Once Upon a Time ...

[Hornspieler]

We have a thread dedicated to Poetry, and we also have The Photo booth.

So why not complete the trio with a thread where members can can write about their favourite short stories?

Aesop's Fables, Somerset Maugham, Hans Christian Andersen, Raoul Dahl, Edgar Allan Poe,

... so many short-story writers - and what about about you?

Were you given the task at school to write a short story? (sometimes just called a composition)

... and what about putting your own small children to bed? Did you ever invent your own little fairy tale ... and can you remember what it was about?

I believe that we all have a favourite author or story somewhere in our memories.

Let's share them.

[Hornspieler]

"The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsyth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd

Possibly because it is so similar to the three RAF stories which I wrote at the behest of the BBC Talks department (who then, abruptly dropped their popular "Morning Story" from the BBC Home Service}.

Feel free to contact me by PM with any questions.

Hornspieler

[ardcarp]

Authors sometimes say how difficult it is to write a short story...harder than a novel. Is there any truth in this?

[Conchis]

Authors sometimes say how difficult it is to write a short story...harder than a novel. Is there any truth in this?

I'd say it is a lot harder.

The short story should, in theory, be easier. Yet it isn't - the novel alllows greater scope, the shorty story demands concision.

John O'Hara discoruaged other writers from attempting short stories on the grounds that 'they use up too many characters.'

Chekhov, Maugham and William Trevor are the masters of the form, I'd say.

I also enjoy Richard Yates' two volumes of short stories.

My favourite short story of all time, though, is F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Damond As Big As The Ritz.

[Zucchini]

Hemingway: A Moveable Feast (no wasted words there)

[Serial_Apologist]

I started my "A funny thing happened on the way to the forum" to encourage short story telling among forum members. There haven't been many takers...

[Pianorak]

Katherine Mansfield, R.K. Narayan, Anton Chekhov and W. Somerset Maugham are among my favourite short story writers.

[Richard Tarleton]

My two favourites are Damon Runyon and Saki (HH Munro).

[LMcD]

Thomas Hardy's Wessex Tales

[Ferretfancy]

Coming up to my 14th birthday I used a book token to buy the complete short stories of HG Wells, which certainly captured my imagination, as did the very different style of Saki.Everybody should read Shredni Vashtar.I still enjoy Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh, and does anybody remember the fat volume entitled A Century of Creepy Stories ?

[vinteuil]

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... Poe, Stevenson, Conrad, James, Kipling, Saki, Borges, Maupassant, Chekhov, Mann, Schnitzler.


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[gurnemanz]

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... Poe, Stevenson, Conrad, James, Kipling, Saki, Borges, Maupassant, Chekhov, Mann, Schnitzler.


.

Great list. I'd add Heinrich Böll.

[french frank]

Trollope, A.

I've lost the reference now but when I dabbled, I relished the 'Advice to Short Story Writers' on the advantages of writing short stories rather than full-length novels:

the postage will be lower when sending to publishers
you will have wasted less effort when they are turned down

[HighlandDougie]

Along with William Trevor, Alice Munro, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2013 and master of the genre de nos jours sans pareil

[johncorrigan]

Hemingway: A Moveable Feast (no wasted words there)

I read that book in my teens, Zucchini, and just the mention of it creates such a wonderful atmosphere which the author so brilliantly created. My favourite piece of Hemmingway.

For me you'd go a long way to beat Sallinger's wonderful 'For Esme with Love and Squalor' - actually, I suppose that apart from 'Catcher' most all his work is short story in form, but 'Esme' is something very special.