Short Stories

[Olias]

Sherlock Holmes

YES!  Definitely.  I enjoy the entire canon but my favorites are Hound of the Baskervilles, Six Napoleons, Red Headed League, and Naval Treaty.

[Olias]

One of my favorite short stories that actually had me laughing out loud was "The Night the Bed Fell" by James Thurber.

[Karl Henning]

YES!  Definitely.  I enjoy the entire canon but my favorites are Hound of the Baskervilles, Six Napoleons, Red Headed League, and Naval Treaty.

I should re-read those.

[Rosalba]

One of my favorite short stories that actually had me laughing out loud was "The Night the Bed Fell" by James Thurber.

Another classic by Thurber is of course The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I love it - never go off reading it. It's so true - an exaggeration of what we all feel, and particularly good on the psychology of older men. In fact, I love to quote this italicised bit when my husband is driving.

Walter Mitty stopped the car in front of the building where his wife went to have her hair done. "Remember to get those overshoes while I'm having my hair done," she said. "I don't need overshoes," said Mitty. She put her mirror back into her bag. "We've been all through that," she said, getting out of the car. "You're not a young man any longer." He raced the engine a little.

[Jo498]

YES!  Definitely.  I enjoy the entire canon but my favorites are Hound of the Baskervilles, Six Napoleons, Red Headed League, and Naval Treaty.

In the past we had some conversations about Holmes' stories in another thread. I used to love them as a teenager and re-read a lot of them about 10 years ago when I also saw the series with Jeremy Brett for the first time. Re-reading them, I still like the atmosphere and some of them hold up well but many others are not really that good neither as stories nor as mysteries. (While not short stories, I think Hound of the Baskervilles is the only one of the 4 longer ones that I'd still recommend, and that one is of course rather dependent on a particular twist one is unlikely to forget, so not great for re-reading...)

[Rosalba]

In the past we had some conversations about Holmes' stories in another thread. I used to love them as a teenager and re-read a lot of them about 10 years ago when I also saw the series with Jeremy Brett for the first time. Re-reading them, I still like the atmosphere and some of them hold up well but many others are not really that good neither as stories nor as mysteries. (While not short stories, I think Hound of the Baskervilles is the only one of the 4 longer ones that I'd still recommend, and that one is of course rather dependent on a particular twist one is unlikely to forget, so not great for re-reading...)

I agree that they don't hold up as crime stories - for example, why when you're dying of shock having seen a deadly creature in your bedroom would you gasp out 'The speckled band' rather than, 'I saw a snake!'?

The dialogue and characterisation, however, never fade, nor the atmosphere, as you say.

[Jo498]

The speckled band was one of the first I read at 11 or so, and I loved it. I guess there are some that will always remain favorites, I admittedly never thought about the particular implausibility you mention.
(Many of the Father Brown stories are even worse as mysteries (and I think Chesterton admitted this, sometimes having to crank them out quickly in use of money) relying on totally unlikely psychological or attention deficits but by the same token many make great psychological or moral points.)

[Rosalba]

The speckled band was one of the first I read at 11 or so, and I loved it. I guess there are some that will always remain favorites, I admittedly never thought about the particular implausibility you mention.
(Many of the Father Brown stories are even worse as mysteries (and I think Chesterton admitted this, sometimes having to crank them out quickly in use of money) relying on totally unlikely psychological or attention deficits but by the same token many make great psychological or moral points.)

You're so right about Father Brown - my husband loves them, though, and so do I. What makes them so good is the intriguing lesson about life that Fr Brown is able to draw from the strange circumstances of the story.

[Jo498]

Overall, I'd say that even more like Holmes, the Father Brown stories are quite uneven. Both series are, I think, still entertaining enough to recommend and one can read them all and decide oneself.

[Rosalba]

A short story which I find very powerful but which may not appeal to men as much as it does to women is D. H. Lawrence's Tickets Please.

Spoiler Alert: In this story, set during the First World War, the central female figure Annie co-opts her fellow bus conductresses to take revenge on the inspector (exempted from conscription) who's jilted them all as soon as they've developed feelings for him. They beat him up and say that he must choose one - but he turns the tables by choosing Annie, showing that he recognises that she is the instigator and the one whose love is most passionate. That moment of understanding between them both humiliates her utterly.

I'm not a big fan of Lawrence, who had a violent streak & generally has some very daft views on sex and gender, but he certainly understands how angry a jilted woman feels here - it shocks me a little how much I root for the conductresses when they're beating him up! It's a well-constructed story, very powerful, and has a lot to say about human relationships.

[vandermolen]

YES!  Definitely.  I enjoy the entire canon but my favorites are Hound of the Baskervilles, Six Napoleons, Red Headed League, and Naval Treaty.

'Charles Augustus Milverton' is one of my favourites (from 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes'). Holmes and Watson become burglars.

