Great Short Stories

This anthology gathers short fiction by writers from Russia, Western Europe, the United States, Ireland, and Japan. The pieces range from nineteenth-century tales of crime, society, and the inner life to twentieth-century stories of war, exile, and ordinary interiors. Typical subjects include Petersburg and provincial Russia, Paris and Dublin, the American Midwest and the sea, and contemporary Japanese domestic life. The named authors run from Pushkin, Balzac, Poe, and Dostoevsky through Chekhov, Joyce, and Proust to Hemingway, Steinbeck, Camus, and Banana Yoshimoto. The book is a sampler of the short story as an international form, not a single narrative.

The Kiss by Chekhov, Anton. Aerial Ways by Pasternak, Boris. The Murderer by Bulgakov, Mikhail. A Russian Beauty by Nabokov, Vladimir. The Lady Who Loved Insects or The Errand Woman by anonymous. What the Seasons Brought the Almanac-Maker by Saikaku, Ihara. The Third Night by Soseki, Natsume. Tattoo by Junichirō, Tanizakiby. Princess Yung-t'ai's Necklace by Yasushi, Inoue. Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness by Kenzaburo, Ōe. Newlywed by Banana, Yoshimoto. The Pit and the Pendulum by Poe, Edgar Allan. A Horseman in the Sky by Bierce, Ambrose. Désirée's Baby by Chopin, Kate. The Other Two by Wharton, Edith. The Enchanted Bluff by Cather, Willa. Barn Burning by Faulkner, William. The Killers by Hemingway, Ernest. The Snake by Steinbeck, John. The Adventures of a Strolling Player by Goldsmith, Oliver.The Limerick Gloves by Edgeworth, Maria. The Selfish Giant by Wilde, Oscar. Lisheen Races, Second-Hand by Somerville, E. Æ. Ross, Martin. Eveline by Joyce, James. Sunday Afternoon by Bowen, Elizabeth. The Majesty of the Law by O'Connor, Frank. Dante and the Lobster by Beckett, Samuel. Lost Ground by Trevor, William. Korea by McGahern, John. Night in Tunisia by Jordan, Neil. The Self-Made Cuckold, or the Unexpected Reconciliation by Marquis de Sade. An Episode of the Reign of Terror by de Balzac, Honoré. Miss Harriet by de Maupassant, Guy. A Young Girl's Confession by Proust, Marcel. Green Sealing-Wax by Colette. The Guest by Camus, Albert. The Manchester Marriage by Mrs. Gaskell. The Lady of Glenwith Grange by Collins, Wilkie. The Three Strangers by Hardy, Thomas. A Pair of Duelling Pistols by Warner, Sylvia Townsend. Eleven O'Clock by Pritchett, V. S. Numerous B&W illustrations. Black binding with red bands and gilt titling. Plain black slipcase.