This is our list of 1000 Great Short Stories of All Time. No list, book, film, or otherwise exists like this one. This will be the first list of its kind ever, as far as I know. Making a first list, you hope to do it best, but with 1000 stories on the list, it will make doing it well very difficult, so, as with our list of poems, we need your help. Please make suggestions in the comments section. We want to get 1000. We are in the 80s, so this will take a lot of work. I’ve seen a lot of top 50 lists for short stories, but the top 1000 is, again, unheard of.
Why do a list like this? It’s pretty simple, really, guidelines. It helps people find great short stories they want to read. It also will help with a consensus. Right now, name the top 10 short stories of all time, and you’ll get 10 different answers from 10 writers. When you say, what about story X, those ten writers would likely say well, it’s one of the greatest, but not in my top 10. So I’m not trying to list the 1000 greatest short stories that put Poe at 1 now and forever. I’m creating a list that people can point to and say, I agree. It might not be number 10 on the list, but it is among the 1000 best of all time. To that end, we don’t have to worry about the exact order. We have to come up with 1000 great stories.
The stories should be measured simply now; what stories have you read that have either stood the test of time or WILL stand the test of time? Developing criteria should come later, too. We are currently looking for 1000 stories; when we hit 2000 suggestions, I’ll worry about the definitive list of criteria.
We now have 1000 Great Stories that are the stepping stones to 1000 Greatest Short Stories of all time. This list may be impossible to create, but we are looking for stories that speak to people and teach something with a message that has more extensive insight into who we all are. As readers, we know the stories that speak to us. We know stories that have changed us. We know stories that we want to share with everyone we know. These are the stories we are looking for. After all, these incredible stories are determined by us. In expanding this list of great short stories, I will discuss some reasons for doing this list. We now have 1000 Great Stories that are the stepping stones to 1000 Greatest Short Stories of all time. This list may be impossible to create, but we are looking for stories that speak to people and teach something with a message that has more extensive insight into who we all are. As readers, we know the stories that speak to us. We know stories that have changed us. We know stories that we want to share with everyone we know. These are the stories we are looking for. After all, these incredible stories are determined by us.
Could you help us out? I want to see if this can be done. Any suggestions are welcome. Here is the list of the first 80 or so; I’ll come up with 100 more soon and add any suggestions to the list that I agree with. Also, please have some fun with this. If you have any misspellings or mistakes, feel free to point them out.
After several years, I’m finally starting to complete the list. Here are over 1000 short stories. These include the 1000 most excellent of all time, but notice that I went over 1000. I can’t tell you how hard this list was to put together. Compiling 1000 of anything is very difficult, but putting this list together was painful and exhausting.
So why over 1000? I know there are mistakes. Instead of spending another 2 months editing, I’m just putting it out there. Tell me the errors in the comments, and we can begin to shape the list together. Also, if I missed any suggestions, or you want to put a story on the list and bump one, make an argument in the comments; I’m always happy to listen. I will also read whatever story you send my way. So here is the only some of-the-way complete list, but there are 1000. It still needs work. Will you help me?
We also publish some great short stories right here on our site. If you are looking for stories written by classic writers or writers living today, please visit EWR: Short Stories.
1000 Greatest Stories of All Time
- A Day’s Wait by Ernest Hemingway
- “”Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
- “2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “A Circle in the Fire” by Flannery O’Connor
- “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Dark-Brown Dog” by Stephen Crane
- “A Day’s Wait” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
- “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
- “A Hunger Artist” by Franz Kafka
- “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” by Flannery O’Connor
- “A Little Cloud” by James Joyce
- “A Mystery of Heroism“ by Stephen Crane
- “A Painful Case” by James Joyce
- “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger
- “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
- “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury
- “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “A Visit of Charity” by Eudora Welty
- “A Weary Man’s Utopia” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
- “Abraham” by Kay Boyle
- “After the Race” by James Joyce
- “An Encounter” by James Joyce
- “An Episode of War” by Stephen Crane
- “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
- “And the Rock Cried Out” by Ray Bradbury
- “Angel Levine” by Bernard Malamud
- “Araby” by James Joyce
- “Averroes’ Search” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami
- “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
- “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison
- “Beware of the Dog” by Roald Dahl
- “Big Two-Hearted River” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Birthday Girl” by Haruki Murakami
- “Bloodknot” by Athol Fugard
- “Blue Tigers” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx
- “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff
- “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benet
- “Careful” by Raymond Carver
- “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
- “Charles” by Shirley Jackson
- “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Bierce
- “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden” by E.L. Doctorow
- “Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe
- “Clay” by James Joyce
- “Clytie” by Eudora Welty
- “Continuity of Parks” by Julio Cortázar
- “Counterparts” by James Joyce
- “Court in the West Eighties” by Carson McCullers
- “Cross Country Snow” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Death and the Compass” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Death Constant Beyond Love” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “Death of a Traveling Salesman” by Eudora Welty
- “Delia Elena San Marco” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin
- “Deutsches Requiem” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Distance” by Raymond Carver
- “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “Dry September” by William Faulkner
- “Emma Zunz” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Eveline” by James Joyce
- “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
- “Everything Stuck to Him” by Raymond Carver
- “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Fat” by Raymond Carver
- “Fever” by Raymond Carver
- “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor” by J.D. Salinger
- “Forever Overhead” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Good Old Neon” by David Foster Wallace
- “Gooseberries” by Anton Chekhov
- “Greasy Lake” by T. C. Boyle
- “Haircut” by Ring Lardner
- “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Here and There” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
- “How to Become a Writer” by Lorrie Moore
- “I Sing the Body Electric” by Ray Bradbury
- “In Another Country” by Ernest Hemingway
- “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” by Amy Hempel
- “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “Intimacy” by Raymond Carver
- “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” by James Joyce
- “Jack-in-the-Box” by Ray Bradbury
- “Judgement Day” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Keela, the Outcast Indian Maiden” by Eudora Welty
- “Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf
- “Landscape with Flatiron” by Haruki Murakami
- “Life Being the Best” by Kay Boyle
- “Like Mother Used to Make” by Shirley Jackson
- “Like That” by Carson McCullers
- “Little Expressionless Animals” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “Luckily the Account Representative Knew CPR” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “Lyndon” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Mr. and Mrs. Elliot” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit” by Raymond Carver
- “My Oedipus Complex” by Frank O’Connor
- “My Old Man” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Old Man at the Bridge” by Ernest Hemingway
- “One of These Days” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts” by Shirley Jackson
- “Out of Season” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson
- “Parker’s Back” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather
- “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver
- “Powerhouse” by Eudora Welty
- “Put Yourself in My Shoes” by Raymond Carver
