What Are Your Favorite Short Stories?

[Crossless2.0]

I have several favorites, but one I wish to recommend to anyone who hasn't read it is Amy Hempel's "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried". I first read this splendid story in the late '80s and return to it every year or so. It never stops breaking my heart.

Please share your favorite short stories.

[Cato]

The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury. The monster's loneliness, as described, is gut-wrenching.

http://www.goldenageofscifi.info/pdf/Bra...oghorn.pdf

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

HP Lovecraft's Herbert West: Re-animator and The Outsider. There is an entertaining series of films called Reanimator which are inspired by the former (although their interpretation is not really loyal to the original story), and Castle Freak is (loosely) based on the latter.

[Bittersmart]

"The Pearl" by Steinbeck.

And for something creepy and funny, "The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether" by Edgar Allen Poe.

[Crossless2.0]

Thank you, Cato. I hadn't read that story before and enjoyed it very much.

As for Lovecraft, I've never read his stories and can't say why. I've known of him for some time. I'll check it out. Thanks, FTW. I did see Re-animator on DVD and liked it, so I'm keen to read the story on which it's loosely based.

[Rev. Rye]

"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote, "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner, "Kneller's Happy Campers" by Etgar Keret, "A Clean, Well Lighted Place" by Hemingway, and "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" by Roald Dahl, to name a few.

Maybe I should add a longer list of my favourite novellas.

[Rahul]

I don't know if it is considered a short story or a novella but I would have to add The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

It's just so beautifully written.

[Zen Badger]

The worlds shortest horror story written(I think) by Alfred Bester.

" The last man on Earth sat alone in a room, there was a knock on the door"

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Jaysus, too many to list, but here are a few that have always given me enjoyment, for various reasons. In no particular order:

'Jeffty Is Five', by Harlan Ellison

'A Scandal In Bohemia', by Arthur Conan Doyle

'The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg', by Mark Twain

'The Green Hills Of Earth', by Robert Heinlein

'Hop-Frog', by Edgar Allan Poe

Boru

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The worlds shortest horror story written(I think) by Alfred Bester.

" The last man on Earth sat alone in a room, there was a knock on the door"

Bester also wrote the shortest science-fiction story, one letter shorter:

'The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a lock on the door.'

Boru

[Kayenneh]

I'm not quite sure that it counts, but I suggest reading Alice Munro's "Too much happiness", which is a novel, but it is made up of several short stories. At a first glance it's like reading any good story about someone elses piece of life, until there is a really odd twist to it, that you most certainly didn't see coming, and the ending is usually also not quite what the reader thought it might have been.