62 thoughts on “1000 Greatest Short Stories of All Time”

  6. “Meneseteung,” by Alice Munro
    “In the Gloaming,” by Alice Elliott Dark
    “My Parents’ Bedroom,” by Uwem Akpan
    “Intervention,” by Jill McCorkle

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  14. La Grosse Fifi – Jean Rhys
    The Debutante – Leonora Carrington
    The Poet And The Novelist As Roommates – Sheila Heti
    In the Cemetery where Al Jolson is Buried – Amy Hempel
    The Letter – Lydia Davis

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  17. Why I live over the P.O. Eudora Welty
    The Chaser John Collier
    The Hypnoglyph John Anthony (pen name for John Ciardi)

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  18. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
    The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekov
    Tardy Awakening by Steen Steensen Blicher
    Dead as They Come by Ian McEwan

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  20. Let’s Go Home…unfortunately I can’t remember the author’s name. I read it a long time in ago and loved it. I’ll be grateful to anyone who could tell me the author’s name. The story is about a little boy who’s lost his mother and taken in by an uncle. On one wonderful cloudy day, he feels so elated that he rushes to his old home only to remember that his mother is no more.

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  23. Greatest idea. Short Stories have become less popular since I was a kid. How about Saki’s The Open Window. BTW, I love Raymond Chandler but “What we talk about when we talk about love” should list author as Raymond Carver.Another good one – Guy de Maupassant’s Ball of Fat.

    Leiningen Versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson
    Haircut by Ring Lardner

    Let’s keep this active. Tell all your reader friends to contribute.

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  24. How about Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Masque of the Red Death?’ Also, his ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ should definitely make the list.

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  25. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
    The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by William Saroyan
    The Wall by Jean-Paul Sartre

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  27. The Call of Cthulhu, by H.P. Lovecraft
    I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, by Harlan Ellison
    The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
    The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benét
    Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad by M.R. James
    Emergency by Denis Johnson
    Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

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  28. Some more:

    Nightfall and The Last Question, both by Asimov
    The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith
    Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven
    The Gernsback Continuum by William Gibson
    Age of Lead by Margaret Atwood
    The Overcoat/The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol

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  29. Barn Burning by Faulkner
    Soldier’s Home by Hemingway
    The Lady with the Little Dog by Chekhov
    Babylon Revisited by Scott Fitzgerald

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  30. Dubliners by James Joyce is a short story collection, not a short story. 🙂
    And surely some stories by Edna O’Brien, Yiyun Li, Colin Barrett and other winners of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award shoud be added to the list!

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  31. The Infallible Gadahl by Frederick Irving Anderson
    Paul’s Case by Willa Cather
    No Man’s Meat by Morley Callaghan
    Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Dvis
    The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
    The Last Leaf by O. Henry
    Haircut by Ring Lardner
    Big Blonde by Dorothy Parker
    Chickamauga by Ambrose Bierce
    The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
    Désirée’s’s Baby by Kate Chopin
    La Belle Zoraide by Kate Chopin
    Barn Burning by William Faulkner
    The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
    The Displaced Person by Flannery O’Conner
    The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe
    Why I Live at the PO by Eudora Welty
    Chickamauga by Thomas Wolfe
    The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright
    The Blue Hotel by Stephen Crane
    Under the Lion’s Paw by Hamlin Garland
    The Man Who Knew Coolidge by Sinclair Lewis
    A Deal in Wheat by Frank Norris
    The Painted Door by Sinclair Ross
    The Scarecrow by Varis Fisher
    The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte
    The Diamond as Big as the Ritz by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    The League of Old Men by Jack London
    The Red One by Jack London
    An Odyssey of the North by Jack London
    Lost Face by Jack London
    Red Wind by Raymond Chandler
    The Mexican by Jack London
    Flowering Juda by Catherine Anne Porter
    The Jilting of Granny Weatherall by Catherine Anne Porter
    The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Dashiell Hammett
    A Man Called Spade by Dashiell Hammett
    The Apostate by Jack London
    The Third Circle by Frank Norris
    The Leader of the People by John Steinbeck
    The Snake by John Steinbeck
    A Passage to Benares by T. S. Stribling
    What Language Do Bears Speak? by Roch Carrier
    The Legacy by Marvis Gallant
    My Heart Is Broken by Marvis Gallant
    The Torrent by Anne Hébert
    The Heritage by Ringuet
    Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Rappacini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
    The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway
    Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
    Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
    The Cask of Amantillado by Edgar Allan Poe
    Hop-Frog by Edgar Allan Poe
    The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
    The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe
    For Esmé–with Love and Squalor by J. D. Salinger
    Pretty Mouth and Green my Eyes by J. D. Salinger
    The Light of the World by Ernest Hemingway
    A Clean Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway

