The 4 Greatest Short Story Writers
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
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Happy reading!
0:00 Intro
0:38 - TURGENEV
2:28 - MAUPASSANT
5:16 - KAWABATA
6:14 - BORGES
Who is your favourite short story writer?
Chekhov is a legendary short story writer.
I don't know how he skipped that one!
@@richardwestwood8212 He is citing his favorites, implying that Chekhov isn't one of his very favorite short-story writers.
@@user-cn6qf4rj8eYes, it became apparent upon further exploration that Chekhov is given his due as a great author on this channel.
Chekhov, and Hemingway
Raymond Carver, Elizabeth Taylor, Tobias Wolff
Alice Munro. Her craft is impeccable and such depths.
I hope that this comment is useful to readers. The writers recommended are:
1 Ivan Turgenev (Russia): A Sportsmans Notebook
2 Guyde Maupassant (France): Selected Short Stories
3 Yasunari Kawabata (Japan): Palm of the Hand Stories
4 Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina): Ficciones
JL Borges n°1, by far.
it would be nice to add: chekov, he did mention him.. cortazar, quiroga, kipling, garcia marquez, poe, rulfo, fuentes, gogol, kafka.. ppl, help me out here. lol
Thanks for this as I couldn’t spell any of them 👍🏻
My favourite one is Ray Bradbury. He created incredible stories like the veldt, fog horn, the lake, sound of thunder, the pedestrian, rocket man and so many others. There poetry, there are magic in everything he writes.
R K Narayan, an author of novels and equally intriguing short stories, surely deserves a mention here… The uncomplicated innocence and wit in his condensed but highly descriptive narratives have similarities with Chekhov at times, with characters that could feel both familiar and exotic. Thanks for the list. Loved getting to know Turgenev, that I’d surely like but hadn’t come across. Love the dream-like quality of palm of the hand stories which I believe were Kawabata’s own favorites.
I love O. Henry's short stories (his twists are what M. Night Shamalamadingdong aspires to create!), and some Raymond Carver can get me going, too.
Speaking to your attempt to re-read novels: I've been trying to read Tolstoy's War and Peace for the longest time - and it's funny, since I am married to his great-grand-niece! lol
Glad you mentioned o.henry. I have not liked anybody's stories since I started reading him.
I always call him what you call him, Shamalamadingdong!! Too funny. He's directed a few good ones.
My favorite short story writer is William Trevor. His stories, which I enjoy more than his novels, are profoundly insightful and beautifully written. Also high marks for John Cheever (there is an incomparable sound to his writing) and Isaac Singer.
I love those same writers. Trevor and Cheever are the two short story writers I return to over and over again. Both are uneven - lots of stuff that doesn’t really sing - but their top 20% is as good as it gets for me.
I'm so glad to see William Trevor mentioned. He's been my favorite short story writer for a long time. I have read various stories of his over and over. Also, "The Swimmer" by John Cheever is just about as perfect a short story as you'll find.
@@MsPeaDid a bang up A+ paper on that. The movie with Burt Lancaster is an excellent realization. He was 55 when he did it, which is the ONLY problem with the movie--he just looked too terrific to be a loser and a sot.
I love Flannery O'Connor. When you read her work, the smell of the griddle cakes frying in bacon grease will call you through the screen door and reach you on the porch swing.
I’m reading a long list on novellas-a wonderful form. A friend suggested I read Nabokov’s stories and yes they are great.
I just purchased a copy of Borges Ficciones... I read it last night and didn't go to bed until 2am, once I finished this collection of short stories. I was blown away.
