2 Flannery O Connor. 3 Susan Glaspell

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1 1 John Updike "A & P" A & P (1961), a short story by American author John Updike ( ), articulates a teenage boy s sudden awareness of the split between his inner feelings and society s values. As such it is considered to be among Updike s most successful coming-of-age narratives. Like much of Updike s fiction A & P first appeared in the New Yorker before being included in the collection Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories in Flannery O Connor 3 Susan Glaspell 4 William Faulkner 5 Gabriel Garcia Marquez "A Good Man is Hard to Find" A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) by Flannery O Connor ( ) depicts the callous murder of a family by three escaped convicts, among them a notorious killer called the Misfit. The short story, considered to be one of the author s best, first appeared in O Connor s 1955 collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and Other Stories. The story is noteworthy for its religious themes, in particular O Connor s depiction of salvation through a shocking, violent event experienced by characters who are spiritually or physically grotesque. "A Jury of her Peers" Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers, first published in 1917, is a short story adaptation of her one-act play Trifles. Inspired by events witnessed during her years as a court reporter in Iowa, Glaspell crafted a story in which a group of rural women deduce the details of a murder in which a woman has killed her husband. Understanding the clues left amidst the trifles of the woman's kitchen, the women are able to outsmart their husbands, who are at the farmhouse to collect evidence, and thus prevent the wife from being convicted of the crime. "A Rose for Emily" "A Rose for Emily" (1931) is among the most widely anthologized and analyzed short stories of the American author William Faulkner ( ). Drawing on the tradition of gothic literature in America, particularly Southern gothic, the story uses grotesque imagery and first-person-plural narration to explore a culture unable to cope with its own death and decay. "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by the Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez (1927-) was published in the author s debut collection of short stories, Leaf Storm (1955). The success of this collection led García Márquez to quit his job as a journalist and dedicate himself to writing. The story is a showcase of the magical realism for which García Márquez became internationally famous: a combination of history, fantastical elements, and folktale reminiscent of Franz Kafka ( ). The title character of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings is an elderly homeless man who is discovered by Pelayo, a poor villager. 6 Morley Callaghan "All The Years of Her Life" "All the Years of Her Life" is a short story by Canadian writer Morley Callaghan. It was published in his second collection of short stories, Now That April's Here and Other Stories (New York, 1936). "All the Years of Her Life" is a straightforward story with only three characters, written in an economical, unpretentious style typical of Callaghan's work. A young man, Alfred Higgins, is caught by his employer, Sam Carr, pilfering items from the drugstore where he works. Instead of immediately calling the police, Mr. Carr sends for Alfred's mother. The story focuses on Mrs. Higgins's psychological state.

2 7 Ambrose Bierce "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" In September 1861, just a few months after the Civil War broke out, nineteen-year-old Ambrose Bierce joined the Union army in Indiana. By the time the war ended in 1865, he had fought in numerous major battles, worked as a military mapmaker, and been severely wounded in the head. He had also stored up enough memories to provide material for nineteen short stories about the war. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is the most famous of these stories. Despite its unconventional style, this story provided one of the first realistic portrayals of the horrors of the war. 8 James Joyce "Araby" In his early story Araby, James Joyce prefigures many, if not all, of the themes which later became the focus of his writing. Joyce, often considered the greatest English-language novelist of the twentieth century, published few books in his lifetime. Chamber Music, a book of poems, appeared in 1907; Dubliners, a collection of short stories from which Araby is taken, was published in 1914; and his first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, came out in the same year. The book for which Joyce is most famous, Ulysses, appeared in 1922 and was quickly banned. Finally, in 1939, Joyce published Finnegans Wake. Notwithstanding his small output, Joyce's work has been highly influential, and many of the themes and details he uses in his work have become common currency in English literature. In Araby, a story of a young boy's disillusionment, Joyce explores questions of nationality, religion, popular culture, art, and relationships between the sexes. 9 F. Scott Fitzgerald "Babylon Revisited" Babylon Revisited (1931) by F. Scott Fitzgerald ( ) is his most anthologized short story and considered by many to be his best. Fitzgerald wrote Babylon Revisited during a time of emotional and economic crisis. Like most of his work, the story reflects his own personal experience and his relationship with his wife, Zelda, and its tone is thoughtful and retrospective. Set against the backdrop of expatriate Europe during the 1930s, Babylon Revisited focuses on Charlie Wales, a wealthy playboy of 1920s Paris, who must face his past failures as a husband and father. 10 Kate Chopin "Desiree s Baby" Kate Chopin, who reached her creative peak in the late nineteenth century, wrote about issues that wouldn't take social focus until many years after her death. In her frank portrayals of female sexuality and female independence, Chopin raised such matters normally left to male writers if any writers at all. In 1899, she published her highly controversial novel, The Awakening, which details one woman's adulterous affairs and, perhaps more shockingly, her intent to seize control of her own life. "Désirée's Baby," written in 1893, is the short story for which Chopin is most well known. When the story collection in which it was reprinted, Bayou Folk, was first published, reviewers particularly appreciated Chopin's remarkable evocation of Cajun Louisiana. 11 Sandra Cisneros "Eleven" Sandra Cisneros's short story "Eleven" first appeared in her 1991 collection Woman Hollering Creek, and Other Stories. In the twenty-two stories in that collection, Cisneros presents characters who live on the border between Mexico and the United States and who struggle with their identities, heritage, and circumstances.

