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Short story recommendations for high school
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We seem to be sorely lacking in short stories read for literature. Apparently, we’ve focused mostly on novels, historical fiction, poetry, and some plays. The only short stories we can recall having read in recent years are O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi and another short story by Louisa May Alcott. (An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, maybe?)
18yo DD (*sniff, sniff* She just turned 18 yesterday!) has been assigned to write a brief literary analysis on a short story of her choosing. Of course, the sample essay given was written about The Gift of the Magi, so she wants to select something else.
I’m looking for recommendations of short story collections or individual stories and authors, hopefully something I can get from the library or read online. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Here are some lists I pulled from the AmblesideOnline curriculum:
Year 10:
Short Stories* My Kinsman, Major Molineux, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1832; from The Snow Image)
* Young Goodman Brown, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1835; from Mosses from an Old Manse) Ω
* The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allen Poe (1839) Ω
** The Overcoat, by Nikolai Gogol (1842) Ω Ω)
** A Simple Heart, by Gustave Flaubert (1877; also called A Simple Soul) Ω
** The Grand Inquisitor, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880) Ω
*** The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant (1884) Ω
*** How Much Land Does a Man Need?, by Leo Tolstoy (1886) Ω
*** The Open Boat, by Stephen Crane (1897) Ω [49]Year 11:
Short Stories [49]* The Machine Stops, by E. M. Forster (1909) Ω
* The Open Window, by Saki (Hector.H. Munro; 1914) Ω
* Barn Burning, by William Faulkner (1939)
** Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell (1936)
** The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, by James Thurber (1939)
** The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson (1948)
** The Outstation, by Somerset Maugham (1950)
*** A & P, by John Updike (1961)
*** Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1961)
*** Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor (1965)Year 4:
The following short works (K):
*** The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving β ($) Ω ☊ (K includes Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Paul Revere’s Ride, and Rip Van Winkle)
*** Paul Revere’s Ride, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ($) Ω
*** Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving ($) Ω ☊HTH
The ones I can remember from our literary analysis class with the Windows to the World study are: The Necklace, Ransom of Red Chief, After Twenty Years, The Cop and the Anthem, and The Most Dangerous Game. I thought “Red Chief” was hilarious!
Thanks, these are very helpful suggestions. I actually remember reading some of those myself in high school or college, now that I’m seeing the titles and authors.
Red Chief is SO funny! The Lottery was SO weird! My oldest son had to write a paper about it in his college comp class. He wanted me to read it. Very early into the story I said in amazement, “So they’re going to _______?!?” He was floored that I guessed. How people come up with these things is beyond me.
We read very few short stories either except the common ones. Guess I need to remedy that.
And happy 18th to your daughter, Sue! Bittersweet, I know…
I just printed the list for this online class to give me ideas down the road: https://www.memoriapressacademy.com/catalog?pagename=english-i-ii-short-story
DD read two O.Henry stories this year (Magi & Red Chief). I hadn’t read Red Chief before, so I pre-read it and really enjoyed it! The Reluctant Dragon (Kenneth Grahame) is another great one!
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