The World's Greatest Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) Paperback – April 28, 2006

This was a very good collection. Some friends and I used it for a short story club. It offers a wide variety of stories, including several authors I had never heard of before. Almost every story was worth reading and discussing, and I think it’s a good, affordable volume. One thing I found curious is that the volume does not provide a list of all translations used. Also, one should note that there are basically no notes or editorial material here. I personally didn’t mind that, but I could see someone needing more of an apparatus with the book. All the same, this worked for my purposes, and I thought each translation was a good one, even if I would like to know who the translations were by.

The stories are great, but it is a strain on the eyes because the letters are small and very closely spaced. I love reading for an hour or two before falling asleep, but this one makes you fight for it.

I bought this short story collection to break up of the monotony of much longer books, as an interstitial interruption, more or less, and as short style-prep lead-in reads for same-author longer books. In other words, "Bartleby" prepped for "Moby Dick," "The Hunger Artist" for "Amerika," and so on.Inside, there's a good collection -- sample-wise -- of some great authors, and a number of them are arguably their best short story works, like Melville; it is just what I wanted for a nice price. "Bartleby", "The Lady..." and "Araby" are worth the price alone.

This is a collection of what someone has deemed the world's greatest short stories. I love the short story form of literature so I was naturally attracted to this title. The noble intention of the collection is to give readers short stories from a variety of writers from all over the world. Thus you may experience the short story writing talents of writers as diverse as Tolstoy representing Russia, Melville from the USA, James Joyce (Ireland), and Thomas Mann (Germany). Unfortunately for a reader like myself for whom entertainment is what I ask of a book the collection is a bit like eating a healthy vegetarian meal while one's taste buds are left wanting. These stories are friggin' OLD, but that's not the problem. The problem for me is that they are stories that deliver great writing without compelling plots. It's a little like someone taking you to a series of art-films that are "deep" or "artistic" but challenge your ability to stay awake. A few are also kind of depressing. In fact, there is a bleak aspect to the tone of the book overall. So if it's a quality reading experience you want, check it out; just don't expect the kinds of twists that really make a short story a delicious read. When the writer that delivers the rare surprise ending is the rather bleak and pensive Virginia Woolf you know you are having a serious and rather grim reading experience. You also know you are reading a book that is "good for you" but not exactly a page-turner. Some of these stories have been published in other collections as well, Hemingway's and Joyce's entries in particular. These are some rather musty and dusty pages yet I will still recommend it to those interested in the classic short story form. If you are a writer aspiring to create a collection of short stories this is essential reading; for all others, enter at risk that it may not be the most entertaining collection, a spinach soufflé perhaps but not mac 'n cheese or an Angus burger with bourbon bar-b-que sauce. If you want that you may have to pick up a copy of Tennessee Williams or Oscar Wilde's short story collections.

A great way to read some classic stories. Some are only a few pages long none of them are more than 12 pages. A great selection of authors and a great selection of stories. Well worth the price

I don’t agree with the ambitious title that these are the greatest short stories by their authors—but this is a magnificent collection not to be missed

Good stories, although it’s missing the only short story I wanted. I couldn’t find a full list of stories, so I took a chance and lost. They may not be the “best,” but they are good stories.

Dover books are unsurpassed for economy and content - $3.50 for a collection of 20 stories from all over the world within the past two centuries. Would be a great teaching resource, as many of these stories are used in curricula for middle/high school and college. Table of contents lists author, country of origin and year written. Relatively diverse selection of authors, but also includes standard anthology fare like Hemingway and Woolf. Stories included:Bartleby the Scrivener (1853, Melville)The Necklace (1884, de Maupassant)The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886, Tolstoy)The Man Who Would Be King (1888, Kipling)The Yellow Wallpaper (1892, C.P. Gilman)The Fortune-Teller (1896, Machado de Assis)The Lady with the Toy Dog (1899, Chekhov)How Old Timofei Died with a Song (1900, Rilke)The Path to the Cemetery (1901, Mann)The Prussian Officer (1914, D.H. Lawrence)Araby (1914, Joyce)Mrs. Frola and Mr. Ponza, Her Son-in-Law (1917, Pirandello)The Mark on the Wall (1921, Woolf)A Hunger Artist (1922, Kafka)The Garden-Party (1922, Mansfield)The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket (1924, Kawabata)A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (1926, Hemingway)The Sacrifical Egg (1959, Achebe)A & P (1961, Updike)Borges and I (1962, Borges)