Classic Short Stories discussion

Why don't we read "A Good Man is Hard to Find (and other stories)" by
Flannery O'Connor?

How about "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver?

Both of those suggestions are great (as is anything by Carver and O'Connor, really).

I had a look through my short stories shelf on goodreads and there is just so much to choose from. A few that stand out for me:

The Lady with the Little Dog, by Anton Chekhov
The Garden Party, by Katherine Mansfield
A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner
Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway
A Perfect Day for Bananafish, by J.D. Salinger
The Swimmer, by John Cheever

Here are my suggestions ---

1) Bombay Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto



2) Across the Bridge: Stories by Mavis Gallant



3) Mr. Wrong by Elizabeth Jane Howard (fantastic writer!)



4) Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro



5) Ghost Town: Tales of Manhattan Then and Now by Patrick McGrath



6) Immortal: Love Stories With Bite by P.C. Cast



7) The Astronomer's Pig by Rosanne Dingli

Some of those look brilliant, and thanks so much for jumping on board so quickly.

My initial idea is to find short-stories that:
- are freely available (e.g. On Project Guttenburg),
- fit the "classic" genre.
- read one per fortnight and discuss it.
- A sort of miniature secondary bookclub that does not require a substantial amount of time.

I think from your suggestions we have enough to keep us busy, (but please keep offering suggestions).

When my sons were little, I read mostly modern short stories as there just didn't seem to be time for novels. I hope to get back to reading them and am sure this group will help with that.

How do you feel about Ray Bradbury? I have a large book with stories by him that I've never read. Doubt his are free yet though.

Also, I have been planning to read more by H. P. Lovecraft and to reread Edgar Allan Poe, both of whom wrote short stories. Theirs should be easily available.

To add to the gothic short story masters, the following are all worth a read:

E F Benson

M R James

Sheridan Le Fanu

Algernon Blackwood

Thanks. Over the next week I plan to divide all these suggestions into either books for the group bookshelf (feel free to add books straight to the bookshelf, as long as they are high quality short-story collections) and a master short-story list (with links to an online version if possible) from which we can draw our weekly (I think it might work to do this weekly, it doesn't seem to require a great deal of effort) read.

Weekly's fine with me, though maybe we need to define short story as opposed to a novella, for example.

In order to propose items for the Master list, Cass, I take it from other comments I've seen that ideally you'd like us to provide 1. the name of the story (rather than the collection), 2. The author and 3. A link to the story on Gutenberg?

Turgenev - First Love

Pip wrote: "Weekly's fine with me, though maybe we need to define short story as opposed to a novella, for example.

In order to propose items for the Master list, Cass, I take it from other comments I've seen..."

I agree, and yes please.

Short-story vs novella.
My loose definition is:
Short enough to read while drinking a cup of tea (15min - 45min).
I want this to not require a great deal of effort. We are all readers, I don't want this to be a burden on top of what we are already reading. It is more a chance to experience great authors in brevity.

Master list suggestions:
Yes, yes, and yes please.
It is a big task to investigate authors/collections to find out which stories fit the group, and which ones are the best etc. It is easier if the person suggesting it can just come out and say "these two or three are the best" and then I can put them all on the list.

Gutenburg links are great for the same reason... it saves effort. I am going to go and re-edit the master list so that every title links to the gutenburg story, but that takes time.

I am hoping in the future (still working on it) to have a semi-random method of choosing the books. It is important to me that everyone gets a fair and equal say in the choosing of the books... but it is also a book group that I created to discuss classic short-stories, and I think some limited form of moderation to ensure it stays on that path is sensible.

Wasn't sure where to suggest the next story so I'll place it here for now.

With Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" as our first story maybe the Henry James short story "Paste" would be a fitting follow up since he wrote it in direct response to Maupassant's "The Necklace"!

Unfortunately the story isn't found at the Gutenberg Project but there are webpage versions of the story here and here and a Library of America version here. It's about double the length of "The Necklace".

What I like about the LOA page is that you can read the story in pdf format in Google Docs or download the pdf (for keeps! forever and ever!) and print it out or whatever.

On top of that, LOA has TONS (well, 230 for now) of free short pieces of writing to read, both fiction and non-fiction. For our purposes I think it's a great resource to mine for stories. They're all available for reading online or download, and they add a new piece every week (Story of the Week). They're bits from their printed books of anthologies and such, so the formatting is a little cramped for my taste but since it's free... I won't say no!

