Wednesday, June 20, 2012

International Short Story Day

Today is June 20th, the longest day (and hence, shortest night) of the year (for the northern hemisphere, anyway). It's also International Short Story Day!

I'm usually a full length book reader, but I do like a short story on occasion. Here are excepts from and links to two of my favorites:
Katherine Mansfield
stamp, New Zealand, 1988

Katherine Mansfield, "The Garden Party"

Away Laura flew, still holding her piece of bread-and-butter. It's so delicious to have an excuse for eating out of doors, and besides, she loved having to arrange things; she always felt she could do it so much better than anybody else.

Guy de Maupassant, "The Necklace"

When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better?" she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken.

What's your favorite short story, or story collection?

1 comment:

thecuecard said...

I occasionally like reading short stories as well. Right now I'm reading a collection of Alice Munro's. I also like short story collections by Raymond Carver, Tim Winton and Somerset Maugham. You can't beat them!