- “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving
- “Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton
- “Runaway” by Alice Munro
- “Say Yes” by Tobias Wolff
- “Seven Types of Ambiguity” by Shirley Jackson
- “Shakespeare’s Memory” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” by Conrad Aiken
- “Sixty Acres” by Raymond Carver
- “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
- “The Aleph” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Ambitious Guest” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “The April Witch” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Babylon Lottery” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro
- “The Beautiful Stranger” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Beryl Coronet” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier
- “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “The Blue Cross” by G. K. Chesterton
- “The Boarding House” by James Joyce
- “The Bribe” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane
- “The Cabin” by Raymond Carver
- “The Cane in the Corridor” by James Thurber
- “The Captive” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Catbird Seat” by James Thurber
- “The Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
- “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain
- “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck
- “The Circular Ruins” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Comforts of Home” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Courting of Dinah Shadd” by Rudyard Kipling
- “The Creeping Man” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Crop” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Crowd” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Daemon Lover” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Darling” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Dead” by James Joyce
- “The Depressed Person” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “The Destructors” by Graham Greene
- “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving
- “The Displaced Person” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Dragon” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury
- “The End” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Enduring Chill” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Father” by Raymond Carver
- “The Final Problem” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Five Boons of Life” by Mark Twain
- “The Fixer” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Flying Machine” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Fog Horn” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Geranium” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry
- “The Gloria Scott” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Greatest Man in the World” by James Thurber
- “The Greek Interpreter” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde
- “The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury (frame story + multiple stories)
- “The Immortal” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter
- “The Jockey” by Carson McCullers
- “The Key” by Eudora Welty
- “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton
- “The Lame Shall Enter First ” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl
- “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry
- “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara
- “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Light of the World” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Lot No. 249” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Lottery in Babylon” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Man in the Woods” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Man Who Lived Underground” by Ralph Ellison
- “The Man Who Would Be King” by Rudyard Kipling
- “The Man with the Twisted Lip” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Mark on the Wall” by Virginia Woolf
- “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka
- “The Middle Toe of the Right Foot” by Ambrose Bierce
- “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “The Missing Girl” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs
- “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
- “The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates” by Stephen King
- “The Night the Ghost Got In” by James Thurber
- “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde
- “The Omen” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane
- “The Other Death” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Outsider” by H.P. Lovecraft
- “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol
- “The Partridge Festival” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Prison” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Prussian Officer” by D.H. Lawrence
- “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry
- “The Rats in the Walls” by H.P Lovecraft
- “The Remarkable Rocket” by Oscar Wilde
- “The Renegade” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff
- “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence
- “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst
- “The Scythe” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Sea Change” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber
- “The Secret Miracle” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Seed of McCoy” by Octavia Butler
- “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde
- “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Small Assassin” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The South” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Speckled Band” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Sphinx Without a Secret” by Oscar Wilde
- “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
- “The Story of an Eyewitness” by Jack London
- “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
- “The Student’s Wife” by Raymond Carver
- “The Summer People” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Swimmer” by John Cheever
- “The Tall Tale of the Willy Nilly” by Eudora Welty
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien
- “The Tooth” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Trees” by Conrad Aiken
- “The Turkey” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Underground Woman” by Anne Cameron
- “The Unicorn in the Garden” by James Thurber
- “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Villagers” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Voyage” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Whistle” by Eudora Welty
- “The Wide Net” by Eudora Welty
- “The Wilderness” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Wind” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Witch” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
- “The Writing of the God” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- “The Zahir” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “There Was an Old Woman” by Ray Bradbury
- “Three Versions of Judas” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” by Mary Gaitskill
- “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “To Build a Fire” by Jack London
- “To Hell with Dying” by Alice Walker
- “Touched with Fire” by Ray Bradbury
- “Trial by Combat” by Shirley Jackson
- “Tuesday Siesta” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “Uncle Einar” by Ray Bradbury
- “Untitled Story” by Carson McCullers
- “Up in Michigan” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Vandals” by Raymond Carver
- “Ward No. 6” by Anton Chekhov
- “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver
- “Where I’m Calling From” by Raymond Carver
- “Who Am I This Time?” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?” by Raymond Carver
- “Window Shopping” by Andrienne Kennedy
- “Wunderkind” by Carson McCullers
- “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- A & P by John Updike
- A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, by Ernest Hemingway
- A FIGHT WITH A CANNON by Victor Hugo
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
- A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka
- A LONELY RIDE by Bret Harte
- A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin
- A Passion in the Desert, by Honoré de Balza
- A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
- A Sound of Thunder, by Ray Bradbury
- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Beirce
- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
- ARABY by James Joyce
- Barn Burning by William Faulkner
- Borges and I by Jorge Luis Borges
- Boys and Girls by Alice Monro
- Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolf
- Cathedral by Raymond Carver
- Chickamauga by Thomas Wolfe
- Dead Man’s Path by Chinua Achebe
- Died and Gone to Vegas by Tim Gautreaux
- Dracula’s Guest by Bram Stoker
- Dubliners by James Joyce
- Désirée’s’s Baby by Kate Chopin
- Girl with Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace
- Haircut by Ring Lardner
- Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
- HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN NEED? by Leo Tolstoy
- How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie) by Junot Díaz
- I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen.
