Selected Shorts. A Celebration of the Short Story: Timeless Classics

by Symphony Space (Editor), James Thurber, Edith Wharton

Finalist in "AudioFile Magazine's" 2007 Audie Awards in the category "Audiobook Adapted from Another Medium"This three-CD compilation features some of the best short stories from National Public Radio's "Selected Shorts," an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by distinguished stage and screen actors and recorded live at the Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. More than three hours of recordings in each collection capture the intimacy of live performance, with stories that are alternately exciting, poignant, and funny, making this the perfect accompaniment to any number of daily activities--driving, cooking, exercising, relaxing, or intently listening.
Timeless Classics includes, among others, James Thurber's "The Night the Ghost Got In," read by Isaiah Sheffer; Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever," read by Maria Tucci; Jack London's "Make Westing," read by Steven Gilborn; D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner," read by John Shea; Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," read by Marian Seldes; Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," read by Charles Keating; and Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," read by James Naughton.

Genres: Short Stories, Audiobook, Classics, Fiction, Humor

3 pages, Audio CD

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

http://store.symphonyspace.org/collec...

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Thurber's "The Night the Ghost Got In" - Comic Mayhem is unleashed when a family hears a ghost in the night... and calls in the police. (3 stars)

Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever" - Two women reflect on romance and intrigue, long ago in Rome. (4 stars)

Jack London's "Make Westing" - Danger, adventure, corruption and secrecy dog a ship as it rounds Cape Horn. (3 stars)

D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" - A dark fable of a magical toy helping a little boy cope with family troubles. (4 stars)

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"- In Jackson's classic nightmare of society and sacrifice, someone will be the chosen one. (4 stars)

Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" - A meditation on what it means to be a hunter... or the hunted... this tale unfolds on a remote island full of strange prey. (4 stars)

Raymond Carver's "Cathedral"- A subtle and intimate portrait of a man during a visit from his wife's blind friend. (3 stars)

[SpookySoto]

Rating: I liked it 😊
Format: audio

I was very surprised by this collection, short stories aren't my favorite, but this was a great selection, every short story was good. and the narrators were excellent.

• James Thurber's "The Night the Ghost Got In" 3/5
• Edith Wharton's "Roman fever 3/5
• Jack London's "Make westing" 3/5
• D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" 3.5/5
• Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" 3/5
• Richard Connell's "the most dangerous game" 3/4

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining. I listened to the audio version and it was like listening to old time radio shows. Very well acted and very entertaining. I had read several of these short stories previously but enjoyed hearing them performed like this.

[Chrystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best audio books I've come across in a while. Great stories read by different readers in front of a live audience. I'll be sampling more from this series for sure.

[Xine Segalas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific selection of short stories bu some of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
James Thurber's "The Night the Ghost Got In" read by Isiah Sheffer
Edith Wharton's "Roman Fever" read by Maria Tucci
Jack London's "Make Westing" read by Steven Gilborn
D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-horse Winner" read by John Shea
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" read by Marian Seldes
Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" read by Charles Keating
Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" read by James Naughton

All of them offering such interesting perspectives! This is the perfect listen to jump in and out of story by story. Loved.

[Jay Miraldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories, I can see why they are classics. And being classics, I was familiar with a couple of them but I think that hearing them read aloud gave them some new meaning for me. For instance, listening to "The Most Dangerous Game" I realized that the title has a dual meaning; I'd always taken it as a reference to the hunt itself being a dangerous game but of course it also refers to people as being "the most dangerous game" in the way that hunters refer to animals as being game. I enjoyed rediscovering these stories.

[Tanya b · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because it included the short story, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. It's one of my favorite classic short stories and I wanted to listen to it as something new. This is mainly why I rated this overall as 3 stars. I loved the all the readings of each story - it did feel like listening to old time radio programs. However, it did bring to mind how dated these stories are. While the writing is superb, some stories also, unfortunately, include racism and sexism. A good reminder of (and relief) about how much fiction has changed.

[counter-hegemonicon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aggressive, I know, since this contains many notable short stories: “The Lottery,” “The Most Dangerous Game,” “Cathedral.” But ultimately this collection just exposes racism that at the core of the white cannon and its inexplicable necessity. I found the Raymond Carver story especially grating, and any didactic efforts ultimately become farcical in the face of the inability to confront the true antagonism at the center of any narrative. At worst they’re affirmations, at best some of these miss easy slam dunk critiques of western societies

[ladydusk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this for the DH Lawrence story which will be an upcoming Literary Life podcast feature. I enjoyed The Rocking-Horse Winner as a story and am excited to hear what the team will discuss in regard to it.

The other stories were fine, some better than others. I haven't touched The Lottery since high school and kinda wish I'd have skipped it now. I don't think I understood Cathedrals at all and only sort of heard The Most Dangerous Game.

[Katherine Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific collection of short stories. I’m really interested in short stories with really interesting twists and this was a perfect collection.
Admittedly, the recording was not very good. They were live audience recordings, with applause at the end and some laughter. Weirdly, there was a baby crying for a bit in the last story.
Five stars for curation. Minus 1 star for production

[Lucy Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't believe this series isn't more popular! If I had read these stories in a physical book or listen to them in a traditional audiobook, I would have missed a lot of the humor because they're written in an older style. The talented voice actors and the live audience make the stories so much funnier.

