40 Most Iconic Short Stories
40 Iconic English Short Stories
Books and stories are a fun way to transport yourself into a new world without even leaving your old one or the comfort of your own home. Here are 40 of the most iconic short stories ever to be written that are sure to have you wanting to keep reading.
Washington Irving - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Written in 1820 and yet still loved today.
Annie Proulx - Brokeback Mountain
Possibly the most iconic book on this list.
Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-Tale Heart
Poe had a way with literature, but this one from 1843 is one of his best.
Ted Chiang - Story of Your Life
A Sci-Fi story about aliens and language.
Herman Melville - Bartleby, the Scrivener
An 1853 classic, this is often talked about in bookworm circles.
Jhumpa Lahiri - A Temporary Matter
This made Lahiri well-known.
Ambrose Bierce - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Kurt Vonnegut said anyone who hadn’t read this was a “twerp.”
Denis Johnson - Emergency
A heavy theme of death in this 1992 story.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper
An early example of Feminist writing, all the way from 1892.
Tim O’Brien - The Things They Carried
A widely anthologized short story.
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw
A horror novella that was first written in 1898.
Mary Gaitskill - Secretary
One of the better-known Gaitskill stories.
Amy Tan - Rules of the Game
Not many people haven’t read this.
Lorrie Moore - How to Be an Other Woman
Moore wrote a lot about being female.
Anton Chekhov - The Lady with the Toy Dog
Widely known as one of Chekhov’s best stories.
Amy Hempel - In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried
Hempel’s first-ever story turned out to be amazing.
W. W. Jacobs - The Monkey’s Paw
All the way from 1902, this story has become iconic.
Stephen King - The Body
His books are legendary, his short stories even more so.
O. Henry - The Gift of the Magi
This has had 17 different film adaptations.
Raymond Carver - What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Carver inspired many more similar titles after this.
James Joyce - The Dead
Joyce knows how to hook in readers, with her longer books and short stories.
Jamaica Kincaid - Girl
A much-loved read since its creation in 1978.
Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis
A man who wakes up as a large insect is sure to be a riveting read.
Donald Barthelme - The School
A great one for aspiring writers.
Richard Connell - The Most Dangerous Game
This is, apparently, “the most popular short story ever written in English.”
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Arguably Le Guin’s best piece of work.
Flannery O’Connor - A Good Man Is Hard to Find
From 1953, this is often a school-assigned story.
Ernest Hemingway - The Killers
Hemingway has many masterpieces, but this story is one of the most influential.
Toni Cade Bambara - The Lesson
A popular school assignment.
Zora Neale Hurston - The Gilded Six-Bits
A story of love and betrayal - and everything that comes in between.
Joyce Carol Oates - Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Written in 1966, this is an excellent story.
John Cheever - The Swimmer
The most famous story from Cheever.
Elmore Leonard - Three-Ten to Yuma
An incredibly influential story, with two film adaptations.
Shirley Jackson - The Lottery
First appearing in The New Yorker in 1948, this story caused quite a stir.
Alan Sillitoe - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
A widely known and read piece.
J. D. Salinger - A Perfect Day for Bananafish
A mind-opening short story, perfect for many readers.
James Baldwin - Sonny’s Blues
An early favorite from Baldwin.
Ray Bradbury - There Will Come Soft Rains
Of all the genius Bradbury literature, this one may just stay with you the longest.
Daphne du Maurier - The Birds
After inspiring the film Hitchcock, this is worth a read.
Philip K. Dick - The Minority Report
This has been adapted into a Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise film.
Have you read any of these already? If you haven't yet, the time is definitely now. who knows the amount of inspiration that is just waiting for you in between these pages. Discover your new favorite read and don't forget to recommend it to a friend.