# Short stories high school students should read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240 "2010-06-23T14:35:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/1 "2010-06-23T14:35:59Z")
I’m new here, but I’ve been lurking long enough to respect the literary breadth of the Dopers. I’m a high school English teacher in a small school, and our literature books are old and boring. With the state in debt, there is no money for new texts, but I’m trying to put together some short stories that are thought-provoking, important, classic… What are your suggestions? Stories that are in the public domain would be great, as I could print them out. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/2 "2010-06-23T14:38:44Z")
“[The Lottery](http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html)” by Shirley Jackson ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/3 "2010-06-23T14:42:27Z")
“Nightfall” - Isaac Asimov “There Will Come Soft Rains” - Ray Bradbury The Cold Equations" - Tom Godwin ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/4 "2010-06-23T14:42:49Z")
That’s definitely one on the list. And Lovecraft’s _Dagon_. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/5 "2010-06-23T14:48:39Z")
I always liked Guy de Maupassant’s _The Necklace_ and O Henry’s _The Ransom of Red Chief_. Edited to add, Asimov’s _The Last Question_, but it’s not public domain. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/6 "2010-06-23T14:50:49Z")
The Most Dangerous Game It’s a classic for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/7 "2010-06-23T14:52:32Z")
_Cathedral_, or many others by Raymond Carver. \*The Diamond As Big As The Ritz - by F. Scott Fitzgerald ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/8 "2010-06-23T14:54:10Z")
Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/9 "2010-06-23T15:02:40Z")
[“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6695) by F. Scott Fitzgerald. [“A Logic Named Joe”](http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200506/0743499107___2.htm) by Murray Leinster. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/10 "2010-06-23T15:06:13Z")
[Love is a Fallacy](http://www.docstoc.com/docs/36902860/Love-is-a-Fallacy) by Max Shulman. No, it’s not exactly a “classic” and it’s probably not “important” at all, but it’s a great, fun read, and it’s wonderfully educational, using easily understood examples of classic logical fallacies. The narrator has a strong voice, and the writer makes some interesting word choices and sentence structures, which I think makes it interesting from a lit standpoint, and I’m all for increasing the critical thinking and logic exposure to high schoolers, even if they won’t formally study these things until college. And it’s free. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/11 "2010-06-23T15:10:47Z")
PD stories: “[The Lady or the Tiger](http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml)” by Frank Stockton. Perfect for class discussion, too. Anything by Poe. “The Purloined Letter” might be good “The Birth-Mark” by Hawthorne “The Problem of Cell 13” by Jacques Futrelle. “The Hands of Mr. Ottermole” by Thomas Burke – one of the greatest mystery short stories ever written (though it’s still be under copyright). ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/12 "2010-06-23T15:14:07Z")
Stephen King, “The Last Rung on the Ladder.” It’s more on the thought-provoking end than classic or important, but it includes some technical points worth discussing (characterization and such) and will also, with any luck, be appropriately unsettling. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/13 "2010-06-23T15:15:10Z")
Cynthia Ozick - The Shawl John Cheever - The Swimmer Washington Irving - Rip Van Winkle Tim O’Brien - The Things They Carried Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis (not a short story, but short fiction) Joyce Carol Oates - Where are you going, where have you been DH Lawrence - The Rocking Horse Winner ---
**Author:** ![banjoDavid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@banjoDavid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/banjoDavid)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/14 "2010-06-23T15:19:25Z")
Ernest Hemingway “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/15 "2010-06-23T15:24:06Z")
First that comes to mind is Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”; and “After Forty Years,” by (I believe) O. Henry. I’d also recommend looking into Stephen Leacock. “My Financial Career” is fun, but he wrote a number of other stories that would be suitable. You may also wish to try a chapter or two from his _Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town_–this is generally regarded as a novel, but while the same characters appear in each chapter, each chapter can be regarded as a separate story. The nice thing about Leacock is that his stuff was written in the early 20th century, and is now in the public domain. You can read and download the text for free at the Gutenberg Project. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/16 "2010-06-23T16:02:01Z")
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is a favorite of mine… ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/17 "2010-06-23T16:13:15Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > “Nightfall” - Isaac Asimov > > “There Will Come Soft Rains” - Ray Bradbury Also by Asimov: [“The Fun They Had”](http://staff.fcps.net/tcarr/shortstory/fun.htm) Also by Bradbury: [“All Summer in a Day”](http://www.intermed.it/bradbury/Allsummer.htm) and [“The Veldt”](http://www.veddma.com/veddma/Veldt.htm). All of these actually appeared in my reading textbooks as a kid. Read “The Veldt” in junior high, but the other two were in elementary school readers. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/18 "2010-06-23T16:20:02Z")
flowers for algernon ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/19 "2010-06-23T16:23:15Z")
[The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"](http://www.drwrite.com/analyzing/stories/mitty.shtml), by James Thurber. Loads of critical analysis and study guides online, as well. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240/20 "2010-06-23T16:26:22Z")
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner…this was used in my AP English class. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/short-stories-high-school-students-should-read/544240.md?page=2)