Customer Reviews

Fifty Great Short Stories

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is the best collection of the best stories ever written in America. It covers 200 years of fiction including undeniable classics such as "Young Goodman Brown," "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," and "Soldiers of the Republic," and relatively unknown masterpieces such as "A Dead Issue," by Charles Macomb Flandrau, and "The Meeting Place," by Oliver LaFarge. Writers represented include the well-known and widely-honered (Washington Irving, Jack London, John Steinbeck) and the less-celebrated (Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Robert M. Coates, Seymour Friedgood). Everyone, no matter his or her taste, will find twenty or more of these stories to be among the best they have ever read. Finally, the reader may discover within this volume the doorway to a writer, new to him or her, whose work becomes a lifelong passion.

The ISBN number for this book is actually for a book with the same title and by the same author, but a book having different stories in it. If you take look inside this book, you'll see right away that the cover presented to you looks different. Further investigation reveals that the stories inside the book are not those mentioned by the other reviewers. In short, if you're looking for Milton Crane's "50 Great Stories", ISBN 0553277456, this is not it.

I carry my little book everywhere, and when I'm bored, or waiting, or am in need of a bit of wisdom, my book is right there in my purse! It allows me to read great authors at any time...and the stories are usually only four or five pages long! Love it! Joyce, Chekhov, Steinbeck, Poushkin, Hemingway....all there. How can you go wrong....reading these great authors for such a small price.

I recommend it highly; then the next time you stop for a coffee, you can get a reading "fix" at the same time. Doesn't matter if you've read the stories before, as a good writer allows you to see something new each time you read it.

This book is filled with great stories, many of which I first encountered in high school years ago. "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" is just one of many. This book is great on several levels, but for those who fondly remember great tales that actually had a plot and did something, this is the book for you. The only other collection of stories that I like this much was McCrae's "The Children's Corner"--filled with hilarious, disturbing, and great-plotted stories that will keep you reading into the wee hours. Highly recommended

I was looking for an anthology for my class to read; this is the one I chose. There is an excellent cross section of authors and story types.

50 GREAT SHORT STORIES (ISBN 0-553-27745-6) is a superb collection because it has stories for people of all ages and backgrounds. I found it to be especially meaningful for high school students because they were able to relate to the many situations, present or past, of life experiences contained in this collection. In fact, this is what prompted the creation of a textbook to accompany the stories. It was published by J. Weston Walch in 1994.

This collection is actually rather good. It basically covers the best short stories written in America over the passed century. All the hits! Personally, I keep my favorites on my website at [...] Check it out! Anyway, this is a worthwhile collection to purchase!

This is great if you like the 40's and 50' but they're not contemporary - new, economical and sent quickly

This book have really good short stories and you can carry in your wallet because it has the perfect size.

I won't lend it out because I'm sure I wouldn't get it back. Very nice collection!!