BS: Short stories anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Jan 17 - 05:27 PM

The Whippoorwill, by James Thurber. Creepy and suspenseful. Even creepier because it could actually happen.

"Take more 'n' a whippoorwill to cause a mess like that." Brrrrrrrr.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 02:08 AM

That was fun, Bert. I just now read all three of your stories. Do you have more?

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Bert
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 01:09 AM

Of course I can't resist plugging some of mine.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 10:04 PM

It was a dark stormy night and the rain came down in Torrance; everybody said they had never before seen such weather in California.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 09:13 PM

Recent acquisitions:

Boxing Stories by Robert E. Howard. Howard created Conan, the great sword and sorcery character. He was a prolific writer for American pulp magazines in the 1920's and 30's. Wrote westerns, sword and sorcery, sports fiction. Boxing stories were popular at the time and he wrote a lot of those. His prose has a drive that I've rarely seen matched. Died when he was only 30, too.

Star Western Stories. "A treasury of 22 classic western stories from the golden age of pulp fiction." Some names I recognize like Max Brand, Luke Short and others, but mostly unknown to me. Stories from the 20's, 30's, 40's. The best of the stories from a magazine called Star Western. Should be good.

The Western Stories of Elmore Leonard. I've read some of Leonard's crime novels (Get Shorty comes to mind), but before he began a career writing those, he had a career as a western pulp writer. These stories are from the 50's, when the pulps were dying out. Leonard switched to crime fiction. One of the stories in this book is "Three-ten to Yuma," which was made into a movie.

And the book I've just begun, A Treasury of American Horror Stories. "51 Spine-Chilling Tales from Every State in the Union plus Washington, D.C." Arranged alphabetically by state. Just finished Alabama ("An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," by Ambrose Bierce) and Alaska ("Lost Face," by Jack London). Incredible stories, and that's just the beginning. Looks like maybe half of these will be older public domain stories, and half will be newer (Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Stephen King and the like). Got a Matheson story coming up, "Being," set in Arizona. This is going to be a hell of a book.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 28 Feb 12 - 11:15 PM

I just picked up a bunch of London Mystery Magazines. Anyone ever read them? Lots of Brits here. I expect I'll enjoy them. Love the whodunnits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Mystery_Magazine

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 06:56 PM

Just finished a collection of 2011 Nebula Award sci fi stories (NEBULA AWARDS SHOWCASE 2011). Most of the stuff I read is old (cheap to free variety), and I don't get to sample much current fiction, so I was glad to stumble across this book. Has all the nominated short stories and the novelettes (longer stories), plus the winner in those categories. Also has the winning novella (short novel) and the winning Rhysling Award poems.

Times have sure changed. Most of these stories dwell on death and disease, pessimism. Someone said once that the golden age writers of sci fi (Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke) focused on the future, but writers now are focusing more on the present or past. The book I just finished seems to bear that out, but excellent stories nonetheless. Just so damn dark though.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 03:52 PM

The six-word novel contest winner:

"FOR SALE: Baby shoes. Never used."

I forget who wrote that -- Hemingway, I think -- but it always struck me as being as heart-breaking and honest as any six words could be.

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 05:50 PM

I see a lot of SF writers mentioned here. Nothing wrong with that, although it may say something about the average age of MC posters. ;-)

However, what I do find hard to believe is... not one mention of Rudyard Kipling? He wasn't much cop at writing a novel (Kim ws good; The Light That Failed wasn't), but short stories? A master of the art...

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 06:53 PM

A couple of weeks ago I read a story called "Old Hundredth," by Brian Aldiss. Sometimes a story kind of stuns me with its imagination. This story is amazing.