For starters, though, I'll go through the available list and separate the fiction from the non-fiction.

Thank you for the links, and I think that "Paste" sounds like a great idea. I am still very unorganised with a proper suggestion format (I think... post in this thread with as much information as you can, is probably good enough).

Out of the 230 short pieces available from LoA, 124 of them are fiction. All U.S. writers, a lot of the usual suspects (like Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Allan Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack London, Kate Chopin, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, etc) but also a lot of less-read but still good authors and stories. Lots of genres too (horror, humorous, sci-fi, dramatic, adventure, etc).

I don't know if a post listing all the stories (with or without links) would be more burdensome than helpful right now, but at least we have a nice reserve to draw from in the future.

I thought I replied this morning, but the post went awry. LOA seems like a great resource.. and the "usual suspects" are a really great place to start I think.

I have not gotten a very organised list yet, but to be honest I think we can't go to wrong with any of the classics that have been suggested (especially when coupled with the LOA), so I think we will get long okay.

Martha wrote: "When my sons were little, I read mostly modern short stories as there just didn't seem to be time for novels. I hope to get back to reading them and am sure this group will help with that.

How do..."

H.P.Lovecraft is freely available, since there is no copyright. Pickman's Model is one of the creepiest stories I have read.

Thanks. I'll look for that one. Unfortunately my free version doesn't have a table of contents so I'm going to look for another.

Martha wrote: "Thanks. I'll look for that one. Unfortunately my free version doesn't have a table of contents so I'm going to look for another."

If you really like creepy horror, may I suggest the following:

Casting the Runes by M.R.James

How Love Came to Professor Guildea by Robert Hitchens

The Janissaries of Emillion by Basil Copper

I don't know whether the first two qualify; they are almost novellas.

Thanks. I will check them out. I did find a collection of Lovecraft on the LOA site that includes the story you suggested and a couple that were recommended by a friend.

I am going to put up a poll.

I have a suggestion: What if we follow the LoA weekly stories? They seem to fit in with the vision for this group. We can change in the future if it isn't working. It would make the group run very simply.

Thoughts?

Hi Cass

I had no idea LoA ran story of the week -- if you're clueless like me http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/ the link!

I feel bad that I've only been lurking and not participating. I fear that's going to continue a bit longer - very busy and want to enjoy reading and commenting not feel rushed.

LoA seems like an easy way to access stories.

Jen

I'm the same way, Jenny. I manage to keep up with the threads, but have been so tired that I feel brain dead most of the time. We're camping this weekend so I may get some rest.

Happy camping!

altho I personally loathe it, I did buy a camping chair the other day -- couldn't resist. It rocked :)

I'm too clueless to add a pic to this post, but the link's here. Looking forward to summer!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-GG...

Oh, I like that! I need one. :-)

We started out camping in the back of his truck over 40 yrs ago. We gradually upgraded through the years. Now we have a 37 ft. RV with a washer/dryer & all the items necessary for comfort (IMHO). LOL

Camping in style! that sounds perfect :) Enjoy!

Jenny wrote: "I feel bad that I've only been lurking and not participating. I fear that's ..."

No, don't feel bad. Part of my goal for this group is that it is not a taxing thing. Jump in, out, lurk, whatever. It only takes 2 or 3 people to have a decent discussion.. everyone else is just icing on the cake.

Cass, that's lovely and reassuring. Thanks :)

Cass wrote: "I am going to put up a poll.

I have a suggestion: What if we follow the LoA weekly stories? They seem to fit in with the vision for this group. We can change in the future if it isn't working. It ..."

Not every week is a short fiction piece, so if we don't mind adding non-fiction to the mix we could follow each new piece they put out, or just replace any non-fiction with a fiction story they've already put out.

Yes, I like that idea... replacing the non-fiction pieces. This would also allow us to ensure the stories are nicely balanced (not just American lit.).

Cass wrote: "Yes, I like that idea... replacing the non-fiction pieces. This would also allow us to ensure the stories are nicely balanced (not just American lit.)."

Yes! I was afraid of there being nothing but U.S. writers with LoA stories.

