Short Story lovers discussion

Hi,
I'm new and wondering if anyone in this group likes to read the classic short stories written by 19th-century authors like Hawthorne or Poe, Mauspassant, Lovecraft, etc, Wharton, or even Virginia Woolf? Is this group mostly for modern shorts?

Hi Paula, I read a bit of everything, but probably learn toward more recent works.

Paula wrote: "Hi,
I'm new and wondering if anyone in this group likes to read the classic short stories written by 19th-century authors like Hawthorne or Poe, Mauspassant, Lovecraft, etc, Wharton, or even Virgin..."

Me! I love the classics!

What have you read??

Hi Alice43,
I'm glad to hear some from this group like the classics. I read short stories by Hawthorne, Lovecraft, Dickens, AC Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Virginia Woolf, Poe, etc.
I also write a weekly blog (Tales of Terror) on the works of dead authors and feature links to the online texts (mostly mysteries and soft-core horror). Although I have to admit I really prefer to read the actual books from my local library. I'm still a bound book lover, but I do have a Kindle.

Paula, i did look quickly at your blog but will have more time later to look through it.

A Good Man is Hard to Find,One of my favorites.

Oh my yes, I read it such a long time ago. Flannery O'Connor.

Just re-read it in the past week. :D

It's one of those stories that you can't forget and always looking for the next one like it.

I have not read Virginia Woolf thopugh. Any Suggestions?

The other day, Amazon had "The Best American Short Stories of 2012" (Kindle) for $1.99 so I started that last night. I ordered the FO book "A Good Man is Hard to Find" a couple of years ago and my wife was REALLY curious when it came in.

I also like James Thurber who hasn't been mentioned. Maybe it's a flaw in my character to like Thurber but his stories are quirky and suit my sense of humor. I used to watch Keith Olberman who'd read a Thurber story every Friday night in tribute to his father who read them to him as a boy.

Oh Wow Joe, I didn't know they discounted the older Kindle books like that! (it's currently 6.99) I've always pre-ordered the Best American books (Short Stories, Essays, Science) since they have been available for the Kindle. :D (just now pre-ordered the 2013 release)

My favorites from that release:

(The first story)
- The Last Speaker of the Language
- The Other Place
- Beautiful Monsters

Hope you enjoy it!

Alice43 wrote: "It's one of those stories that you can't forget and always looking for the next one like it.

I have not read Virginia Woolf thopugh. Any Suggestions?"

I find Virgina Woolf's work to be very different reads from other authors even from that era. Her prose is dense (in a good way) and takes slow thoughtful reading. I'm actually going to be featuring her "A Haunted House" next week in my Tales of Terror blog. It's short (about 700 words) and a good introduction to her style for non-Woolf readers.The first time I read it, I had to read it twice to get the fullest impact. Woolf's writing is quite rich and I can't seem to absorb it in one bite!

Kenny wrote: "Oh Wow Joe, I didn't know they discounted the older Kindle books like that! (it's currently 6.99) I've always pre-ordered the Best American books (Short Stories, Essays, Science) since they have be..."

I get an daily email on their "Kindle Daily Deals". It was on that. They had all of their 2012 Best of... books for that price. I felt guilty even getting the short story book as I have so many on my TBR shelf. Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't have a kindle but will look for them online also.

I also love the classics and I'm an O'Connor,Doyle, Collins and Poe fan. I've never read Woolf. Stephen Vincent Benet is one of my favorite short story writers.

For a while we had an active monthly discussion group going here-what happened to all my peeps?

They hatched?

:p

Kenny,lol

We started something at the Kafka group but me personally haven't been back often.I have to make the effort.

> kenny ;b

Yes, Jennifer, that was good group. We tried one other time but it didn't succeed. Suggest a story and let's see what happens!
Chris

I'd love to see this discussion get started. With some of the recent works I've read, I don't think I'm getting everything out of it that the author intended. I think a discussion group would really help my enjoyment of some of these works.

That being said, I'm up for anything but I'm not the one who should be suggesting a read.

I am in also. :)

Hey Chris- good to see you! Okay, let me look around.

Paula wrote: "I find Virgina Woolf's work to be very different reads from other authors even from that era. Her prose is dense (in a good way) and takes slow thoughtful reading. I'm actually going to be featurin..."

Paula,I am at work and decided since I am not too busy why not read The Haunted House-Virginia Woolf,and a day like Valentines Day. I think this is the most moving,sad,story I have read.Lost love.

I stumbled upon a Robert Bloch short:
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.

This is a fast read that sweeps you in and doesn't let go until the very last line. And I found a short film of the story from Boris Karloff's Thriller Theater. Sooo very vintage!