- I Want to Live! by Thom Jones
- I, Robot by Issac Asimov
- Let me know if you would like me to suggest 50 more famous short stories!
- Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro
- Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
- Menseteung by Alice Munro
- MY RED CAP by Louisa M. Alcott
- Nine Stories by JD Salinger
- Paul’s Case by Willa Carther
- Paul’s Case by Willa Cather
- PRESENT AT A HANGING by Ambrose Bierce
- Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood
- Soldier’s home by Ernest Hemingway
- That Evening Sun, by William Faulkner
- THE BET by Anton Chekhov
- The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Call of Cthullhu by H.P. Lovecraft
- The Capital of the World by Ernest Hemingway
- THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY by Mark Twain
- THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
- THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER by Washington Irving
- The Door, by E. B Whit
- The Fall of the House of Usher’s by Edgar Allan Poe
- THE FALSE GEMS by Guy De Maupassant
- THE FORTIETH FRENCH ASCENT OF MONT BLANC by Jules Verne
- The Garden Party by Kathleen Mansfield
- The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
- The Hitch-Hikers by Eudora Welty
- The Lady and the Tiger by Ray Bradbury
- The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekov
- The Last Leaf by O. Henry
- THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW by Washington Irving
- The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara
- The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
- THE MAGIC SHOP by H. G. Wells
- The Man Who Would be King by Rudyard Kipling
- THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
- THE Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
- The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
- The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
- THE NIGHT FACE-UP by JULIO CORTAZAR
- The Open Boat, by Stephen Crane
- The Other Side of the Hedge by E.M. Forster
- The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson
- The Outcasts of Poker Flat, by Bret Harte
- THE REAL THING by Henry James
- The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Resemblance Between a Vilin Case and a Coffin by Tennessee Williams
- The Rockinghorse Winner by D.H. Lawrence
- The Russian Prioner by Ha Jin
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber
- The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad
- The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway
- THE SISTERS by James Joyce
- The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
- The Swimmer by John Cheever
- The Use of Force by William Carlos Williams
- The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- There Will Come Soft Rain by Ray Bradbury
- Thom Jones, The Pugilist at Rest
- To Build a Fire by Jack London
- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? By Joyce Carol Oates:
- Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates
- Why Don’t You Dance by Raymond Carver (Film)
- Why I Live at the PO by Eudora Welty
- Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
- Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Ysrael” by Junot Diaz
- “2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “A Beautiful Talisman” by Obotunde Ijimere
- “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Country Road. A Tree.” by James Joyce
- “A Cup of Tea” by Katherine Mansfield
- “A Dark Brown Dog” by Stephen Crane
- “A Day’s Wait” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Doctor’s Visit” by Anton Chekhov
- “A Dog’s Tale” by Mark Twain
- “A Domestic Dilemma” by Carson McCullers
- “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
- “A History of Eternity” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “A Horseman in the Sky” by Ambrose Bierce
- “A Justice” by William Faulkner
- “A Little Cloud” by James Joyce
- “A Memory” by Eudora Welty
- “A Natural History of the Dead” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Painful Case” by James Joyce
- “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” by J.D. Salinger
- “A Scandal in Bohemia” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “A Small, Good Thing” by Raymond Carver
- “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury
- “A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud” by Carson McCullers
- “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “A Very Short Story” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Visit of Charity” by Eudora Welty
- “A Wagner Matinee” by Willa Cather
- “A Way You’ll Never Be” by Ernest Hemingway
- “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
- “Abenjacán el Bojarí, Dead in His Labyrinth” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “About Love” by Anton Chekhov
- “Across the Bridge” by Graham Greene
- “Ad Astra” by William Faulkner
- “After the Race” by James Joyce
- “After Twenty Years” by O. Henry
- “After You, My Dear Alphonse” by Shirley Jackson
- “Akueke” by Chinua Achebe
- “All Souls” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury
- “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” by Stephen King
- “Almos’ a Man” by Richard Wright
- “Alone” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “An Anonymous Story” by Anton Chekhov
- “An Educated American Woman” by John Cheever
- “An Encounter” by James Joyce
- “An Experiment in Misery” by Stephen Crane
- “An Ideal Family” by Katherine Mansfield
- “An Incident at Owl Creek Ridge” by Ambrose Bierce
- “An Indiscreet Journey” by Katherine Mansfield
- “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
- “An Unwritten Novel” by Virginia Woolf
- “Araby” by James Joyce
- “Are These Actual Miles?” by Raymond Carver
- “Art and Mr. Mahoney” by Carson McCullers
- “Asphodel” by Eudora Welty
- “At the Bay” by Katherine Mansfield
- “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury
- “Aurora” by Junot Díaz
- “Averroes’ Search” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Axolotl” by Julio Cortázar
- “Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner
- “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville
- “Belfast Woman” by Mary Beckett
- “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “Beyond” by William Faulkner
- “Biathanatos” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Big Two-Hearted River” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Big Two-Hearted River” by Ernest Hemingway (Part 1)
- “Black Peter” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “Blackbird Pie” by Raymond Carver
- “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid
- “Bliss” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler
- “Blow-Up” by Julio Cortázar
- “Blues Ain’t No Mockingbird” by Toni Cade Bambara
- “Bonded” by Lasana Sekou
- “Boxes” by Raymond Carver
- “Boy Breaking Glass” by Gwendolyn Brooks
- “Boyfriend” by Junot Diaz
