The Art of the Short Story Book

About the Authors.

I. INTRODUCTION.

The Art of the Short Story.

II. STORIES.

CHINUA ACHEBE, NIGERIAN.

Dead Men's Path.

Author's Perspective: Achebe on Modern Africa as the Crossroads of Culture.

SHERWOOD ANDERSON, AMERICAN.

Hands.

Author's Perspective: Anderson on Words Not Plot Give Form to a Short Story.

MARGARET ATWOOD, CANADIAN.

Happy Endings.

Author's Perspective: Atwood on the Canadian Identity.

JAMES BALDWIN, AMERICAN.

Sonny's Blues.

Author's Perspective: Baldwin on Race and the African-American Writer.

JORGE LUIS BORGES, ARGENTINE.

The Garden of Forking Paths.

Author's Perspective: Borges on Literature as Experience.

ALBERT CAMUS, FRENCH, Born in Algeria.

The Guest.

Author's Perspective: Camus on Revolution and Repression in Algeria.

RAYMOND CARVER, AMERICAN.

Cathedral.

A Small Good Thing.

Author's Perspective: Carver on Commonplace but Precise Language.

WILLA CATHER, AMERICAN.

Paul's Case.

Author's Perspective: Cather on Art as the Process of Simplification.

JOHN CHEEVER, AMERICAN.

The Swimmer.

Author's Perspective: Cheever on Why I Write Short Stories.

ANTON CHEKHOV, RUSSIAN.

The Lady with the Pet Dog.

Misery.

Author's Perspective: Chekhov on Natural Description and “The Center of Gravity.”

KATE CHOPIN, AMERICAN.

The Storm.

The Story of an Hour.

Author's Perspective: Chopin on Her Writing Method.

SANDRA CISNEROS, AMERICAN.

Barbie-Q.

Author's Perspective: Cisneros on Style.

JOSEPH CONRAD, POLISH, Naturalized British.

The Secret Sharer.

Author's Perspective: Conrad on the Condition of Art.

STEPHEN CRANE, AMERICAN.

The Open Boat.

Author's Perspective: Crane on The Sinking of the Commodore.

RALPH ELLISON, AMERICAN.

A Party Down at the Square.

Author's Perspective: Ellison on Race and Fiction.

WILLIAM FAULKNER, AMERICAN.

Barn Burning.

A Rose for Emily.

Author's Perspective: Faulkner on The Human Heart in Conflict with Itself.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, AMERICAN.

Babylon Revisited.

Author's Perspective: Fitzgerald on His Own Literary Aims.

GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, FRENCH.

A Simple Heart.

Author's Perspective: Flaubert on the Labor of Style.

GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, COLOMBIAN.

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.

Author's Perspective: García Márquez on His Beginnings as a Writer.

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN (1860-1935), AMERICAN.

The Yellow Wallpaper.

Author's Perspective: Gilman on Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

NIKOLAI GOGOL, RUSSIAN.

The Overcoat.

Author's Perspective: Gogol on Realism.

NADINE GORDIMER, SOUTH AFRICAN.

A Company of Laughing Faces.

Author's Perspective: Gordimer on How the Short Story Differs from the Novel.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, AMERICAN.

Young Goodman Brown.

The Birthmark.

Author's Perspective: Hawthorne on the Public Failure of His Early Stories.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY, AMERICAN.

A Clean Well-Lighted Place.

Author's Perspective: Hemingway on One True Sentence.

ZORA NEALE HURSTON, AMERICAN.

Sweat.

Author's Perspective: Hurston on Eatonville When You Look at It.

SHIRLEY JACKSON (1919-1965), AMERICAN.

The Lottery.

Author's Perspective: Jackson on the Public Reception of the Lottery.

HENRY JAMES, AMERICAN.

The Real Thing.

Author's Perspective: James on the Mirror of a Consciousness.

HA JIN, BORN IN CHINA, Resident American.

Saboteur.

Author's Perspective: Jin on sources of His Fiction.

JAMES JOYCE, IRISH.

The Dead.

Araby.

Author's Perspective: Joyce on Epiphanies.

FRANZ KAFKA, AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN.

Before the Law.

The Metamorphosis.

Author's Perspective: Kafka on Discussing “The Metamorphosis.”

D. H. LAWRENCE, ENGLISH.

The Rocking-Horse Winner.

Odour of Chrysanthemums.

Author's Perspective: Lawrence on the Novel Is the Bright Book of Life.

