These are my choices, in no particular order, other than that’s just the way they came to mind:
The Black Cat - Edgar Alle Poe (I’m just a sucker for anything by Poe, but this one is great) One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts - Shirley Jackson (Since most everyone else has named The Lottery , I thought I’d throw out another one of Jackson’s goodies) The Rats in the Walls - H.P. Lovecraft (Reminds me of Poe in some ways - very dark, creepy) The Ten O’clock People - Stephen King (I’m a smoker, and this one always gives me chills) Our Fair City - Robert A. Heinlein (This is so different from Heinlein’s other works. Reminds me of when I was a kid watching dust devils dance about the farm - it seemed like they really were “alive”)
I’d put Gogol at the top of my list too- Probably the Overcoat is his best.
Then- Queen of Spades (Pushkin)
The Most Dangerous Game (Connell)-(not great literature, perhaps, but I read it in high school and still remember it almost word for word, so it maust have had an impact.)
The Gift of the Magi (O Henry)
I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream (Ellison)
“Having Words” by Alan Dean Foster
“The Time Traveller” by Spider Robinson
“With Friends Like These…” by Alan Dean Foster
“Wicker Wonderland” by Keith Laumer
“The Defenseless Dead” by Larry Niven
I like a wide range of short stories, but mainly I like funny ones, which accounts for the stories by Foster and Laumer in the list.
“The Time Traveller” and “The Defenseless Dead” were serious stories that hit me like a gut punch the first time I read them, though. “The Time Traveller” is the perfect example of one of Spider Robinson’s greatest talents–his ability to lead us to empathize with someone in an utterly unfamiliar situation. Likewise, “The Defenseless Dead” represents Niven’s talent for examining the social implications of advanced technology.
I would also like to nominate Niven’s “What Can You Say About Chocolate Covered Manhole Covers?” as the most oddly-titled short story.
OMG! You are the first person I have ever known who has mentioned this story! I have been a fan of John Lennon’s writing for over 35 years now (I started VERY young), and this is one of my faves.
So, I will start my list with: No Flies On Frank by John Lennon The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry The Amazing Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain Everything’s Eventual and The Mist by Stephen King
Like many other posters, my list could be so much longer, and there’s a Harlan Ellison that I surely would have included if I could have remembered the title clearly (something about a waltz, I think). Oh, well.
These threads are so hard… I’d like to nominate Goliath by Neil Gaiman and Horta by Guy de Maupassant. The rest of the slots will just have to be occupied by Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, Harlan Ellison (The Whimper of Whipped Dogs…), HP Lovecraft and Kurt Vonnegut.
And since so many people picked Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge, I’ll have to hunt it down and read it.
