Short stories that really made an impression

"The Mysterious Stranger," by Mark Twain (long, maybe more of a novella).

"O Youth and Beauty!" by John Cheever and “People Like That Are The Only People Here” by Lorrie Moore.

There was a Cliver Barker story in which two groups of people go into battle with each other by attaching their bodies together to form two gigantic bodies. I thought that was a really spectacular concept.

I love the Stephen King short story "Trucks". There are a bunch of great short stories in the Night Shift book.

Children of the Corn, The Mangler, The Boogeyman and Sometimes They Come Back.

Loved that one, R1. I read it at 14, and after the mandatory reading of Tom Sawyer, it changed my impression of Mark Twain forever.

BTW, another good one from that collection is "Was it Heaven? or Hell?"

There are too many stories for me to list (I was a great reader for many years), but the one that pops into my head right now is "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut.

It amazes me how many of these younger folks think their ideas are so original , when others discovered those same things many years ago.

"In the Ruins" by Roald Dahl. Short and scary, not one of his usual.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a favorite of mine.

In the Gloaming by Alice Elliott Dark. Heartbreaking and beautiful.

The guy who played Superman and then fell off a horse directed a film version of it. I can’t remember his name and I’m too tired to look it up.

The Stephen King short story "Do the Dead Sing?" Also known as "The Reach" is a wonderful story about death and dying. I read it when my mother was in her last days in hospital and it gave me such hope and peace.

"Baby Shoes," author unknown.

So much emotional impact in so few words.

“A Christmas Memory” by Truman Capote

“The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry

"Horsie" by Dorothy Parker

“The Eighty Yard Run”

"My Life With R.H. Macy" by Shirley Jackson

"The Bitter Bit" (Wilkie Collins)

"The Canterville Ghost" (Oscar Wilde)

"Odour of Chrysanthemums" (D. H. Lawrence)

‘A worn path’ Eudora Welty

The Nightingales Sing by Elizabeth Parsons.

Published in the New Yorker 80 years ago. I read it when I was 16 in an anthology and I read it every year since. It's truly a remarkable story of adolescence., beautifully, wondrously told.

Children are Bored on Sunday, by Jean Stafford

Another old New Yorker story, it basically sums up intellectual life in Manhattan in the 1940s with both profundity and playfulness.

The collection of old New Yorker stories made it clear to me that the height of short story writing really was back in the mid century 1900s.

Each of the stories in this anthology is stunning. Each and every one.

The Monkey's Paw

I love all of these

Didn't everybody have to read Big Blond?

Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut.

J. D. Salinger

The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and The Killers, Ernest Hemingway.

Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Brokeback Mountain was published in The New Yorker and stunned me when I read it - way before the movie and the attending hoopla.

I second In the Gloaming. So heartbreaking. Also published in The New Yorker.

Is there an anthology of New Yorker stories?

In grade 5 or 6 i read a great short story about a boy who cheats on an exam. The Unfairness of Things? I think.

This thread is seriously whetting my appetite. I wish The New Yorker would republish those mid-century anthologies as linked @ R17, complete with original covers.

From James Joyce's rightly famous collection 'Dubliners', his final sublime story 'The Dead' stays with me.

Joyce's "The Dead" haunted me when I first read it, R25.

The final paragraph of a rather obscure story called "The Children's Crusade" by the sci-fi author Edgar Pangborn has always stayed with me:

[quote] No, thought Jesse—No. I have no wish to give myself to God, even if God lives. Human love is greater than divine love—he looked for the southern stars again but the rain had taken them, and was falling in light haste up there on the October leaves; with care he shifted the weight of his head on Malachi's arm—divine love is at worst an illusion, at best a dream for some imaginary future time. Human love is here and now.

Mary Wilkins Freeman's "The Revolt of Mother" is a lighter, but still powerful variation on the themes of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper."

R23, The New Yorker dud come out with a 100th anniversary book this year of their fiction. But obviously there will probably be many omissions.

Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut

"Why I Live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty

The first that I recall reading of my own selection was Shirley Jackson's "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts." It spurred a long love of short stories, and then a taste for The New Yorker and its style.

[quote]MR. JOHN PHILIP JOHNSON shut his front door behind him and went down his front steps into the bright morning with a feeling that all was well with the world on this best of all days, and wasn't the sun warm and good, and didn't his shoes feel comfortable after the resoling, and he knew that he had undoubtedly chosen the very precise tie that belonged with the day and the sun and his comfortable feet, and, after all, wasn't the world just a wonderful place?

Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

When I was in 7th grade, one of my teachers read Stephen King's "Survivor Type" to us for Halloween. I had to go vomit afterward.

[quote]R26 Mary Wilkins Freeman's "The Revolt of Mother" is a lighter, but still powerful variation on the themes of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper."

Is it anything like “The Revolt of Mama’s Mussy”?

I think that’s a horror piece I read here once.

