Synopses & Reviews
In
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories, Joyce Carol Oates offers a sweeping survey of American short fiction, in a collection of nearly sixty tales that combines classic works with many "different, unexpected" gems, and that invites readers to explore a wealth of important pieces by women and minority writers.
Some selections simply can't be improved on, Oates admits, and she happily includes such time-honored works as Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." But alongside these often-anthologized tales, Oates introduces such little-known stories as Mark Twain's "Cannibalism in the Cars," a work that reveals a darker side to his humor. From Melville come the juxtaposed tales "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids," of which Oates says, "only Melville could have fashioned out of 'real' events...such harrowing and dreamlike allegorical fiction." The reader will also delight in the range of authors found here, from Charles W. Chesnutt, Jean Toomer, and Sarah Orne Jewett, to William Carlos Williams, Kate Chopin, and Langston Hughes, to Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King.
For the second edition, Oates has introduced a wide range of new stories from writers who represent the state of American literature today. These new works include Lorrie Moore's "How to Become a Writer," Richard Ford's "Under the Radar," Junot Diaz's "Edison, New Jersey," David Foster Wallace's "Good People," Philip Roth's "Defender of the Faith," and Amy Hempel's "Today Will Be a Quiet Day." As in the original volume, Oates provides fascinating introductions to each writer, blending biographical information with her own trenchant observations about their work. In addition, she has written a new preface that contemplates our shifting literary culture, and has revised her introductory essay to the first edition, in which she offers the fruit of years of reflection on a genre in which she herself is a master.
Review
"a substantial and superb treasury that will deepen every fiction collection".- Booklist
"She's provided a roster of authors that is both inclusive and rooted in the desire to showcase some of the best stories Americans have to offer.While this book is most likely to wind up in the hands of students, there's a lot here to recommend to readers in general."--Shelf Awareness
Praise for the first edition:
"Joyce Carol Oates has cast her net further and deeper, drawing from American literature's impressive past and substantial cultural wealth.... Exceptional."--Booklist
"More than a survey of writing styles. It is a celebration of the diversity of American culture."--Denver Post
"Readers who take an encompassing view of American literature and culture will love this book, which brilliantly captures the range and heft of the remarkable American contribution to the short story genre. With penetrating introductions by Joyce Carol Oates to each writer, this is an anthology of the finest kind, a collection of stories dazzling in variety but unified by an editor of singular intelligence and vision."--Arnold Rampersad, Princeton University
"Joyce Carol Oates, a master fabulist who is also one of our finest critics, has given us a treasury that represents the astonishing range of the American short story. But instead of another showcase of 'greatest hits,' Oates ventures further afield, to uncover a series of neglected but refulgent gems. This is a collection with guts--and brains. Best of all, it's a collection that unfolds, as its editor promises, the larger story of American writing, in all its hues and timbres."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"A splendid volume of short stories which reflect the wealth of brilliance built up over the years by a wide ranging field of American writers. Oates has done an outstanding job in making this selection.... She does not always go for the well known stories by delights us with some that have remained somewhat obscure."--Yorkshire Gazette and Herald
"To a short story lover it is hard to think of a book that could give more pleasure."--Scotland on Sunday
Review
"She's provided a roster of authors that is both inclusive and rooted in the desire to showcase some of the best stories Americans have to offer.While this book is most likely to wind up in the hands of students, there's a lot here to recommend to readers in general."--Shelf Awareness
Praise for the first edition:
"Joyce Carol Oates has cast her net further and deeper, drawing from American literature's impressive past and substantial cultural wealth.... Exceptional."--Booklist
"More than a survey of writing styles. It is a celebration of the diversity of American culture."--Denver Post
"Readers who take an encompassing view of American literature and culture will love this book, which brilliantly captures the range and heft of the remarkable American contribution to the short story genre. With penetrating introductions by Joyce Carol Oates to each writer, this is an anthology of the finest kind, a collection of stories dazzling in variety but unified by an editor of singular intelligence and vision."--Arnold Rampersad, Princeton University
"Joyce Carol Oates, a master fabulist who is also one of our finest critics, has given us a treasury that represents the astonishing range of the American short story. But instead of another showcase of 'greatest hits,' Oates ventures further afield, to uncover a series of neglected but refulgent gems. This is a collection with guts--and brains. Best of all, it's a collection that unfolds, as its editor promises, the larger story of American writing, in all its hues and timbres."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"A splendid volume of short stories which reflect the wealth of brilliance built up over the years by a wide ranging field of American writers. Oates has done an outstanding job in making this selection.... She does not always go for the well known stories by delights us with some that have remained somewhat obscure."--Yorkshire Gazette and Herald