3 12 Alice Walker "Everyday Use" "Everyday Use" (1973) is among the most widely anthologized and acclaimed short stories by the American author Alice Walker (1944-). The story appeared in Walker's second volume of short fiction, In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973). That same year, "Everyday Use" was included in the Best American Short Stories of "Everyday Use" follows a college-educated woman, Dee, as she returns home to visit her mother and her younger sister and the cultural clash between the family members sparked by family heirlooms. 13 Ernest Hemingway "Hills Like White Elephants" Since its publication in 1927, "Hills Like White Elephants" has become regarded as the quintessential Hemingway story for its restraint and subtlety. In only a few pages, Hemingway develops a tense conflict between a man and a woman who are deeply divided about a decision that will affect the rest of their lives. The story's style is in accordance with Hemingway's "iceberg theory," that an essential element of a story could be implied but never stated. 14 Roald Dahl "Lamb to the Slaughter" Published in 1953 in Collier's after initial rejection by The New Yorker, Roald Dahl's short story (taken from the phrase describing an innocent or naïve person being led into danger or failure), is representative of Dahl's economical style and dry, dark sense of humor. Like all of his short fiction, the narrative in this story is driven by plot, not by character or mood. The critic Thomas Bertonneau finds that Dahl "offers his readers a tale so grotesque, so darkly comic, so hilarious in some of its incidental details...that one can easily fail to take it seriously," despite its depiction of "domestic comfort disrupted, of marriage betrayed, and of a 15 Edgar Allan Poe life "Masque taken." of the Red Death" Edgar Allan Poe contributed to the rise of the modern horror story, the detective story, and science fiction. Given his life, it is no wonder Poe's writing focused on the dark and strange. Confinement and containment are recurring themes in Poe's fiction. In some stories, such as "The Tell-Tale Heart," that which should stay hidden does not. In others, containment is a sign of madness (as in "The Cask of Amontillado"), an accident (as in "The Premature Burial"), or, as in "The Masque of the Red Death," a tragedy in the purest classical sense of the word. 16 Katherine Mansfield "Miss Brill" First published in the Athenaeum (26 November 1920) and later collected in The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922), Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield ( ) is considered a classic modernist character sketch. Its use of subjective, momentary fragments of perception is an example of the literary impressionism found throughout Mansfield s work. Miss Brill has consistently been one of Mansfield s most popular works, and it has been anthologized numerous times since its publication. 17 Willa Cather "Paul s Case" Willa Cather spent much of her childhood in Nebraska, but moved to Pennsylvania after college and eventually to New York City. Her writing often focuses on the middle West, and she is best known as a pioneer of American regionalism, but in all her work there lurks the creeping shadow of cosmopolitanism. She often played out this conflict through the figure of the sophisticated aesthete or artist, unable to achieve any standard of American success or to integrate into "honest" society. "Paul's Case" tells a story of extreme alienation; Paul, the protagonist, fits in nowhere in his small town but has no access to the alternative, sophisticated world he longs for.

