List
Classic Authors--Short Stories on Libby or Hoopla
The short story is often unsung. Many authors become famous with novels, but more than likely, they started out writing short stories. Sometimes their short stories are even better than their novels. Sometimes not. Here are some classic authors whose shorter works you might not have read...or even heard of!
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Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
2013 by Bradbury, RayGet this itemNot only for Bradbury readers. Each of these 100 stories is touched with Bradbury's famous supernatural feel, though many of them have little to do with "other worlds." Bradbury, known most for his science fiction and revolutionary novels like Fahrenheit 451, does not leave anything on the table when it comes to this style of writing.
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The King of Clubs: A Short Story
2019 by Christie, AgathaGet this itemThe Queen of Mystery Novels did write short stories. This one even features her most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, and finds him investigating the murders of a dancer and theater impresario. This short story originally appeared in The Sketch magazine, and Hoopla has many more Christie short stories available. More with Poirot, some with Miss Marple, some with Tommy and Tuppence.
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The Charles Dickens Christmas Collection
2018 by Dickens, CharlesGet this itemThis collection by the beloved author of A Christmas Carol, along with many, many other acclaimed and timeless novels (Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, just to name a few), features five novellas (including A Christmas Carol) and 23 short stories about the spirit of goodwill during the holiday season.
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Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volumes I and II
2003 by Doyle, Sir Arthur ConanGet this itemPeople wrongly assume Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote all his Holmes/Watson stories as novels. Actually, only four were novels, and the rest were stories...more than 50 in all. In addition to this Overdrive eBook, Hoopla has many collections, both as eBook and audiobook, which feature the most famous sleuth and sidekick duo on the planet.
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The Stories of John Cheever
2010 by Cheever, JohnGet this itemOne of the most prolific and acclaimed writers of the 20th century, this collection won Cheever the Pulitzer Prize in 1979, as well as a National Book Critics Circle award. His novels also were very well received in the literary landscape, but it is his short stories that remain his true legacy.
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A Rose for Emily and Other Stories
2012 by Faulkner, WilliamGet this itemFaulkner will forever be remembered as the author who turned literary style on its head with his stream of consciousness novels The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. I find his short stories moving and empowering, and I much prefer them to his time-consuming and, at times, tedious novels. Read some of his stories and see if you agree.
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2012 by Fitzgerald, F. ScottGet this itemKnown best for his Jazz Age novels, most notably The Great Gatsby, but also Tender is the Night and This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald also wrote excellent short stories about the Roaring '20s, among other things. The title story is a particularly vivid one, about a man living his life backwards. The other stories included in this collection are "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," "Tarquin of Cheapside," and "O Russet Witch!"
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The Dashiell Hammett Collection: The Maltese Falcon and 10 More Detective Stories
2012 by Hammett, DashiellGet this itemHammett's most known work, The Maltese Falcon, is a short novel. This collection also features 10 short stories by Hammett, who many call one of the finest writers of mystery fiction ever. He and Raymond Chandler are said to have created the hard-boiled detective, with Hammett creating Sam Spade and Chandler creating Philip Marlowe. Hammett also created the Nick and Nora Charles characters in his novel The Thin Man, but more famously, the series of movies. Like many other authors on this list, Hammett might be best known for his novels, but he was much more prolific with short stories, some of which are collected here.
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Three Stories and Ten Poems
2019 by Hemingway, ErnestGet this itemWhen I first read Hemingway, I started with one of his novels, The Sun Also Rises. It was not my type of book. Then I tried A Farewell to Arms. Again, not so much my thing. I found his style very matter-of-fact and dry. After all, Hemingway's background is journalism, which needs to be succinct and to-the-point. Then I read the short story "Hills Like White Elephants," and my entire opinion of Hemingway changed with that one story. After that, I read collections of his stories and found that, for me, his no-nonsense style translated better in shorter works. See if you agree!