- “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro
- “Bright and Morning Star” by Richard Wright
- “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff
- “Butcher’s Embrace” by Graham Greene
- “Carcassonne” by William Faulkner
- “Careful” by Raymond Carver
- “Careful” Raymond Carver
- “Carried Away” by Alice Munro
- “Cat in the Rain” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver
- “Charles Augustus Milverton” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “Charles” by Shirley Jackson
- “Che ti dice la patria?” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Bierce
- “Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe
- “Clancy in the Tower of Babel” by John Cheever
- “Clay” by James Joyce
- “Clytie” by Eudora Welty
- “Collectors” by Raymond Carver
- “Come Dance With Me in Ireland” by Shirley Jackson
- “Connection” by Mary Gaitskill
- “Consuelo’s Kiss” by Junot Diaz
- “Counterparts” by James Joyce
- “Court in the West Eighties” by Carson McCullers
- “Criticism” by Edith Wharton
- “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period” by J.D. Salinger
- “Dead Men’s Path” by Chinua Achebe
- “Death and the Compass” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Death of a Traveling Salesman” by Eudora Welty
- “Defeat” by Kay Boyle
- “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin
- “Deutsches Requiem” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Do What You Can” by Stonewall Jackson
- “Don’t Look Now” by Daphne du Maurier
- “Down at the Dinghy” by J.D. Salinger
- “Drown” by Junot Diaz
- “Each in His Own Tongue” by William Dean Howells
- “Edgemont Drive” by E.L. Doctorow
- “Edison, New Jersey” by Junot Díaz
- “Eight O’Clock” by Hurd Hatfield
- “Elephant” by Raymond Carver
- “Emma Zunz” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “EPICAC” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Eve’s Diary” by Mark Twain
- “Eveline” by James Joyce
- “Everything and Nothing” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang
- “Eyes of a Blue Dog” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “Family Furnishings” by Alice Munro
- “Fathers and Sons” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Fat” by Raymond Carver
- “Feathers” by Raymond Carver
- “Fifty Grand” by Ernest Hemingway
- “File and Forget” by James Thurber
- “First Confession” by Frank O’Connor
- “Flaca” by Junot Díaz
- “Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter
- “Flying Home” by Ralph Ellison
- “For John Keats, Apostle of Beauty” by Countee Cullen
- “Funes the Memorious” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Funes, His Memory” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Funes, the Memorious” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Gazebo” by Raymond Carver
- “Genesis and Catastrophe: A True Story” by Roald Dahl
- “Girls at War” by Chinua Achebe
- “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
- “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin (excerpt from novel)
- “Golden Land” by William Faulkner
- “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Goodbye, My Brother” by John Cheever
- “Gooseberries” by Anton Chekhov
- “Grace” by James Joyce
- “Graffiti” by Julio Cortázar
- “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle
- “Guests of the Nation” by Frank O’Connor
- “Gusev” by Anton Chekhov
- “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood
- “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” by Alice Munro
- “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad (novella but famous excerpt)
- “Hearts and Hands” by O. Henry
- “Hell-Heaven” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “Her First Ball” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Heritage” by Countee Cullen
- “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Honor” by William Faulkner
- “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortázar
- “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro
- “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy
- “How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien
- “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison
- “Ice Man” by Haruki Murakami
- “Idiots First” by Bernard Malamud
- “If—” by Rudyard Kipling (poem)
- “Ill-Considered Praises of a People” by Countee Cullen
- “In Another Country” by Ernest Hemingway
- “In the Garden of North American Martyrs” Tobias Wolff
- “In the Train” by Frank O’Connor
- “Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Infection” by Octavia Butler
- “Instant of the Hour After” by Carson McCullers
- “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “Intimacy” by Raymond Carver
- “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” by James Joyce
- “Jealousy” by William Faulkner
- “John Billy” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “Jolene: A Life” by E.L. Doctorow
- “Joy” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “Jubilee” by Graham Greene
- “Judgement Day” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Just Before the War with the Eskimos” by J.D. Salinger
- “Keela the Outcast Indian Maiden” by Eudora Welty
- “Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf
- “Kindred” by Octavia Butler (Excerpt)
- “King of the Bingo Game” by Ralph Ellison
- “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
- “Lenox Avenue: Midnight” by Langston Hughes
- “Letter to a Young Lady in Paris” by Julio Cortázar
- “Life of Ma Parker” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Light is Like Water” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “Light” by Lesley Nneka Arimah
- “Like Mother Used to Make” by Shirley Jackson
- “Livvie” by Eudora Welty
- “Lizard’s Leg” by William Faulkner
- “Lot No. 249” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “Louisa, Please Come Home” by Shirley Jackson
- “Love of Life” by Jack London
- “Lunch at the Gotham Café” by Stephen King
- “Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland” by Carson McCullers
- “Man and Superman” by Jamaica Kincaid
- “Man from the South” by Roald Dahl
- “Marriage is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe
- “Marriage à la Mode” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Master Harold and the Boys” by Athol Fugard
- “Menudo” by Raymond Carver
- “Miles City, Montana” by Alice Munro
- “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Miss Lora” by Junot Díaz
- “Moments of Being: “Slater’s Pins Have No Points” by Virginia Woolf
- “Moon Lake” by Eudora Welty
- “Moonlight” by Kay Boyle
- “Morning Song of Senlin” by Conrad Aiken
- “Mr Reginald Peacock’s Day” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Mr. and Mrs. Dove” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Mr. Reginald Peacock’s Day” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Mrs Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat” by Roald Dahl