4 18 Edith Wharton 19 George Orwell 20 Daphne du Maurier "Roman Fever" Roman Fever (1934) by Edith Wharton ( ) is often regarded as the most popular work from the author s last short story collection, The World Over (1936). Like much of Wharton s fiction, the focus of the story is on desire, aging, memory, and death, and it features a revelation of latent hatred as two widows converse over ancient Roman ruins in the 1920s. "Shooting an Elephant" While Orwell was well known during his lifetime as the author of 1984 and Animal Farm, his nonfiction writing underwent a critical revival in the politically charged 1960s. Written in a journalistic first-person prose, Orwell's satirical and autobiographical essay (which some critics consider a story), "Shooting an Elephant" recounts the author's experiences as a colonial police officer in Moulmein, Lower Burma, during the 1920s. Shooting an Elephant is a central text in modern British literature and has generated perhaps more criticism than any other comparable short piece. "The Birds" After its publication in 1952 in her short story collection The Apple Tree, "The Birds" became one of Daphne du Maurier's most celebrated works. The story presents an unrelenting portrait of terror and a compelling analogy of the atmosphere of fear generated in America and Europe during the Cold War years. Covering only a few days in the life of a family living on the Cornish coast of England, "The Birds" examines what would happen if animals traditionally regarded as symbols of peace and freedom began to ruthlessly attack humans. 21 Jorge Luis Borges 22 Katherine Mansfield 23 Edgar Allan Poe "The Circular Ruins" Jorge Luis Borges wrote "The Circular Ruins" in 1939, and the story was first published as "Las ruinas circulares" in the journal Sur in December "The Circular Ruins" encapsulates many themes important to Borges, including labyrinths, infinite regression (the idea of a thing reflected upon itself endlessly--like two mirrors facing each other), and the intersection between dreams and reality. The story tells of a "gray man" whose boat washes ashore near the ruins of a circular temple. His self-appointed task is to create a man by dreaming him into existence. Borges offers a fascinating perspective on the ontological question of causa sui. Can someone or something be its own cause? "The Doll s House" Katherine Mansfield was one of the few writers of the 20th century to devote her efforts exclusively to the short story. She deeply admired Chekov, and her work reflects his masterfully delicate but dense prose, and his subtle psychological penetration. She differs from him, however, in her ability to render the points of view of an incredible variety of characters, particularly women and children. Her stories often reveal the intense drama of everyday life, the painful insights of childhood, and the horrors of marital and domestic confinement. "The Doll's House" powerfully exemplifies her style. "The Fall of the House of Usher" Edgar Allan Poe contributed to the rise of the modern horror story, the detective story, and science fiction. Given his life, it is no wonder Poe's writing focused on the dark and strange. Confinement and containment are recurring themes in Poe's fiction. In some stories, such as "The Tell-Tale Heart," that which should stay hidden does not. In others like "The Fall of the House of Usher" fear, the bizarre, and psyhological gloom pervade the story.

5 24 Katherine Mansfield "The Garden Party" Katherine Mansfield published The Garden Party and Other Stories in 1922, the same year that T.S. Eliot published The Waste Land, and James Joyce published Ulysses. Mansfield's collection similarly represents the mature progress of her artistry. It contains some of her finest work, and illustrates the artistic usefulness of her New Zealand background. The title story, "The Garden Party," tells of a lavish occasion interrupted by neighboring accident and grief. 25 Katherine Anne Porter "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (1929) by Katherine Anne Porter ( ) is a short story that focuses on the final day in the life of Granny Weatherall, an eighty-year-old widow who for sixty years has harbored the painful memory of being left at the altar. Told in a challenging stream-of-consciousness style in which the reader is privy to Granny Weatherall s deepest thoughts and memories despite her attempts to keep them hidden from her family, the story is considered a masterful portrait of the human mind on the verge of death. It was originally published in the avant-garde magazine transition in 1929 and later appeared in the collection Flowering Judas, and Other Stories (1930). 26 Washington Irving 27 Flannery O Connor 28 Shirley Jackson 29 Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by American author Washington Irving ( ), was originally published in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1820), a collection of sketches, tales, and travel reminiscences considered by critics to be Irving s greatest achievement. The short story which details the run-in of a Connecticut schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, with a headless horseman weaves elements of myth, folklore, and drama into a narrative that achieved almost immediate classic status. Today critics agree the story is the author s most lasting artistic achievement, one that provided a model for the modern short story and "The introduced Life You Save imagery May and Be archetypes Your Own" that enriched American literature. The Life You Save May Be Your Own (1953) is a well-known short story by Flannery O Connor ( ) in which she explores the familiar themes of ethics and changing moralities, using symbolism and dark humor to underscore the allegorical nature of the tale. The story details the fates of an old woman her mentally disabled daughter and their interaction with a one-armed drifter who, when coming looking for work, "The Lottery" asks to stay on the pair's property. The eerie combination of quaint realism and pure savagery in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" has haunted readers ever since it was published in Told from an objective point of view, this story is of a humdrum village lottery that chooses one person in the village for a brutal trial by ordeal, of sorts. "The Minister s Black Veil" "The Minister's Black Veil" is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was first published in the 1832 edition of The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, concerning a religious and moral hypocrisy and judgment in puritanical New England