Distant future on earth, after the moon left its orbit and fell into a close orbit around the sun. The earth and Venus became twinned an circle each other. Mankind colonized Venus, where we began populating the planet with genetic experiments. The scientists especially liked tinkering with extinct prehistoric mammals, and the main character of the short story is the product of such an experiment--a megatherium, a ground sloth that was as big as an elephant. But they gave this breed opposable thumbs and larger brains, and the MC has been traveling the world studying musicolumns. They activate when a sentient being comes near and play death songs left by others. The MC is going home to die and thinking of what song she'll leave behind. Hasn't been home in 300 years, because the large herbivores have to keep on the move to feed themselves. And so on and so on. Amazing stuff. Some stories...you wonder how that kind of thinking comes together, and you're glad it did.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 06:39 AM

Has anyone mentioned Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge?

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 01:21 PM

There's a wonderful radio program called Selected Shorts that we hear every Saturday evening in this market. I don't like them all, but some are stunningly good. And I like being read to. :)

One of my all-time favorite short story writers is Roald Dahl who addressed adult and children audiences and who gave both more credit for understanding, irony, and intellect than a lot of other short story writers. My absolute favorite of his (so far) is "Parson's Pleasure."

John Steinbeck wrote some marvelous short stories in addition to his novels. There are two particular collections, The Long Valley and Pastures of Heaven.

Edith Wharton published several collections of short stories, and though I haven't read it in many years, her "Roman Fever" is a classic social illustration of it's day.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: GUEST,blogward
Date: 25 Oct 11 - 11:55 AM

Flannery O'Connor's short stories of the postwar South are superb.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 02:13 PM

When I was a kid, my mother, brother, and I lived in the upstairs of my maternal grandparents' house. I was thoroughly at home all through the house.

I was an enthusiastically bookish kid, always compulsively hungry for something--anything!--to read. At some time in elementary school I discovered, in my grandparents' bookcase downstairs, a set of I think twelve volumes of Great Short Stories. O.Henry of course, Gogol, Saki, and MANY more. I greedily gobbled all of them, and from time to time came back to re-read some of them.

A few years later, in I think Eighth Grade English class, we were "introduced" to short stories. I was already familiar with all the stories set out for us in the textbook, I suppose mostly from that set I just mentioned. Old stuff to me.

The assignment given by Miss Glaser (of whom more later) was for each of us to find and read two short stories that week, and on the following Monday to give the class a report on one of them, and also to name the title and author of another short story we had read.

"Okay," thought I, "I'll get into the short-story set, refresh myself on some of the stories I already know, and report on them!" The reports were due Monday, so (ever the procrastinator) on Sunday, the day before the report date, I went to the bookcase to do my re-familiarization. Lo and behold, I could not find the set of short-story volumes where I knew it had been! Where it went, I had and have no idea.

Okay, I remembered Gogol's "The Overcoat" quite well. In class on Monday, when it came my turn, I summarized the story, only to be accused by the teacher of not having read anything for the assignment, and of fabricating the story. "F" grade on the assignment! For the other part of the assignment I named Saki and his "The Schartz-Metterklume Method". Miss Glaser told me and the whole class than she had never heard of Saki or the name H.H. Munro, and therefore I must be lying about that, too! I don't know whether that counted as two "Fs" or merely a deeper hole for me to enjoy my "Overcoat" F grade in.

Talk about public embarrassment! Talk about resentment! To this day, something like sixty-eight years later, I still burn over that.

Now, as to that so-called teacher, Miss Glaser, by popular consensus among the students whom I knew, she was the most egregiously misinformed human being ever created! She would refer in class (with a straight face) to "The ancient Greek sport of throwing the hurdle." She warned us that pregnant women should never wear sunglasses, because wearing them would damage their babies' eyesight. And other ignorant gems.

Well, given her status as "the worlds' most etc.", I suppose I ought to cut her some slack at this late date, but it's hard, hard, hard!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 08:01 PM

"The Guest," by Albert Camus. Excellent story.

"A Fear of Dead Things," by Andrew Klavan. Read that last week. A Frankenstein-type story. Everything about it is good.

Found some audios of J.G. Ballard stories here. Can't get the Cloud Sculptors to load but the others do. Really nice.

