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A World of Great Stories: 115 Stories, The Best of Modern Literature
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950 pages, Leather Bound
First published January 1, 1947
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 10, 2019
One hundred fifteen "short stories," some not all that short and some really chapters from novels or even non-fiction (viz. the Lauro de Bosis essay "The Story of My Death"). Published first in 1947. The 1967 edition by Crown, which I now have, was not updated.
This is a great chance to sample some writers one does not know and even countries whose literature one does not know, say (in my ignorance) Peru or Annam. The book introduced me to some of my favorite short stories that I'd never have found otherwise like Soderberg's "The Burning City" and the immortal essay by deBosis. It gave me at age 13 or so my first taste of Camus. [ an excerpt from The Stranger] The American section (remember we're talking 1947) has some stories that belong more to the thoroughly estimable Saturday Evening Post than to the pantheon of world literature.
There could be endless argument over which O. Henry to include, if one. Also over whether O. Henry should be in the same room as Joyce or Mann; styles so wildly different. A shakeup tomorrow of the American section (13/115 selections using 103 of 950 pages) would surely have to knock at least half out in favor of, let's say Updike and -- you name some more of the several contenders. Canada has only one story; Alice Munro would have to come in.
I praise the collection for covering many countries as snapshot in the 1940s and cannot fairly berate it for not having been updated; that would be a big job [REM to some editorial board: why don't you do this?]. I don't take it down because the editors chose a certain story by author x instead of my favorite of his or hers. I have to knock off a star, however, because (again this is due to the era of its gestation) it has nothing from Africa or the Caribbean. There was not much to be seen in 1945, and there is so much more now. For 1947 it was a world of short stories minus a continent and more.
This book would have no place in today's classroom of "world literature" unless complemented by other selections that remedy its generational weakness of geographic exclusion and scarcity of female writers. It's sort of a time capsule in that way, a capsule filled with really good findings that don't represent the year one is reading the book.
This is a great chance to sample some writers one does not know and even countries whose literature one does not know, say (in my ignorance) Peru or Annam. The book introduced me to some of my favorite short stories that I'd never have found otherwise like Soderberg's "The Burning City" and the immortal essay by deBosis. It gave me at age 13 or so my first taste of Camus. [ an excerpt from The Stranger] The American section (remember we're talking 1947) has some stories that belong more to the thoroughly estimable Saturday Evening Post than to the pantheon of world literature.
There could be endless argument over which O. Henry to include, if one. Also over whether O. Henry should be in the same room as Joyce or Mann; styles so wildly different. A shakeup tomorrow of the American section (13/115 selections using 103 of 950 pages) would surely have to knock at least half out in favor of, let's say Updike and -- you name some more of the several contenders. Canada has only one story; Alice Munro would have to come in.
I praise the collection for covering many countries as snapshot in the 1940s and cannot fairly berate it for not having been updated; that would be a big job [REM to some editorial board: why don't you do this?]. I don't take it down because the editors chose a certain story by author x instead of my favorite of his or hers. I have to knock off a star, however, because (again this is due to the era of its gestation) it has nothing from Africa or the Caribbean. There was not much to be seen in 1945, and there is so much more now. For 1947 it was a world of short stories minus a continent and more.
This book would have no place in today's classroom of "world literature" unless complemented by other selections that remedy its generational weakness of geographic exclusion and scarcity of female writers. It's sort of a time capsule in that way, a capsule filled with really good findings that don't represent the year one is reading the book.
February 10, 2019
A collection of 115 short stories (a few are selected passages from novels that can stand alone) from the US, Europe, Asia & Latin America. The book was published in 1946, before most of Africa had regained independence and an independent literature reemerged, so there are no African selections in the mix. Other than that the selection is wide and varied. My favorites were a passage from Man's Fate by Andre Malraux, and The Death of Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928). F. Scott Fitzgerald was boring as usual, but the story by Monteiro Lobato was hilarious.
February 24, 2015
A collection of short stories from all over the world, although I saw none from the African continent, which seemed a glaring omission . . . my favorite was Kong at the Seaside by Arnold Zweig . . . I'll be honest, I found most of these tales depressing and I found myself wondering why the darker side of life always seems to represent "Great Literature" while the lighter side is merely common. Meh. That said, Lauro de Bosis's "The Story of My Death" is prescient in every way possible and quite chilling given its background story.
January 21, 2024
This is a book that was given to me as a Christmas present over forty years ago, and the book, itself, had been first published some years before that, in 1947. It is an American produced book, compiled of 'great' short stories from around the world.
'Oh dear!' I thought, having picked it up to re-read it all these years later. 'Stories by some crusty old writers who all appear to have been born in the 1880s.'
But I was (quite) surprised: the American section contained a number of interesting stories (Wilbur Daniel Steele's The Man Who Saw Through Heaven and Irwin Shaw's An Act Of Faith being two examples). There were a couple of duds, from well-known authors: Hemingway and Steinbeck, but overall they interested me.
The British (and Irish) section continued in the same way. There was a nice story by Somerset Maugham (Red), but then the editors decided to include one of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories - a bit of a light-weight choice? And then the Irish section seemed to be 'away with the fairies'.
When I came to the Romance Language Section (France, Spain, etc.), I felt that I was reading something that was written in a foreign language (which it was, albeit in translation), and in the Germanic Section I began to wish I had been turned into a cockroach.
Some time after that I gave up...
So this is only a review of the 'readable' stories. Four stars. The rest of the book may interest other readers with better minds than mine - but not for me (sorry).
'Oh dear!' I thought, having picked it up to re-read it all these years later. 'Stories by some crusty old writers who all appear to have been born in the 1880s.'
But I was (quite) surprised: the American section contained a number of interesting stories (Wilbur Daniel Steele's The Man Who Saw Through Heaven and Irwin Shaw's An Act Of Faith being two examples). There were a couple of duds, from well-known authors: Hemingway and Steinbeck, but overall they interested me.
The British (and Irish) section continued in the same way. There was a nice story by Somerset Maugham (Red), but then the editors decided to include one of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories - a bit of a light-weight choice? And then the Irish section seemed to be 'away with the fairies'.
When I came to the Romance Language Section (France, Spain, etc.), I felt that I was reading something that was written in a foreign language (which it was, albeit in translation), and in the Germanic Section I began to wish I had been turned into a cockroach.
Some time after that I gave up...
So this is only a review of the 'readable' stories. Four stars. The rest of the book may interest other readers with better minds than mine - but not for me (sorry).
September 22, 2020
That was certainly a long road.
wow. 5 years and 3 weeks I was reading this. I put this book down for some long, long stretches between stories.
These stories are close to a century old in some cases, and come from all around the world.
They're windows into the world as it used to be and they show lots of modes of thought, some quite gladly left behind. There were diamonds in the rough, though there was also a LOT of rough.
Horses played a larger part, probably because they were a larger part of life in those days. I can't really pull over to cite individual stories.
An excellent bedside table book.
wow. 5 years and 3 weeks I was reading this. I put this book down for some long, long stretches between stories.
These stories are close to a century old in some cases, and come from all around the world.
They're windows into the world as it used to be and they show lots of modes of thought, some quite gladly left behind. There were diamonds in the rough, though there was also a LOT of rough.
Horses played a larger part, probably because they were a larger part of life in those days. I can't really pull over to cite individual stories.
An excellent bedside table book.
May 20, 2009
I guess I'm just not a short story person. I'm not into the whole shock value/obscure meaning thing. I doubt it really deserves only 2 stars...I'm sure a person who loves short stories would give it 5.
December 19, 2025
A really nice collection of stories.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews