Shorts: Volume Three: Another Dozen Classic Short Stories

Shorts: Volume Three: Another Dozen Classic Short Stories

Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner. - Neil Gaiman The stories in this collection are all classic short stories and are considered some of the best examples of the form. They range from just a few pages to around 25 pages. Some of the most famous names in writing have written short stories, and many are included here: B. 24 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury - A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway - Araby by James Joyce - The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs - Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut by J.D. Salinger - The Maison Tellier by Guy de Maupassant - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald - An Unwritten Novel by Virginia Woolf - The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells Short stories are a superb form of writing. They leave you wanting more but still wrap everything up. In many ways, they take more skill to write, so the quality is usually more guaranteed. They are excellent for busy people, giving a short escape from reality and filling you with a similar satisfaction to finishing a much longer novel. You can complete a whole story in just one sitting. A commute on the train, whilst eating your lunch, soaking in the bath, a little time before bed, even waiting for the pasta to boil, all of these situations could see you finish an entire short story. They’re great to dip into between novels and work wonderfully to cleanse the palate before you embark on your next long-form piece of writing. You also get various styles to try out, as well as authors, in a way that you might not with a novel. You can sample the different styles and find something new; it may even inspire you to read some of their other work. A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film. - Lorrie Moore