There aren't many literary media more divisive than the short story - strangely, people's opinions of any particular collection seem to be decided almost before they've opened the book. You know where this is leading - I'm going to ask your opinion. Here's a challenge, which I always fail - try saying you like short stories without using the word "gems", or try saying you don't like them without using the words "nothing to get your teeth into". Tricky, isn't it?
Never let it be said that I open a debate without doing a little research. Now that I am reunited with all my books (hurray!), I can look through all my shelves, and make a huge pile for a photograph. So this evening I went to see how many short story collections I had - and was rather surprised. I knew that Katherine Mansfield was one of my favourite writers, and certainly my favourite short story writer, but didn't realise I had so many other authors competing for my attention. Yup, I'm one of those who enthuses about 'gems', usually regardless of the nature of the stories - I find something so rewarding, so enticing, about short stories. Having written a thesis on Victorian Short Stories, doncha know, I tried a bit of investigation into the nature of the short story - don't think I used the word 'gem' once, but I can't dispel it from my mind. One of my tutors insists upon calling Ulysses 'the longest short story ever written'. As someone who has read it, I resent the word 'short' being used in the same sentence... But, in general, their brevity and structure mean a short story can hang on a single moment, issue or point - a novel would be quite weak if it tried the same thing - so it's much more sink or swim. When they succeed, like Mansfield's 'The Garden Party', for instance, they really succeed. When they fail... well, at least you haven't spent weeks to be disappointed.
So which do I have? Prepare yourselves for a bit of a list. And a nice picture to accompany. I've put a cross by the ones I've read - anyone want to recommend any of the remaining? More importantly - to short story or not to short story? Let me know.
1) Stories of the Strange and Sinister - Frank Baker
2) Thirty Stories - Elizabeth Myers
3) The Silver Birch - Richmal Crompton
x 4) Sugar and Spice - Richmal Crompton
x 5) Tea With Mr. Rochester - Frances Towers
6) The Casino - Margaret Bonham
7) Minnie's Room - Mollie Panter-Downs
8) The Matisse Stories - AS Byatt (read a third of it...)
x 9) The Complete Shorter Fiction - Virginia Woolf
x 10) A Table Near The Band - AA Milne
x 11) Birthday Party - AA Milne
12) Fireworks - Angela Carter
13) The Little Disturbances of Man - Grace Paley
14) Enormous Changes at the Last Minute - Grace Paley
x 15) A Winter Book - Tove Jansson
x 16) A Quiver Full of Arrows - Jeffrey Archer (oh the ignominy)
x 17) Dubliners - James Joyce
18) Tell Me A Riddle - Tillie Olsen
19) Strangers - Antonia White
x 20) Cousin Phyllis and other stories - Elizabeth Gaskell
x 21) The Manchester Marriage and other stories - Elizabeth Gaskell
22) Tales of the Unexpected - Roald Dahl
x 23) Dream Days - Kenneth Grahame
x 24) The Golden Age - Kenneth Grahame
x 25) Portraits - Kate Chopin
26) Selected Tales - DH Lawrence
x 27) The Garden Party - Katherine Mansfield
x 28) Bliss - Katherine Mansfield
x 29) The Dove's Nest - Katherine Mansfield
30) Something Childish - Katherine Mansfield
31) Complete Short Stories vol.1 - W. Somerset Maugham
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