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  32. The Killers by Ernest Hemingway
    The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
    Rain by W. Somerset Maugham
    Vessel of Wrath by W. Somerset Maugham
    Red by W. Somerset Maugham
    The Pool by W. Somerset Maugham
    The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
    The Money’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs
    Markhiem by Robert Lewis Stevenson
    The Open Window by Saki
    Death in the Woods by Sherwood Anderson
    The Clicking of Cuthbert by P. G. Wodehouse
    The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet
    Wasted Beauty by Guy de Maupassant
    The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant
    Ball of Fat by Guy de Maupassant
    The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
    Passion in the Dessert by Honare Balzac
    The Bet by Anton Chekov

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  33. Please please! Somebody help me! I cant remember the name of the short story where the old womans gnome travels and sends postcards, get sick, and then the lady is murdered at the end when the gnome comes home? Please someone must know it!!

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  35. Josephine the Singer (also known as The Mouse Folk) by Franz Kafka
    The Judgement by Franz Kafka
    Light is Like Water by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway
    The Nightwatchman’s Occurrence Book by VS Naipaul
    Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (variously referred to as a short story or novella)
    Esiotrot by Roald Dahl
    The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico

    Question 1: how to decide which short stories are masquerading as novellas?
    Question 2: many anthologies make use of excerpts from much longer works. Some of these can compete with the best short stories. (I’m thinking, for instance, of Bob Geldorf’s piece taken from Is That It? that appears in the Picador collection Worst Journeys. Should these be considered?

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  36. I Do Not Take Messages from Dead People by Pauline Melville
    My Girl and the City by Samuel Selvon
    The Cricket Match by Samuel Selvon

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  37. As a long-time high-school English teacher, I’d be disappointed if you didn’t include these titles in a top-1000 list. Some of these titles were Hugo award-winners or nominated for best short story:

    “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” 1974 Hugo award-winner by Ursela le Guin
    “The Necklace” Guy de Maupassant
    “The Lady or the Tiger?” Frank Stockton
    “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson
    “Flowers for Algernon” 1960 Hugo award-winner by Daniel Keyes
    “There Will Come Soft Rains” Ray Bradbury

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  38. Parsons pleasure by Roald Dahl
    I can’t remember the name of one of my favorites, about a guy who goes to the shoemaker, two brothers that run an old time shop that slowly goes out of business. I’d be much abliged if someone can tell what it’s called.

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  39. Alibi Ike by Ring Lardner. The funniest thing you’ll ever read, a sports story and a love story all in one.
    You could look it up by James Thurber

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  45. Short stories
    ••••••••••••••

