In college, I took a short stories course. I really love to read a short. I think the authors are very talented to create a story so small but has the same effects as a novel. I really love shorts. Here are some of my favorite “Classic” short stories.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Anything really by Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart, Fall of the House of Usher, The Black Cat
Many people expect me to say Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, but I enjoyed Soldier’s Home a lot more.
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (Then watch the Twilight Zone episode)
The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs (I would read this to my classroom every year when I was a teacher.)
The Metamorphasis by Franz Kafka (What a trip)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
The Rocking Horse Winner AND Ordour of Chrysanthemums by D.H. Lawrence
To Build a Fire by Jack London
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
The Landlady AND Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl (His shorts are not for children)
Rip Van Winkle AND The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
The Veldt AND All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry
The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
I am NOT a Stephen King fan. But I did enjoy some of his earlier short stories. My favorite is The Children of the Corn.
Recitatif by Toni Morrison (I just read this for the 1st time a few months ago. I really enjoyed it)
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
The Story of the Hour by Kate Chopin
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? By Joyce Carol Oates