I am a Joycean. My HS English teacher, who is definitely NOT a Joycean (hates Ulysses and didn't touch one of my absolute favorites, Finnegan's Wake) adores Dubliners. There are many fine Irish and Irish-American short story writers; James Joyce is one of Ireland's finest short story writers. B
Love them all but my favorite is Anton Chekhov! His style of writing and telling the tales is just amazing. Stories of everyday people struggling in their own little lives. He proves that sometimes simplicity is the best. 🕯🍞🥛✍🏼
Thank you, Vanja! I would love to read Chekhov in the original Russian. He also had the most amazing life. I found 'The Kiss' rather heartbreaking, and really enjoyed doing a read-along with his short story 'Volodya': czcams.com/video/nhdtiwadQCQ/video.html
Benjamin McEvoy Thank you for the link! My wish is also to read in the original Russian because it’s completely different experience. The book I am curently reading is War and Peace, my next one will be Hadji Murad as per your recommendation 😊
Gooseberries was amazing
@@vanja222 Very nice! I would love to hear your thoughts on War and Peace and Hadji Murad :)
Hi vanja
My mother name is vanaja - I am from Chennai - india
"Tlon uqbar orbis tertius" is one of the best texts ever writen in spanish. Salute from Argentina.
Hello over in Argentina! A country I have always longed to visit :) One day I hope to read the story in Spanish!
Maan, I tried! In German though, but please sell him to me a bit more. This is really the first story I tried of him but it bored me and I couldn’t finish it
My favorite short stories of all time are Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" and Isaac Bashevis Singer's "Gimpel the Fool." (as translated by Saul Bellow). These stories are actually similar. Would love to hear you talk about Bashevis Singer.
I read “Bartleby” in college, at the library, just because I had some time to kill. When I reached the ending, I could barely move. Crushing.
Stefan Zweig's short stories are wonderful.
I've started reading again after seeing some of your videos about a month ago! I've reviewed many other book commentators on CZcams, and I've determined that you are the best. Thank you Benjamin.
I've been recently going through a lot of short story collections rather than full on novels as I feel I don't have enough time to properly, and both Borges and Cortazar's works have been pleasantly filling my time. Great examples of Latin literature. I've also been recently picking away at Lovecraft and Poe, which are some of my favorite short story writers as well. I'll be spending some time with the other authors mentioned but great video!
I am absolutely wild about D.H.Lawrence: faves (not in any particular order): “The Fox”; “Love Among the Haystacks”; “The Captain’s Doll”; and I will sneak a novella in: “The Virgin and the Gypsy.”
D. H. Lawrence was ahead of his time, with those relationships in "The Fox." Great book. LCL still is my fav by him.
Isaac Babel is for me the best short story writer along with Cechov. All stories of Babel are great, unfortunately he didn’t publish that many
I really enjoy reading the short stories of H. H. Munro “Saki”; his stories always seem have a strange, lurking, uncanny sense of mystery about them; and I love the way he juxtaposes playful humor with dark, almost macabre-infused endings.
I’ve read a few by Chekhov, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Faulkner (A rose for Emily is one of my favorites) and I also have on my shelf a short story collection by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky which, now that I think of it, I feel rather guilty of having neglected for a long time. 🙈
Ah, yes, he's great :) I've read a few of his stories, but I really must read more - a master craftsman!
Yeah saki is a very special writer. Quite dark and mysterious
Saki is an old friend - been reading and re-reading him since my teens
Thank you Benjamin. I am very happy to have discovered your youtube site. I am fond of literature and your guidance is a treasure to be discovered, learn and enjoy. Greetings from Brussels !
Thank you so much, Roselinne! Greetings and happy reading to you over in beautiful Brussels! 🇧🇪
BORGES!!! Definitely one of my favorite writers of all time. There's one particular short story I loved that wasn't mentioned-- Circular Ruins.
Can't wait to get my hands on Maupassant and Kawabata!
Lovely recommendations, Benjamin!
Thank you!
YES!! Love the enthusiasm!! :) I hope you enjoy them!! :)
Pure front brain intellect rather than heart indeed. Borges. The gigantic, unique, universal, indescribable Borges. Master of fake quotes, fake books, fake authors. Creator of surprising worlds, all of them contained in the Aleph of course. There’s good literature, there’s great literature, and then there’s Borges. Please devote a video to his masterpieces. Thanks so much for discussing him and for all your work, you’re truly brilliant. Best regards from Buenos Aires, Borges’ city. (“Esta ciudad que yo creí mi pasado / es mi porvenir, mi presente; / los años que he vivido en Europa son ilusorios, / yo estaba siempre (y estaré) en Buenos Aires”).