Working my way though a book called "The Vampire Archives." A hundred or so vampire stories that trace the development of the genre. Something in the preface struck me as amusing. The man who wrote the intro says the first English vampire story was written by Lord Byron's doctor, a man named Polidori. The intro says that Polidor based his vampire on Byron because Byron had a way of sucking the life out of people.

From Wikipedia:

One night in June, after the company had read aloud from the Tales of the Dead, a collection of horror tales, Byron suggested that they each write a ghost story. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote "A Fragment of a Ghost Story" and wrote down five ghost stories recounted by Matthew Gregory ("Monk") Lewis, published posthumously as the "Journal at Geneva (including ghost stories) and on return to England, 1816", the journal entries beginning on August 18, 1816. Mary Shelley worked on a tale that would later evolve into Frankenstein. Byron wrote (and quickly abandoned) a fragment of a story, Fragment of a Novel, about the main character Augustus Darvell, which Polidori used later as the basis for his own tale, "The Vampyre", the first vampire story published in English.

The Vampyre - Project Gutenbert

I only read a few pages of Polidori's story so I can't recommend it, but there's a link if anyone's interested. Maybe some Byron scholar will get a kick out of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 03 Oct 11 - 07:20 PM

"Sonny's Blues," by James Baldwin. Just read it. Outstanding. Very profound observations on the human condition. Nice ending, with the main character describing his brother playing piano in a jazz quartet.

Found the story anthologized in a textbook called "Fictions," put out years ago by Harcourt Brace. Best anthology of "literary" stories I've come across. 1200 pages, solid softback textbook, 100 stories. The great writers and their great stories. Good bios on each author and thematic classroom discussions. Heck of a book. Highly recommended.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 27 Sep 11 - 06:33 PM

Read my first Raffles story last week. Got a bunch of old Ellery Queen & Alfred Hitchcock magazines, and one of them has a story called "Raffles on the Riviera" in it. Never knew about the character, but I enjoyed the story. Wikipedia has an entry about Raffles. Originally written by E.W. Hornung and then continued by Barry Perowne. "Raffles on the Riviera" is one of Perowne's.

While searching the web for info about Raffles I saw mention of the Father Brown mystery stories, by G.K. Chesterton. Never read any of them, either, but I plan to.

Project Gutenberg Raffles

Project Gutenberg Father Brown

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 11:49 AM

"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin.
Brilliant story from the golden age of sci fi.

According to Wikipedia:
"...first published in Astounding Magazine in 1954. In 1970, the Science Fiction Writers of America selected it as one of the best science fiction short stories published before 1965, and it was therefore included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964."

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 07:14 PM

The Catbird Seat is great, and so is The Lady on 142, or whatever train it was. But The Night The Ghost Got In and More Alarms At Night are my favorite Thurber shorts.

Saki! Come on, Clovis Sangrail? The medlars and the boar-pig?

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 06:43 PM

SF ~~ Asimov the best of them, IMO. Nightfall; the Robot stories. Philip K Dick's Imposter is brilliant also: one of best last lines of any story...

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: ClaireBear
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 04:28 PM

So many stories. Here are a few (mostly SF) favorites of mine that may not have been discovered by some:

"Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell (this marvelous story won a Hugo for best SF short story of 1955)

"The Ghost Ship" by Richard Middleton (dating from 1912, this is my favorite story for reading aloud and it's available free online -- here, for example)

"They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson (another SF story -- a short short this time -- also available free online here)

"Noise" by Jack Vance (a wonderfully atmospheric, loooong SF story from 1951 that hasa been anthologized several times)

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 01:54 PM

If you like short stories, you might be interested in this year's (British) National Short Story Awards.
You can download the five finalist short stories for listening later (all about 30 min long).

They are available for download (for four weeks from their broadcast dates, which were last week)
until (probably 3 pm British time) 10th October (2011).

Enjoy!

