When I was a kid in high school back in Brooklyn in the early 1970s every school either public or private had an English class that used this book as a source of classic short stories. Now at the time it never occurred to me to look at the bio on the editors who selected these “great” stories. Many years later I did and discovered that these two editors were actually educators who worked at two local high schools (Abraham Lincoln H.S. and Sheepshead Bay H.S.) that were both within a mile of my home. In fact, Camera Girl went to one of these schools (although as I learned, she wasn’t really putting in the effort she should have and it took all my help to get her over the finish line her senior year). So, there is my link to this revered literary treasury. And back then I really wasn’t particularly interested in the kind of stories represented. There was one Ray Bradbury story but it wasn’t really science fiction so it wouldn’t have been on my radar.
But many years later I saw the familiar cover of the paperback on the shelf of a discount book store while we were on vacation in Old Orchard Beach, Maine and since I hadn’t packed enough reading material, I bought the book for (I think) two dollars.
And over the course of the week we were there, I read the whole thing for the first time in my life. And damned if most of the stories weren’t excellent in their own separate ways. Sure, I liked some of them much better than others but I had to admit that almost without exception they were well-crafted stories that could stand the test of time and quite a few of them could be re-read over the years without becoming tiresome.
Here’s the table of contents:
- War by Luigi Pirandello
- Eve in Darkness by Kaatje Hurlbut
- There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
- Tobermory by Saki
- The Two Bottles of Relish by Lord Dunsany
- Footfalls by Wilbur Daniel Steele
- Hook by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
- Wine on the Desert by Max Brand
- The Lady or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton
- An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
- The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
- So Much Unfairness of Things by C. D. B. Bryan
- The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
- The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle
- To Build a Fire by Jack London
- Leiningen Versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson
- Eveline by James Joyce
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber
- What Stumped the Bluejays by Mark Twain
- The Pearl by John Steinbeck
If you asked me which was my favorite once a year it’s likely that I’d give you a different answer every time. It seems to change based on what mood I’m in that day. If I’m in a light mood it might be “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” If I’m feeling cynical, I might enjoy “The Cask of Amontillado” or “To Build a Fire.” But I can usually find a story to reread if I’m waiting for an oil change or a dental appointment.
Now, let me be clear. These are not all the short stories I like. In fact, these are not even my favorite short stories. I can find funnier sections in P.G. Wodehouse and I can find more engaging science fiction short stories by several other authors. Specifically, “There Will Come Soft Rains” isn’t even in my top twenty Ray Bradbury short stories. But this is a good book for tasting a cross section of classic short story styles. Not a bad book to own.