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The Awakening and Selected Short Stories
2010 by Chopin, KateGet this itemThe Awakening is a short novel, which is one of my favorite classic works, but it's Chopin's stories that we're focusing on here. And like her famous novel, they are worth a read because even though they are short, they are filled with the same atmospheric passion as The Awakening.
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A Modern Cinderella: Or, the Little Old Shoe and Other Stories
2010 by Alcott, Louisa MayGet this itemFrom the author of the most acclaimed coming-of-age novel of all time, Little Women, Alcott created the same well-rounded characters in her stories. Just like in her novels, she breathed life into her stories and filled them with atmosphere and true emotion.
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Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant
2010 by De Maupassant, GuyGet this itemThis French author wrote six novels in this lifetime, and more than 300 short stories. Yes, 300! I would call de Maupassant the Godfather of the Short Story. After all, he didn't invent the format, but he sure did take it and run with it, making a name for himself that still lives on more than 100 years after his death (in 1893).
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Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance
2020 by Hurston, Zora NealeGet this itemHurston, best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, wrote these stories during the time with which she is most associated, the Harlem Renaissance. During that time, she was a central literary figure. Then, after that period ended, she faded into almost oblivion until the 1970s, when authors like Alice Walker brought Hurston back into the public's consciousness.
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The Lottery, and Other Stories
2014 by Jackson, ShirleyGet this item"The Lottery" is one of the most famous short stories ever written. But Jackson's other stories are just as well-done and should get the same attention. In this collection of 24 stories, the other 23 stories here are, like "The Lottery," unusual, thrilling in topic and tone, and basically well-crafted. Read all 24 and find out if there's a reason "The Lottery" gets all the attention, or if there is another story that should stand out.
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Some Short Stories
2010 by James, HenryGet this itemLike Faulkner and Hemingway, James is an author that I simply cannot read in novel form. I've tried several of his novels, including Portrait of a Lady and Washington Square, and I just could not get into either of them or tolerate the style of writing. Once again, James' short stories are an easier, simpler way to get to know this author's style. Unlike with his novels, he keeps the verbosity at a minimum, and I find his stories much more palatable than his novels.
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Brown Wolf and Other Jack London Stories
2010 by London, JackGet this itemEven though London is most known for his novels, The Call of the Wild and White Fang, his matter-of-fact writing style lent itself easily to shorter works. Like Hemingway, London's background is in journalism, so this might explain his direct and concise style. This collection features 12 of London's stories.
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The Fall of the House of Usher
2010 by Poe, Edgar AllanGet this itemI could not do a classic short story list and not include Poe. If Guy du Maupassant is the "Godfather of the Short Story," then Poe is the Father. But many people overlook his written works and focus instead on the filmed adaptations of his works, many of which are excellent. Many also believe that because the movies are so intricate and complex, he wrote novels, but he really only wrote one novel and it's definitely not the work for which he's most noted. The ones that stand out in Poe's repertoire, "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and, of course, "The Fall of the House of Usher," are all stories. And all must-reads!
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A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
1992 by O'Connor, FlanneryGet this itemLike Poe, O'Connor is an author known much more for her short stories than her novels. She only wrote 2 longer works of fiction, but more than 30 stories, of which "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is probably the most famous. With her easy-going, flowing style, her stories are filled with timeless situations and well-developed characters.
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The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain
2009 by Twain, MarkGet this itemLike many other writers on this list, Twain is most noted for his novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. But he was also a prolific story writer, and some of his finest are included in this collection. One of the stories here, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,” is a true classic and one of the reasons he is known today as the country's best satirist.
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The Descent of Man and Other Stories
2010 by Wharton, EdithGet this itemI'm including this one a little begrudgingly. Neither Overdrive nor Hoopla have my favorite Wharton short story, "Roman Fever," available in their collection. But, since she's one (if not THE ONE) of my all-time favorite authors, I will include this collection of stories by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of acclaimed novels such as The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, and Ethan Frome. This collection includes the title story as well as nine others, and even though my favorite is not among them, they are still excellent stories.
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