It was looking gray this morning, but now the brightness is dissipating the gloom.
Today is a perfect day! It's a day full of promise and possibility, and it's a perfect time to delve into my store of short stories--perfect for mid-week reading as I run from one thing to another, one life and another, from place to place. You see, May has been proclaimed Short Story Month, and it's time to celebrate all of our short-story classics from the literary greats of our time and times past. It's about Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Alla Poe, Guy de Maupassant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Kate Chopin, Mark Twain, and all the others!
Become intoxicated. Breathe in the short story. Experience the snippets of life and hope and love and happiness. It's May, and it's time to remember all your favorite short-story classics!
Guy de Maupassant wrote:
"With the first day of spring, when the awakening earth puts on its garment of green, and the warm, fragrant air fans our faces and fills our lungs and appears even to penetrate to our hearts, we experience a vague, undefined longing for freedom, for happiness, a desire to run, to wander aimlessly, to breathe in the spring. The previous winter having been unusually severe, this spring feeling was like a form of intoxication in May..."
Have you discovered the limitless possibility of a great work of literature? What are you reading today?
Comments
Hi, quite unwittingly I’m taking part in this month’s theme. I’m currently reading two collections of short stories: “The Complete Father Brown” by G. K. Chesterton, and “Time and the Gods” by Lord Dunsany.
Both are actually collections of collections in that they are omnibus editions of five or six volumes of short stories.
Hi Esther,
My Name is Marcos Vinicius.Like you I enjoy literature, but I have to confess that Iam a little lazy lately. Iam brazilian and I am teacher of public schools of São Paulo, the biggest brazilian city. Now Iam reading Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” and Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”Because of my job I have been occupied and lack me time to read more. You are american , aren’t you? By the way, in american literature I enjoy a lot Steinbeck, Twain, Sinclair Lewis, Erskine Caldwell. Well, let me finish here. If you want some information, text, something related to Brazilian literature, it’s a pleasure to respond you .My e-amil is modernismo@ig.com.br. Sincerely yours Marcos Vinicius
Best short sstory of all time – The Dead by James Joyce. Also, one of the few adaptations of great lit. to the silver screen that worked!
I have always loved short stories. Two that readily come to mind are “The Japanese Quince” by John Galsworthy, and “The Lady in the Looking-Glass” by Virginia Woolf. Love your column, Esther.
I completely with Dave about “The Dead” being the best short story ever. I go back to it often, especially to the last line.
Another one of my favourites is “Death in Venice”. Brilliant!
D.H.Lawrence wrote many good short stories. One that springs to mind is The Rocking Horse Winner. It’s a simple tale of the lengths children will go to to try to make their parents happy [ and win their love]. In this case it is a tale of a little boy who is aware of his mother’s unhappiness, and when he asks is she happy and she says she would be if her husband made more money, the boy gets fixated on this. He starts to believe he hears the house whispering: there must be more money. There must be more money! The story is very tragic because of the lengths the boy will go to to try and make his mother happy, which ultimately end in great loss. I guess I can relate to that little boy, as I was always trying to win my mother’s love by trying to make up for the lack of love she felt in her own childhood. It’s a no – win situation, sadly.
I love Chekov’s short stories, but of course there are so many other great short story writers. In fact there have been a few by newer writers that show promise with regards to theme and technique, who could become well known in the future.
I enjoy short stories because I read slowly, or I get too busy to finish a novel. My favorite is Rain, by Maugham.