Well-Known Authors

• Well-Known Authors:These classic authors may have gotten famous for their longer works, but their short stories can often be just as compelling.

• "Three Questions"
 by Leo Tolstoy: While Tolstoy may be better known for his epic novels, this short story in the form of a parable about a king searching for the most important questions in life shows he mastered the medium of the short story as well.
• "The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez:This magical realist story focuses on a couple who have found what they believe to be an angel in their front yard– for better or for worse.
• "Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe: This classic tale of gothic horror will have you hanging on to every last detail.
• "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: In this satirical, dystopian story society has finally achieved equality by handicapping the most intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society.
• "The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol: This short satirical work tells the tale of a St. Petersburg official whose nose decides it’s had enough and leaves his face to start a life of its own.
• "The Diamond As Big as the Ritz" by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Included in a short story collection and published on its own, this story documents the lengths one family will go to in order to keep their secret source of wealth a hidden.
• "The Looking Glass" by Anton Chekhov: A marriage-obsessed young woman begins to see her future life being played out in her looking glass in this short tale.
• "The South" by Jorge Luis Borges: Considered by Borges to be one of his best short stories, this story centers on a man who is on his way home after a near death experience.
• "The Swimmer" by John Cheever: This story may have been originally conceived as a novel, but it holds up well as a short story, blending realism and surrealism as it explores life in suburban American.
• "To Build a Fire" by Jack London: Known for his epic tales about man in nature, this short story doesn’t disappoint as a man and dog are pitted against the wilderness in a battle for survival.
• "The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde: This story uses the form of a fairy tale to look at love, sacrifice and relationships.