You can read on my site:
http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/

Arthur Conan Doyle fans? The Leather Funnel is a short that'll really strike you. This is not Sherlock Holmes but still Doyle at his best in the supernatural genre. I'm featuring it on my blog this week:

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/

Paula wrote: "Arthur Conan Doyle fans? The Leather Funnel is a short that'll really strike you. This is not Sherlock Holmes but still Doyle at his best in the supernatural genre. I'm featuring it on my blog this..."

Thank you Paula. I love your site btw. :)

My favourite classic short stories would be those in Dubliners by James Joyce. Amazing prose.

Thanks Alice. Appreciate the comment.

James, I've never read Dubliners. I do like to study how authors write prose. I'm glad to have the reminder to take a look at Joyce. Thanks.

Dubliners is a must-read for anyone interested in short stories. Joyce is one of those landmarks in the history of the story, on the order of Hawthorne or Poe or Chekhov.

We in short story land are celebrating Henry James' birth date, April 15, this week. His "Sir Edmund Orme" is a ghostly little romance that is sure to haunt. Stop by my blog post for a quick read to honor Henry James.

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/

I just read/reread - Never Marry a Mexican by Sandra Cisneros yesterday. Wonderful stuff!

Sandra Cisneros is one of my favorites. I will be giving away 20 copies of The House on Mango Street for World Book Night on April 23, very excited.

To the point of being impertinent as I don`t want to start a new message thread, but has the trend been away from short shorts among small literary magazines? Seems as that during the 80`s they were commonly published by evidence of the anthologies, but it seems they have become rarified. Is my surmise true?

There is something of a rise of Flash Fiction but I think it is mostly on line. See Flash Fiction Online and Vestal Review for a couple of markets from my list.

Short short fiction is alive and well in the internet era of publishing and many venerable journals have a submission category for both print and on-line issues. I have a forum where I post a short story a day, mostly short-shorts if you'd like to check it out.http://jpaloni.wordpress.com/365-stor...

Here's a short classic that is, I think, probably not well known among fans.

"The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham." Can you guess the author?

Here are some clues: male, English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian. Died in 1946. One of his most famous stories told a sombre vision of a dying world.

Didn't get it yet? Try this quotation:
“We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams.”

This ghastly horror tale of Elvesham is on my Tuesday's Tale of terror, with the author's name.

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/

There's lots in the news these days about short stories.

"Is This the Year of the Short Story?"
www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-porch/sh...

"Books on the Nightstand"
http://booksonthenightstand.com/

I am hoping readers will celebrate "May Is National Short Story Month" and read more shorties.

My blog, Tales of Terror, this week features the classic haunted house story, The Haunters and the Haunted by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

If you've never read his work, try this story.

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/

Ghostly Images of the Beloved Dead ...

October is the Horror Month. Are you reading spooky tales for this Halloween season? What about Mary Shelley. Who hasn't read or watched Frankenstein? But I'll bet you haven't read her ghostly short story "The Invisible Girl." I've got it posted on my Tales of Terror blog, free, and as a companion piece, you can also read her essay "On Ghosts" which is her questions and opinion about ghosts.

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/2013/...

Salem: Glossy Black Beast, White Horns

Are you up for a tale of witchcraft? "The Little Maid at the Door" by Mary Wilkins Freeman. Don't let this cute title fool you. This author knows how to sweep you into the story and characters. And you can also read a play about the Salem witch trials "Giles Cory, Yeoman," who is condemned to be crushed between two stones. And if that's not enough to prompt your Halloween reading, you can also experience "The Shadows on the Wall" ghost story.
Mary Wilkins Freeman won't disappoint you.

Stop by Tales of Terror this week for my Women In Horror month of short stories for Halloween:
http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/2013/...

For Halloween, Tales of Terror is featuring two authors. One is a classic woman of horror, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, "The Cold Embrace" (a chilly romantic ghostly mystery)and a contemporary woman of horror, Kelly Link, "The Specialist's Hat" a haunted house story at a 200-year old house called Eight Chimneys ... "Something is creeping up the stairs."

Both of these writers will fulfill your Halloween horror chills. Read these short stories free at my post Women of Horror for Halloween.

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/2013/...

If you've had enough of Halloween horror, you might like the short story I've featured on my Reading Fiction blog. The author is Richard Le Gallienne and his story "The Haunted Orchard" is a tale that is mysterious enough and yet has a soothing quality.

I actually loved the Librivox recording of this story by Jessica Snyder, who has such an enchanting voice and reads it so dramatically. A real treat on a November chilly and gray day.

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/2013/...

Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You...

What if a whistle could conjure up a ghost? Seriously, I mean it. A streaming high pitched note that calls up a malevolent spirit to enter your darkened bedroom and watch you sleep.

This week at Tales of Terror you can read M.R. James' most famous short story.

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/2013/...

Here are some of my favorite short stories.