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Bert
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 08:15 AM

The Loaded Dog by Henry Lawson
Down to the Sea by Shalimar

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 05:27 AM

Re Thurber ~~ The Catbird Seat v good, indeed; but not IMO any better than The Greatest Man In The World, or The Unicorn In The Garden (& some of the other Fables For Our Time), or {pity so well-known as an archetypical antonomasia & Danny Kayes's witty but not quite on-the-button film} The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, or the terrifying The Kerb In The Sky; & I'll probably think of a few more candidates.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 11:33 PM

Damon Runyon was definitely a great short story writer. They did a radio program based on his stories in 1949. The Damon Runyon Theatre. Captures Runyon's style of prose very well.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 11:06 PM

There's a v short story mentioned above by Fredric Brown. He is also responsible for the one about the computer, asked if there was a God, replying 'There is now.'

Still no agreement to my post above about Damon Runyon, imo one of the great kings of the genre, along with Saki, Thurber et al. Anyone else rate him as I do?

~M~

BTW, talking of Thurber, ~ pedantry alert! ~ the companion story to 'The Night The Ghost Got In' is called simply 'The Night The Bed Fell' ~~ NOT, as frequently misquoted [e.g. above] 'The Night The Bed Fell On Father'.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 19 Sep 11 - 07:46 PM

Really nice list. Those that I've read certainly deserve their wide distribution. A lot of anthologists now pride themselves on collecting "other masterpieces" by well-known writers, but it would be hard to improve on the list above. Someone should do a "most anthologized" collection and include those. It would be in perpetual reprint. Probably cost a fortune to acquire all the rights.

Read a story called "Arena" yesterday, by Frederic Brown. He wrote a lot a pulp sci-fi and detective fiction back in the 40's and 50's. Someone on Amazon said, "'Arena' served as the inspiration for the Star Trek episode of the same name, but the savior of humanity confronts a much more formidable task than Captain Kirk did." It's a really good story.

Sonofagun. Just looked for "Arena" at gutenberg.org and saw that Michael Hart, the founder of gutenberg.org recently died. He created eBooks. Michael S. Hart obituary.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Aug 11 - 11:39 AM

I once did some research to determine what were the most frequently anthologized short stories. This list can't be regarded as definitive, because, of course, I couldn't examine every anthology that's ever been published, but I did examine a lot of them. And my list is probably slanted toward American short stories, because that's where I did my research. And it may be a bit out of date, since I did the research maybe 20 years ago. Anyway, here's what I came up with:

All of these stories appear in at least 5 anthologies:

Sherwood Anderson, "The Egg"
James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues"
Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
Willa Cather, "Paul's Case"
Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness" [some would classify this as a novel, but it does appear in anthologies]
Stephen Crane, "The Blue Hotel"
Stephen Crane, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky"
Stephen Crane, "The Open Boat"
Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal" [which I think is actually an excerpt from his novel, "Invisible Man", but it stands on its own]
Ralph Ellison, "King of the Bingo Game" [ditto?]
William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily"
William Faulkner, "Barn Burning"
William Faulkner, "That Evening Sun"
F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Babylon Revisited"
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "My Kinsman, Major Molineux"
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil"
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"
Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants"
Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery"
Henry James, "The Beast in the Jungle"
Henry James, "The Real Thing"
Sarah Orne Jewett, "A White Heron"
James Joyce, "A Little Cloud"
James Joyce, "Araby"
James Joyce, "The Dead"
Franz Kafka, "A Hunger Artist"
D. H. Lawrence, "The Horse-Dealer's Daughter"
D. H. Lawrence, "The Rocking-Horse Winner"
Jack London, "To Build a Fire"
Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener"
Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
Flannery O'Connor, "Everything that Rises Must Converge"
Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
Grace Paley, "A Conversation with My Father"
Edgar Allen Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado"
Edgar Allen Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher"
Katherine Anne Porter, "Flowering Judas"
Katherine Anne Porter, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
John Steinbeck, "The Chrysanthemums"
James Thurber, "The Catbird Seat"
Leo Tolstoy, "The Death of Ivan Ilych"
Mark Twain, "The Notorious* Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" [* Some versions have "Celebrated"]
John Updike, "A & P"
Eudora Welty, "Why I Live at the P. O."
Richard Wright, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man"

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 10:06 PM

Just read "Three O'Clock," by Cornell Woolrich. Suspense story. One of the best I've ever come across. A lot of Woolrich's stories were adapted for radio dramas in the 40's. And Rear Window, Hitchcock's movie, was taken from a Woolrich story.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 02 Aug 11 - 07:31 PM

J.G. Ballard. I read an entertaining story by him a few days ago. Called The Index.

