had an epiphany. The story was short but the content-I liked it, and I would say that it was full- like what you feel when you eat rice rather than a bread for a breakfast.

[Gray Jabaji]

since this is a short story collection i'm going to do story by story reviews and update them as i read each short story. i'm also going to do bullets cus that's easier. all my bullet points were written as I was reading the story rather than reading and then reviewing.

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
3 stars
- bartleby is ICONIC!
- wait i'm confused is bartleby a ghost?
- i don't like the narrator... they're just so back and forth
- never mind bartleby is annoying too...

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
4 stars
- this opening is so strong wow
- loved the message of this to not be selfish and only value material things
- i don't like how the author portrayed men vs women (men = good, women = bad)

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
3.5 stars
- i'm only one paragraph in and the russian names are already tripping me up
- why is the author describing boring events as if they're the most interesting thing in the world...?
- bruh why does this have chapters... it's supposed to be a short story not a book...
- Tolstoy is kinda implying that poor people are inferior...
- he's also kinda implying that women are inferior
- bro someone get ivan a new wife
- wait jk never mind they both suck lmao
- but ivan is so me though
- it only took like 25 pages (half the story) for it to get good

The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
1 star
- uh oh i'm getting Macbeth vibes from the first paragraph...
- I'm just so confused... wtf is happening??
- "he strokes [narrator's] eyebrows" tf?!
- why am I not even surprised that the author used the n word...
- I don't like the way these men are talking about women
- I was going to give this 2 stars but then I couldn't think of anything good about this story...

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4.5 stars
- I'm loving this narrative style
- I don't like john, she should leave him for a woman
- I'm loving the mental illness/mental health representation
- I don't think I fully understood what happened but this was a really fun short story!

[Eugenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

*i have only read 2 books*
I think jewelry has nothing to do with going to a ball, or wearing a dress. I think it would have been better if she didn’t go to the ball. The story was shorter than I expected as I always had to read thick books. It is about a young woman losing a diamond necklace that a friend had lent her. So she gets another diamond necklace to replace it and 5 years later she find out that the dimond that her friend had lent her was fake. I liked the book. I wish I could know what happens after the ending. Maybe Loisel gets angry at Madame Forstier for lending her a fake diamond necklace and not telling her that it was fake. So then she had to work hard for the next 10 years. Or she gets so surprised that she faints! (Because of all the hard work she had put in to paying for a real diamond necklace and finding out that the necklace she had borrowed was a big shock for her.)
I was very surprised when Loisel lost the necklace. I wonder how she lost the necklace. Maybe the Minister of Education paid attention to Loisel because of the necklace. So he silently unlocked the clasp at the back and took it!
There was one part that I didn’t understand, when Loisel lost the necklace, it says that she said excitedly, but isn’t the right word franticly? Because she lost the diamond necklace?

The yellow wallpaper
I couldn’t find the humor in this book which was a shame. I don’t understand the contents of this book. Its about the main character- a girl who wants to write, but her brother doesn’t want her to and what is the pattern? What woman? I wish I could make sense of the book…

[Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are lots of stories in these days. It gives us stories with TV, book and phone. We can see and enjoy many kinds of stories. In Korea, I think maybe a drama is one of the best way to give people a story and maybe "Drama" could be a start of K-POP which is now very popular in these days. Anyway, why I was talking about this is because, this story was very similar with many of
Korean Dramas. It seemed like that this short story was little "deeper" version of K-dramas.

It is because of story-line, basically. The scenario that most of grannies like. There are 2 or more characters who have conflicts and the other one which is the reason of conflict. And the most usual reason can be jealous(love), money, affair and even a murder. This fits "The fortune-teller". There was a fortune teller or card reader who infers us about ending. However, we already knew the ending, and even characters feel the ending. I was very excited about this because it was wondering how the author would end it. We know the ending but how? And also, there was a twist at last that make us to get confuse of this ending as Camilo got a great fortune-telling about their love although the ending was same as we expected.

However, I will give this story 4 stars. I don't know why the author wrote this story! What is the main idea? As all Korean dramas influenced me nothing but just fun, I cannot expect what the main idea of this story. Maybe a cheating is bad? I was keep thinking. Then, I was even thinking that what if the author's job is fortune teller? But no. And actually, I couldn't find it yet. That is why I gave this book just 4 stars although I enjoyed a lot.

[Nathan]

It's difficult to go wrong when you've got every short story ever in history to choose from. Here's some thoughts on each:

"Bartleby the Scrivener" - Herman Melville
Great! One of the ones that I enjoyed the most. Kept thinking all the way through that this would make the basis of a good movie (though I think a lot would need to be added) only to find when I finished that one was done a few years ago.

