Agree with all the Fredric Brown fans…he kicks literary ass!
No love yet for Harry Kuttner? “Mimsey Were the Borogroves” is not the best fantasy tale of the 20th century?
Agreed on ‘The Game of Rat and Dragon’, I am going to have to check these stories out 
Two stories that made me want to sit up and cheer, 'Thor Meets Captain America* by David Brin and ‘Wings out of Shadow’ by Fred Saberhagen.
*this one was in a collection of ‘What If’ stories about Nazi Germany winning the Second World War, I almost skipped it because of the silly title but I’m so glad I didn’t.
I was starting to be surprised at the lack of mystery stories in general, and Sherlock Holmes in particular. Maybe not great literature, but certainly “ones that you reread once in a while.”
I’m convinced that this thread needs more Saki, and is incomplete without G. K. Chesterton, James Thurber, and Flannery O’Connor; but it’s tough singling out specific stories.
I also like “First Confession” by Frank O’Connor (no relation, AFAIK).
And there need to be some children’s stories mentioned in this thread too, like A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories, Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Books” stories, Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” stories, and probably lots more I’m forgetting.
Portrait of a Girl in Glass by Tennessee Williams
I was going to include Chesterton’s “The Queer Feet,” but I thought my choices were already leaning a little heavily on mystery/crime. I could also throw in Stanley Ellin’s “The Specialty of the House.”
Inappropriate Behavior, by Pat Murphy. (Link contains full text as well as podcast audio.)
Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried”
Cynthia Ozick, “The Shawl”
Donald Barthelme, “The Babysitter”
James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blue’s”
J. D. Salinger, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”
That should be “Sunny’s Blues” of course.
Oh, hell. Didn’t mean to skip Samuel Beckett’s “Dante and the Lobster,” which PUSHES ALL MY NIHILIST BUTTONS, plus gives you a great recipe for a toasted cheese sandwich.
AND THE PUNS. I quite enjoy the puns.
http://www.oocities.org/hotsprings/villa/7228/Dante_and_the_Lobster.html
My mind is totally gone. “Sonny’s Blues.”
“The Dead,” by James Joyce. One of the few pieces I can teach every year – sometimes more than once a year – and still feel like I notice something new every single time.
Very good 12 minute film based on Robert Aickman’s “The Cicerones.” Ending doesn’t match the story’s, but very good overall in catching the tone.
Oh yeah. That’ll mess with your head, that story.
Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Actually, Dubliners is my favorite Joyce work.
My Top Five among the Sherlock Holmes short stories:
“Silver Blaze”
“The Red-Headed League”
“The Speckled Band”
“The Norwood Builder”
“The Problem of Thor Bridge”
Borderland of Sol and Inconstant Moon, by Larry Niven
A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote
The Body, by Stephen King
Robert Siverberg’s “The Man Who Never Forgot”
I don’t think anyone else has mentioned Niven’s “Inconstant Moon”, which to my mind is the greatest science fiction short story.
Also Heinlein’s “By His Own Bootstraps”, which is the greatest time travel short story (yes, I put it ahead of “All You Zombies”, but only slightly).
No Jorge Luis Borges?
I’d nominate, well, everything in Ficciones, but in particular “The Lottery in Babylon”, “The South”, “The Garden of Forking Paths”, and “Death and the Compass”.
Short stories are too short. Novels are too long. I prefer novellas. Any other Dopers agree?
There are too many excellent detective short story / novellas to even start naming them. Otherwise the good short story that came to mind is more of an excellent shaggy-dog joke (though IIRC it’s been made into a movie :smack: ) — Cleveland in My Dreams by Lawrence Block.
Having said that, I have enjoyed several shorts others mentioned …
… all of these though I don’t remember Bartelby. :smack:
… I read Sheltering Sky (didn’t see the movie)
IIRC there were one or two Benets I enjoyed even more.
Excellent.
Yes, but almost novella length, no? My favorite novellas are Notes from Underground, Call of the Wild, Old Man and the Sea.
Disclaimer: Most of my reading enjoyment of cited works was long ago.