Short Fiction: Classic and Contemporary: Fourth Edition

by Charles H. Bohner (Editor), Dean Dougherty

This important anthology is an exceptionally wide-ranging alphabetically arranged collection that includes writers of the 19th and 20th centuries and spans all genres of short fiction. It covers myth, fairy tale, humor, western, detective, science fiction, gothic, fantasy, and folktale. Designed to familiarize readers with major writers and differing approaches to the art of storytelling, the book also helps to familiarize readers with literary elements and demonstrate that this familiarity can be useful in understanding the dynamics of novels, films, and other genres. The book presents a range of perspectives with stories from a variety of countries as well as a significant representation of women writers. The fourth edition of" Short Fiction" has been revised to humanize writers by presenting them as real people doing real work. The book also now includes writing by authors who have contributed to AmericaUs literary heritage such as Benjamin Franklin, Washington Irving, and Langston Hughes as well as writings by contemporary authors such as Dorothy Allison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and John Wideman, among others. It also now includes more works by other authors including Margaret Atwood, Anton Chekov, Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Jamaica Kincaid, Alice Munro, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alice Walker. There is also a greater representation of stories on The Holocaust and the Vietnam War. It presents more diverse material in the RWriters on WritingS section and the latest material in the RWriting About FictionS section. An essential reference for every writer, both those who write professionally and those who write purely for the pleasure of it.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Textbooks

1244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[CHAVANIN PISANKUNAKIT · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled with so many great stories from various genres and periods. I only finished over 800 pages and although some of the stories are not that easy to read or interesting, it's overall delightful. This is the first time I have read something this long since I finished Harry Potter. My favorite story is "The Outstation", a short story by Somerset Maugham. The Outstation is set in the British colonial era, about Cooper, a young British man who's assigned to work at a remote outpost in Malaysia. Reading this book is like reading 100 books at the same time.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for short story enthusiasts or Creative Writers. Overall, a good read.

[Jobie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book of short story. I appreciate how it has authors from multiple backgrounds, time periods, and countries. Two of my favorite stories are "the use of force" by Williams and "A good man is hard to find" by O'Connor, but I've read both of of those before. I had several that I loved from authors I never read stories that I had never read. "We can remember it for you wholesale" by Dick and "Johnny mnemonic" by Gibson both great science fiction short stories that were amazing to read. I have not seen either of the movies the stores were made into so that made the stories and even more pleasant find. I am a big fan of existentialist writing and had never read the "metamorphosis" by Kafka until this book. I really can't believe that I had not read it before now. Another Japanese writer I'll have to investigate is Mishima. "Patriotism" was a tale of love and duty. Also wanted to mention Isabel Allende, Julio Cortazar, Ralph Ellison - all new writers to me who I want to read more of. One of the last stories I read was "Newton" by Jeanette Winterson. It was an imaginative and compelling story about facade and neighborliness that I felt was really timely seeing as I've spent Christmas in a small Southern town. If you have a love short story and want to find some new diverse authors this is a jewel of a book. It's like a boxful of treasure and there's so many fine but maybe small precious and semi precious stones.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an anthology of nineteenth and twentieth century authors, and features short fiction of many different genres. One of my favorite works included in this collection is the tale of "Rip Van Winkle", by Washington Irving. This classic tale of a man who falls asleep for twenty years and awakens to a very different world, was an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. Another story which I appreciated was entitled "The Lady with the Dog", by Anton Chekhov. This tale involved an adulterous affair between a Russian banker and a young woman he meets while on vacation in Yalta.
I enjoyed this interesting collection of stories. It included a nice variety of tales from an eclectic mix of authors.

[Rebekah]

All the stories in this book were very interesting and thought provoking. My favorite story I read from this book was "Sonny's Blues". James Baldwin did an excellent job of describing the hardships that Sonny experienced in Urban Harlem. I am very grateful that Charles H. Bohner wrote this book.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short Fiction is a collection of classic and modern short stories. My favorite short story was My Mother's Memiors, Father's lies, and Other True Stories.

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I read of it was good.