- “Mrs. Sen’s” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “Mule in the Yard” by William Faulkner
- “My Old Man” by Ernest Hemingway
- “My Old Man” Ernest Hemingway
- “N.” by Stephen King
- “Night School” by Raymond Carver
- “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell (novel but famous extract)
- “Nobody Said Anything” by Raymond Carver
- “Now I Lay Me” by Ernest Hemingway
- “O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories” (multiple stories)
- “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
- “Odour of Chrysanthemums” by D. H. Lawrence
- “Odour of Chrysanthemums” by D.H. Lawrence
- “Oil of Dog” by Ambrose Bierce
- “Old Man at the Bridge” by Ernest Hemingway
- “On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning” by Haruki Murakami
- “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien
- “One of These Days” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts” by Shirley Jackson
- “Otravida, Otravez” by Junot Díaz
- “Pantaloon in Black” by William Faulkner
- “Parable of the Arrow” Jorge Luis Borges
- “Parable of the Palace” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Paranoia” by Shirley Jackson
- “Parker Adderson, Philosopher” by Ambrose Bierce
- “Parker’s Back” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Parson’s Pleasure” by Roald Dahl
- “Patriotism” by Yukio Mishima
- “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather
- “Pavilion” by John Updike
- “Peasants” by Frank O’Connor
- “Petrified Man” by Eudora Welty
- “Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature” by Richard Rorty
- “Pictures” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Pigeon Feathers” by John Updike
- “Pigeons” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “Pillar of Salt” by Shirley Jackson
- “Poor Little Black Fellow” by Langston Hughes
- “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver
- “Possum Song” by Margaret Atwood
- “Powder” by Tobias Wolff
- “Powerhouse” by Eudora Welty
- “Prelude” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes” by J.D. Salinger
- “Previous Condition” by James Baldwin
- “Proof Positive” by Graham Greene
- “Psychology” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Put Yourself in My Shoes” by Raymond Carver
- “Raymond’s Run” by Toni Cade Bambara
- “Reunion” by John Cheever
- “Revelations” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Revenge of the Redheaded Kid” by Mary Gaitskill
- “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving
- “Roald Dahl Collected Stories” (multiple famous stories)
- “Romantic Weekend” by Mary Gaitskill
- “Roselily” by Alice Walker
- “Rothschild’s Fiddle” by Anton Chekhov
- “Royal Beatings” by Alice Munro
- “Salvation” by Langston Hughes
- “Saturday’s Child” by Countee Cullen
- “Say Yes” by Tobias Wolff
- “Schrödinger’s Cat” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “Sexy” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “Shingles for the Lord” by William Faulkner
- “Short Friday” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “Silver Blaze” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “Six Years After” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Sixty Acres” by Raymond Carver
- “Sleep” by Haruki Murakami
- “So Much Water So Close to Home” by Raymond Carver
- “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Something Nice” by Mary Gaitskill
- “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin
- “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien
- “Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler
- “Spoiled Brats” by Simon Rich
- “Spotted Horses” by William Faulkner
- “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki
- “Still Life” by Louise Glück
- “Story of the Warrior and the Captive” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Summer People” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Sun and Moon” by Katherine Mansfield
- “Swaddling Clothes” by Yukio Mishima
- “That Evening Sun” by William Faulkner
- “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French” by Stephen King
- “That Will Be Fine” by William Faulkner
- “The $30,000 Bequest” by Mark Twain
- “The Abbey Grange” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Aleph” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Aliens” by Carson McCullers
- “The Angel Child” by Stephen Crane
- “The Angel of the Bridge” by John Cheever
- “The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Arms and Legs of the Lake” by Mary Gaitskill
- “The Astrakhan Cloak” by Kay Boyle
- “The Babylon Lottery” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Basement Room” by Graham Greene
- “The Bath” by Raymond Carver
- “The Bear Who Let It Alone” by James Thurber
- “The Bear” by William Faulkner
- “The Beauties” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Beautiful Stranger” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Beggar and the Diamond” by Stephen King
- “The Beggar Maid” by Alice Munro
- “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier
- “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “The Bishop” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Black Monk” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Blanched Soldier” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Blue Cross” by G.K Chesterton
- “The Blue Hotel” by Stephen Crane
- “The Blues I’m Playing” by Ralph Ellison
- “The Boarded Window” by Ambrose Bierce
- “The Boarding House” by James Joyce
- “The Branch Line” by John Cheever
- “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane
- “The Bridle” by Raymond Carver
- “The Brooch” by William Faulkner
- “The Bruce-Partington Plans” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London (excerpt)
- “The Capital of the World” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Catbird Seat” by James Thurber
- “The Chamber of Statues” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Circular Ruins” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin
- “The Compartment” by Raymond Carver
- “The Congress” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Cop and the Anthem” by O. Henry
- “The Country Husband” by John Cheever
- “The Creeping Man” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Crooked Man” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Cure” by John Cheever
- “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “The Custodian” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Daemon Lover” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Darling” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Dead Father” by Donald Barthelme
- “The Dead Man” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Dead” by James Joyce
- “The Death of Halpin Frayser” by Ambrose Bierce
- “The Death of Jack Hamilton” by Stephen King
- “The Death of Justina” by John Cheever
- “The Depressed Person” by David Foster Wallace
- “The Destruction of Kreshev” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benet