"The Necklace" - Guy de Maupassant
During reading I realised that I've either read it before, or somebody has told me a very long version of the story as a cautionary tale. I think it was the latter. It might have been because of that experience but I found the message to be a little on-the-nose.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
Like most of Tolstoy that I've ever read the amount and detail of the information was spell binding, but I constantly had the feeling that I was missing the importance of what he was saying.

The Man Who Would Be King - Rudyard Kipling
I am a big Kipling fan and I really enjoyed this one. Both the content and the way in which the story is presented (usually the action is reported after the fact similar to epistolary) worked really well. Set in British India, of course. The story follows two men who set out from India toward Afghanistan and become kings. Another one that apparently has a very good movie that I haven't seen.

The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Genuinely terrifying. Isolation and anxiety. It could be because I'm bent in that direction.

More to come...

[Dongwook · Rating 4 out of 5]

1) The Necklace

Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon (C). It has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity out of every natural mineral. They are created approximately 150 ~ 250 km underground, and usually get exposed by volcano erupting. Because of its hardness, it is used for cutting and polishing tools. But we all know that’s not the reason we like diamonds, we like them because they’re pretty. They have really high optical dispersion, and that makes it pissible for us to observe some beautiful sprectrum of light in it.
Matilda is poor, and she is very unhappy. She cannot dream of living like her friend Mme Forestier. One day Martha is invited to a party, and she borrows a fancy (expensive) necklace to wear from Mme Forestier. Unfortunately, Matulda is very careless and coucou, so she loses the diamond necklace. I wonder how she could lose such a precious item. Diamonds, despite being created from high temperature and pressure, it can burn in high temperature. That temperature is between 1400 degrees and 1607 degrees so it would be impossible for the diamond to disappear in that way. Well Matilda lost it, so she had to buy a new one. It costed over 5000 francs. So she and her husband worked extremely hard, and they sacrificed their life for that one silly (and expensive) neckalce.
It’s funny how people (especially me) like shiny jems. Matilda didn’t need one, but she desperately wanted one to waer to the party. Her greedy action cost her life to pay back. This book doesn’t end like this, and it has a big twist, but it doesn’t change the fact that Matilda made a stupid mistake. I don’t know what the author wanted to tell us, maybe something like “don’t be greedy just enjoy what you have”, and sadly most of us is greedy and can’t enjoy what we have. So after reading this book, let’s all be satisfied with what we’ve got, and enjoy what we have. To people who is unhappy because of their poverty or depression, please read this book and remind yourself that stupid decision that makes you happy for an instant can make you poorer and even more depressed.

[Claire Ki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instead of rating the whole book, I rated mostly on the short story The Fortune Teller. This short story is about Camillo, the main character, falls in love with his friend, Villela's wife. But one day, late at night, he gets a letter from Villela, telling him to come quick. The story ends with a small twist.

I honestly was very shocked at the dark ending. I never expected any murders in the story, and I certainly didn't expect Villela to be the murderer. After I read the story, some questions started to float around in my head. "What would have happened if Camillo came early?" Some of my questions, I could answer with my imagination. Others, I could really find answers. I wanted the story to keep going just to see what would happen to Villela.

I also read another review, by Carolyn Song and she said, "Reading this is like watching Hamilton sing “how can I say no to this” over and over as he cheats on his wife" And I agree with this. Honestly, none of this would have happened if Camillo hadn't loved Villela's wife. I also felt bad for Villela mostly because his friend, his FRIEND liked his wife. However, I think Villela had NO right to kill the two lovers.

This story was exciting and the twist was very interesting. I didn't really understand at first, but as I read, I understood more and more. I gave this book a 3-star rating. I was satisfied with the story, and I'm excited to finish the book.

[Googoogjoob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inevitably, the title is misleading. First, since this is a Dover Thrift anthology, it's inevitably slanted towards public domain material: the split is something like 200 pages or so of PD stuff, and 35 pages or so of material still in copyright, and the copyrighted stories are noticeably short ones (Borges and I takes up a single page). So there's that, which isn't really so bad.

Then also it's slanted towards writers from Europe and the USA, with a single writer each representing South America (Machado de Assis, with the very good The Fortune Teller), Asia (Yasunari Kawabata, with the okay The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket), and Africa (Chinua Achebe, with the so-so The Sacrificial Egg). Could they not rustle up anything by eg Tagore or Lu Xun? Oh well.

It's also slanted towards consciously "literary fiction" type fiction- no "genre fiction," even though that means omitting any stories by Poe or Doyle or Machen. Which is another "oh well" sort of a thing.

