The #1 Best Short Story of All Time/Favorite Short Story

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sara_ash

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Frederic Brown "Knock"

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..."

Awesome, old school stuff.

I love this opening! I think it's my favourite one ever. I love how it can stand alone too. It's brilliant
 

Koulentis

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Co-Operate -or Else!
A.E. Van Vogt

Action, tension, escalating consequences, and one of the most satisfying endings I've read - it's all in there. This short story is astounding.
 

TheBostonian

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I always liked "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "The Lottery".

TheBostonian
 

Koschei

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My favourite has always been "My Sad Face" by Heinrich Boll.
 

whirlaway

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"Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones" by Samuel R. Delany

"Soft Monkey" by Harlan Ellison

"The Door in the Wall" by H.G. Wells
 

ErnSanGiacomo

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A lot of trivia knowledge is connected with "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce.
Ambrose Bierce was played by Gregory Peck in "Old Gringo"
A French short film version of the story was picked up by Rod Serling and was the final episode of The Twilight Zone.

O.K. enough Trivia
My Favorite shorts, a difficult task because quite a few memorable ones have been named already. However, I'd like to nominate "The Continuity of Parks" by Julio Cortazar and Tlon Uqbar Orbis Tertius by Jorge Luis Borges.
Pardon my lack of accent marks.
 
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blacbird

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Pardon my lack of accent marks.

ít's ókáy.

It would be an interesting sidebar to this thread to suggest the most-anthologized short stories of all time. For that list, as a Top Ten, in no particular order and without personal judgment of like or dislike, I'd venture:

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (Bierce)
"The Lottery" (Jackson)
"The Yellow Wallpaper" (Gilman)
"Young Goodman Brown" (Hawthorne)
"The Tell-Tale Heart" (Poe)
"The Rocking-Horse Winner" (Lawrence)
"A Christmas Carol" (Dickens)
"The Gift of the Magi" (Henry)
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (Hemingway)
"The Dead" (Joyce)

Now, in significant part, this list is affected by the copyright issue of public-domain. Secondly, it omits stories by several famed short-story writers, like Chekhov, Maupassant and Bradbury, only because they wrote so many that are considered great, and it's hard to pick only one that is popularly anthologized. It admittedly may also reflect my personal familiarity with English-language anthologies.

caw
 

demiurgic_iris

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Oh, wow. Of all time? Interesting thread. I would echo the sentiments of those on here who find it next to impossible to list a single favorite. I also don't think it's possible to combine genres and somehow come up with a best story out of all of them, since I tend to view different genres as trying to accomplish different things philosophically and artistically. This is a fun exercise, though! Narrowing it down as much as possible, and considering which stories I adore for specific personal reasons vs. which shine in a more general 'literary merit' sense, I've come up with the following, from some of my favorite authors:

Kobo Abe: "The Magic Chalk" (quoted in my signature! ;) )

I would say Kafka's The Metamorphosis, but that's more novella-length and I'm pretty sure most translations are over 20K words.

Aimee Bender: "The Healer"

Donald Barthelme: "The Emerald"

Joseph Conrad: "The Secret Sharer"

Susan Steinberg: "to sit, unmoving" and "Superstar" are both good contenders, I think. The former was prize-winning for good reason.

When it comes to sci-fi, anything from Bruce Sterling's Shaper/Mechanist universe is absolutely stellar, particularly "Swarm" and "Twenty Evocations". Those stories were eons ahead of their time and made breathtaking existential points as well as any non-spec fiction.
 
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blacbird

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Kobo Abe: "The Magic Chalk".

I haven't read this story, but, as a minor digression, I will opine that Kobo Abe is one of the most under-read and under-rated 20th century writers. Most westerners seem never to have heard of him. He died fairly young (58), and probably would have been a Nobel consideration if he had lived longer. He produced a large body of novels of almost hypnotic fascination, has often been compared to Kafka. His best-known work is The Woman in the Dunes. Other fine work includes The Box Man, Secret Rendezvous, Inter-Ice Age 4, and The Face of Another. He wrote in Japanese, but in a very spare, minimalist style that translates well into English. In this, too, he resembles Kafka.

caw
 

demiurgic_iris

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I will opine that Kobo Abe is one of the most under-read and under-rated 20th century writers.

Of course I completely agree--Kobo Abe is not only one of my top three if not hands-down my favorite author to read as well as my primary literary influence (as I write irrealist fiction in a similar 'style').

I haven't read this story,

You should! I forgot exactly where I encountered it online, but there are translated copies floating around out there and it shouldn't be too hard to find. It's mind-blowing to say the very least. An ultra-distilled metafictional version of everything Abe tried to accomplish throughout, basically a blueprint for the rest of Abe's fiction.

Just as an amusing little historical note regarding Japanese literature, something I remember--as it turns out, an actual Nobel winner agreed with you. :ROFL: Kenzaburo Oe, another Japanese author and contemporary of Abe Kobo who won the Nobel Prize for literature, was quoted as saying that he thought Abe really deserved it. Definitely underrated, and I have my speculations about why, but I'll try not to derail the thread too much. :)
 

nastyjman

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The Jaunt, by Stephen King

Good grief, this short shocked me to the core.
 

Vito

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My favorite is "On the Rainy River" by Tim O'Brien. Long story short, it's one of the most moving and powerful things I've ever read.
 

Kris Ashton

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I'm sure it's been nominated several times by now, but I'd pick 'Nightfall' by Isaac Asimov. I must have read it 20 years ago and its ending still resonates inside my head.
 

Nonsuch

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Gosh, we have to pick just one? I guess, rather than paralyze myself trying to pick "the all-time best," I'll pick one that's stood out most for me lo these many years: "The Lovers of Their Time," by William Trevor. I felt quite emotionally walloped by the end.
 

ajaye

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Why I Live at the Post Office by Eudora Welty. So funny, so perfectly written.
 

didi768

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Hope it's okay to post on this 4 yrs. later but I love THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson as someone else mentioned. That story really did something to me!
 

William Green

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I recently re-read "Super Goatman" by Jonathan Lethem, which ends with the narrator making a biting remark to the titular character that is so cruel I gasped out loud. One of the most visceral reactions I've ever had while reading a story.
 
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