- “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving
- “The Devil’s Foot” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “The Diary of Adam and Eve” by Mark Twain
- “The Dilettante” by Edith Wharton
- “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Doctor’s Case” by Stephen King
- “The Doll’s House” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Drunkard” by Frank O’Connor
- “The Dubliners” by James Joyce (short story collection)
- “The Duchess and the Jeweler” by Virginia Woolf
- “The Ducks” by Raymond Carver
- “The Dying Detective” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Empty House” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Encounter” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The End of Something” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The End” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Engineer’s Thumb” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Enormous Radio” by John Cheever
- “The Escape” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” by Octavia Butler
- “The Eye of Apollo” by G.K Chesterton
- “The Eyes of the Panther” by Ambrose Bierce
- “The Eyes” by Edith Wharton
- “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Father” by Raymond Carver
- “The Final Problem” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Five-Forty-Eight” by John Cheever
- “The Fixer” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Flying Machine” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Fly” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Foster Portfolio” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “The Fox” by D.H. Lawrence
- “The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Furnished Room” by O. Henry
- “The Future Looks Good” by Lesley Nneka Arimah
- “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Garden of Forking Paths ” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Geometry of Love” by John Cheever
- “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry
- “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost (poem)
- “The Girl on the Plane” by Mary Gaitskill
- “The Gloria Scott” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Golem” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Grasshopper” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Grave” by Katherine Anne Porter
- “The Greek Interpreter” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Guest” by Albert Camus
- “The Half-Skinned Steer” by E. Annie Proulx
- “The Haunted Boy” by Carson McCullers
- “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson (excerpt)
- “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers (Excerpt)
- “The Heart of the Matter” by Graham Greene
- “The Hint of an Explanation” by Graham Greene
- “The Hitch-Hikers” by Eudora Welty
- “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D. H. Lawrence
- “The House of Asterion” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The House of the Dead Hand” by G.K Chesterton
- “The Housebreaker of Shady Hill” by John Cheever
- “The Idea” by Raymond Carver
- “The Illustrious Client” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Immortal” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Interlopers” by Saki
- “The Intruder” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Invisible Japanese Gentleman” by Graham Greene
- “The Island of the Immortals” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “The Jewbird” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter
- “The Key” by Eudora Welty
- “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Kings” by Julio Cortázar
- “The Kiss” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Lady in the Looking Glass” by Virginia Woolf
- “The Lady of the Lake” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Lady or the Tiger?” by Frank Stockton
- “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Lady with the Little Dog” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Lady with the Pet Dog” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” by Edith Wharton
- “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton
- “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl
- “The Last Bow” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Last Demon” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “The Last Flower” by James Thurber
- “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry
- “The Last Mohican” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Legacy” by Virginia Woolf
- “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
- “The Leg” by William Faulkner
- “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara
- “The Letter Writer” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor
- “The Light of the World” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Lion’s Mane” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Little Governess” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Little Things” by Raymond Carver
- “The Lives of the Dead” by Tim O’Brien
- “The Lottery in Babylon” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Macbeth Murder Mystery” by James Thurber
- “The Mad Lomasneys” by Frank O’Connor
- “The Madman” by Chinua Achebe
- “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Mainz Psalter” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “The Man and the Snake” by Ambrose Bierce
- “The Man in the Black Suit” by Stephen King
- “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright
- “The Marching Morons” by C.M Kornbluth
- “The March” by E.L. Doctorow
- “The Mark on the Wall” Virginia Woolf
- “The Mask of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Meeting” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang
- “The Middle Toe of the Right Foot” by Ambrose Bierce
- “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- “The Mirror of Ink” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Missing Person” by Tobias Wolff
- “The Missing Three-Quarter” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Mission of Jane” by Edith Wharton
- “The Mocking-Bird” by Ambrose Bierce
- “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs
- “The Monster in the Bride’s Chamber” by Lucy Sussex
- “The Monster” by Stephen Crane
- “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
- “The Mother of a Queen” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Mourners” by Bernard Malamud
- “The Musgrave Ritual” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The National Pastime” by John Cheever
- “The Naval Treaty” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Night the Bed Fell” by James Thurber
- “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke
- “The Noble Bachelor” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Odour of Chrysanthemums” by D.H. Lawrence
- “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane
- “The Open Window” by Saki
