best short story you've read?

Question

Someone told me their opinion on the best short story that they've ever read. I'm curious to see if someone agrees with them.

I won't tell the story until either someone says it or until the question is out.

BTW, I'm considering short stories to be under one hundred pages.

Answer 1

My two favorites (sorry, couldn't pick one)

Nightfall - Asimov
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes

A close third would be Rip Van Winkle - Irving

Answer 2

There is a short story called "Turtle Gal" by Beth Brant in a collection called "All My Relations" by Thomas King that is incredibly beautiful. It is my favourite short story. I don't remember the title of another story in there, but it's by another short story writer named Jordan Wheeler. These are stories by Canadian Native writers...really, really good stuff. Alice Munro has some incredible short stories. She's an amazing writer. I wanted to add Stephen King has some great short stories, the best of which, in my view, is "The Long Walk" contained in the Bachman Books collection. Really intriguing story.

Answer 3

Lamb to the Slaughter...I read it in high school and I loved it.

It was about a housewife that was kind of tired of her boring life and boring husband and she wanted out. It took place in the 1950's or 60's I think, before divorce was so accepted. Her husband I think was a policeman. Anyway...she decided to kill him and her choice of a weapon was a frozen leg of lamb. When he came home from work, she hit him over the head with it, killing him. Next, she set the leg of lamb out to thaw and went to the store to buy peas and carrots to go with it. When she arrived home she called the police, reporting the "incident" as a buglary gone wrong. The cops, her husbands buddies, showed up and investigated. They came to the same conclusion she had given them. Somebody must have broken into the house, her husband surprised them and they killed him with a blunt object.
The really interesting part of the story is that while the cops investigated she cooked the leg of lamb right in front of them and then served it to them--while they discussed what kind of weapon could have been used. The story was very interesting and, for a short story, kind of edge-of-your-seat.
By the way...she got away with the murder...obviously this was before CSI...lol!

Answer 4

The Unconquered
by W.Somerset Maugham

Answer 5

One of the best short stories I've read is Roald Dahl's "The Landlady". It's simply fantastic, amazing and horrifying. It's published in a paperback entitled, "Kiss Kiss" by Penguin Books (1962). And thus I've admired his literary works ever since. Just imagine you were Billy, alone in the room and the lady said: 'No, my dear, ... Only you,'

Answer 6

The End of the Party by Graham Greene.
Los hijos tontos by Ana Maria Matute

Answer 7

I read about a professor who gave an assignment to his writing class. They had to write a short story in as few words as possible. It had to include sex, religion and mystery. There was only one "A" given. The "A" winning story is as follows:
"Oh, God, I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it?"

Personally, I really enjoy the short stories I write, and fortunately, so do others.

Answer 8

I'm not much for short stories but I really do like Shirley Jackson's The Lottery. I think it was because behind the idyllic face of the small town a great horror hid.

Answer 9

Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber

Answer 10

A Rose for Emily
by William Faulkner and
There will come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury (who actually stole it from Sara Teasdale)