"A Descent into the Maelstrom" by Poe.
"The Damned Thing" by Ambrose Bierce.
"The Three Hermits" by Leo Tolstoy.
"Dagon" by HP Lovecraft.

"On the Uses of Torture" Piers Anthony
"Stovelighter" Steven Popkes
"The Revolt of the Pedestrians" David H. Keller

A lot of great recommendations in here I'll have to try and find. Sometimes nothing beats a good short story.

Hey, I just read the Monkey's Paw and I didn't completely understand it, so I thought I would ask what happened.



Thanks

-Maneesh

My Dead Dog Bobby by Joe Lansdale
Sticks by Karl Edward Wagner

Could people listing their favourite short stories possibly include a sentence or two briefly describing what it's about?

I just read the monkeys paw, the lottery, a&p, and the lady or the tiger. I liked the lady or the tiger and a&p, but I thought monkeys paw and lottery were not good at all. I thought the lottery was badly written as well.

to build a fire is about an explorer trying to make it through the night.

a&p is about a guy who works in a convience store and two girls walk in...

monkeys paw is about a family who recieve a monkeys paw that grants them wishes although it may not be what they hopped for.

The lottery is crap. Skip it.

The lady or the tiger is about a man in rome who is sentenced to an unusual punishment.

and menash about the ending to monkeys paw


And I don't know if it's been mentioned but a few other shorts I'd reccomend.

Draculas Guest:
http://www.readprint.com/work-1393/Bram-Stoker
Jabberwocky - sort of a classic that everyone in my family knows.
http://www.readprint.com/work-181/Lewis-Carroll
and he built a crooked house
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/clas...heinlein1.html

Any of Jeffrey Archer's short stories.

Mine, I think, would have to be one that was posted on this board a couple of years back. It was called "On meeting the 100% perfect girl" (or something similar).

I'm sure the text is somewhere on the board, although I can't find it in a search.

Space by Kevin Brockmeier (re-published in Best American Short Stories, 2003).

The 2005 edition of Best American just came out. If you want some great short stories, go to your local library and check out a few Best Americans. You'll thank yourself for the treat.

I don't know if I mentioned it but dashiel hammets short storys are pretty good. I really liked one hour.

The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

I saw this thread and I was immediately going to post The Lottery, and then naturally I see it pop up a dozen times already...

It's still my favorite, but #2 would be Blank by Harlan Ellison.

"Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" by Stephen King

If you haven't yet, give "The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams a try.

anyone know any good short stories that have a twist ending?

Good thread, makes me want to find a few of my short collections.

My favorites would be several from Harlan Ellison or Ambrose Bierce, but The Lottery would be up there also.

I love M.R. James' ghost stories. Lost Hearts and Casting the Runes (the source of the 50s horror classic, Curse of the Demon) are my favorites.

Stephen King's The Mist is my fave from him, short or long-length, though it does border on novella-length.

As for the request for short stories with a twist, I think that Roald Dahl (in his short story work) and O.Henry had a number of such stories.

My favorite short story collections growing up were Bradbury's The Illustrated Man and Asimov's I, Robot, Robot Dreams, and Robot Visions. Damn, now I want to go dig them up.

The Ledge by Lawrence Sargent Hall

I just read robot dreams by Isaac Asimov. Really really good.

Metamorphosis by Kafka
The Pit and The Pendulum by Poe

Surprised to see The Lottery on so many lists. It was quite a surprise reading it in junior high but I had to read it again in college and found it quite boring especially when I already knew the twist.

And "The Raven" is a poem not a story. Probably my favorite poem.

Also, wanted to add anything by Carver is fantastic. (Short Cuts)

Boring? Remember, "the twist" is everything. Of course it has lost some of its impact, but try to remember how you felt the first time you read that last paragraph of the story. I was CHILLED!

Lottery in June, bring corn soon. Go back livin' in caves....



But not on my list. I would go with Rage and The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King).

I like Bradbury, but more for the unintentional humor of reading some of the stories today. Like being on Mars, and having a conversation say, "This is crazy, we know the year is 1987."

I hadn't actually read the story until I stumbled across this thread, and maybe it's because of all the big twist movies and stories that I've seen and read over the past few years, but I just assumed it was going to end the way it did and it wasn't a particularly interesting read.