The story consists of an "Editor's Note" explaining that the following index is all that's left of the autobiography of one HRH. Says he was a famous man, hobnobbed, etc. Then comes the index, a list of names with notes next to them. HRH advised lots and of famous people. Presidents, prime ministers, actors, astronauts. Made Gandhi lose his temper. Introduced Hemingway to James Joyce. It's hinted at early on that HRH loved the ladies, but there are no notes next to the names of people like Barbra Stanwyck, Greta Garbo and so on. A really amusing story.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Will Fly
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 03:58 AM

Some other writers worth reading (in translation unless you have the gift of languages):

Guy de Maupassant
Alexander Pushkin

And don't forget M.R. James for ghost stories...
... and the whimsical pieces and pastiches by S.J. Perelman.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: LadyJean
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 12:45 AM

If you want a good laugh you might like:
The Open Window by Saki
Tobermory also by Saki
Gabriel Earnest likewise by Saki

or;
The Story of Webster by P.G Wodehouse
Mulliner's Buck U Uppo by P.G. Wodehouse
Just about anything by Wodehouse. I don't play golf. I don't know anything about golf. But his golf stories make me laugh.

The Havoc of Havelock by Gerald Durrell

The Night the Bed Fell on Father
The Night the Ghost Got In, both by James Thurber.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Zhenya
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 12:53 AM

Island - The Collected Stories of Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod.

Sixteen stories, and all of them good.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 08:22 PM

A Conflagration Artist, by Bradley Denton. Excellent story. It's from the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Eighth Annual Collection, edited by Datlow and Windling. Haven't come across a bad story in it yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Ed T
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 06:11 PM

On Being Found Out

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 09:24 PM

I'm a Fool, by Sherwood Anderson. Good story. He's best known for a short story collection called Winesburg, Ohio.

Also, I just read a synopsis of a play written in 1902 by James M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame). The play's called The Admirable Crichton. Sounds hilarious. About an aristocratic British family that's marooned on an island after a shipwreck. Their butler, Crichton, is the most capable of the party and rises to become Lord of the island. I haven't read a play in years but that one's next on my list. Looks like it's on Gutenberg.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: clueless don
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 09:50 AM

Speaking of short stories - For years, I have wondered about a story that I read in my high school American Literature textbook, back in my junior year (1965-66 school year.) Well, yesterday I finally described everything I could remember about the story to the BookSleuth forum at ABEbooks (http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom), and now I have it - "Of Missing Persons" by Jack Finney. I recommend it!

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 22 Jul 11 - 12:28 AM

kendall:"Shortest poem in history titled "Fleas"

Adam had 'em."

Peeved Eve

Wink,
GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 02:22 PM

AHA! I just started to read this thread again and the name came to me in an instant... Gregory Clark!

Wiki... "Gregory (Greg) Clark, OC, OBE, MC (25 September 1892 – 3 February 1977) was a Canadian war veteran, journalist, and humorist. Both before and after World War I, Clark worked for the Toronto Star. After the war, he soon became a leading correspondent and reporter. At the Toronto Star, Clark befriended and mentored a young Ernest Hemingway, who said that Clark was the best writer on the paper. In later life Hemingway called Clark one of the finest modern short story writers in the English language."

There ya go eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 08:38 AM

I've just about reached breaking point, he snapped.