    Alphabetically arranged list of Story writers
    ■■■■■AAAAA■■■■■
    Chinua Achebe – Dead man’s path, Marriage is a private affair,
    Samuel Hopkins Adams Such as walk in darkness B
    George Ade To make a hoosier holiday B
    C.N. Adichie – The thing around your neck.
    Joan Aiken Lob’s girl
    Alcott – Scarlet stockings
    T.B. Aldrich Marjorie Daw B
    Joseph A. Altsheler After the battle B
    Ambrose An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
    Frederick Irving Anderson – Infallible Gadahi (The),
    Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941)
    Death in the woods, I want to know why, Little match girl (The), Ohio, Other woman (The),
    Leonid Andreiev Valia B
    T.S. Arthur – Angel in disguise (An),
    Issac Asimov The fun they had, I-robot,
    Margaret Atwood – Rape fantasies,
    ■■■■■BBBBB■■■■■
    J.G Ballard Billennium
    H.D. Balzac , (France) – A passion in the desert, The unknown masterpiece B
    Toxi Cade Bambara Raymond’s run
    Julian Barnes – Pulse,
    Alexander Baron – The man who knew too much**,
    J.M. Barrie The Courting of T’nowhead’s bell B
    John Barth (1930-Lost in the funhouse
    Donald Barthelme (1933- The school T
    H.E. Bates The ox
    Rudolf Baumbach The fountain of youth B***
    Stephen Vincent Benet – Devil’s Daniel Webster (The),
    Ambrose Bierce (Am-1842-1914) – Beyond the wall, Boarded window, Chickamagua, The damned thing B, Horseman in the sky (A),Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Present at a hanging, What occurred at Franklin,
    Bjornstjerme Bjornson Railroad and churchyard B**
    Ami Bloom – The story, Silver water,
    Ruskin Bond – The thief, The tiger in the tunnel,
    Jorge Luis Borges – Borges and I B*, The Circular ruins , The South,
    Paul Bowles In the red room
    Ray Bradbury All summer in a day, A Lady or Tiger?* Sound of thunder, There will come soft rains,The Veldt*m
    Pearl S. Buck – The refugee
    ■■■■■CCCCC■■■■■
    Morley Callaghan – No man’s meat,
    Roch Carrier – What language do bears speak?,
    Raymond Carver Cathedral, Why don’t you dance, Will you please be quiet,
    Willa Cather – On the Gull’s road, Paul’s case,
    Robert Cavanaugh Miss Awful
    Raymond Chandler – Red wind,
    John Cheever Goodbye my brother, Swimmer (The),
    Anton Chekhov (Russia-1860-1904) Aborigines, Agafya, The Album, At home, Bad weather, The beauties, Bet (The), The black monk, A Chameleon, Champagne, ●The Darling●, An enigmatic nature, Day in the country (A), A dead body, The death of a Government clerk, Dreams, Excellent people, The fish, A gentleman friend, A happy man, Happiness, The head gardener’s story, Home, The Huntsman, Hush !, In an hotel, In exile, Ladies, Lady with the dog (The), Looking Glass (The), Lottery ticket (The) Love, , Minds in Ferment, Misery, A Mystery, Neighbours, Peasant wives, The post, School mistress (The), A slander The Slanderer B, Strong impressions, The student, The Trousseau, ●Ward no. 6●, The witch, A work of art, A work of art B** ,Vanka,
    G.K. Chesterton – The queer feetB*3
    Kate Chopin – Desire’s baby, La belle Zoralde, Night came slowly (The), Regret, Story of an hour (The),
    Agatha Christie – A pot of tea,
    Sandra Cisneross – Eleven, Geraldo no name,
    Stuart Cloete – Soldier’s peaches (The),
    Judith Ortiz Cofer American history
    John Collier – Chaser (The) T
    E.E.J. Coppee The lost child B
    Richard Connell – Most dangerous game (The),
    Joseph Conrad – Lagoon (The) , Secret sharer (The),
    Robert Coover (1932- The magic poker
    A.E. Coppard (
    Robert Cormier The moustache
    Julio Cortázar – Continuity of the parks T, Night face up (The),
    ● Stephen Crane (Am-1871-1900)
    Blue hotel (The), Dark brown dog (A), An Experiment in misery Tb, Maggie Tm, The Open boat Tm , Pair of silk stockings (A),
    Michael Cunningham – White angel,
    James Oliver Curwood His first penitent B
    ■■■■■DDDDD■■■■■
    Roald Dahl – Beware of the dog, Lamb to the slaughter, The Landlady, Man from the south, The umbrella man,
    Gabriel D’Annunzio The end of Candia B
    Richard Harding Davis Balacchi Brothers B, The consul, Life in the iron mills,
    Fielding Dawson – The vertical field,
    Margaret Deland Many waters B
    Anita Desai Games at twilight
    Junot Diaz – How to date a brown girl,
    Charles Dickens – The Baron of Grogzwig, The poor relation’s story, Signal man (The)
    Dostoievski The thief B