My favorites were The Night The Ghost Got In, Roman Fever, and Cathedral.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved listening to thesestories. I had never heard of the live performances at Symphony Space, but they are so entertaining. Even though I didn't love all of the short stories equally, hearing them as the live performance enhanced my enjoyment tremendously. I will definitely continue listening to more of these collections.

[Caroline Brassard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love to hear seasoned actors read shorts, plunging me in a new mood, a new world… either slowly gearing up to a punchy ending, or just entering an ongoing fragment of life as a voyeur… my favourite in this collection is Raymond Carver’s ‘Cathedral’ which you can also read here: https://thelondonmagazine.org/cathedr...

[Lyra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The audience applause was a bit odd, but with the excellent narration, well deserved.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio. 4 1/2 out of 5

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite an excellent little collection of must-read short stories. This is a great mixture of comic, dramatic, thrilling, and poignant tales, every one a classic in its own rights.

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great compilation of stories, with the readings of Wharton's Roman Fever and Carver's Cathedral standing shoulders above the rest.

[Bill Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly even a dope like me had read a few of these stories before. A few are kind of dated and not that great, but Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" is the real standout.

[P Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun listen! I will definitely look for more! This was volume 18.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of short stories, but all too often they're just not very good

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audiobook live performance. Some of the stories are a tad dated but the performance was amusing/entertaining.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed some of them more than others.

[Sue T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great audio readings of classic stories. Especially loved the Edith Wharton.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

They were all great stories. Except for the Jack London one.

[N. E. Rule · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timeless collection of short stories by award-winning authors. A great sampling to see which author you may wish to continue reading.

[Cindee Ketches · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some classics that were read quite well.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most collections of stories, some are entertaining or thought provoking. Others do not enlighten me or hold my attention. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[Nicole]

Audio 1

[Jlsimon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently ran into a reference to a story I read years ago by Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery". I remembered it to be a chilling story, disturbing even considering I was probably only about 11 at the time. It's been a lot of years since then, and I was curious to go back and read the tale I remembered only as a whole town turning against the lottery winner. It was for this reason I picked up this book. It includes the following short stories:

"The Night the Ghost Got In" by James Thurber: A short story that read more as a comedy than a ghost story. Our protagonist is telling a story of a night he and his family called the police in when they heard a ghost moving around and the mother thought it was a burglar.

"Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton: This was a bit of a comedy too. We have two older women sitting at a table in Rome reflecting on their friendship. During this reflection they learn they had never really been friends at all. There was a lot of spite turned to humor in this story.

"Make Westing" by Jack London: I couldn't connect to this story. The only thing I can tell you about this story is that we have a ship trying to catch a wind called "The Westing" in order to get home.

"The Rocking Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence: Now this was a sad tale. Our protagonist in this story is a little boy who wants to be lucky in order to help his family out of their ever present financial problems. He begins to get the names of race winners from his rocking horse. In the end he wins big, but drives himself into a hysteria and death to achieve this big win. In the course of the story we learn about a friend, an uncle, and a mother who only learned to love her son once the mania of horse racing had already taken hold of the child. Her greatest gain came at the greatest possible price.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson: Thought not as frightening to me as it was when I was 11 years old, this story was still chilling. In this town winning the lottery was certainly not anything to bring a winner joy. The town believes that their success is connected to a barbaric practice of human sacrifice. I don't wish to go into to many details simply to avoid spoilers.

"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell. This is another tale that I had read at some point in my youth. I didn't recognize the title, but I did recognize the story. In a brief overview we have a renowned hunter that is going on a hunting trip over seas. He gets stranded on an island only to find out HE is the big game to be hunted. As with the lottery, it's a bit psychologically bending.

"Cathedral" by Raymond Carver: This short story had some very interesting elements. This story is told from the point of a narrator explaining the visit to his wife from an old employer/friend. It is interesting for several reasons, the first of which is that few characters are given a name. The visitor is referred to as "The Blind Man" He is given the name Robert at some point in the story, but he is almost never referred to by name. The narrator refers to himself as I or Me. His wife is always called, "My Wife". His wife's ex-husband is always referred to as "Her Officer".

So if by now you're wondering why I haven't told you what this story is about, the answer is, from what I can tell, nothing at all. Wondering where the title comes from? Well when you get to the very end of the story our narrator tries to describe a cathedral to the blind man. Then they try to draw a cathedral together, the blind man, and the seeing man with his eyes closed. It was really an odd little tale.

What else would you need to know about this book? Well, this is probably not bedtime reading to your children. They would find it a little frightening, and a lot boring I think. It is a fun read if you are looking for short stories to entertain yourself with at night or on a commute and don't want to get into a full length book.

Each of the stories in this collection has made it into a list of classics because they will make you think. Each and every one of them is likely to give you a perspective you did not have before. I might recommend this book to individuals that enjoy works like some of the short stories by Stephen King, for example "Four Past Midnight."