Amusingly, Borges spent a great deal of time wandering the world and repeating: "I'm not Borges." I think he meant to say that the picture of himself drawn by various media was not at all his idea about who he really was.
@@thomasthompson6378 Well, that's related of course to his famous short text, included in El Hacedor, a book from 1960, called "Borges y yo". He went back to that idea of the two opposite Borges (although with a different approach) in "El otro" (from El Libro de Arena, 1975) and "Veinticinco de agosto, 1983" (from La Memoria de Shakespeare, a book published posthumously in 1995). All of them brilliant, original, rather disturbing stories.
You could include Flannery oconnors a good man is hard to find.famous and anthologised
Definitely. I don't she ever surpassed that masterpiece.
I'd add "Good Country People", "A View of the Woods" and "Parker's Back" to that. O'Connor was an absolute master.
I’m reading now one of Maupassant’s short stories a day and really looking forward to every of them. Easy to get into the lecture (especially as I’m reading it in a German translation for the comfort) the stories and characters stay with me over quite a time. It’s all so humane, full scope of our flaws and loveable features. I feel all forgiving after only ten of them. Turgenev should be the next. My mother had recommended him years ago, I didn’t pick up on it then. Now that two people I trust and love are saying the same, I won’t resist anymore. Thomas Mann again thereafter!
Interesting that you should say that because Turgenev and Maupassant had in fact a strong connection through Flaubert: he and Turgenev were intimate friends and he had a quasi father-son relationship with Maupassant.
Great video and great comments. I’m surprised no one mentioned Raymond Carver. Where I’m Calling From is like his greatest hits album but I’ve been meaning to read a collection of his stories before his editor got to them.
He’s great. I’ve been reading all his stuff. All his characters be drinking and drinking and…ha.
I like his ones where alcohol isn’t the primary focus. I really like:
The third thing that killed my father off
Why don’t you dance
Mr coffee and Mr fix it.
(Of course alcohol is in all of them 🍻)
I just loved seeing your amazing collection in the background! ;)
Ha! I'm looking forward to doing a video when I come to build a home library later this year!
Thanks. I love your channel. I read two stories today from Guy de Maupassant. I loved them. Please keep making these wonderful videos.
Thank you so much :) I really appreciate that. Wonderful to hear you've been enjoying Guy de Maupassant :)
Another great short stories writer is Machado de Assis.
He may well be the single greatest writer to have lived in Brazil.
George Saunders has some fantastic short stories; also Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor and Sherman Alexie.
Absolutely. All four are really wonderful :)
Been binge watching your videos, several of them about short stories. I'd recommend you Horacio Quiroga, from Uruguay, starting with "the decapitated chicken"... a very short story I first encountered in my earlier years and one that at this day still brings me goosebumps, but at the same time still fascinating. Is 3 pages long at most.
I just purchased Borges’ collected fictions and can’t wait to dive in! I am a bit intimidated but also determined to start 🤞🏼✨🙏🏼☺️🤗🤗 thank You Benjamin for this introduction! I can’t wait to dive into Your detail series on Borges. Cheers from Orlando!
Here is my list of ten most esteemed stories composed in English (focusing on that language because it's the only one in which I'm fluent). All titles listed in rough chronological order:
--"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling
--"Odour of Chrysanthemums" by D. H. Lawrence
--"Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway
--"The Man Who Liked Dickens" by Evelyn Waugh
--"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
--"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury
--"Everything is Nice" by Jane Bowles
--"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor
--"Angouleme" by Thomas M. Disch
--"Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx
I regret not being better acquainted with the stories of Edith Wharton, James Joyce, William Faulkner, John Cheever, and Nadine Gordimer, and so many others who are celebrated for their mastery of the art of storytelling.
Combine "Everything is Nice" with "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and you just might find yourself reading Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life."
@@tarico4436 Thanks for the recommendation--not familiar with Bixby.
@@barrymoore4470 Read it, then get back to me. It's a doozy.
@@tarico4436When investigating this subject, I realized I had indeed read this story, but hadn't remembered the author. It is indeed a compellingly crafted chiller, as effective and mysterious in its way as Stephen King's "Children of the Corn". It formed the basis for one of the creepier episodes of the original 'Twilight Zone' series.