"The City and the Pillar" by Gore Vidal left a strong impression on me when I read it as a teenaged gayling. I also enjoyed "The Moon is Down" by John Steinbeck, a writer I often otherwise found unappealing and ham-fisted.

What's the threshold for when a short story becomes a novella?

R27 The hardcover is 1,125 pages. The audio version is 43 hours. If the editor Deborah Treisman did her job well, it should be an exceptional book. Reviews are good.

In another life, I taught English and Reading in a junior high school. One of the reasons I left after two years was the amount of garbage I was forced to foist on those poor kids. It was a seemingly endless barrage of morality tales about learning to share and being nice. There were only two things I got really excited about teaching: "The Westing Game" by the great Ellen Raskin and the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce. It's short, sharp and heartbreaking. Kids were always amazed by the last few sentences. After reading, I would get to show the movie (on an antiquated 18mm projector, which added to the creepiness of it all for them.)

It's actually part of an episode of "The Twilight Zone." It amazes me that something like this could be aired on national television in 1965.

"A Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner. That ending!

Paul Bowles, "Pages from Cold Point" (1949). Still, after 75 years, has the power to shock.

If you are in the mood for a shock, read some of the 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' by the Brothers Grimm. They are not the cutesy, 'nice' nursery stories I thought they were. You can get a copy free (public domain), many are only a few pages long.

Desiree's Baby, Kate Chopin.

Thanks for all these choices. I'm. going to have to search out many of them.

You've all referenced well known and admired writers. I would offer something that might be considered lesser: any short story written by Andrew Holleran. I can't get enough of his beautiful prose.

You might like something from "In September, the Light Changes: The Stories of Andrew Holleran"

R39

You don’t say?!

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair"

Fitzgerald's story taught me the importance of going against convention.

"The Term Paper Artist"

David Leavitt's story is one of the most erotic, literary stories I've read

Henry Fonda presents Miss Duvall as Bernice… a PBS classic. Enjoy!

In addition to R36's submission, Bierce's "The Boarded Window" is astonishing. I literally yelped and threw the book down when I got to the last sentences.

[quote]on an antiquated 18mm projector

You mean 16mm, r36.

The Lottery for sure.

A Rose for Emily. Faulkner

R44, I remember watching it.

And the beginning credits...It owed its production to the "National Endowment for the Humanities." Oh! How far we have fallen into decline!

This short story gave me chills, and haunted me for a long time. Written by Dorothy Allison, lesbian author of "Bastard out of Carolina" fame, she died Nov. 6, 2024. R.I.P.

BTW, I can tell already there are typos in this copy of the story. Just sayin'.

Film version of The Lottery: it chilled a generation of late Boomers in 6th-8th grade.

Elizabeth Bowen's "The Happy Autumn Fields," "The Demon Lover," and "Mysterious Kor"

Yes, OP “The Lottery

Most of Shirley Jacksons stories leave me with an odd feeling....

Maureen Stapleton * Shirley Jackson -The Lottery and Other Stories*

This is a fabulous recording. Would it kill someone to put it on Youtube?

Also fabulous...

Dorothy Parker Stories Read By Shirley Booth

The American Short Stories series on PBS was fantastic.

R31, thanks for posting that.

I read that story so long ago that I forgot the name of the story [italic]and[/italic] the author.

Ursula LeGuin was a wonderful writer.

Her father had been considered one of the great professors in Berkeley’s history —he had a building named after him (and his wife).

And then he fell from grace, not without justification.

"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.

If you like supernatural horror you can't beat homosexualist M. R. James. "A Warning to the Curious" is a good one.

I've always been partial to Saki's "The Open Window."

Practically anything by Poe or Ray Bradbury is worth reading.

The Necklace

Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oats later made into the movie DL fave Smooth Talk.

Oats?

Oates* - auto correct

Edith Wharton: [italic]The Bunner Sisters[/italic]

R62 beat me to mentioning [italic]Where are you going, where have you been[/italic], which I listened to read by Mrs. Billy Clyde Tuggle (a/k/a Christine Baranski). Creepy as f'ck ... awesome!

[quote]Joyce Carol Oats

[quote]Edith Wheaton

[quote]Anne Rice

I am reading The New Yorker collection, 1925-2025 right now. It has 1,119 pages and a very short (unhelpful) introduction. I am reading each story in order and not skipping any and already am on page 861 in just a few days. While I think of The New Yorker as containing the best of the postwar period, this collection skews heavily past that. Stories from the 1990s start in about page 300 or so and by page 500 (roughly the middle of the book) you are already in the 2000s. This offers a different type of perspective I think on The New Yorker short story. I wish the editor had had a heavier hand with some editorial notes or biographical notes but I suppose they just wanted the stories to speak for themselves. Btw, so far the only gay stories are Susan Sontag's "The Way We Live Now" from 1986 and Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain" from 1997. I also have noticed that some good writers are not represented by particularly good stories. I think David Foster Wallace and Junot Díaz were not served well. Surprisingly neither was Anne Beattie who had lots of stories in the magazine, most of them better than the one they chose. Those are just some brief notes I have; I will write more if anyone wants to hear more.