    Arthur Conan Doyle – B24, My friend the murderer B, Red headed league (The), A scandal in Bohemia B
    Theodore Dreisser The lost Phoebe B
    Alexander Dumas A bal Masque B, Hanging at La Piroche B
    F.P. Dunne Mr. Dooley on the pursuit of riches B
    H.V. Dyke – The first Christmas tree,
    ■■■■■EEEEE■■■■■
    Jennifer Egan – Emerald city,
    Nataly Von Eschstruth The Gray nun B
    ■■■■■FFFFF■■■■■
    William Faulkner (1897-1962) – Barn burning, The Bear, Rose for Emily, That eve-sun,
    Edna Ferber They brought their women B
    Varis Fisher – The Scarecrow,
    F.S. Fitzgerald – Babylon revisited, The Curious case of Benjamin Button , A Diamond as big as a ritz,
    Ambrose Flac – The stranger that came to town,
    Antonio Fogazzaro The silver crucifix B
    JW.De Forest The Brigade commandar B
    E.M. Forster The eternal moment B, The Other side of the Hedge,
    Anatole France Putois B
    M.E.W. Freeman – The cat,
    ■■■■■GGGGG■■■■■
    Emile Gaboriau The accursed house B
    Neil Gaiman – How to talk to girls at parties,
    Marsis Gallant – My heart is broken,
    Hamlin Garland (1860-1940) – Under the lion’s paw,
    Theophile Gautier The Mummy’s foot B
    Tim Gautreaux – Died and gone to Vegas,
    William Gay – The paper hanger,
    C.P. Gilman – The yellow wallpaper,
    Susan Glaspell – A jury of her peers,
    Nokolai Vsilievitch Gogol – The Clock, The Nose, The cloak (The overcoat) B
    Maxim Gorky Boless/Her lover B*5
    Patricia Grace Journey
    Graham Green – The end of party, The case for the defence,
    ■■■■■HHHHH■■■■■
    Edward Everett Hale The man without a country B
    Dashiell Hammett – The girl with the silver eyes,
    Henry Harland Rosemary for remembrance B
    Joel Chandler Harris Brother Rabbit’s cradle B
    Bret Harte (Am-1836-1902) – A Lonely ride, The Luck of the roaring camp B, The Outcasts of Poker flat B, Tennessee’s partner,
    L.P. Hartley A Summons and The Apples
    Nathaniel Hawthorne (1805-1864) The ambitious guest, Birthmark**, David Swan, Dr. Heidegger’s experiment B, Ethan Brand, The great stone face B ,The green carbuncle,How Santa Claus came, Major Molineun, Minister’s black veil, My kinsman, Ropaccini’s daughter, The wedding knell, Young Goodman Brown**,
    A.A. Hayes The Denver Express B
    Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961) – A clean well lighted place, A day’s wait, The Killers, Light of the world, The shortest happy life of Francis Macomber, The snows of Kilimanjaro, Soldier’s home,
    Liliana Heker The stolen party
    Anne Herbert – The Torrent,
    Paul Johan Ludvig Heyse Young girl of Teipei B**
    Patricia Highsmith Ming’s Biggest Prey
    Langston Huges Thank you m’am
    Victor Hugo – A Flight with a canon
    Evan Hunter – The last spin
    James Hurst The scarlet ibis
    ■■■■■IIIII■■■■■
    Washington Irving (1783-1859) – The Legend of sleepy hollow, Rip Van Winkle*
    Boaz Izraeli The monkey,
    ■■■■■JJJJJ■■■■■
    Shirley Jackson Charles, The Lottery
    W.W. Jacobs The monkey’s paw
    Henry James (1843-1916) – The real thing
    Jules Gabriel Janin The Vandean marriage B
    Jerome K Jerome – A fishy story*,
    Ha Jin The Russian Prisoner
    Denis Johnson Emergency
    Thom Jones I want to live, The Pugilist at rest
    James Joyce (1882-1941)
    Araby, The Dead clay, Dubliners, A little cloud, The Sisters,
    ■■■■■KKKKK■■■■■
    Franz Kafka – Hunger artist (A), In the penal colony,
    Myra Kelly A Christmas present for a lady B,
    Daniel Keyes – Flowers for Algernon
    Stephen King – The body, Harvey’s dream.
    Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) Rikki Tikki Tavi, The elephant’s child, How the leopard got its spots, The man who would be king B
    Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Stront
    Lerzv Koainski Steps,
    ■■■■■■LLLL■■■■■■■■
    Selma Lagerlof The Outlaws B, The Rattrap B
    Jhumpa Lahiri – Interpretation of maladies,
    Ring Lardner The golden honeymoon, Haircut B
    D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) Odour of Chrysanthemums, The Rocking Horse winner*, Second best**,The shades of spring*, St. Mawr, The white stocking*,
    Stephen Leacock – The conjurer’s revenge,
    Jonathan Lethem The happy man,
    Doris Lessing Through the tunnel
    Sinclair Lewis Man who knew Coolidge (The),
    Jack London Apostle, The Legend of old man, Lost face, The Mexican, The Odyssey of the North, A piece of streak, The red one, To build a fire,
    John Luther Long Purple eyes B