URSULA K. LE GUIN, AMERICAN.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.

Author's Perspective: Le Guin on “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”

DORIS LESSING, RHODESIAN, Naturalized British.

A Woman on a Roof.

Author's Perspective: Lessing on “My Beginnings as a Writer.”

JACK LONDON, AMERICAN.

To Build A Fire.

Author's Perspective: London Defending the Factuality of “To Build a Fire.”

KATHERINE MANSFIELD, NEW ZEALANDER.

The Garden-Party.

Miss Brill.

Author's Perspective: Mansfield on “The Garden-Party.”

BOBBIE ANN MASON, AMERICAN.

Shiloh .

Author's Perspective: Mason on Minimalist Fiction.

GUY DE MAUPASSANT, FRENCH.

The Necklace.

Author's Perspective: Maupassant on the Realist Method.

HERMAN MELVILLE, AMERICAN.

Bartleby, the Scrivener.

Author's Perspective: Melville on Hawthorne and American Literature.

YUKIO MISHIMA, JAPANESE.

Patriotism.

Author's Perspective: Mishima on the Japanese Code.

ALICE MUNRO, CANADIAN.

How I Met My Husband.

Author's Perspective: Munro on How I Write Short Stories.

JOYCE CAROL OATES, AMERICAN.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Author's Perspective: Oates on Productivity and the Critics.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR, AMERICAN.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

Revelation.

Author's Perspective: O'Connor on the Element of Suspense in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”

EDGAR ALLAN POE, AMERICAN.

The Tell-Tale Heart.

The Fall of the House of Usher.

Author's Perspective: Poe on the Tale and Its Effect.

KATHERINE ANNE PORTER, AMERICAN.

Flowering Judas.

Author's Perspective: Porter on Writing Short Stories.

LESLIE MARMON SILKO, AMERICAN.

The Man to Send Rain Clouds.

Author's Perspective: Silko on the Basis of “The Man to Send Rain Clouds.”

ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, YIDDISH (born in Poland) Naturalized American.

Gimpel the Fool.

Author's Perspective: Singer on the Character of Gimpel.

LEO TOLSTOY, RUSSIAN.

The Death of Ivan Ilych.

Author's Perspective: Tolstoy on the Moral Responsibilities of Art.

JOHN UPDIKE, AMERICAN.

Separating.

Author's Perspective: Updike on Why Write?

ALICE WALKER, AMERICAN.

Everyday Use.

Author's Perspective: Walker on the Black Woman Writer in America.

EUDORA WELTY, AMERICAN.

Why I Live at the P.O.

Author's Perspective: Welty on the Plot of the Short Story.

EDITH WHARTON, AMERICAN.

Roman Fever.

Author's Perspective: Wharton on the Subject of Short Stories.

VIRGINIA WOOLF, ENGLISH.

A Haunted House.

Author's Perspective: Woolf on Women and Fiction.

III. WRITING

The Elements of Short Fiction.

Plot.

Characterization.

Point of View.

Setting.

Theme.

Style.

Writing about Fiction.

Critical Approaches to Fiction.

Formalist Criticism.

Michael Clark, Light and Darkness in “Sonny's Blues.”

Biographical Criticism.

Virginia Llewellyn Smith, Chekhov's Attitude to Romantic Love.

Historical Criticism.

John King, The Argentinean Context of Borges's Fantastic Fiction.

Psychological Criticism.

Daniel Hoffman, The Father-Figure in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Mythological Criticism.

Edmond Volpe, Myth in Faulkner's “Barn Burning.”

Sociological Criticism.

Daniel P. Watkins, Money and Labor in “The Rocking-Horse Winner.”

Gender Criticism.

Juliann Fleenor, Gender and Pathology in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Reader-Response Criticism.

Stanley Fish, An Eskimo “A Rose for Emily.”

Deconstructionist Criticism.

Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author.

Cultural Studies.

Mark Bauerlein, What is Cultural Studies?

IV. GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS.

Acknowledgments.

Chronological Listing of Authors and Stories.

Listing of Authors with Second Story.

Carver, A Small, Good Thing.

Chekhov, Misery.

Chopin, The Story of an Hour.

Faulkner, A Rose for Emily.

Hawthorne, The Birthmark.

Joyce, Araby.

Kafka, Before the Law.

Lawrence, The Odour of Chrysanthemums.

Mansfield, Miss Brill.

O'Connor, Revelation.

Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher.