The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction: Compact Sixth Edition

by Ann Charters

This brief edition of the most widely adopted book of its kind offers all of the editorial features of the longer book with about half the stories and writer commentaries in a shorter, less expensive format.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Writing, Reference, Anthologies, Literature

1060 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the books that I had to read for my Contemporary Literature class. This was my first experience reading contemporary short fiction and to be quite honest...I enjoyed it much more than I anticipated I would. Short fiction is definitely written for a certain audience and I'm not sure if I will continue reading short fiction after this book, but it wasn't a horrible read.

[Clare Azzopardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

a perfect book for those who want to know more about the short story ...

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

some stories absolutely changed my life... others were just written by old white men

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read the book cover to cover. One rarely does in a text book situation. There are so many wonderful short stories in the book. Some I had read and some I hadn't. I especially love the profiles on each author and how they discussed a bit about their writing process and style. This is a book I'll keep instead of selling back because you'll never find so many great stories in one place!

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not read all the stories as this was for school, but I enjoyed the selection of stories and authors avalible. The biggest problem I had was Ann Charters appendices which had less information than my high school text books.

[Cherine Hakani · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is only the story... that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind. Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story; rather, it is the story that owns us.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this to supplement a lecturecsrried on short fiction from the Great Courses.

[Sheila Bitts]

It was my textbook. I read many stories in it, but not all.

[Eric W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the second edition when I was an English major at the University of Iowa. I don’t know how the selection of stories in the current edition compares, but I loved having the second edition in my library.

[Vitalia Strait · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of short stories with a wide representation of years.

[Lucy Fu]

read Lorrie Moore's 'How to Become a Writer' for Creative Writing

[Dacie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of short stories and writers' commentaries. We only delved into a handful during the course of my Literature class, but there are over one hundred traditional, classic, and new short stories to enjoy. This is a great book to have on hand!

[Zi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this for one of the classes I took...nothing really to say on it, since I didn't really "read" it.

[Meredith Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection

[Mayen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for college course in the mid/late 80's. I have read stories in here off and on for over 23 years! Teach my children in high school using this book.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of short stories but it was an enjoyable class.

[Reza Muhamad]

i think this book is good. because i have a task that is about this book

[Waco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving it. It's a monster of a book. Forget where I bought it, but, if you like reading short stories and lifting weights at the same time, this is for you. No spoilers, just read it.