200 Greatest Short Stories
Criteria: It is with respect to the myriad forms and subject matter that exist in short stories that these titles were chosen. Their lasting impact, influence in the genre and originality, prime elements for inclusion. As with all lists, this is a subjective list and makes no claim of an official nature.
Greatest Short Stories
1. An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce
2. The Cask of Amontillado
by Edgar Allan Poe
3. The Gift of The Magi
by O'Henry
4. A Hunger Artist
by Franz Kafka
5. For Eseme - with Love and Squalor
by J.D. Salinger
by Ambrose Bierce
2. The Cask of Amontillado
by Edgar Allan Poe
3. The Gift of The Magi
by O'Henry
4. A Hunger Artist
by Franz Kafka
5. For Eseme - with Love and Squalor
by J.D. Salinger
6. The Dead
by James Joyce
7. The Nose
by Nikolai Gogol
8. Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
by Cordwainer Smith
9. Harrison Bergeron
by Kurt Vonnegut
10. In the Penal Colony
by Franz Kafka
11. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
by Washington Irving
12. The Swimmer
by John Cheever
13. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
14. The Imp of The Perverse
by Edgar Allan Poe
15. The Richest Man in Babylon
by George S. Clason
16. Everthing That Rises Must Converge
by Flannery O'Connor
17. A Child's Christmas in Wales
by Dylan Thomas
18. Goodbye, My Brother
by John Cheever
19. The Tell-Tale Heart
by Edgar Allan Poe
20. The Overcoat
by Nikolai Gogol
21. Venus Smiles
by J.G. Ballard
22. Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
by Robert Louis Stevenson
23. The Lottery
by Shirley Jackson
24. The Private History of a Campaign That Failed
by Mark Twain
25. The Most Dangerous Game
by Richard Connell
26. Heat
by Joyce Carol Oates
27. The Aleph
by Jorge Luis Borges
28. The Murder
by John Steinbeck
29. A & P
by John Updike
30. A Perfect Day for Bananafish
by J.D. Salinger
31. Clattery Teeth
by Stephen King
32. The Open Boat
by Stephen Crane
33. The Eclipse
by James Fenimore Cooper
34. The Lady with the Dog
by Anton Chekhov
35. Was it Heaven? Or Hell?
by Mark Twain
36. To Build a Fire
by Jack London
37. A Haunted House
by Virginia Woolf
38. The Beast in the Jungle
by Henry James
39. Rain
by W Somerset Maugham
40. The Killers
by Ernest Hemingway
41. Dry September
by William Faulkner
42. A Passion in the Desert
by Honore de Balzac
43. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
by Mark Twain
44. The Sentinel
by Arthur C Clarke
45. The Girl With The Blackened Eye
by Joyce Carol Oates
46. The Horla
by Guy de Maupassant
47. The Lightning-Rod Man
by Herman Melville
48. The Rocking-Horse Winner
by D.H. Lawrence
49. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
by J.D. Salinger
50. The Fall of The House of Usher
by Edgar Allan Poe
51. Going to Meet the Man
by James Baldwin
52. The Boarded Window
by Ambrose Bierce
53. Heartache
by Hans Christian Andersen
54. The Gernsback Continuum
by William Gibson
55. Defender of the Faith
by Philip Roth
56. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
by Ernest Hemingway
57. The Death of Ivan Ilych
by Leo Tolstoy
58. The Bear
by William Faulkner
59. The Bet
by Anton Chekhov
60. Nuns at Luncheon
by Aldous Huxley
61. Gentleman Junkie
by Harlan Ellison
62. A Country Doctor
by Franz Kafka
63. The Griffin and the Minor Canon
by Frank Stockton
64. Hills Like White Elephants
by Ernest Hemingway
65. The Purloined Letter
by Edgar Allan Poe
66. The Shunned House
by H.P. Lovecraft
67. The Three Linden Trees
by Hermann Hesse
68. A Good Man is Hard to Find
by Flannery O'Connor
69. A Delicate Sound of Thunder
by Ray Bradbury
70. The Outcasts of Poker Flats
by Bret Harte
71. A Telephone Call
by Dorothy Parker
72. The National Pastime
by John Cheever
73. Scarlett Stockings
by Louisa May Alcott
74. The Destructors
by Graham Greene
75. On The Gull's Road
by Willa Cather
76. Bartleby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
77. The Downfall of Fascism in Black Ankle County
by Joseph Mitchell
78. The Monkey's Paw
by W.W. Jacobs
79. By the Waters of Babylon
by Stephen Vincent Benét
80. Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar
by Ray Bradbury
81. Pigeon Feathers
by John Updike
82. The Shadow Over Innsmouth
by H.P. Lovecraft
83. Regret
by Kate Chopin
84. The Poor Relation's Story
by Charles Dickens
85. Under The Lion's Paw
by Hamlin Garland
86. The Interloper's
by Saki
87. A Dark Brown Dog
by Stephen Crane
88. Call of Cthulu
by H. P. Lovecraft
89. The Blind Man
by Guy de Maupassant
90. The Last Word
by Graham Greene
91. Daniel White for the Greater Good
by Harlan Ellison
92. The Knife of The Times
by William Carlos Williams
93. The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton
by Charles Dickens
94. Death In The Woods
by Sherwood Anderson
95. The Country Husband
by John Cheever
96. The Outstation
by W Somerset Maugham
97. The Crystal Egg
by H.G. Wells
98. The Birthmark
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
99. Ms. Found in a Bottle
by Edgar Allan Poe
100. Revenge of The Lawn
by Richard Brautigan
101. The Phantom Rickshaw
by Rudyard Kipling
102. Dolan's Cadillac
by Stephen King
103. Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
by Ernest Hemingway
104. Interpretation of a Dream
by John Collier
105. Welcome To The Monkey House
by Kurt Vonnegut
106. Leiningen versus the Ants
by Carl Stephenson
107. Mr F is Mr F
by J.G. Ballard
108. Guest's of the Nation
by Frank O'Connor
109. Young Goodman Brown
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
110. Tonio Kroger
by Thomas Mann
111. The Enormous Radio
by John Cheever
112. The Vigilante
by John Steinbeck
113. Evening Primrose
by John Collier
114. The Bishop
by Anton Chekhov
115. A Dead Issue
by Charles M. Flandrau
116. The Door
by E.B White
117. There Was a Young Lady of Perth
by William Saroyan
118. The Laughing Man
by J.D. Salinger
119. Barn Burning
by William Faulkner
120. Free With This Box
by Harlan Ellison
121. The Story of an Hour
by Kate Chopin
122. How The Leopard Got His Spots
by Rudyard Kipling
123. The Masque of the Red Death
by Edgar Allan Poe
124. Silent Snow, Secret Snow
by Conrad Aiken
125. Footprints in the Jungle
by W Somerset Maugham
126. Beware of The Dog
by Roald Dahl
127. Two Views of The Mississippi
by Mark Twain
128. Spotted Horses
by William Faulkner
129. In Our Time
by Ernest Hemingway
130. The Adventures of The German Student
by Washington Irving
131. Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut
by J.D. Salinger
132. The Tillotson Banquet
by Aldous Huxley
133. The Chaser
by John Collier
134. Father is Firm with his Ailments
by Clarence Day
135. Johnny Mnemonic
by William Gibson
136. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
by Rudyard Kipling
137. The Minister's Black Veil
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
138. Mr. Dooley on the Popularity of Fireman
by Finley Peter Dunne
139. The Baron of Grogzwig
by Charles Dickens
140. That Evening Sun
by William Faulkner
141. Soldier's of The Republic
by Dorothy Parker
142. The Use of Force
by William Carlos Williams
143. Old Folks Christmas
by Ring W. Lardner
144. Mr Preble Gets Rid of His Wife
by James Thurber
145. The Damned Thing
by Ambrose Bierce
146. The Death of Shorty
by Richard P Bissell
147. The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It
by John Collier
148. The Dandelion Girl
by Robert F Young
149. The Dilettante
by Edith Wharton
150. The Night of Delicate Terrors
by Harlan Ellison
151. My Kinsman, Major Molineux
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
152. All The King's Horses
by Kurt Vonnegut
153. Three Girls
by Joyce Carol Oates
154. Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking
by O'Henry
155. The Five-Forty-Eight
by John Cheever
156. The Archimandrite's Niece
by James Reid Parker
157. EPICAC
by Kurt Vonnegut
158. A Jury of Her Peers
by Susan Glaspell
159. The Yellow Wallpaper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
160. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
by Raymond Carver
161. The Ambitious Guest
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
162. The Old People
by William Faulkner
163. The Lucid Eye in Silver Town
by John Updike
164. Lather and Nothing Else
by Hernando Tellez
165. The Hour of Letdown
by E.B. White
166. The Rumor
by Erskine Caldwell
167. Survivor Type
by Stephen King
168. The Vicar of Azay-le-rideau
by Honoré de Balzac
169. Deer In The Works
by Kurt Vonnegut
170. The Body Snatcher
by Robert Louis Stevenson
171. Grandma and The Hindu Monk
by Seymour Freedgood
172. Masters of Arts
by O'Henry
173. Hate
by Arthur C Clarke
174. The First Christmas Tree
by Henry Van Dyke
175. 2BR02B
by Kurt Vonnegut
176. The Red Headed League
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
177. The New Villa
by Anton Chekhov
178. Madame Zilensky and the King of England
by Carson McCullers
179. New Rose Hotel
by William Gibson
180. The Red Room
by H.G. Wells
181. The Diamond As Big As The Ritz
by F Scott Fitzgerald
182. The Five Orange Pips
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
183. The Concentration City
by J.G. Ballard
184. Transience
by Arthur C Clarke
185. The End of The Party
by Graham Greene
186. Teddy
by J.D. Salinger
187. The Vertical Fields
by Fielding Dawson
188. A Mother's Tale
by James Agee
189. Transients in Arcadia
by O'Henry
190. The French Scarecrow
by William Maxwell
191. Shooting An Elephant
by George Orwell
192. Hunters in the Snow
by Tobias Wolff
193. The Street That Got Mislaid
by Patrick Waddington
194. Eva Is Inside Her Cat
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
195. A Day In The Country
by Anton Chekhov
196. The Girls In Their Summer Dresses
by Irwin Shaw
197. What Was It ?
by Fitz-James O'Brien
198. You Know They've Got a Helluva Band
by Stephen King
199. Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
by Sylvia Plath
200. The Big Space F***
by Kurt Vonnegut
by James Joyce
7. The Nose
by Nikolai Gogol
8. Alpha Ralpha Boulevard
by Cordwainer Smith
9. Harrison Bergeron
by Kurt Vonnegut
10. In the Penal Colony
by Franz Kafka
11. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
by Washington Irving
12. The Swimmer
by John Cheever
13. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
14. The Imp of The Perverse
by Edgar Allan Poe
15. The Richest Man in Babylon
by George S. Clason
16. Everthing That Rises Must Converge
by Flannery O'Connor
17. A Child's Christmas in Wales
by Dylan Thomas
18. Goodbye, My Brother
by John Cheever
19. The Tell-Tale Heart
by Edgar Allan Poe
20. The Overcoat
by Nikolai Gogol
21. Venus Smiles
by J.G. Ballard
22. Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
by Robert Louis Stevenson
23. The Lottery
by Shirley Jackson
24. The Private History of a Campaign That Failed
by Mark Twain
25. The Most Dangerous Game
by Richard Connell
26. Heat
by Joyce Carol Oates
27. The Aleph
by Jorge Luis Borges
28. The Murder
by John Steinbeck
29. A & P
by John Updike
30. A Perfect Day for Bananafish
by J.D. Salinger
31. Clattery Teeth
by Stephen King
32. The Open Boat
by Stephen Crane
33. The Eclipse
by James Fenimore Cooper
34. The Lady with the Dog
by Anton Chekhov
35. Was it Heaven? Or Hell?
by Mark Twain
36. To Build a Fire
by Jack London
37. A Haunted House
by Virginia Woolf
38. The Beast in the Jungle
by Henry James
39. Rain
by W Somerset Maugham
40. The Killers
by Ernest Hemingway
41. Dry September
by William Faulkner
42. A Passion in the Desert
by Honore de Balzac
43. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
by Mark Twain
44. The Sentinel
by Arthur C Clarke
45. The Girl With The Blackened Eye
by Joyce Carol Oates
46. The Horla
by Guy de Maupassant
47. The Lightning-Rod Man
by Herman Melville
48. The Rocking-Horse Winner
by D.H. Lawrence
49. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
by J.D. Salinger
50. The Fall of The House of Usher
by Edgar Allan Poe
51. Going to Meet the Man
by James Baldwin
52. The Boarded Window
by Ambrose Bierce
53. Heartache
by Hans Christian Andersen
54. The Gernsback Continuum
by William Gibson
55. Defender of the Faith
by Philip Roth
56. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
by Ernest Hemingway
57. The Death of Ivan Ilych
by Leo Tolstoy
58. The Bear
by William Faulkner
59. The Bet
by Anton Chekhov
60. Nuns at Luncheon
by Aldous Huxley
61. Gentleman Junkie
by Harlan Ellison
62. A Country Doctor
by Franz Kafka
63. The Griffin and the Minor Canon
by Frank Stockton
64. Hills Like White Elephants
by Ernest Hemingway
65. The Purloined Letter
by Edgar Allan Poe
66. The Shunned House
by H.P. Lovecraft
67. The Three Linden Trees
by Hermann Hesse
68. A Good Man is Hard to Find
by Flannery O'Connor
69. A Delicate Sound of Thunder
by Ray Bradbury
70. The Outcasts of Poker Flats
by Bret Harte
71. A Telephone Call
by Dorothy Parker
72. The National Pastime
by John Cheever
73. Scarlett Stockings
by Louisa May Alcott
74. The Destructors
by Graham Greene
75. On The Gull's Road
by Willa Cather
76. Bartleby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
77. The Downfall of Fascism in Black Ankle County
by Joseph Mitchell
78. The Monkey's Paw
by W.W. Jacobs
79. By the Waters of Babylon
by Stephen Vincent Benét
80. Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar
by Ray Bradbury
81. Pigeon Feathers
by John Updike
82. The Shadow Over Innsmouth
by H.P. Lovecraft
83. Regret
by Kate Chopin
84. The Poor Relation's Story
by Charles Dickens
85. Under The Lion's Paw
by Hamlin Garland
86. The Interloper's
by Saki
87. A Dark Brown Dog
by Stephen Crane
88. Call of Cthulu
by H. P. Lovecraft
89. The Blind Man
by Guy de Maupassant
90. The Last Word
by Graham Greene
91. Daniel White for the Greater Good
by Harlan Ellison
92. The Knife of The Times
by William Carlos Williams
93. The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton
by Charles Dickens
94. Death In The Woods
by Sherwood Anderson
95. The Country Husband
by John Cheever
96. The Outstation
by W Somerset Maugham
97. The Crystal Egg
by H.G. Wells
98. The Birthmark
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
99. Ms. Found in a Bottle
by Edgar Allan Poe
100. Revenge of The Lawn
by Richard Brautigan
101. The Phantom Rickshaw
by Rudyard Kipling
102. Dolan's Cadillac
by Stephen King
103. Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
by Ernest Hemingway
104. Interpretation of a Dream
by John Collier
105. Welcome To The Monkey House
by Kurt Vonnegut
106. Leiningen versus the Ants
by Carl Stephenson
107. Mr F is Mr F
by J.G. Ballard
108. Guest's of the Nation
by Frank O'Connor
109. Young Goodman Brown
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
110. Tonio Kroger
by Thomas Mann
111. The Enormous Radio
by John Cheever
112. The Vigilante
by John Steinbeck
113. Evening Primrose
by John Collier
114. The Bishop
by Anton Chekhov
115. A Dead Issue
by Charles M. Flandrau
116. The Door
by E.B White
117. There Was a Young Lady of Perth
by William Saroyan
118. The Laughing Man
by J.D. Salinger
119. Barn Burning
by William Faulkner
120. Free With This Box
by Harlan Ellison
121. The Story of an Hour
by Kate Chopin
122. How The Leopard Got His Spots
by Rudyard Kipling
123. The Masque of the Red Death
by Edgar Allan Poe
124. Silent Snow, Secret Snow
by Conrad Aiken
125. Footprints in the Jungle
by W Somerset Maugham