And while I knew Project Gutenberg was good for a list of works that are in the public domain in the U.S., it never occurred to me (until I started poking around) that other countries have their own PG sites---like PG Australia or PG Canada---that carry works that are public domain in their own countries (because copyright laws are pretty tricky this means that a book may be copyrighted in one place but not somewhere else).

The good thing is that the different countries tend to concentrate on literature from their own country, so that opens up a lot of international options. But we'll need people who know the authors to recommend what to read.

I agree. I hope everyone will stick with us while we figure out a good system. I think ultimately I would like to prioritise our own list (especially once it gets longer and stronger and well-balanced), while using the LoA list to throw in stories/authors that may not have occurred to any of us.

Once we gather a core group we should be able to do an informal poll - ie Here are 3 choices, which one? - on the weekend which will give us some ongoing feedback about what stories we are needing to read to provide balance (ie. stories have been too modern lately, lets dip into something more classic, or vice versa).

Pip wrote: "...maybe we need to define short story as opposed to a novella, for example."

Oog. A long story or a short novel. Could be a separate topic, rather technical. Could we say for the immediate purpose something which can be read in one sitting (or two, if your chair lacks a pillow).

I feel I should suggest at least one story. Here' s list of ten of Vladimir Nabokov's best ones. I suggest "Spring in Fialta" or "Ultima Thule".

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...

And then of course there is always Borges -- how about "Death and the Compass", or Funes the Memorious", ...

Charles wrote: "Pip wrote: "...maybe we need to define short story as opposed to a novella, for example."

Oog. A long story or a short novel. Could be a separate topic, rather technical. Could we say for the imme..."

:-)) (The chair / pillow thing)

I'm wondering if one a week is too much, and it might be better to return to the one every two weeks originally suggested. I've downloaded Paste but haven't had time to read it yet, and we're already onto something else.
I don't mind skipping the odd story here and there (as long as you don't all miss me ;-)) but I kind of liked the idea of a more slowly-slowly shorty-shorty reading group.
Just suggestions - hope they're of use. I'm convinced this is going to be a great GR group :-)

Men Without Women
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories

Pip wrote: "I'm wondering if one a week is too much, and it might be better to return to the one every two weeks originally suggested. I've downloaded Paste but haven't had time to read it yet, and we're alrea..."

Yes. Very curious to hear what others think - weekly or fortnightly. I tend to be in two minds (though erring toward fortnightly).

On one hand fortnighly means less stories (26 per year, rather then 52) which means that stories need to be chosen with more care. I thought the last story wasn't very good, I read it, made a comment and that was the entire of my effort... whereas when the story is good I will comment more. This is easy to do with a weekly story because the community regroups around the next story.

If it is fortnightly then a bad short-story (or two) could kill the group.

On the other hand... while the group is small there is a need for some level of participation, and that means the participating members feel some level of pressure to participate even when they don't want to... which is not what I want for this group (it should be relaxing, a breath of fresh air between heavier books, or perhaps a more serious dabble in-between Mills&Boon Romances). Regardless, with higher numbers of participants it would be less pressure on weekly reads.

Do you feel like you want/need/must/are required to read every story? I kind of am envisioning that people would jump in whenever it suits them, without feeling the need to read/participate in every story BUT I seriously appreciate every member who is making the effort to read every story while this group gets off the ground.

Anyone else have any input?

Has a story been selected yet? I am eager to get started. I propose we start with the classics that have stood the test of time. I think "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver is one of the best (if the not the best) short stories I have ever read. Anyone have an opinion?

Hi Nita, yes we have been picking a new book for discussion every week. Our 4th story will be picked and a discussion forum created some time today.

I have been picking them lately, only because I didn't want to set a system in stone until we got a feel for the dynamics of the group. This week I intend to make sure the book is one of the group member suggestions. I will go sort one out now. I will also take half-an-hour and get a better system sorted out.

I don't mind a story a week, it fits in with my goal to read more short stories and lets me write about what I read too (which I need to do since I haven't been able to write a review of anything I've read in far too long).

Is this group still active? Let's get the ball rolling and read a story! How about "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver? Anybody game? If no one else steps up, I would be willing to lead the discussion of this story. (However, I've never done this, so I would need some advice from the moderators as to how to proceed. :-) )

Happy New Year, everyone!