The Greatest Stories

The three fictional works from ancient Egypt remaining in nearly full condition are all very different. "The Shipwrecked Sailor" is an adventure. "The Tale of Sinuhe" is a patriotic epic. And "The Eloquent Peasant" is something else.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

The "Story of Ahikar" is often found in anthologies of Middle Eastern writings to have been considered for The Old Testament. But it's plain to see why the story was left out of the major Biblical canons. Despite its long.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

Unlike Washington Irving's other famous story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", this one might perplex as to why it's considered a classic. The plot of "Rip Van Winkle" is hardly original. Apparently Irving stole it from.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

This is Mark Twain at this earliest and most innocuous—a genial small-town storyteller in the vein of America's Bret Harte or Canada's later Stephen Leacock. With only a trace of the crankiness and harder-edged Twain.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

When we're talking about Arthur Conan Doyle's contribution to detective literature, we really mean the entire oeuvre of fifty-six Sherlock Holmes stories, plus four Holmes novels. But if you're looking for a.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy

When we're talking about Arthur Conan Doyle's contribution to detective literature, we really mean the entire oeuvre of fifty-six Sherlock Holmes stories, plus four Holmes novels. But if you're looking for a.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy

The collections of stories that follow The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are also worthy, although a slight fall-off in quality is detectable as Doyle, tiring of his sleuth, pushes him through his mysteries.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy

You could set Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" and Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as, respectively, the start and culmination of a certain kind of American storytelling. Call it psychological realism.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

"Youth" is probably Joseph Conrad's most anthologized short story and has been for most of its existence. It's easy to see why. It's a great story of adventure on the high seas that also manages to capture a more universal.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

"Paul's Case" may or may not be Willa Cather's best short work, but it is her best known. For many years it was the one story she allowed to appear in anthologies. It is a very good story. But when you read it along.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy

G.K. Chesterton pulls off an amazing trick of literary misdirection in "The Blue Cross". This, of course, is the story that in its opening lines introduces readers to that great detective—the most famous investigator.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Dubliners is a wonderful collection of stories you can go back to at different times in your life and appreciate on different levels each time. They were written and published before James Joyce got sidetracked by his experiments.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

Dubliners is a wonderful collection of stories you can go back to at different times in your life and appreciate on different levels each time. They were written and published before James Joyce got sidetracked by his experiments.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Dubliners is a wonderful collection of stories you can go back to at different times in your life and appreciate on different levels each time. They were written and published before James Joyce got sidetracked by his experiments.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Scott Fitzgerald's prolific output of stories for magazines early in his career was distinguished by at least one that was undoubtedly great, many that could be called interesting, and more that are best forgotten (and have been).... Critique • Quotes • Buy

If you wonder how Katherine Mansfield who published so little could have such a wide influence on modern writing, spend some time with this collection. Reading The Garden Party and Other Stories is like perusing other.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

"The Other Woman" is a story that may explain why modernist writers like Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner looked up to Sherwood Anderson at the beginning of their careers, though they later felt it necessary to move.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy

If you wonder how Katherine Mansfield who published so little could have such a wide influence on modern writing, spend some time with this collection. Reading The Garden Party and Other Stories is like perusing other.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Scott Fitzgerald's prolific output of stories for magazines early in his career was distinguished by at least one that was undoubtedly great, many that could be called interesting, and more that are best forgotten (and have been).... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Scott Fitzgerald's prolific output of stories for magazines early in his career was distinguished by at least one that was undoubtedly great, many that could be called interesting, and more that are best forgotten (and have been).... Critique • Quotes • Buy

From its brutal title to its sardonic final lines, "The Gutting of Couffignal" is a showcase for the early hard-boiled detective style practically invented by Dashiell Hammett—in its early action-oriented phase popular in the pulp magazines.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

When they made a movie of "The Killers" in 1946 they spent only about fifteen minutes telling Ernest Hemingway's entire story from two decades earlier. The rest of the screen time they devoted to fleshing out.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

The beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story "Babylon Revisited" with an expatriate American visiting Paris, scene of his carousing in the 1920s and now deserted by the old gang, first put me in mind of Ernest Hemingway's look back.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

The short story "The Doctor's Son" could alone carry John O'Hara's reputation as a story writer. Conversely the collection in which it appears, his first book of short stories, is not enough to give justice to his reputation.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

The short story "The Doctor's Son" could alone carry John O'Hara's reputation as a story writer. Conversely the collection in which it appears, his first book of short stories, is not enough to give justice to his reputation.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

It's not the story I would pick as Ernest Hemingway's best. I have a thing against writers writing about being writers, particularly writers writing about being writers being unable to write. But "The Snows of Kilimanjaro".... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy

It might be considered Ernest Hemingway's greatest story, if not for the greater popularity of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", with which it is often paired. Both "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

A short story doesn't always have to deliver a clear moral. A story could just present a slice of life and leave any significance up to the reader's imagination. John Steinbeck's narratives often take both approaches, landing.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

First a word about the versions of this story. The 1941 short story "Nightfall" has been acclaimed one of the greatest science fiction tales—if not the greatest science fiction tale—ever. You can find it in many anthologies.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

My first exposure to J.D. Salinger's first story left me with a memory of a lengthy convoluted story. But recently when I read it I discovered it is actually quite short—simple even. What gives it length and complexity, especially.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

I can't think of any Hugh Garner stories I like better than the twenty-four in this collection, so I guess these are his best. They're pretty good. In fact, it is difficult to think of anyone's stories I like better than these.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Outside discussion of Philip Roth's 1959 story, the expression "Defender of the Faith" has applied mainly to Christians. A title originally given by the Pope, it has passed down through European royalty who have been heads.... Critique • Quotes • Buy

Long before he published A Game of Thrones (1996), launching the epic series and worldwide phenomenon of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin was making a name for himself in the science fiction world as.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy