SHORT STORIES THAT YOU READ AGAIN

Forums: Short Stories, Books, List, Reread
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Some of my favorites are
A Rose For Emily

Dolens Cadillac

To Build A Fire

The Rats in the Walls

The economy (and artistry) of a really good short story becomes evident after several rereads. ONe can see where the author practices word economy to present his story.

Short stoery writing is like painting good watercolors, short stories are created by studied ommission.

Do you have any favorites? Ill be back, (if the thread catches on) to discuss what I admire in the above examples.

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@farmerman,

To Build a Fire is one that I re-read every year or two. I've always loved the line about how the man was quick and alert in the things of life, but not in their significance.

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Roald Dahl has many stories I like. Parson's Pleasure comes to mind.

My problem is putting a title, and often author, to a good short story.

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Great idea for a thread !

Nickolai Gogol;
- The Overcoat
-A terrible Vengence
- The Nose
-Nevsky Prospekt

Guy de Maupassant;
-In the Wood
- The Diamond Necklace
- many others

Ivan Turgenev;
The Diary of a Superfluous Man

Maxim Gorky;
- Tchelkash
- Malva
- Twenty Six Men and a Girl
- A Man is Born

Somerset Maugham;
-Rain/Sadie Thompson

O Henry;
- The Gift of the Magi

Frank Stockton;
- The Lady or the Tiger ?

Many others !!

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The Lottery - Jackson
Bartleby the Scrivener - Melville
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place - Hemingway
The Friar's Tale / The Summoner's Tale - Chaucer
Gimpel the Fool - Singer
Shooting an Elephant - Orwell
Where are You Going, Where Have You Been? - Oates
The Gospel According to Mark - Borges

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@Lash,

Elephant Bangs Train by William Kotzwinkle.

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@Lash,

The Lottery, good one

i re-read The Martian Chronicles at least every couple of years

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/TheMartianChronicles%281stEd%29.jpg

some standout stories for me
Rocket Summer

The Earth Men

There Will Come Soft Rains

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@dyslexia,

goes on my list...thank you!

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@Lash,

Bartleby was, of course a marvelous description of the horrors of dealing with a seriously passive aggressive personality. A memorable piece of work. However, I can't say I enjoyed reading it, or would like to read it again.

Altenatively, Maupassant's stories are always fresh and delightful. Try his "In the Wood". You can easily find it online and I think you'll like it.

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@georgeob1,

Hey, G. My Bartleby experience was vastly different than yours, it appears. It was, for me, about how we're all on a lemming march - how we dress, the things we're allowed to say socially...Everything we do, more than we even know, is pre-ordained,.. rules trickled down through the ages, tweaked but upheld and highly regimented by the majority.

This guy says "I'd prefer not to," and the world upends around him. People are confounded, furious,... The metaphors of police called in, the asylum, and the skillful epigrammatic mention of his working in the postal system... the Lost Letters and their effect on him... it was harrowing, smart, and deeply personal for me. I'd read it again to remember who I was when I was proud of myself.

I read "The Necklace" and didn't like it, but I will happily try "In the Wood" on your recommendation. Thanks! I'll report back.

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Of the ones youve mentioned, Ive read a few and havent been spurred to re read them . I shall

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@Lash,

You can find it here,
http://www.readbookonline.net/stories/Maupassant/19/

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I'm a big William Trevor fan (alas I leant out my favorite book of his short stories and forget the title of the book much less the stories) and a Kafka short story fan; was an early O'Henry fan (probably less so now, if I read him again, or maybe not less so) and an Alice Munro fan, and a Laurie Colwin fan.. all very different writers.

On my near the bed stack of books - Guy de Maupassat's Selected Short Stories (Penguin). I read that when I was around nineteen. Don't remember a bit of it.
It'll be interesting if when I am reading the stories again, I'll know the endings by some vestigial instinct.

I also liked Ring Lardner, whose writing I remember even less of.

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@Lash,

Lash wrote:

Hey, G. My Bartleby experience was vastly different than yours, it appears. It was, for me, about how we're all on a lemming march - how we dress, the things we're allowed to say socially...Everything we do, more than we even know, is pre-ordained,.. rules trickled down through the ages, tweaked but upheld and highly regimented by the majority.

This guy says "I'd prefer not to," and the world upends around him. People are confounded, furious,... The metaphors of police called in, the asylum, and the skillful epigrammatic mention of his working in the postal system... the Lost Letters and their effect on him... it was harrowing, smart, and deeply personal for me. I'd read it again to remember who I was when I was proud of myself.

I read "The Necklace" and didn't like it, but I will happily try "In the Wood" on your recommendation. Thanks! I'll report back.

I loved the story of Bartleby and would read it again. But my reaction was quite different from yours, Lash. I read it a long time ago. I remember being amused, bemused, and mystified at this man who just preferred not to. As the story progressed, I grew uncomfortable and actually afraid at what was wrong with him and what would happen to him. I also grew annoyed that people seemed so tolerant of his eccentricity.

I think it's a sign of a good story that people who read it have such different reactions.

This puts me in mind of The Metamorphosis by Kafka. Not a short story--more a short novel. I read it at three different times in my life, and each time my reaction was very different. This was determined by who I was when I read it.

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@Roberta,

Roberta wrote:

This puts me in mind of The Metamorphosis by Kafka. Not a short story--more a short novel. I read it at three different times in my life, and each time my reaction was very different. This was determined by who I was when I read it.

"Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to discover he had been transformed into a beetle". A very strange tale by an even stranger writer. I read it as a young man still in college. Useful for connecting with wistful young girls from St John's College in Annapolis, but little else I thought.

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@Roberta,

Roberta,
That's one reason I love some literature...not so much for the straight reading (although many times, that is a treat in itself), but what global parallels or metaphors spring to mind as I read - the competing undercurrent of the theme or whatever... Bartleby lends so well to that for me...and conformity has always been a huge topic to me. But, always very glad to read others' ideas about lit.

I've only read the Kafka once, so I'll look over it again and see if my perceptions have changed. It was about 8 years ago, I think.

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@georgeob1,

It was very sweet! Thank you!

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@Lash,

Glad you liked it. There is another you might like .... "Regret".

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@georgeob1,

georgeob1 wrote:

Roberta wrote:

This puts me in mind of The Metamorphosis by Kafka. Not a short story--more a short novel. I read it at three different times in my life, and each time my reaction was very different. This was determined by who I was when I read it.

"Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to discover he had been transformed into a beetle". A very strange tale by an even stranger writer. I read it as a young man still in college. Useful for connecting with wistful young girls from St John's College in Annapolis, but little else I thought.

george, The first time I read Metamorphosis I was in college. I thought the writing was powerful, but I thought the story was weird and difficult to connect to.

The next time I read it I was in my mid-twenties. It made me angry. That such a thing could happen with not much concern for the "person" it was happening to. Such alienation and abandonment.

The last time I read it, I was maybe forty. I thought it was the saddest story I'd ever read. It actually made me cry.

I think that age and maturity can alter our perceptions and interpretations of what we read. I know it's true about a number of books I read in college.

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@Roberta,

Kafka, I can only think of two stories of his I really enjoyed, The Penal Colony and The Hunger Artist.

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SHORT STORIES THAT YOU READ AGAIN

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