I certainly can't say that this book doesn't contain some Great Short Stories, though. Bartleby the Scrivener, The Death of Ivan Ilych, The Yellow Wallpaper, The Lady With the Toy Dog, A Hunger Artist, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, A & P. Leans towards the sort of short story that's elusive in its themes, and which denies the reader any sort of catharsis, which is good.

It feels silly to be reviewing this sort of ephemeral anthology. But here we are. It was pretty good.

[Jayden KWON · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Ponza is the crazy one--so obsessed with love for his wife that they had to fake his wife's death and then re-introduce her later were in Mr Ponza believed she was his second wife. The story ends with the most perplexing of notes that despite how each views the other as crazy, they are regularly seen throughout the village being friendly and caring for one another.
While reading the first page of the story, the writer of the story keeps saying that one of the main characters must be crazy and that the citizens were frightened. First I did not know where this story was up to. However, the more I read, I found it easier to understand. After reading 3 pages, I was wondering a lot. This has made me get interested and curious. Also about in 5 pages, I liked the setting description about Mr Ponza and Mrs Flora. Also, I thought that whether they are crazy or mad or not, they care about each other and I found it more fun and eye-catching.
However, I think the book ended like if it was rushed because they give a lot of description to Mrs Flora and Mrs Ponza but the book didn't show how they found the crazy one and who was mad. Also, the last bit was like only in 1 paragraph and that made me feel that it was the summary of the book. Also, the conclusion was not clear which made it very hard to summarize the book in my head, unlike the books we had read like 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time' or 'The London Eye Mystery'. Of course, it was a short story but I think the ending was too simple.
Simply, I have to say that his book had amazing parts in the start and the middle but the resolution part was not so good. If you see a story mountain it is like slowly going up and suddenly following like a cliff. I found out that there was no resolution in there. More simply, I am saying that build-up was good but no RESOLUTION. So I rate this book 4 stars.

Fortune Teller

Since my dream is to be related to be science, I do not believe in mythical or not scientifically proved things. One of the things is fortune-telling. It ultimately did not make sense to me when I heard that she went to the fortune-teller. I thought in my mind,' Why would you ever believe that?'. For me, it did not make sense because it was not scientifically proved. How could you say that you are going to be rich and be a famous person like Steve Jobs by only seeing the texture of the hand? It does not make sense to me, and I will show how my mind changed while I was reading the book.

When I was first seeing the title Fortune Teller, I thought, that it was about myths again and it would be an old story. Nevertheless, as I went on, I found out that Fortune-Fortune tellings are not always old fashioned. It had made me think that Fortune-Telling can also be in modern days. I never saw a Fortune-Teller, and I think that is the way I have a biased mind about Fortune-Telling and Fortune-Tellers. However, my thoughts about the Fortune-Tellers did not change at all. Before I went to the end of this short story, I found that Camillo was doing the right thing at the right time because his idea was very similar to my idea; going to the Fortune-Teller is a foolhardy thing to do.

I began to research more about Fortune-Tellers after I saw the arguing bit as I kept going on and on. I understood how they say others fate. I thought that they say a random destiny and say a ridiculous and a hilarious reason, but after I researched a lot of about them, I recognized that they have a rather a unique pattern of giving and telling their fate. I began to understand, but my brother started to ask one day what is mistakes. I wondered about the word mistakes, and then, I thought about coincidence. I searched the internet about which one is the antonym of confidence fand I learnt that fate was the antonym. I began to think, can fate change? Fate can change, I thought. If I work hard, I go to a good university. If I play, I go to a terrible university.

Finally, I thought of something I never thought about before. Why is Fortune-Tellers made? I kind of first thought that it was for fun because it was fun to know my destiny and work with it. Nevertheless, I was thinking next that Fortune-Telling is similar to believing in legends, myths and gods. The main thing was the gods. It was cool. Very cool. I knew that gods were made because people were scared that something would happen to us, but the other would protect me and my family. That was similar to Fortune-Telling. It is like this; let's say that I am a person that I worried about something in the future. I have no idea what will happen in my future and what other obstacles would come. So I went to the Fortune-Teller, and the Fortune-Teller says that you have to prepare for a big Tsunami. Then you are less worried because they can be prepared for the big event. If they do not, they will have to be anxious all the time until that time. People did not want to get worried. Furthermore, that was the main point of the book, I thought. Moreover, the person who went to the Fortune-Teller in this book would be probably worried about something terribly.

This book allowed me to change my biased mind about Fortune-Tellers to an open mind that can agree with ones who goes to Fortune-Tellers. Still, I believe in science rather a lot. However, now, I do not think why that person is going there and detest them for not believing in science very much. So I give this book a Five-Star.