Adrian Henri

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 08:36 AM

It was a dark stormy night and the rain came down in torrents, so we stayed in and watched the telly.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 06:46 AM

Shortest poem in history titled "Fleas"

Adam had 'em.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 21 Jul 11 - 03:57 AM

once upon a time came THE END.

GfS

Short enough?

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 20 Jul 11 - 10:03 PM

The Penance by Saki. An excellent revenge story.

A few days ago I read Red Wind, by Raymond Chandler. Novella length. Amazing. 1938. A Phillip Marlowe story.

The dark guy took a week to fall down. He stumbled, caught himself, waved one arm, stumbled again. His hat fell off, and then he hit the floor with his face. After he hit it he might have been poured concrete for all the fuss he made.

The drunk slid down off the stool and scooped his dimes into a pocket and slid towards the door. He turned sideways, holding the gun across his body. I didn't have a gun. I hadn't thought I needed one to buy a glass of beer....

Read a really funny story called Gertrude the Governor by Stephen Leacock. It has one of the funniest paragraphs I've ever come across.

The two were destined to meet. Nearer and nearer they came. And then still nearer. Then for one brief moment they met. As they passed, Gertrude raised her head and directed towards the young nobleman two eyes so eye-like in their expression as to be absolutely circular, while Lord Ronald directed towards the occupant of the dogcart a gaze so gaze-like that nothing but a gazelle, or a gas-pipe, could have emulated its intensity.

Read a story called B. Traven is Alive and Well in Cuernavaca, by Rudolfo Anaya. Excllent. First-rate writing. I think it would be classified as Magical Realism.

Read one by Elizabeth George, mystery writer. A man's convinced his wife is cheating on him with his brother. He arranges an alibi and sneaks home to kill her (strangle her with a sash at the front door, to make it look like an outsider did it), and when she answers he violently kills her. Does a quick, efficient job. Then the light clicks on and people yell Surprise! His wife and brother were simply arranging a party for him. The partygoers (among them the mayor and the chief of police) are rather surprised themselves, seeing him at the door on top of his dead wife.

And these are some of the stories I've read, lately. Just keeping a list of the good ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Songwronger
Date: 13 Jul 11 - 07:16 PM

I read some vengeance stories once, and two really stuck in my memory.

A Vendetta by Guy de Maupassant.

Hop-Frog by E. A. Poe.

A Vendetta is only about 1700 words. Well worth the effort to read. Hop-Frog has a very memorable ending.

There was a third one, I think by Saki, that was in the public domain. It concerned a man who killed a cat and how some children made him atone. Can't recall the name of the story.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 09:43 AM

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door." —Fredric Brown

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 09:37 AM

A man died and found himself in the most beautiful place he could imagine. Nothing but beauty, peace and quiet. While he was drinking it all in, suddenly an entity appeared and told the man that it was his guardian angel, and that he could have anything he wanted, in any amount for as long as he wanted it.
The man pigged out on food, booze, gambling and sex.
That went on for 6 months and the man made a proper fool of himself. But, eventually, he came to his senses and realized that his existence was worthless. Calling upon his guardian he said, "This is all very nice, and I have enjoyed it all very much, but I need something to do that has some value. Give me a job."
His Guardian said, "That is the one thing you can never have."
In despair the man howled"What? you mean I must spend eternity with nothing worthwhile to do"?
Guardian says "I'm afraid so."
Man said, "I may as well be in Hell."
Guardian said, "Where do you think you are."?

This is one of my favorite short stories.Without goals and challenge we are worthless.

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 08:26 AM

Once upon a time, Jack the sailior returnd after roaming the seven seas for seven years, he met his old truelove Doreen and they settled down in a cottage in Filey and lived happily ever after.

copywrite retained

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: josepp
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:06 PM

Anyone read "The Cocoon" by John B.L. Goodwin?

Subject: RE: BS: Short stories anyone?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 03:45 PM

Grand thread..I love short stories. So, Can anyone tell me who wrote the wonderful story "The Ballroom". I would love to re read it but cannot recall who wrote it.