*Dates refer to Annual Best American Short Stories Series

Adams, Alice. "Complicities." 1996

Alexie, Sherman. "The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above." "Flight Patterns." Ten Little Indians

Anderson, Sherwood. "The Untold Lie." Winesburg, Ohio

Alexander, Sidney. "A Part of the Act." 1948

Baker, Kage. "A Night on the Barbary Coast." Gods and Pawns. Year's Best SF 9

Baldwin, James. "Tell Me How Long that Train's Been Gone." 200 Years of Great American Short Stories. Foley

Barich, Bill. "Hard to Be Good." 1983

Barth, John. "Toga Party." 2007

Barthelme, Donald. "Game." World of the Short Story. Fadiman

Bell, M. Shayne. "The Thing About Benny." The Year's Best Science Fiction. 18th Edition. Dozois

Bellow, Saul. "Something to Remember Me By." Collected Stories

Brin, David. "The Giving Plague." Otherness

Brown, Jason. "Driving the Heart." 1996

Brown, Morris. "The Snow Owl." 1956

Buck, Pearl S. "Enchantment." Fourteen Stories

Canfield (Fisher), Dorthy "Sex Education." 1947

Canty, Kevin. "Moonbeams and Aspirin." Story Winter 1993

Capote, Truman. "Thanksgiving Visitor." The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

Cather, Willa. "One of Ours." The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Updike

Cheever, John. "The Brigadier and the Golf Widow." The Stories of John Cheever

Chekhov, Anton. "For the Apples." Complete Early Short Stories

Clayton, John Bell. "Visitor from Philadelphia." 1948

Colwin, Laurie "My Mistress." 1983

Cooper, Rands Richard. "Johnny Hamburger." 2003

Devita, Randy. "Riding the Dog House." 2005

Dark, Alice Elliot. "In the Gloaming." 1994 The Best American Short Stories of the Century Updike

Eastlake, William. "The Quiet Chimneys." 1956

Erdrich, Louise. "The Bingo Van." "Beauty Stolen From Another World." "The Butcher's Wife." The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008

Gautreaux, Tim. "Little Frogs in a Ditch." 1997 "Good for the Soul" 2000

Gellhorn, Martha. "Miami-New York." The Best American Short Stories of the Century Updike

Glaspell, Susan. "Jury of Her Peers." The Best American Short Stories of the Century Updike

Goldman, E.S. "Way to the Dump." 1988

Gorodischer, Angelica. "Violet's Embryos." Year's Best SF 9

Greenberg, Joanne. "Gloss on a Decision of the Council of Nicaea." In the Stacks

Guenax, Elliot. "Sparrow's Last Jump." 1948

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Rappaccini's Daughter." Selected Tales and Sketches

Hardwick, Elizabeth. "The Golden Stallion." 1947

Heggin, Thomas, "Nightwatch." 1947

Helm, Edward Harris. "Under the Gingko Trees." 1947

Hemmingway, "Hills Like White Elephants." Oxford Book of Short Stories

Hurston, Zora Neale. "The Gilded Six-Bits." Women & Fiction 2. 200 Years of Great American Short Stories. Foley

James, Henry "Beast in the Jungle." The Beast in the Jungle and Other Stories

Jin Ha. "The Bridegroom." 2000

Johnson, Hilding. "Missionaries." 1988

Joyce, James. "Eveline." Dubliners

Le Sueur, Meridel. "Annunciation." Sisters of the Earth

Kerouac, Jack. "The Mexican Girl." 200 Years of Great American Short Stories. Foley

Kingsolver, Barbara. "Rose-Johnny." Homeland and Other Stories

Kundera, Milan. "The Hitchhiking Game." The Best American Short Stories of the Century Updike

Lavin, Mary. "The Living." The World of the Short Story. A Twentieth Century Collection. Fadiman

Lincoln, Victoria. "Down in the Reeds by the River." 1947

Lombreglia, Ralph. "Inn Essence." 1988

Lowry, Robert. "The Terror in the Streets." 1948

Louis, Laura Glen. "Fur." 1994

Lyons, Daniel. "First Snow." Story Winter 1993

Malamud, Bernard. "The German Refugee." The Best American Short Stories of the Century Updike

Mansfield, Katherine. "The Garden Party." Art of the Short Story

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wome...