    Malcolm Lorrie Under the volcano,
    H.P. Lovecraft Call of Cthullhu (The),
    ■■■■■MMMM■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
    Bernard Malamaud The prison
    Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) The fly, The garden party, The stranger,
    Panteg Marshall To da-dah, in memorium
    Gabriel Garcia Marques –
    Eyes of a blue dog, The handsomest drowned man in the world Tm , One of these days, The very old man with enormous wings,
    W. Somerset Maugham The Colonel’s lady*, The Fall of Edward Barnard*, Gigolo and Gigolette*, Jane**, The lotus eater**, Luncheon, Rain*, Red, The vessel of wrath,
    Guy de Maupassant (France-1850-93) – Affair of state (An), Ball of fat, Bellflower, The bit of string B**, ●Boule de Suif●, Christening (The), Coco, Confessing, Coward (A), Dead woman’s secret (A), Denis, Devil (The), Donkey (The), Dowry (The), Drunkard (The), False gems (The), Family (A), Farewell, Father (The), Friend Patience, Hairpin (The), Hand (The), Humble drama (A), Humiliation, In the wood, In discretion, Inn (The), Jewels (The), Julie Romain, Kiss (The), Madame Parisse, Madmoiselle Fifi, Madmoiselle Pearl, Marquis de Fumerol (The), Miss Harriet, Misti-Recollections of bachelor, Moonlight, The necklace B* Old Mongilet, Piece of string (The), Pig of Morin (The), Theodule Sabot’s confession, Timbuctoo, Toine, Two little soldiers, Unknown (The), Useless beauty, Vagabond (The), Vendetta (The), Waiter, a Bock!, Wasted beauty, Wreck (The), Yvelle,
    Carson McCullers Ballad of sad cafe (The), Jon McGregor This isn’t the sort of things that happens to someone like you,
    Herman Melville – Bartleby, Benito Cereno, The fiddler, The lighting-rod man, The paradise of bachelors, The Scrivener,
    Prosper Merimee (France) – Mateo Falcone, How the redoubt was taken B
    David Miller The glimpses of Truth,
    Rohiton Mistry Of white hairs and cricket
    William De Mille Ruthless
    Lorrie Moore Dance in America,
    Hector Hugo Munro (Saki) –
    Boys and girls, The Dusk*, Gabriel EarnestTo, Interlopers, Love of a good woman Meneseteung, The mouse, Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger, The open window, Runaway, Sredni Vashtar, The story teller*5,
    Harukai Murakami The second bakery attack
    W.H.H. Murray A ride with a mad horse in a freight car B
    Alfred Louis Charles De Musset The Beauty spot B
    ■■■■■■■NNNN■■■■■■■
    R.K. Narayan A horse and two goats, An astrologer’s day B
    Thomas Nelson The burial of the guns
    W. Doglas Newton The charge B
    Max Nordau Deliverance B
    Frank Norris Deal in wheat (A), Third circle (The),
    Vladimir Novokov – Signs and symbols
    ■■■■■OOOOO■■■■■
    Carol Oates (1938- Where are you going, Where have you been,
    Fitz-James O’Brien The diamond lens B, Things they carried (The),
    Flannery O’Connor – Displaced person (The), A good man is hard to find, The lame shall enter first, The man of the house,
    O’Flaherty The sniper*5,
    O’Henry(Am-1862-1910) Black jacket burgainer (A), Cactus (the), Coming out of the Maggie (The), Gift of the Magi*3, Hearts and hands, Jimmy Valentine*, The last leaf, The Princess and the puma*, The phonograph and the graft B, Ransom of red chief (the), The skylight room *5, The Whirligig of life
    O’Keefe Death makes a comeback,
    Tillie Olsen I stand here ironing,
    Orwell – Politics and the English language, Shooting an elephant,
    ■■■■■PPPPP■■■■■
    Z.Z. Packer Brownies,
    Dorothy Parker Big blonde B, A Telephone call,
    Alan Paton – Ha’penny,
    Lyudmila Petrushevskya Like Penelope,
    Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) The black lack cat, The Cask of Amontillago**, The Descent into maelstrom, The Facts in the case of M.Valdemar, The Fall of the house of Usher** The gold bug B, Hop frog, The Imp of Perverse, Ligeia** The Masque of the red death, Mesmeric revelation, The Murders in the Rue Morgue B,The pittman and the pendulum, Premature burial (The), Purloined letter (The), Tell tale Heart (The), Thousand-and-second Tale of Scheherazade (The), Von Kempelen and his discovery,
    Catherine Anne Porter Flowering Juda, Jilting of Granny Weatherall (The),
    Alexander Pushkin (Russia)The queen of spades B
    ■■■■■QQQQQ■■■■■
    A.T. Quilter-Couch The roll call of the reef B
    Horacio Quiroga – The decapitated chicken. Tm
    ■■■■■RRRRR■■■■■
    Ringuet Heritage (The),
    Sinclair Ross – Painted door (The),
    ■■■■■SSSSS■■■■■
    Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch Thou shall not kill B
    J.D. Salinger – The catcher in the rye, For Esme, Nine stories, Pretty mouth and green my eyes,
    William Saroyan Darling (The), Young man on the flying trapeze,
    George Saunders Fall (The), Pastoralia, Puppy, Sea Oak, Tenth of December,
    Arthur Schnitzler – Dead are silent (The), The Dead are Silent B*
    Eugene Scribe The price of life**
    Maurice Shadbolt The people before
    Arwin Shaw The girls in their summer dresses,
    Mona Simpson Lawns,
    Ahdaf Soueif Sandpiper
    Frank L. Spearman The run of the yellow mail
    John Steinbeck Leader of the people (The), Snake (The),
    R.L. Stevenson (1850-94) – The body snatcher, Bottle imp (The), Markheim, The sire de Maletroit’s door, The suicide club
    Carl Stephenson Leiningen VS. ants,
    Frank Stockton Griffin (The), The lady or the tiger, My terminal moraine
    T.S. Stribling Passage to Benares (A),
    Jean August Strindberg Love and Bread
    Stroker, Bam Stroker Dracula guest,
    Jesse Stuart The split cherry Tree,
    Hermann Sundermann A new year’s evening confession
    ■■■■■TTTTT■■■■■
    Antonio Tabucchi The trains that go to Madras,
    Booth Tarkington Mrs. Protheroe
    Avery Taylor – Remember the roses,
    Bayard Taylor Who was she?
    Nokolai Teleshov The duel
    Theodore Thomas Test
    Dylan Thomas A child’s Christmas in Wales,
    Adam Thorpe Tyre
    James Thuber The secret life of Walter Mitty,
    Leo Tolstoy (Russia-1828-1910) – ●The death of Ivan Ilytch●,● Family happiness●, The long exile, How much land does a man require? , Three questions, What men live by
    J.T. Trowbridge The Man who stole a meeting house
    Evan Turgenev (1813-83) The Rendezvous
    Mark Twain – Burlesque biography (A), The celebrated jumping frog, Italian with a grammar, Italian with a master, Luck, Private (The) history of a campaign that failed,Telephonic (A) conversation , Was it heaven or hell,
    ■■■■■UUUUU■■■■■
    John Updike (1932- ) A&P,
    ■■■■■VVVVV■■■■■
    Giovani Verga Cavalleria Rusticana
    Jules Verne – Fortieth French ascent of Mont Blanc,
    Barbara Vine House of stairs (The)
    Kurt Vonnegut Harrison Bergaron, Welcome to the honeymoon,
    ■■■■■WWWW■■■■■
    Patrick Waddington The street that got misled,
    Foster Wallace Girl with curious hair,
    S.T Warner The phoenix
    Irving Washington Legend of sleeping hollow (The),
    H.G. Wells Door in the wall (The), The magic shop, The red room*5, Time machine,
    Leila Burton Wells Bondage
    Eudora Welty Hitch Hikers (The), Why I live at the post office,
    Edith Wharton (1862-1937) – Afterwards, Souls belated,
    E.B. White Door in the wall (The),
    Oscar Wilde – The Happy Prince, The nightingale and the rose, The devoted friend**
    Tennessee William – Resemblance between a Vilin Case and coffin
    William Carlos Williams – Use of force (The),
    Thomas Wolfe – Chickamauga,
    P.G. Wodehouse -Clicking of Cuthbert (The), The prize poem,
    Virginia Woolf – Haunted house (A)
    Richard Wright – Man who lived underground (The),
    ■■■■■ZZZZZ■■■■■
    Emile Zola Fete at Coqueville
    ●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●
    General stories
    •••••••••••••••••
    K.A. Abbas Sparrows
    Peter Bichsel The man who no longer wanted to know**
    Ruskin Bond BDn The night train at Deoli**
    A.R. Burton Going places*
    Karel Capek The fortune teller**
    Joyce Cary Growing up**
    Arthur Conun Clarke Report on planet three
    K.N.Daruwala Love across the salt desert
    Anita Desai A devoted son
    Nathaniel Hawthorne Dr. Heidegger’s experiment**
    Amy Hempel At the gate of Animal Kingdom OL
    Sheila Heti Mermaid in the jar OL
    George Klein A dwarf’s Tale OL
    Selma Lagerlof The Rattrap*
    Maxim Loskutoff End Times OL
    E.V. Lucas Third thought**
    Hilary Mantel The assassination of Margaret Thatcher OL
    A.G. Macdonell A village cricket match
    Laura Jean McKay The real Cambodia OL
    A. Mishani Reflections in the lake OL
    Irne Nemirovsky Domingo OL
    Uri Orlev The Chinese OL
    George Orwell The rebellion
    Willard Price Trailing the Jaguar
    Evgeny Schwartz The boss OL
    Khuswant Singh The Portrait of a Lady
    R.N. Tagore The castaway
    Leo Tolstoy What men live by*
    Z
    ●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■
    ●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■
    ●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■●■

