Greatest Short Stories
Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2024 6:42 am
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.
List Compiled and Edited By: Rick Varner
Last Updated: 2011-05-02
https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/book ... ories.html
Ambrose Bierce
1. An Occurrence 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
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 Honore 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
List Compiled and Edited By: Rick Varner
Last Updated: 2011-05-02
https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/book ... ories.html
Ambrose Bierce
1. An Occurrence 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
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 Honore 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