Customer Reviews

Great Short Short Stories: Quick Reads by Great Writers (Dover Thrift Editions)

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

 

 

I've been reading short stories and novels to my wife to help her get to sleep at night for several months. The Kindle collections are pretty good, but it's often really difficult to know in advance how long a story is. And, neither of us are sure when she falls asleep. So I've been exploring inexpensive collections of stories, and was delighted to discover the Dover Thrift Editions.

Lots of great literature, the books fit well in the hand, and the price is right.

The table of contents for this volume which was edited by Paul Negri:

Sherwood Anderson The Egg
Ambrose Bierce An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Willa Cather The Enchanted Bluff
Anton Chekhov A Malefactor
Kate Chopin A Pair of Silk Stockings
Stephen Crane The Veteran
Daniel Defoe The Apparition of Mrs. Veal
Charles Dickens Nobody's Story
Charlotte Perkins Gilman If I Were a Man
Thomas Hardy Squire Petrick's Lady
Bret Harte The Luck of Roaring Camp
Nathaniel Hawthorne Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
Jerome K. Jerome A Ghost Story
Sarah Orne Jewett A White Heron
Franz Kafka A Country Doctor
Rudyard Kipling Wee Willie Winkie
Nella Larsen Sanctuary
D. H. Lawrence Second Best
Jack London The White Silence
Katherine Mansfield Germans at Meat
Guy de Maupassant A Piece of String
H. H. Munro, or Saki The Open Window
O. Henry The Furnished Room
Luigi Pirandello With Other Eyes
Edgar Allan Poe The Cask of Amontillado
Alexander Pushkin The Coffin-Maker
Leo Tolstoy The Three Hermits
Mark Twain The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
H. G. Wells The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes
Oscar Wilde The Sphinx Without a Secret

We truly enjoyed several of these stories; they all give a flavor of the styles and interests of the authors. Very well done indeed.

Following are a few other collections of short stories in this excellent series:

The World's Greatest Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) edited by James Daley.

Classic Ghost Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) edited by John Grafton.

Classic Mystery Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) edited by Douglas G. Greene. [There is an excellent three star review of this collection at the page for the book. I agree that the choice of authors is a bit uneven, but many of the stories are quite interesting. I would have given it a four star rating except that the review is so good.]

Great French Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) edited by Paul Negri.

Great Short Stories by English and Irish Women (Dover Books on Literature & Drama) edited by Candance Ward.

If you have any interest in short stories, these volumes and others in the Dover Thrift Edition series are a great bargain and great reading to boot. Dover offers a regular email which will keep up current on its new offerings in the series.

Robert C. Ross 2009

The thirty short stories Paul Negri has assembled serve several purposes well. Foremost, they are entertaining and thought-provoking. Averaging six pages or so in length, each is a quick read--useful for commuters or those with choppy schedules. Finally, they are models of good writing. Great writing, in many cases.

Your four favorites could differ from mine without me arguing about it much. Mine are:

Jack London's "The White Silence" is about hardship and loyalty between the people and dogs pulling a load of furs along a snowy, northern trail. Well, of course it is.

Guy de Maupassant's "The Piece of String" is a morality tale about truth and reputation--and which matters more. Yes, your guess was correct.

In H. H. Munro's "The Open Window" a fifteen-year-old girl entertains herself and an unwelcome visitor. Charmingly.

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" two friends take some time for a drink.

These are excellent stories in a most accessible form. The collection might benefit from a paragraph or two to introduce each author. But you wouldn't take time for them anyway. Read the stories and enjoy!

I bought this book with low expectations. Most anthologies like this have a few gems surrounded by work that wouldn't get published any other way. I was very impressed with almost every story, and will probably sit down and read this one again. Great read, great buy.

These stories are short, usually just a few pages. They are quick to read and could be a good source of filler. Personally, I like a little bit more development. I think the book is well titled and worth reading.

It is always fairer to review a book for what is in it, than for what is not but I nonetheless note that this collection does not contain the work of a number of writers of stories who for me are the greatest at this form. Joyce, Hemingway, Updike, Salinger, Malamud, and my all- time favorite I.B. Singer.
There are nonetheless many outstanding stories in this work. Kafka's 'The Country Doctor' takes the reader on an impossible journey in parable to a world of incredible difficulty and questionable understanding. Anderson's 'The Egg' takes us to Winesberg, Ohio where a world was built around lonely misshapen characters. Twain's story was the one which made him known to the world, and has his own brand of exaggerated frontier humor. The harsh cruelty of Bierce's 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' shows a different kind of nineteenth- century America.
The short- short story is a wonderful form. And there is much enjoyment to be found in reading this volume though in my opinion it contains few of the greatest examples in this form.

The cover artwork is "Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash" by Giacomo Balla, 1912

As always, Dover books are a great way to get a lot of story for your money. Any clue as to artist/title on the cover art? I've been looking for a print for ages.

Ths is a great collection of plain-good very short stories. That's great. But I feel short stories should push the envelope. Novels can't because they are often too bloated, but a slim sleek short story needs to bend time and space and make you say "wow..." as you read the last word! These stories a little... well, they are good. Only good. Check out my website for short stories that bring it home! [..]