1. Anton Chekhov, The Bishop (This entire website is wonderful, by the way.)
2. Henry James, The Figure in the Carpet (It's hard to get enthusiastic about starting a James novel, but the short stories are almost always fun to read, particularly the ones about art and artists.)
3. Vladimir Nabokov, Signs and Symbols (I'm not a huge Nabokov fan, but this story is incredible.)
4. D.H. Lawrence, Odour of Chrysanthemums (As I mentioned in an earlier list, he was 24 when he wrote this. Man.)
5. Thomas Hardy, The Withered Arm (My favorite supernatural story, although I'm not too well-read in the genre.)
6. Frank O'Connor, My Oedipus Complex (My favorite short story writer in English. His very best aren't available online, I don't think, but this is a good one.)
7. James Joyce, Araby (There are probably better stories in Dubliners, but I like this one the best.)
8. Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge (She's always struck me as a rather nasty writer, but this story is undeniably great.)
9. Leo Tolstoy, How Much Land Does a Man Need? (Joyce called this the greatest story in the history of Western literature. I think he might have been being facetious, since it is not even close to the best story Tolstoy wrote, but I still like it. It is a page turner, or in this case a screen scroller.)
10. William Carlos Williams, The Use of Force (This whole website is a good resource for people stuck for long periods in front of a computer.)
Suggest your own, as my job is unlikely to get more interesting in the one month I have left.
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2 comments:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/05/19/030519fi_fiction?currentPage=1
"Tapka" by David Bezmozgis. It's a heartbreaking little piece, probably not as good as any of the stories Akshay has mentioned, but worth a look nonetheless.
Graham Greene, The Destructors.
If your only knowledge of it is from "Donnie Darko," it's worth checking out.
http://www.peter.agai.hu/pgraphy/other/greene.htm
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