    Reply

  46. The Egg, by Andy Weir has always been brough up whenever I hear a conversation about short stories.
    I think any list without it is incomplete.

    Also there are better Allen Poe stories but I guess you could populate the list with them.

    Reply

  48. My list of suggestions. Some are already up there.

    “The Masque of the Red Death” (1842) by Edgar Allan Poe

    “The Purloined Letter” (1844) by Edgar Allan Poe

    “The New Utopia” (1891) by Jerome K. Jerome

    “The Story of an Hour” (1894) by Kate Chopin

    “Afterward” (1902) by Edith Wharton

    “The Monkey’s Paw” (1902) by W. W. Jacobs

    “To Build a Fire” (1908) by Jack London

    “Goliah” (1909) by Jack London

    “The Machine Stops” (1909) by E. M. Forster

    “The Jameson Satellite” (1931) by Neil R. Jones

    “Who Goes There?” (1938) by John W. Campbell, Jr.

    “The Wall” (1939) by Jean-Paul Sartre

    “Katina” (1941) by Roald Dahl

    “Arena” (1944), by Fredric Brown

    “The Lottery” (1948) by Shirley Jackson

    “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950) by Ray Bradbury

    “The Marching Morons” by C. M. Kornbluth

    “Lamb to the Slaughter” (1953) by Roald Dahl

    “The Adjustment Team” (1954), by Philip K. Dick

    “Fondly Fahrenheit” (1954) by Alfred Bester

    “Brightside Crossing” (1956), by Alan E. Nourse

    “Thank you, Ma’am” (1958) by Langston Hughes

    “Examination Day” (1958), by Henry Slesar

    “Billennium” (1962) by J. G. Ballard

    “Marigolds” (1969) by Eugenia Collier

    “The Village” (1969) by Kate Wilhelm

    “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (1973) by Ursula K. LeGuin

    “The Forbidden Words of Margaret A.” (1990) by L. Timmel Duchamp

    “Peter Skilling” (a.k.a., “Retroactive Anti-Terror”) (2004) by Alex Irvine

    “Red Card” (2007) by S. L. Gilbow

    “The Osage Orange Tree” (2014) by William Stafford

    Reply

  49. “The Secret Integration” and “Under the Rose”, both by Thomas Pynchon (does this list still get updated btw?)

    Reply

  50. “Configuration of the North Shore,” “Narrow Valley,” “Continued on Next Rock,” “The Hole on the Corner,” “Cliffs That Laughed,” all by R. A. Lafferty.
    “The Man Who lost the Sea,” Theodore Sturgeon.
    “Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight,” Ursula K.. LeGuin.
    “All You Zombies,” Robert Heinlein.
    “Ten Thousand Assyrians,” William Saroyan.
    “Are You Too Late, or Was I Too Early?” John Collier.
    “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore,” Harlan Ellison.

    Reply

    1. I’m glad to see Paul’s Case included. I also believe Sonny’s Blues, Flight, The Overcoat, Silent Snow, Secret Snow and some others by Hemingway, Conrad and London belong in a top 50s list.
      The Lottery at least for me is too casually violent.

      Reply

  51. 1. “The Dead,” James Joyce; Last two paragraphs constitute, to many, some of the most beautiful writing in our language.

    2. “Odour of Chrysanthemums,” D H Lawrence. Death of a husband; Defines loneliness and the feeling of profound isolation and separateness of each of us possibly better than anything ever written.

    3. “Dry September,” Wm. Faulkner – the evil that is latent in us all.

    4. “Winter Dreams,” Scott Fitzgerald; The loss of our most cherished youthful hopes.

    5. “A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote; the strength of love and deepest friendship even in the permanency of profound loss and change. A beautiful story.

    6. “The Sojourner,” Carson McCullers; the consequences of a wasted life due to fear of commitment.

    7. “In Football Season,” John Updike; A fond and bright reflection of happy high school memories and friendships. Anyone who enjoyed their high school years will find happy reminiscence here.

    8. “The Land and the Water,”; Shirley Anne Grau; a child’s first understanding of death, and the effect it has on her. Superb.

    9. “The Monkey’s Paw;” WW Jacobs; the classic and finest ghost story ever written.