126. Beware of The Dog
by Roald Dahl
127. Two Views of The Mississippi
by Mark Twain
128. Spotted Horses
by William Faulkner
129. In Our Time
by Ernest Hemingway
130. The Adventures of The German Student
by Washington Irving
131. Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut
by J.D. Salinger
132. The Tillotson Banquet
by Aldous Huxley
133. The Chaser
by John Collier
134. Father is Firm with his Ailments
by Clarence Day
135. Johnny Mnemonic
by William Gibson
136. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
by Rudyard Kipling
137. The Minister's Black Veil
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
138. Mr. Dooley on the Popularity of Fireman
by Finley Peter Dunne
139. The Baron of Grogzwig
by Charles Dickens
140. That Evening Sun
by William Faulkner
141. Soldier's of The Republic
by Dorothy Parker
142. The Use of Force
by William Carlos Williams
143. Old Folks Christmas
by Ring W. Lardner
144. Mr Preble Gets Rid of His Wife
by James Thurber
145. The Damned Thing
by Ambrose Bierce
146. The Death of Shorty
by Richard P Bissell
147. The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It
by John Collier
148. The Dandelion Girl
by Robert F Young
149. The Dilettante
by Edith Wharton
150. The Night of Delicate Terrors
by Harlan Ellison
151. My Kinsman, Major Molineux
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
152. All The King's Horses
by Kurt Vonnegut
153. Three Girls
by Joyce Carol Oates
154. Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking
by O'Henry
155. The Five-Forty-Eight
by John Cheever
156. The Archimandrite's Niece
by James Reid Parker
157. EPICAC
by Kurt Vonnegut
158. A Jury of Her Peers
by Susan Glaspell
159. The Yellow Wallpaper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
160. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
by Raymond Carver
161. The Ambitious Guest
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
162. The Old People
by William Faulkner
163. The Lucid Eye in Silver Town
by John Updike
164. Lather and Nothing Else
by Hernando Tellez
165. The Hour of Letdown
by E.B. White
166. The Rumor
by Erskine Caldwell
167. Survivor Type
by Stephen King
168. The Vicar of Azay-le-rideau
by Honoré de Balzac
169. Deer In The Works
by Kurt Vonnegut
170. The Body Snatcher
by Robert Louis Stevenson
171. Grandma and The Hindu Monk
by Seymour Freedgood
172. Masters of Arts
by O'Henry
173. Hate
by Arthur C Clarke
174. The First Christmas Tree
by Henry Van Dyke
175. 2BR02B
by Kurt Vonnegut
176. The Red Headed League
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
177. The New Villa
by Anton Chekhov
178. Madame Zilensky and the King of England
by Carson McCullers
179. New Rose Hotel
by William Gibson
180. The Red Room
by H.G. Wells
181. The Diamond As Big As The Ritz
by F Scott Fitzgerald
182. The Five Orange Pips
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
183. The Concentration City
by J.G. Ballard
184. Transience
by Arthur C Clarke
185. The End of The Party
by Graham Greene
186. Teddy
by J.D. Salinger
187. The Vertical Fields
by Fielding Dawson
188. A Mother's Tale
by James Agee
189. Transients in Arcadia
by O'Henry
190. The French Scarecrow
by William Maxwell
191. Shooting An Elephant
by George Orwell
192. Hunters in the Snow
by Tobias Wolff
193. The Street That Got Mislaid
by Patrick Waddington
194. Eva Is Inside Her Cat
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
195. A Day In The Country
by Anton Chekhov
196. The Girls In Their Summer Dresses
by Irwin Shaw
197. What Was It ?
by Fitz-James O'Brien
198. You Know They've Got a Helluva Band
by Stephen King
199. Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
by Sylvia Plath
200. The Big Space F***
by Kurt Vonnegut
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Edited By: Rick Varner
Last Updated: 2011-05-02