@@barrymoore4470"It's a *Good* Life" -- the italics in the title is significant -- was the basis for an episode of The Twilight Zone. Just to give you a sense what the story is about. It was included in the collection of the best Science Fiction short stories selected by SF writers themselves a few decades ago
Dude, it makes me happy to have found you. Nice style 👌.
Me too!
Thanks for the all your videos. I've recently gone back to reading short stories. Someone recommended Asimov's "The last question", then Chiang's Stories of Your life and Others. Really enjoyed both, especially Asimov. Now I have some more to read so thanks!
From this side of the pond, the short stories of the great Alice Munro.
Even though he can be hit or miss, Washington Irving wrote some wonderful short stories. I mostly enjoy him for his great nonfiction essays. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorite short stories ever due to its incredible use of atmosphere!
You've mentioned some great writers, Maupassant is my fav short story writer too. I would add to the list Somerset Maugham, O.Henry and Edgar A. Poe.
Favourite is William Trevor. Also love Chekhov, Alice Munro, Yiyun Li, Jhumpa Lahiri, Hemingway, Claire Keegan, George Saunders, John Cheever...
Master writers all of them!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Have recently found your videos (through Ryan Holiday) and started with the annotating books one, which I love. Have always shied away from writing in books but love the idea of a conversation with the author, and am tentatively writing in books now. Feel so much more alert to the writing
Jhumpa and Cheever ❤
Borges is wonderful, yes. I'm also very fond of Saki, aka H.H.Munro, and the weird stories of R.A.Lafferty, "the madman of science-fiction" -- stylistically something of an acquired taste, but so unique..
Saki is amazing!!
Thanks. Looks like I have some reading to do. I really love Tolstoy's later short stories. I've read some several times. Borges' short story "the Gospel according to Mark" is so memorable because it's so creepy. Won't mention why since it would spoil it. Tolstoy was a great admirer of de Maupassant. I believe he included one de Maupassant story in his own collection of works.
Another awesome video! Thanks Benjamin. I’d recommend Gene Wolfe, Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie, and Ted Chiang
Thank you, my friend. All great recommendations. I have very fond memories of devouring The Paper Menagerie and Stories of Your Life and Others when they came out. Recently reread them again and they hold up very well :)
O'Henry, for sure. Master of the short story
A soon as saw this video title, I thought Maupassant. Glad you agree. There is just something about his writing that grabs me. A favorite.
Somerset Maugham.
Have you read Thomas Ligotti? Amazing weird tale writer. Ordered some Maupassant. Have already read “The Horla,” of course.
Maupassant as 'trashy pub food' ? I can't, just can't, agree with that. His stories are full of the deeply flawed but they're full of a deep understanding of human nature and love, all done in beautifully rendered prose.
A very interesting and diverse pick of short story writers. Although I think you probably could've expanded this from 4 to 6 given that you've also praised in the past the short stories of authors like Anton Chekhov and Toni Morrison. I remember you once saying that people say there are only 2 types of short stories, either Chekhovian or Borgesian. So the exclusion of Chekhov from the list has me a bit confused. I think the ones chosen on the list are great, I just think it could've been expanded a tad bit more to be honest.
Thank you, Ajith :) The list absolutely should be expanded. Compression - issuing a personal challenge, a constraint like only allowing four picks - forces one to really weigh and consider who they like personally. If I had to pick my personal four favourites at this current time in my life, it would be the writers in the video. However, objectively Chekhov is better than Maupassant - alas, I don't personally love Chekhov's short fiction in the same way, though I've reread many of his works and enjoy them. A list like this is great also because it makes other people contest it, as you did. Why not Flannery O'Connor? Where's Alice Munro? What about Tolstoy's short stories? Endless debate! Who are your personal four?
I recently found Claire Keegan’s short story ‘Foster’. I found it excellent
Fantastic writer!
I wish people gave more consideration to Isaac Bashevis Singer, who to me carried something to Yiddish on the level of the greatest Russian lit, and was enormously influenced by both Chekhov and Maupassant.
Harlan Ellison's collection of short stories is incredible.