- “The Orphanage Runaways” by Carson McCullers
- “The Other Place” by Mary Gaitskill
- “The Other Two” by Edith Wharton
- “The Other” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” by Bret Harte
- “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu
- “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck (excerpt)
- “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Pelican” by Edith Wharton
- “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Plot” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Princess and the Tin Box” by James Thurber
- “The Priory School” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Progress of Love” by Alice Munro
- “The Prussian Officer” by D.H. Lawrence
- “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Queer Feet” by G. K. Chesterton
- “The Queer Feet” by G.K Chesterton
- “The Rabbits Who Caused All the Trouble” by James Thurber
- “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry
- “The Reaper’s Image” by Stephen King
- “The Red Circle” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Red-Headed League” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Reflection” by Carson McCullers
- “The Reigate Puzzle” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Reigate Squire” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Renegade” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Resident Patient” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Retired Colourman” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff
- “The Ring of Thor” by G.K Chesterton
- “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence
- “The Round Road” by Lucy Maud Montgomery
- “The Rule of Names” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “The Sacrificial Egg” by Chinua Achebe
- “The School” by Donald Barthelme
- “The Sculptor’s Funeral” by Willa Cather
- “The Sea Change” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Second Bakery Attack” by Haruki Murakami
- “The Secret Goldfish” by David Means
- “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber
- “The Secret Weapons” by Julio Cortázar
- “The Sect of the Phoenix” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Seed of the Faith” by Edith Wharton
- “The Sermon on the Warpland” by Gwendolyn Brooks
- “The Shape of the Sword” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Singing Lesson” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Sisters” by James Joyce
- “The Skylight Room” by O. Henry
- “The Slaughterer” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Sojourner” by Carson McCullers
- “The South” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Spinoza of Market Street” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “The Storm” by Kate Chopin
- “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
- “The Story of the Drowning Men” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Storyteller” by Saki
- “The Stranger” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Student’s Wife” by Raymond Carver
- “The Student” by Anton Chekhov
- “The Sussex Vampire” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Swimmer” by John Cheever
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “The Theologians” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien
- “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “The Three Gables” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Three Garridebs” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Three-Day Blow” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Tiger Who Understood People” by James Thurber
- “The Tooth” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Train” by Raymond Carver
- “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “The Trees of Pride” by G.K Chesterton
- “The Undefeated” by Ernest Hemingway
- “The Upturned Face” by Stephen Crane
- “The Veiled Lodger” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Veteran” by Stephen Crane 177 “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs
- “The Villagers” by Shirley Jackson
- “The Voter” by Chinua Achebe
- “The Voyage” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Wait” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The War of the Wall” by Toni Cade Bambara
- “The Way Up to Heaven” by Roald Dahl
- “The Whistle” by Eudora Welty
- “The White Deer” by James Thurber
- “The White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett
- “The White Horses of Vienna” by Kay Boyle
- “The White Stocking” by D. H. Lawrence
- “The Wind Blows” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Witness” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Woman Who Saw Snow” by Carson McCullers
- “The World of Apples” by John Cheever
- “The Wrong Thing” by Mary Gaitskill
- “The Wrysons” by John Cheever
- “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- “The Young Girl” by Katherine Mansfield
- “The Zahir” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “The £1,000,000 Bank Note” by Mark Twain
- “Theft” by Katherine Anne Porter
- “Theme of the Traitor and the Hero” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “There Are No Thieves in This Town” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “There Was a Queen” by William Faulkner
- “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury
- “This Blessed House” by Jhumpa Lahiri
- “Thor Bridge” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “Three Day Blow” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Three Million Yen” by Yukio Mishima
- “Three Versions of Judas” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Tiny Smiling Daddy” by Mary Gaitskill
- “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis, Tertius” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “To Build a Fire” by Jack London
- “To Room Nineteen” by Doris Lessing
- “Tobermory” by Saki
- “Today is Friday” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Tomorrow” by William Faulkner
- “Too Cute” by Kristen Roupenian
- “Torch Song” by John Cheever
- “Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “Trial By Combat” by Shirley Jackson
- “Tuesday Siesta” by Gabriel García Márquez
- “Two Gallants” by James Joyce
- “Uncle Ben’s Choice” by Chinua Achebe
- “Uncle Willy” by William Faulkner
- “Under the Garden” by Graham Greene
- “Untitled Piece” by Carson McCullers
- “Up in Michigan” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Uprooted” by Francis King
- “Vengeful Creditor” by Chinua Achebe
- “Viewfinder” by Raymond Carver
- “Vitamins” by Raymond Carver
- “Wakefield” by E. L. Doctorow
- “Want to See Something?” by Raymond Carver
- “Ward No. 6” by Anton Chekhov
- “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson
- “We Love Glenda So Much” by Julio Cortázar
- “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks
- “Weekend Revisited” by William Faulkner
- “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way” by David Foster Wallace (from Girl with Curious Hair)