6 30 Stephen Crane 31 D. H. Lawrence "The Open Boat" The Open Boat (1898) by American writer Stephen Crane ( ) is considered one of the great sea tales of world literature. The story is based upon Crane s experience as a correspondent shipwrecked while on a filibustering expedition to supply Cuban revolutionaries in His report of the incident appeared in the New York Press on January 7, 1897, and was written in fictional form a year later. Critics have noted that Crane s use of vivid imagery throughout the story underscores both the beauty and terror of natural forces and conveys the antagonism between survivors and the sea. "The Rocking Horse Winner" Hailed by critics as a technically perfect short story, The Rocking-Horse Winner (1926) by D.H. Lawrence ( ) is the fable-like tale of a young boy s search for fortune and affection in an uncaring world. The story has regularly appeared in anthologies and has been the subject of numerous scholarly interpretations. Written during the last years of his life, the story and others of the period represent, according to Janice Hubbard Harris, desire of a fierce and dying man to prophesy, sum up, assess the world he is leaving rather than present or imitate it. 32 Ernest Hemingway 33 Ernest Hemingway "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" Ernest Hemingway first published "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" in the September, 1936, issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. No story by Ernest Hemingway is more famous than "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." Popular with general readers, it has also attracted an enormous amount of scholarly attention and debate. Long aware of the basis of the story in Hemingway's first African safari, scholars have long debated literary influences and parallels. The story concerns themes of marriage, the artist, "The Snows and the of outdoors. Kilimanjaro" Short story by Ernest HEMINGWAY, first published in Esquire magazine in 1936 and later collected in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938). The stream-of-consciousness narrative relates the feelings of Harry, a novelist suffering from gangrene poisoning while on an African safari. Hemingway considered The Snows of Kilimanjaro his finest story. 34 John Cheever 35 Edgar Allan Poe "The Swimmer" The Swimmer is one of the most acclaimed short stories by American author John Cheever ( ). First collected in The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964), the piece is representative of Cheever s suburban stories, which explore the grandeur and pathos of individuals living within the turmoil of a seemingly placid American suburbia. The story blends realism and myth as it follows Neddy Merrill's eightmile journey swimming the pools of New York s affluent Westchester County. "The Tell-Tale Heart" Among the many strange and complex short stories of Edgar Allan Poe ( ), The Tell-Tale Heart (1843) has come to be known as one of the most mysterious and psychologically intriguing. Poe s preoccupations with death, madness, and troubled human relationships find their culmination in this brief narrative. The simple 2,200-word first-person narrative is the confession by a murderer to a grisly but apparently motiveless crime.

7 36 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 37 Ray Bradbury "The Yellow Wallpaper" In 1913, more than twenty years after the first publication of The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote that she devised the story, to save people from being driven crazy. Gilman had suffered a near mental breakdown herself, in the mid 1800s, and been prescribed a rest treatment very similar to that prescribed to the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. For Gilman, the act of resuming her normal life, which certainly included writing, was what restored her health. "There Will Come Soft Rains" The story portrays the life, or inner workings, of a house, standing "alone in a city of rubble and ashes." The inhabits of the house, "their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, have been eradicated by what one assumes is an atomic blast that makes the "ruined city give off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles." The impersonal house, equipped with more technological conveniences than one could imagine, continues about its routine, oblivious to the devastation around it. 38 Jack London "To Build a Fire" The Pacific and the down-and-out were what London knew best. "To Build a Fire" was drawn from the year he spent in Canada's Yukon Territory, aged 21 and suffering from scurvy, during the height of the gold rush there in One of his finest short stories, it reflects the heavily Naturalistic flavor he has come to be known for, and it pits one man, alone, against the overwhelming forces of nature, a setting many critics have claimed to be his best. 39 F. Scott Fitzgerald 40 Nathaniel Hawthorne "Winter Dreams" Winter Dreams (1922) by F. Scott Fitzgerald ( ) is considered the strongest of the Gatsby cluster stories, a group of short stories and novellas written from 1922 to 1924 in order to cultivate ideas for The Great Gatsby (1925). The protagonist of Winter Dreams, Dexter Green, is thought to be a prototype of Jay Gatsby, and many of the story s themes including youthful desire, disillusionment, and the corrupting influence of wealth are further developed in the pages of Gatsby. "Young Goodman Brown" Set in seventeenth-century Salem, Young Goodman Brown (1835) tells the story of a naïve and recently married Puritan who leaves behind his anxious wife, Faith, for a mysterious errand in a primeval forest. Faith begs him not to go, but Brown says he has a task that must be finished before sunrise. As he sets out on his journey, Brown meets an old man who is actually the Devil in disguise.

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