I enjoyed Gogols collection it’s nuts. Akutakawas folk stories are great too hell screen is fantastic
I am a short story as well as novel writer (I haven't published my work yet) but i have few readers in local and i my opinion writing short story is more difficult then a long means long stories are also as you have to keep readers interst but in short stories you have a very short time to make your readers to bring them into the short story world and make them feel connected to the character and if readers dont feel connected to the character it is difficult for them to connect with there emotions and feel the story...🤧
Ellory Queen has good short stories and one favorite of mine is by Donald Westlake titled "This is Death". The others in the book I had are also highly recommended, but none of the authors can I claim favorite by stories written.
Jesus' Son - Denis Johnson// Selected Stories - Alice Munro// Runaway - Alice Munro// Collected Stories - William Trevor// Cathedral - Raymond Carver// What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Raymond Carver// Jayne Anne Phillips - Black Tickets// Fast Lanes - Jayne Anne Phillips// The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake// Collected Short Stories - Edgar Allen Poe// The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway// Collected Stories of Lydia Davis//
Yes, you left Julio Cortazar out - do check "Las babas del diablo" -, but this post of yours is really well done and immensely useful. Ha! and it's short!
Thank you so much for the great recommendation! I'm a big fan of Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up, so I'm very excited to read "Las babas del diablo" :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Ok, but please be aware: Antonioni's "Blow Up" covers a universe much smaller than Cortazar's short story. Antonioni simply leaves out the fantastic, the supernatural - oh, so essencial to Cortazar!
In other words, the short story is way much more encompassing than the film.
On the othar hand, "Blade Runner" has widened "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", Philip K. Dick's novel from which the fiim parts.
(Ha! I do hope I'm giving you food for a post!) 🙂
The American writer Raymond Carter also displays this feeling of "Did anything happen?" But, upon rereading, one is astonished with the depth of insight into the human soul hidden amid the apparently ordinary.
Not sure if this was an auto-correct error, but I’m fairly sure you mean Raymond Carver. If so, I completely agree with you. The best American master of the genre of short story writing in my opinion. Or perhaps it is better to say favourite rather than best. 👍
Aggghhhh. I can’t believe you omitted Chekhov....
He is technically and objectively one of the best short story writers. It was a crime to omit him! 😂
@@BenjaminMcEvoy To be honest, I can't say I have ever liked Chekov. Whatever makes him a brilliant story writer just escapes me.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I want to like Chekhov more than I do. The Kiss is my favorite perhaps, but altogether I always wonder if something is lost in translation in his stories. I like so many other writers much more.
I recommend Alice Munro
Great recommendation! One of my personal favourites :)
Anton Chekov & Guy de Maupassant are my favourite short story writers but I am very eager to read Turgenev & Jorges Luis Borges. Thank you for sharing.
Clarice Lispector is unbeliveably abstract but to the point. Words just love her
The American poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) preferred Lispector's stories to those by Borges.
Gogol, Chekhov, Poe, Twain, Hemingway, Joyce, Carver, Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison.
It just happens I finished “A Living Relic” in Russian. It was in a dual language Dover Press reader Russian-English - in paperback. The stories are not that easy in Russian though rewarding. It’s slow going - I’ve studied Russian on and off a few times.
Turgenev is easier than Dostoevsky but harder than Chekov.
Amazing insights. How does the English translation compare with the Russian original?
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I'm not at an advanced enough level to compare English translations - I'm still in intermediate purgatory. Turgenev's vocabulary is definitely rich. It makes me feel like one of those insects that is incredibly stimulated by the colors and sensations of nature.
I've been reading "Fathers and Sons" in dual translation as well. Same impressions - it's almost as if Russians see and hear and experience nature differently - in fact we know that they can differentiate more shades because they have 2 different words for blue - one for light blue another for dark blue.
Verbs of motion are also more distinctive in Russian than in English. The language puts a much finer point upon when and in what direction things are happening - kind of a keener spatial sense - leaves the feeling that the world around us is always changing - nature is living and breathing.