McCullers, Carson. "Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland." The World of the Short Story. A Twentieth Century Collection. Fadiman

McHugh, Vincent. "The Search." 1948

McLaverty, Michael. "The Wild Duck's Nest." 44 Irish Short Stories

Mosley, Walter. "Pet Fly." 2000

Munro, Alice. "Prue." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. "Bardon Bus." The Best American Short Stories of the Century Updike

Norris, Frank. "A Deal in Wheat." Anthology of American Literature

O'Connor, Frank. "The Drunkard." The World of the Short Story. A Twentieth Century Collection. Fadiman

Packer, Z. Z. "Every Tongue Shall Confess." 2003

Paley, Grace. "Conversation with My Father." Enormous Changes at the Last Minute. "Dreamer in a Dead Language." Later the Same Day

Park, Severna. "The Cure for Everything." The Year's Best Science Fiction 18th Annual Dozois 2000

Parker, Graham. "The Sheld-duck of the Basingstoke Canal." "Me and the Stones." Carp Fishing on Valium

Peery, Janet. "What the Thunder Said." 1993

Petesch, Natalie. "Main Street Morning." 1978

Pollack, Eileen. "The Bris." 2007

Porter, Katherine Anne. "He." The World of the Short Story. A Twentieth Century Collection. Fadiman

Prose, Francine. "Rubber Life." In the Stacks.

Raboteau, Emily Ishem. "Kavia Through Glass." 2003

Ross, Oakland. "So Far, She's Fine." Story Winter 1993

Roth, Philip. "Defender of the Faith." The Best American Short Stories of the Century Updike

Saki. (H. H. Munro.) "The Open Window." The Best of Saki. (H. H. Munroe.)

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-sto... British

Shepard, Lucius. "Only Partly Here." Science Fiction: The Best of 2003

Singer, Isaac Bashevis. "Joy." Collected Stories.

Stafford, Jean. "Shorn Lamb." 1954

Stellar, Kim. "Findings and Impressions." 2007

Taylor, Kressman. "The Pale Green Fishes." 1954

Thurber, James. "The Night the Bed Fell." Thurber Carnival

Turgenev, Ivan. "Mumu." First Love

Twain, Mark. "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg." Anthology of American Literature. (McMichael.) 200 Years of Great American Short Stories. Foley

West, Jessamyn. "The Battle of Finney's Ford." "Music on the Muskatatuk." The Friendly Persuasion

Weston, Christine. "The Man in Gray." 1954 "Four Annas." 1956

William, Joy. "Health." 1986 Best American Short Stories of the Eighties. Foley

Wideman, John Edgar. "All Stories Are True." All Stories Are True. "Lizabeth. The Caterpillar Story." Damballah

White, E. B. "The Second Tree From the Corner." The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Updike

Wilde, Oscar. "The Happy Prince." 44 Irish Short Stories

Yeats, William Butler. "Where There is Nothing, There is God." 44 Irish Short Stories

Welcome Monica......as Charlott says to Wilber, "Some List" :)

Monica wrote: "Here are some of my favorite short stories.


*Dates refer to Annual Best American Short Stories Series

Adams, Alice. "Complicities." 1996

Alexie, Sherman. "The Life and Times of Estelle Walks A..."

Monica wrote: "Here are some of my favorite short stories.


*Dates refer to Annual Best American Short Stories Series

Adams, Alice. "Complicities." 1996

Alexie, Sherman. "The Life and Times of Estelle Walks A..."

Great list, Monica!

I just this morning taught (for probably the 15th time) Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"; I think that's one of the best stories ever written. It really holds up on successive readings.

What a wonderful story Geoff! Packed full of language and symbols and meaning!

I must go read it again now. :)

Just looking at it....what's perhaps most amazing is that while still very relevant it was published almost 200 years ago. :)

Yes, every time I read it, I think/feel that it has to do with me.

Thanks, maybe. I plan to revise it and provide summaries at some point.

Kenny wrote: "Welcome Monica......as Charlott says to Wilber, "Some List" :)"

Jean wrote: "Monica wrote: "Here are some of my favorite short stories.


*Dates refer to Annual Best American Short Stories Series

Adams, Alice. "Complicities." 1996

Alexie, Sherman. "The Life and Times of ..."

Jean wrote: "Monica wrote: "Here are some of my favorite short stories.


*Dates refer to Annual Best American Short Stories Series

Adams, Alice. "Complicities." 1996

Alexie, Sherman. "The Life and Times of ..."

Kenny wrote: "Welcome Monica......as Charlott says to Wilber, "Some List" :)"

Monica wrote: "Here are some of my favorite short stories.


*Dates refer to Annual Best American Short Stories Series

Adams, Alice. "Complicities." 1996

Alexie, Sherman. "The Life and Times of Estelle Walks A..."

Paula wrote: "Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You...

What if a whistle could conjure up a ghost? Seriously, I mean it. A streaming high pitched note that calls up a malevolent spirit to enter your darkened bedroom ..."

A Devil of A Christmas Murder ...

Can you guess the author of this short story? "Markheim." This author is Scottish born, literary celeb who was greatly admired by A.C. Doyle, Hemingway, Jack London. His most famous novel is a "strange case." He died at the young age of 44.

This Christmas story will give you a chill and a shiver. Snuggle up with hot cider (splash of rum?) while reading this one.

Markheim is a classic short story at Tales of Terror. And included is link to the radio play adaptation ... very vintage. FREE READ

http://paulacappa.wordpress.com/2013/...