The Signet Classic Book of American Short Stories by group of authors..This superb collection celebrates the astonishing growth of the short story in America, from the early nineteenth century to the outbreak of World War II. From the very beginnings of this youngest of literary forms, American writers have played a crucial role in its development.
Here are thirty-three of their finest stories, ranging from the brooding romanticism of Hawthorne and Poe to the wit of Twain and Thurber--from the high moral consciousness of James to the sheer high spirits of Saroyan. Taken together, these classic tales form a remarkably rich and vital record of one of our literature's proudest and most original achievements.
The specter bridegroom / Washington Irving --
Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne --
The gold bug / Edgar Allan Poe --
Bartleby the scrivener / Herman Melville --
Miss Asphyxia / Harriet Beecher Stowe --
The Iliad of Sandy Bar / Bret Harte --
Who was she? / Bayard Taylor --
Grit / Rose Terry Cooke --
An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge / Ambrose Bierce --
The return of a private / Hamlin Garland --
A New England nun / Mary E. Wilkins Freeman --
The real thing / Henry James --
The yellow wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman --
The flight of Betsey Lane / Sarah O. Jewett --
La grande demoiselle / Grace Elizabeth King --
The war widow / Harold Frederic --
Madame Célestin's divorce / Kate Chopin --
The blue hotel / Stephen Crane --
A journey / Edith Wharton --
The man that corrupted Hadleyburg / Mark Twain --
All gold canyon / Jack London --
The rajah of Bungpore / F. Hopkinson Smith --
Nobody sick, nobody poor / Zona Gale --
One thousand dollars / O. Henry --
"Queer" / Sherwood Anderson --
Up in Michigan / Ernest Hemingway --
Great lady on a white horse / John Dos Passos --
The king of the cats / Stephen Vincent Benét --
Neighbour Rosicky / Willa Cather --
Turnabout / William Faulkner --The evening's at seven / James Thurber --
The long way out / F. Scott Fitzgerald --
Ever fall in love with a midget? / William Saroyan