Well, it's a bit late for me to do so, but you did ask for our favorite short stories. I've read a great many of them, and here are my votes for the 10 best, in no particular order:
1. "A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner
2. "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," by Ernest Hemingway
3. "Silent Snow, Secret Snow," by Conrad Aiken
4. "Revelation," by Flannery O'Connor
5. "My Oedipus Complex," by Frank O'Connor
6. "The Destructors," by Graham Greene
7. "Teddy," by J. D. Salinger (from "Nine Stories)
8. "The Open Window," by Saki (which has one of the best endings ever!)
9. "Paul's Case," by Willa Cather
10. "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," by Stephen Crane
I should have added this: 11. "The Rocking Horse Winner," by D. H. Lawrence
@@thomasthompson6378Wonderful, diverse list. D H. Lawrence's "Odour of Chrysanthemums" is one of my favorites, while for Flannery O'Connor, I don't think she ever surpassed "A Good Man is Hard to Find".
Borges, Nabokov, O’Connor, Murakami
You’re so over my head--but I’m gonna replay.
Thanks for your overview of the stories of Turgenev, Maupassant, Borges and the Japanese writer (what were you doing in Japan all that time? I would tend to think that you've never taken a foot out of Oxford). Anyway, I want to return you the favor by recommending J.D. Salinger's 9 STORIES, especially THE LAUGHING MAN, FOR ESME WITH LOVE & SQUALOR and DE DAUMIER SMITH'S BLUE PERIOD. Cheers
jeez, i've looked for these book (pdf) format so much
Wallace Stegner, Welsh poet Leslie Norris and Raymond Carver are all fine storytellers.
Thank you, very useful
Great channel. Can you do an episode on North American writers that you might like?
Hi, sir. Where do you buy your hardcover copy of books? They all look classy!
What fun! I love short stories and speculative fiction is my favorite to read and write. So I love Guy de Maupassant, but also Walter de la Mare, M.R. James, so many more, Edith Nesbitt, Edith Wharton, and of course Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, and Ambrose Bierce to name a few. But also Michael Shea, whose Lovecraftian stories are down right bawdy, so lots of fun. Hard to pick a favorite story, but perhaps it's Poe's Hop-Frog. It's so dark. Thanks so much, must go read Borges now. 😂😂😂
One of the best in my opinion is O. Henry, "the gift of the magi", is like candy
O. Henry is great!!
My favourite Borges’s story are Inferno, I, 32, from Ficciones and El Aleph. I assume you know them too.
I want to add Kafka when I was very depressed when I was young my brother read Kafka to me while I painted instead of depressing me as some people feel they are affected by his work it healed me what can I say
Agree with lots of these comments. Elizabeth Taylor is a fantastic short story writer as is Angela Carter
My favorite short writer is Paulo Coelho (The Devil & Miss Prym)
Wonderful writer. I've read The Alchemist several times. Thanks for the recommendation, Ahamed! I'll check it out :)
👍😀Very informative and entertaining! Going to have a look at the last two authors you recommended.
A short story I've never ever forgotten is The Diamond as Big as The Ritz by Scott Fitzgerald.
Even with only four, I can't see how you can leave Chekhov off the list.
Borges is an old friend, Maupassant a favorite uncle. The other two I'll have to get to know.
Raymond Carver, Ray Bradbury, Alice Munro, Saki all belong on any thinking person's bookshelf
And the annual "Best Short Stories of xxxx" is always a must!
Hi, very interesting video. As all of yours. Could you suggest me an author similar to Borges?
Have you ever read Cortazar? Could be him?
Hope my English is clear.
Ciao ciao 😊
My favorite short story writer right now is William Sydney Porter. His more well-known pseudonym is O. Henry.
Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig
One additional very short story that must be mentioned is Ray Bradbury's "Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned." Here it is in its entirety:
BLESS ME FATHER FOR I HAVE SINNED . . . by Ray Bradbury.
My parents, of course, but then - my dog, the love of my life, who ran off and I hated him for leaving me, and when he came back I, too, loved and beat him, then went back to love.
Until this night, I have told no one.
The shame has stayed put all these years.
I have confessed all to my priest-confessor.
But never that.
So - '
There was a pause.
'So, Father?'