R59, good choice. So many of his stories are so flat out creepy and are still really good reads.

“The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”

“Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”

“Count Magnus”

All bone chilling.

Stephen King's Chattery Teeth

The Rocking Horse Winner by DH Lawrence

What a great thread!

Two that haven’t been mentioned as of yet are “ Boule de Suif” By De Maupassant and “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, both wonderful.

So much great John Cheever!

I enjoyed Updike’s short stories more than his novels. They were (obviously) much more economical.

His short story “Made in Heaven” which appears in his collection “Trust Me” is excellent.

I’m getting so many ideas for further reading from this thread! I’ve read many of these, but I’m always looking for more.

But I’ll give another vote for “ People Like That Are the Only People Here,” by Lorrie Moore. So good.

Capote's "Miriam" and "Children on Their Birthdays" are both great.

Graphic comic artist/writer Dan Clowes did terrific short story pieces too like Caricature.

And, every Flannery O'Connor story is a gem.

Oh, and David Sedaris did short stories in his first collection Barrel Fever. The one with the girl who left a mean letter to be read at her funeral is hilarious and references "The Lottery".

“Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian is a recent one I liked.

Actually, there are a few good stories in this as well as “Cat Person”.

That one by Dorothy Parker. I don't remember the name but it made impression. Something about the character and something. I remember being quiet surprised.

So you kept your astonishment to yourself?

They whispered "oh", r78.

Paul's Case, by Willa Cather

The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood

Anything by Cornell Woolrich

The Letter by Somerset Maugham

R80, I came here to say Paul's Case, too. Haunting and unforgettable.

The Death of Justina, by John Cheever.

I always loved O. Henry's Full House.

Flowers for Algernon, which was later expanded into a novel and then made into a movie.

When the Bough Breaks, by (pen name) Lewis Padgett. Starts at p.158 of the attached link.

Science fiction was my best friend when I was a kid.

Don't forget the Broadway musical, r86.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft

Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut by Stephen King. We had a fantastic audiobook recording of it we would listen to on long car trips growing up. The language of the old New England narrator really makes an impression with the audio reader. I’ve never been able to find that version available anywhere online though there are other recordings. The story is available in his Skeleton Crew collection.

The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe (published 1843).

Did you know that many classic pieces are out of copywrite, and can be downloaded for free from Amazon?. My Kindle is full of my favorite Victorian authors.

R90, Copywrite s/b copyright

Bartleby, the Scrivener

—Melville

The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne

One for the Islands by Patricia Highsmith

He died in gloom

Great story, R89. Pairs well with “The Jaunt” from the same collection on the subject of quick travel.

“Gift Of The Magi” by O. Henry.

The May-Pole of Merry Mount - by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"My Kinsman, Major Molyneaux" and "Young Goodman Brown" by Hawthorne.

Bartleby, the Scrivener

I read a short story in school called “the currents at owl creek bridge.” I thought it was going to be about the water flow under the bridge and I was shocked when it wasn’t!

Speaking of Stephen King while it's not on the same level as most of the stories listed here, Children of the Corn is a very creepy, Twilight Zone type story that is miles better than any of the movie adaptations that have been based on it. A good read for Halloween as are a lot of the stories in Night Shift

I still am struck by all the brilliant lines and descriptions in Paul's Case, which is in my top 3 or 5 OAT.

Those last two paragraphs, particularly the last two sentences, are unbelievably good.

I can't remember the title or author, but years ago when I was teaching seventh grade there was a story in the reading book about an elderly substitute teacher who had to take over a class of sixth graders for several weeks. One student was a boy who couldn't spell at all, and the sub stayed after school to tutor him and he began to make real progress. The rest of the class really hated her because she was strict and old-fashioned. One change she made to the classroom was to fill it with plants. She said the plants were like the students -they needed proper care and attention so they could grow and thrive. After several weeks the principal comes by to announce that their regular teacher will return on Monday. That day at lunch, the students sneak into the classroom and kill all the plants by stripping all their leaves off. After lunch the sub sees the destruction and sits crying silently at her desk. Only the one boy feels bad about this.

After we read the story I was disgusted to find that MY students felt that the behavior of the kids in the story was completely justified, because the sub was "too strict and mean." I didn't sit at my desk and cry, but I did leave that school at the end of that year.

That sounds like it might be “Miss Awful” by James Cavanaugh.

Here's another short story that I don't know the name or the author...Maybe someone here knows it. It involves bullying at an all boys school. There's one kid who was bullied who grows up and confronts the man who made his life miserable, and tells the man's family some shocking things about what he got up to in school. Does anyone know this story?

Some of Katherine Anne Porter's short stories are quite powerful.