[Rosalba]

'Charles Augustus Milverton' is one of my favourites (from 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes'). Holmes and Watson become burglars.

I hate the way that innocent people die when Holmes is on the case though - Sophia's poor brother in The Greek Interpreter and Hilton Cubitt the loving husband in The Adventure of the Dancing Men.

[Biffo]

During lockdown I did a great deal of reading of fiction, much of it revisiting old favourites.

I read the complete Sherlock Holmes, here much of it was completely new to me and the ones I had read before I had almost completely forgotten. The adventures I could remember were from the TV series with Jeremy Brett.

I read or re-read the complete works (more or less) of Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler. It was mainly their short stories, especially Hammett, that were new to me; as in the past I greatly preferred Chandler.

When I read the two above before I must have been bingeing on American Literature as I recall reading some Philip K Dick at about the same time. I remember finding PKD rather frustrating. He had a brilliant imagination and each novel or even short story had enough ideas for three but the plotting or storyline was shambolic.

Finally, for the moment, my all-time favourite short story writer is Saki (H H Munro) - I read and re-read his works numerous times and still return to them when I need cheering up.

[Rosalba]

During lockdown I did a great deal of reading of fiction, much of it revisiting old favourites.

I read the complete Sherlock Holmes, here much of it was completely new to me and the ones I had read before I had almost completely forgotten. The adventures I could remember were from the TV series with Jeremy Brett.

I read or re-read the complete works (more or less) of Dashiel Hammett and Raymond Chandler. It was mainly their short stories, especially Hammett, that were new to me; as in the past I greatly preferred Chandler.

When I read the two above before I must have been bingeing on American Literature as I recall reading some Philip K Dick at about the same time. I remember finding PKD rather frustrating. He had a brilliant imagination and each novel or even short story had enough ideas for three but the plotting or storyline was shambolic.

Finally, for the moment, my all-time favourite short story writer is Saki (H H Munro) - I read and re-read his works numerous times and still return to them when I need cheering up.

Cheering up!?!

The Saki stories I've read remained with me for years but not for that reason.

[Jo498]

When I read the two above before I must have been bingeing on American Literature as I recall reading some Philip K Dick at about the same time. I remember finding PKD rather frustrating. He had a brilliant imagination and each novel or even short story had enough ideas for three but the plotting or storyline was shambolic.

I have read a bunch of PK Dick, although he wrote such a lot that it is probably only a fraction of his output. I agree that it can be a frustrating experience. He has some of the most brilliant and provoking ideas of any (SciFi) writer. AFAIR the volume with short stories was mostly very good but among his most famous pieces are novellas/short novels and many of these lose steam/focus towards the end. Supposedly Dick often worked extremely fast with "help" of amphetamines and when their effect wore off he somehow finished the book but often in an incoherent or just weird way. (IIRC "The man in the high castle" is such a book with a totally weird ending, although at least it has some shock value, others just peter out.)

[bhodges]

One of my favorites is perhaps an obvious choice, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," first published in The New Yorker in 1948. Sometime last fall, the magazine republished the story, with a stunningly understated illustration. I hadn't read it in decades, and had forgotten how powerfully the story emerges from Jackson's quiet language. And needless to say, it all seems very appropriate for the present day.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery

--Bruce

[Rosalba]

One of my favorites is perhaps an obvious choice, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," first published in The New Yorker in 1948. Sometime last fall, the magazine republished the story, with a stunningly understated illustration. I hadn't read it in decades, and had forgotten how powerfully the story emerges from Jackson's quiet language. And needless to say, it all seems very appropriate for the present day.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery

--Bruce

Thank you for that, especially for including the link - I enjoyed reading the story and thought it very well-crafted, though I have to admit that I saw the finale coming. (Not that it made it any less effective.) It is also very thought-provoking - as you say, still relevant to the present time. In fact, timeless.

It reminded me - not that the plot or style is similar at all - of another short story I found very memorable (I only read it once decades ago) and which has a very powerful build-up and disturbing denouement. It was in an anthology of science fiction stories and was called Lot - written by Ward Moore in 1953.

I wonder if anyone else has read it, or has a penchant for other short stories in the Science Fiction genre?

[Valentino]

Hemingway: in our time, charpter III, all of it:

We were in a garden at Mons. Young Buckley came in with his patrol from across the river. The first German I saw climbed up over the garden wall. We waited till he got one leg over and then potted him. He had so much equipment on and looked awfully surprised and fell down into the garden. Then three more came over further down the wall. We shot them. They all came just like that.

[Ganondorf]

The speckled band was actually Doyle's personal favorite from his Holmes stories.

[Biffo]

I meant to add a comment about Edgar Allan Poe in my previous post but forgot. I read Tales of Mystery and Imagination when I was a teenager. Hop-Frog gave me nightmares for years after - still makes me queasy.