'Lord, Lord, dear man, God will forgive us.
At long last, we have brought it out, dared to say.
And I, I will forgive you.
But finally - '
The old priest could not go on, for new tears were really pouring down his face now.
The stranger on the other side guessed this and very carefully inquired, 'Do you want my forgiveness, Father?'
The priest nodded, silently.
Perhaps the other felt the shadow of the nod, for he quickly said, 'Ah, well.
It's given.'
And they both sat there for a long moment in the dark and another ghost moved to stand in the door, then sank to snow and drifted away.
'Before you go,' said the priest, 'come share a glass of wine.'
The great clock in the square across from the church struck midnight.
'It's Christmas, Father,' said the voice from behind the panel.
'The finest Christmas ever, I think.'
'The finest.'
The old priest rose and stepped out.
He waited a moment for some stir, some movement from the opposite side of the confessional.
There was no sound.
Frowning, the priest reached out and opened the confessional door and peered into the cubicle.
There was nothing and no one there.
His jaw dropped. Snow moved along the back of his neck.
He put his hand out to feel the darkness.
The place was empty.
Turning, he stared at the entry door, and hurried over to look out.
Snow fell in the last tones of far clocks late-sounding the hour.
The streets were deserted.
Turning again, he saw the tall mirror that stood in the church entry.
There was an old man, himself, reflected in the cold glass.
Almost without thinking, he raised his hand and made the sign of blessing.
The reflection in the mirror did likewise.
Then the old priest, wiping his eyes, turned a last time, and went to find the wine.
Outside, Christmas, like the snow, was everywhere.
I tagged on to a Poe recommendation further down (up?) in the comments, BUT I want to mention an author who gets short shrift as a fine writer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The poor (rich) man was shackled to Sherlock Holmes even when he tried to spread his wings and fly. But those stories are great! Stephen Fry gives a value-added read of the complete Sherlock Holmes. (Fry himself was intimately involved in the UK's club (not called Baker Street Irregulars but something else, maybe Sherlockian Society) and did a presentation to them while he was but a lad.)
Chekhov is number one for me. But I appreciate the recommendations. ..I will try reading the Japanese one
Borges" Everything and Nothing is full of heart and one of my favorite short stories. It leaves me speechless and in awe. Another short story writer I adore is Donald Barthelme
I enjoyed reading his AFTER RAIN
I enjoy isaac asimov and his short robot stories.
I'd throw Flannery O'Connor on here.
They are the best short story writer's. Thank you Mr Chanderkant.
I like H.P. Lovecraft. His style was unique. Funny how he has influenced occultists, especially Aleister Crowley.
I came to Lovecraft when I was younger, and he led me to Aleister Crowley too - which then developed into a deep love of all things occult!
John Cheever, _The Swimmer,_ (naturally)
John O'Hara. Check out The Library of America collection of O'Hara's short stories.
John Cheever and John O'Hara are awesome. I'll definitely check out the LoA :) Thanks for the great recommendation, Ned!
Amy Hempel's short stories are some of the most astonishing writing I've ever come across
Maupassant is like a proto-Ray Bradbury. (That’s a compliment in my book).
W. Somerset Maugham, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury
Borges, Chekov, Lispector, Carver
Raymond Carver, Rudyard Kipling and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
for anyone looking for a more modern short story writer who is just astounding and moving, charles baxter is my favorite contemporary author of short stories. like trevor whom someone mentioned, his short stories are even better than his novels.
Benjamin - perhaps it is my Canadian pride - but I love Alice Munro - Nobel prize winner and superlative short story writer. I read her over and over again. She is an artist of incredible perception and subtlety - but also earthy and frank in her view of humanity. Love the Russians too!
Good luck topping ''The Swimmer'' and ''The Enormous Radio'' by John Cheever. And here are two ultra-short stories, barely a page long, I adore: ''Sticks'' by George Saunders; and ''The Pearl of Toledo'' by Prosper Merimee. All of these stories are very haunting and stay with you for a long time.
In addition to symbolism, Borges also wrote simpler stories about "arrabaleros", thugs of Buenos Aires of the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th. "The south" is a good example of this.