Product Description

This affordably-priced collection presents masterpieces of short fiction from 52 of the greatest story writers of all time. From Sherwood Anderson to Virginia Woolf, this anthology encompasses a rich global and historical mix of the very best works of short fiction and presents them in a way students will find accessible, engaging, and relevant. The book's unique integration of biographical and critical background gives students a more intimate understanding of the works and their authors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70421 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 926 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A robust volume of 63 stories from 52 authors from 20 different countries, Gwynn and Gioia's anthology seems destined for undergraduate classrooms. Most of the editors' selections come from the usual literary heavyweights, authors like Hemingway, Chekhov, Joyce, Borges, Faulkner, Welty and Melville. But they do include a handful of more contemporary writers, such as Chinua Achebe, Ha Jin, Sandra Cisneros and Alice Munro as well. Each author receives a page-long biography, which dispenses some interesting facts (e.g., Tolstoy's infidelities, Woolf's depression, Gogol's madness, Poe's poverty, Mishima's suicide), gives a careful analysis of the author's works and sets them in the context of various literary traditions. Garcia Marquez's use of magical realism, for example, is connected to the surreal writings of Kafka, Maupassant, Cheever, Singer and Rushdie. Teachers and would-be writers will especially appreciate the "Author's Perspective" that accompanies each short story. This commentary, written by the author of the story itself, is used by the editors to illuminate the fictional text: its aims, its context or its workings. Sherwood Anderson and Raymond Carver's essays, for example, offer advice on the craft of writing. Margaret Atwood discusses Canadian identity; Alice Walker writes on race and gender; Camus discusses revolution and repression. Fitzgerald's self-interview and Cheever's "Why I Write Short Stories" both contain a comic edge, while Flannery O'Connor's essay explains the importance of religious grace in her stories. The anthology also includes instructional sections on the basic elements of short fiction, writing about fiction, critical approaches from various theoretical schools and a glossary of literary terms. With all its supporting material, the collection may seem geared for the student, yet its flexibility also allows for browsing by the casual short story reader.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Short story anthologies abound, but this one has its distinctions. The selections go beyond standard writers; appearing here are Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro, two firmly established but not often anthologized Canadian writers. Sandra Cisneros sits well alongside Ha Jin, two vital contemporary writers who may not be familiar names to readers. The inclusion of Gustav Flaubert and James Baldwin highlights the unfortunate but not rare situation of short works often being overlooked by appreciators of the authors' more famous novels. Included for each story is a short commentary called "Author's Perspective." And explanations of the elements of fiction (including plot and style) are partnered with a selection of critical articles about the short fiction form. All in all, a stimulating education course for library patrons feeling inadequate in their working knowledge of the wonderful world of short stories. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Dana Gioia, a poet, critic, and teacher, has published three collections of poetry-Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), and Interrogations at Noon (2001)-an influential study of poetry's place in contemporary America, Can Poetry Matter? (1992), and has edited several anthologies. He currently serves as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

R. S. Gwynn is the author of five collections of poetry and has edited two volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography. He has also authored The Advocates of Poetry: A Reader of American Poet-Critics of the Modernist Era, New Expansive Poetry: Theory, Criticism, and History, and Fiction and Poetry for the Longman Pocket Anthology Series.

Customer Reviews

Best of the Best, with Commentary
This book's title and subtitle are a good summary for a book I feel belongs every creative writing class and on the desk of every aspiring writer. And for only $18.95 USD for 926 pages, the book is a bargain. If you've recently purchased books for a college class, you will know what I mean, I've paid upwards of $100 for a book.

The Art of the Short Story is an anthology of the best stories from the best short story writers. See if you recognize a few of these names: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen Crane, Edgar Allen Poe, Sherwood Anderson, Herman Melville, Jack London, Gustave Flaubert, James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Henry James, Franz Kafka, Kate Chopin, D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Anton Chekov, F. Scott Fitgerald, William Faulkner, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ernest Hemingway, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Updike, Raymond Carver, Ralph Ellison, Joyce Carol Oates, Shirley Jackson, Margaret Atwood, Alice Walker, Flannery O'Connor.

What I like best about this book is that, in addition to the great short stories, the book also contains commentary from each author. The commentary varies. The author might discuss how or why the story was written, or public reaction to the story, or their view of literature, or give specific advice on an area of the writer's craft. For example: Earnest Hemingway's essay is on Crafting one True Line. Jorge Luis Borge's author perscpective is Literature as Experience. Shirley Jackson's essay is The Public Reception of "The Lottery." There are too many to list here but the masters discuss the entire spectrum of short story writing from why to write to elements such as character, plot, style, and suspense to authorial explanation and defense of stories.

Excellent Collection
This collection has a nice variety of authors and stories. There are unmistakable classics like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" but also stories by several authors I had never been introduced to before. The result is a fascinating range of styles and perspectives which make the book a compelling and inspiring read.

In addition, many of the "Author's Perspective" pieces give great insights into the lives and views of the writers. For example, Baldwin writes about "Race and the African-American Writer," Faulkner writes about "The Human Heart in Conflict with Itself," and Kafka discusses "The Metamorphosis." These are writings that are not often seen, yet they go a very long way toward placing the story and author in context.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

The best study of short fiction available
I bought this book to use in a course on short fiction at MIT. I expected the usual history of literature book, but what this contains is a treasure of not only excellent, popular fiction, but essays by each of the authors that are as interesting as the stories. I don't think you can find a better collection to study the art of the short story anywhere.