- “What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky” by Lesley Nneka Arimah
- “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” by Raymond Carver
- “What’s in Alaska?” by Raymond Carver
- “When Fiction Lives in Fiction” by Jorge Luis Borges
- “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates
- “Where I’m Calling From” by Raymond Carver
- “Who Has Seen the Wind?” by Carson McCullers
- “Who Will Greet You at Home” by Lesley Nneka Arimah
- “Whoever Was Using This Bed” by Raymond Carver
- “Who’s Passing for Who?” by Langston Hughes
- “Why Don’t You Dance?” by Raymond Carver
- “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty
- “Why We’re Patriots” by E.L. Doctorow
- “Why, Honey?” by Raymond Carver
- “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?” by Raymond Carver
- “Willi” by E. L. Doctorow
- “Wine of Wyoming” by Ernest Hemingway
- “Wingless” by Jamaica Kincaid
- “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “Wisteria Lodge” by Arthur Conan Doyle
- “Wunderkind” by Carson McCullers
- “Yentl the Yeshiva Boy” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- “Zlateh the Goat” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
If you disagree or see a mistake, leave a comment. I’m happy to make changes and listen to suggestions. Thank you so much for helping create the 1000 Great Short Stories of All Time list.
Mike says
Girl with Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace
Leah says
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Cillin McMahon says
How to Talk to Girls at Parties, by Neil Gaiman.
Yasmin says
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by William Saroyan
Yasmin says
Also, St. Mawr by D.H. Lawrence and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
Tammy says
“Meneseteung,” by Alice Munro
“In the Gloaming,” by Alice Elliott Dark
“My Parents’ Bedroom,” by Uwem Akpan
“Intervention,” by Jill McCorkle
Richard says
Thank you for your suggestions. I will add them to the list very soon!
melaney says
Just surprised myself, I’ve read all of these.
Richard says
Melaney, do you have any other suggestions?! Help please.
John Giles says
The Nine Billion Names of God
Arthur C. Clarke
Bill Barrett says
Greenleaf by Flannery O’Connor
Donna B. Comeaux says
“Sula” by Toni Morrison
“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison
Donna B. Comeaux says
“The Blacker the Berry” by Wallace Thurman
“Black Boy” by Richard Wright
joanna walsh says
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
joanna walsh says
Oh damn, forgot Mary Gaitskill’s Romantic Weekend.
Leo says
The Depressed Person by David Foster Wallace
The Babysitter by Robert Coover
The Nonce Prize by Will Self
Gordon Petry says
Why I live over the P.O. Eudora Welty
The Chaser John Collier
The Hypnoglyph John Anthony (pen name for John Ciardi)
Kasper Løvborg says
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
Charmaine says
What we talk about when we talk about love – Raymond Chandler
Vinita Agrawal says
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.
Vinita Agrawal says
The Japanese Wife by Kunal Basu
John timm says
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Herman Melville
Jim says
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.
Paul Teodori says
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.
Yasmin says
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by William Saroyan
The Wall by Jean-Paul Sartre
warui says
An act of Kindness….a story about taking cae of feelings of ur kids or else the unimaginable happens
Curtis says
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
Curtis says
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
Ed says
Barn Burning by Faulkner
Soldier’s Home by Hemingway
The Lady with the Little Dog by Chekhov
Babylon Revisited by Scott Fitzgerald
Mélanie says
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!
Gerry Christmas says
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
Every Writer says
Thx for this Jerry
Gerry Christmas says
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
Dre says
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!!
JB says
@Dre I believe it’s called “Wish you were here.” Great story!
Tarran says
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?
pmaha says
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
Adam says
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
Phil says
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.
Tom Finn says
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
Larry m says
Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin (the shortest novel I ever read)
Michael Calvert says
Has anyone mentioned Bartleby the Scivener? I always considered it one of the very best.
Every Writer says
It’s on the list, but thank you
David Y says
I was told to read:
The All-Girl Football Team
My People’s Waltz
Phil says
Quality by John Galsworthy
Amy says
The Terrapin by Patricia Highsmith
Uday Kumar Das says
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,
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John Updike (1932- ) A&P,
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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,
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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),
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Emile Zola Fete at Coqueville
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General stories
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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
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Aiden says
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.
Lana says
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx hasn’t been mentioned yet. A beautiful piece of writing.
Robert Peate says
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
Evan Waller says
“The Secret Integration” and “Under the Rose”, both by Thomas Pynchon (does this list still get updated btw?)
Ron Ginzler says
“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.
Ted Mosser says
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.
mike whitney says
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.
Jannetta Vairin says
Hunters in the snow by Tobias Wolf, Desirees Baby by Kate chopin The River by Flannery O’Connor
Heidi B says
Revelation by Flannery O Connor, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane
Pam Hall says
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
mike whitney says
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.
Henrique says
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!
Martin G. says
Seeing no John Wyndham here:- Chronoclasm, Meteor, Opposite Number
Mike says
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
David Collins says
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.