Fifty Great American Short Stories

by Milton Crane (Editor)

Fifty Great American Short Stories

Library Binding

Published July 10, 2008

Reviews

[Caden McIlhenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

To build a fire goes bonkers

[Charlie Sutton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book at The Yellow Umbrella Bookstore in Chatham MA in late July. It was published in 1965, and it contained fifty stories, beginning with "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne and works its way forward through the Nineteenth Century and into the Twentieth Century.
I enjoyed reading it, but I only took it a few stories a week. The great majority of the stories are quite sad, depicting rural poverty, the results of foolish or wicked decisions, or simply the difficulty of we human beings to live together in peace and happiness. Even such authors as Clarence Day and Ring Lardner, who wrote some great light-hearted stories, were represented by sad stories.
A few of the stories were actually chapters of novels, not written as short stories. The piece by William Faulkner was one such, although it did stand on its own well.
I think that the story from William James ("The Two Faces") was also a chapter in a novel, but I can't say for sure because it was not documented. That story was the hardest read, because it was very psychological, with people try to read each other's minds through shrewd insights. I had never read James before, and I don't think that I will again.
I'm glad to have read these stories but they are definitely not a summer beach read.

[Zeyad Waleed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not made for short stories..