    10. “Shaving,” Leslie Norris (Welsh); A devoted teenage son ministers lovingly to his beloved, but dying, father. A good death, if ever such can be.

    11. “The Last Lesson,”; by Daudet (French writer) A teacher in a provincial town delivers his final lesson just before victorious Prussian soldiers come in to take charge of the schools and mandate teaching of German language and culture.

    12. “Seven Floors,” Dino Buzatti. A man admitted to a hospital for minor illness sees his condition continually diagnosed as unaccountably worsening amidst a cold and sterile environment. Indictment of modern isolation and technology.

    13. “The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket,” by Kawabata (Japan) – the most moving story of childhood innocence and joy I have ever read.

    14, “Discovery of a Father,” Sherwood Anderson; A young boy thinks his father nothing but a clown until a late night swim together opens his eyes to the dignity and fineness of his dad.

    15. “Flight” John Steinbeck – a young Mexican boy must become a man quickly after knifing a man out of hot, angry pride. The description of his flight on horseback from a pursuing posse through the West Mexican wilds and mountains is a thrilling story.

    16. “My Oedipus Complex,” Frank O’Connor; A happy young boy quickly becomes very unhappy when his father (whom he’s too young to have met before) returns from four years of war replacing the boy in his mother’s attentions. Very humorous.

    17. “The First Death of Her Life,” Elizabeth Taylor (NOT the actress, but a superb English short story writer.) A teenage girl’s confrontation with the death of her mother, and the grief shared with her father.

    This is a worthy endeavor which may even lead to some excellent anthologies resulting in a wider variety of stories than is typically seen. We wish you the best.

    Reply

  52. Hunters in the snow by Tobias Wolf, Desirees Baby by Kate chopin The River by Flannery O’Connor

    Reply

  53. August 1, 2019

    Hello Every Writer (& Reader),

    I’m looking for an old short story I read over 20 years ago in an old (lost) textbook that contained compilations of short stories, essays and other writings. I don’t when the story was actually written or published. And, of course, I don’t remember the title or the author. I’ve been on a futile search. No luck with a university librarian or a public librarian. I’ve searched this and other sites, as well.

    With all the readers & writers on this website, I’m hoping someone can help me identify and find this story. A brief description:

    It was about a man who lived all his life in the same village and when he died was buried in the local cemetery. The story is about how he was remembered and then ultimately, over the passage of time, his existence was erased.

    I don’t remember for sure but I think it was set somewhere in Europe maybe in 1800’s. He was a carpenter and furniture maker. There were examples of how the memory of him and his existence on earth, eventually disappeared in the years following his death:

    1. A desk he had built for a customer was being moved and the old hand-written paid receipt he had given his customer flew out of a drawer and blew away. The rain washed away his writing. That was the last of anything he had ever written.

    2. An old woman lay dying and she remembered a young man she had once known – that was the last time he was ever thought of by another person.

    3. One cold and cruel winter, the wooden cross on his grave was stolen and used for firewood. That was the last remaining sign he had ever existed.

    Appreciate anyone’s help!! Thank you.

    Pam

    Reply

    1. Wonderful story, Pam. Now I, too, wish I knew the title. Doesn’t sound American or British. Perhaps Russian; maybe French ? If you find out, please post.

      Reply

  54. You need to travel the world through short stories. I suggest you read more German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese and Chinese writers (among the more or less well-known literatures), but if you really want to dig deeper, look for Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Polishs, Czechs, Ukrainians, Swedishs, Danes, Dutchs, Koreans, Brazilians, Mexicans, Angolans, Mozambicans and Indians writers. At least these. I assure you that in each of these literatures you will find not only short stories that will go to a list of a thousand, but even to a list of top 100. Greetings from Brazil!

    Reply

  56. I can find Stockton’s story but not Bradbury.
    100. The Lady and the Tiger by Ray Bradbury
    “The Lady or the Tiger?” Frank Stockton

    Reply

  57. Here are some things I noticed while looking quickly through your list:

    309 and 310 are the same story.
    321 is a collection, not a story.
    331 is not a story.
    336 is a collection, not a story (it also appears at 788).
    337 and 338 are the same story.
    391 and 392 are the same story.
    400 and 401 are the same story.
    447, 449, and 638 are the same story — “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
    485 and 486 are the same story.
    540, 541, and 542 are all the same story.
    630 and 631 are the same story.
    639 and 640 are the same story.
    700 and 701 are the same story.
    854 and 859 are the same story.
    855 and 856 are the same story.
    935 and 936 are the same story.

    Reply

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