"To a short story lover it is hard to think of a book that could give more pleasure."--Scotland on Sunday
Review
"a substantial and superb treasury that will deepen every fiction collection".- Booklist
"She's provided a roster of authors that is both inclusive and rooted in the desire to showcase some of the best stories Americans have to offer.While this book is most likely to wind up in the hands of students, there's a lot here to recommend to readers in general."--Shelf Awareness
Praise for the first edition:
"Joyce Carol Oates has cast her net further and deeper, drawing from American literature's impressive past and substantial cultural wealth.... Exceptional."--Booklist
"More than a survey of writing styles. It is a celebration of the diversity of American culture."--Denver Post
"Readers who take an encompassing view of American literature and culture will love this book, which brilliantly captures the range and heft of the remarkable American contribution to the short story genre. With penetrating introductions by Joyce Carol Oates to each writer, this is an anthology of the finest kind, a collection of stories dazzling in variety but unified by an editor of singular intelligence and vision."--Arnold Rampersad, Princeton University
"Joyce Carol Oates, a master fabulist who is also one of our finest critics, has given us a treasury that represents the astonishing range of the American short story. But instead of another showcase of 'greatest hits,' Oates ventures further afield, to uncover a series of neglected but refulgent gems. This is a collection with guts--and brains. Best of all, it's a collection that unfolds, as its editor promises, the larger story of American writing, in all its hues and timbres."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
"A splendid volume of short stories which reflect the wealth of brilliance built up over the years by a wide ranging field of American writers. Oates has done an outstanding job in making this selection.... She does not always go for the well known stories by delights us with some that have remained somewhat obscure."--Yorkshire Gazette and Herald
"To a short story lover it is hard to think of a book that could give more pleasure."--Scotland on Sunday
Synopsis
The best-selling and award-winning Jennifer Egan guest edits this year's The Best American Short Stories, the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction.
Synopsis
“The literary ‘Oscars features twenty outstanding examples of the best of the best in American short stories.” — Shelf Awareness for Readers The Best American Short Stories 2014 will be selected by national best-selling author Jennifer Egan, who won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for A Visit from the Goon Squad, heralded by Time magazine as “a new classic of American fiction.” Egan “possesses a satirists eye and a romance novelists heart” (New York Times Book Review).
About the Author
JENNIFER EGAN is the author of The Invisible Circus, which was released as a feature film by Fine Line in 2001, Emerald City and Other Stories, Look at Me, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 2001, and the bestselling The Keep. Her latest book, A Visit From the Goon Squad, a national bestseller, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and the LA Times Book Prize. HEIDI PITLOR is a former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has been the series editor for The Best American Short Stories since 2007. She is the author of the novels The Birthdays and The Daylight Marriage.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859)
Rip Van Winkle
WILLIAM AUSTIN (1778-1841)
Peter Rugg, the Missing Man
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864)
The Wives of the Dead
EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849)
The Tell-Tale Heart
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896)
The Ghost in the Mill
HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)
The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids
SAMUEL CLEMENS (1835-1910)
Cannibalism in the Cars
HENRY JAMES (1843-1916)
The Middle Years
SARA H ORNE JEWETT (1849-1909)
A White Heron
KA TE CHOPIN (1851-1904)
The Storm
MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN (1852-1930)
Old Woman Magoun
CHARLES CHESNUTT (1858-1932)
The Sheriff's Children
CHARLOTT E PERKINS GILMAN (1860-1935)
The Yellow Wallpaper
EDITH WHARTON (1862-1937)
A Journey
STEPHEN CRA NE (1871-1900)
The Little Regiment
WILLA CATHER (1873-1947)
A Death in the Desert
SHERWOOD ANDERSON (1876-1941)
The Strength of God
JACK LONDON (1876-1916)
In a Far Country
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883-1963)
The Girl with a Pimply Face
H. P. LOVECRA FT (1890-1937)
The Rats in the Walls
JEAN TOOMER (1894-1967)
Blood-Burning Moon
F. SCOTT FITZGERA LD (1896-1940)
An Alcoholic Case
WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1962)
That Evening Sun
ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1899-1961)
Hills Like White Elephants
LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)
Red-Headed Baby
RICHARD WRIGHT (1908-1960)
The Man Who Was Almost a Man
NELSON ALGREN (1909-1981)
A Bottle of Milk for Mother
EUDORA WELTY (1909-2001)
Where Is the Voice Coming From?
PAUL BOWLES (1910-1999)
A Distant Episode
JOHN CHEEVER (1912-1982)
The Country Husband
RA LPH ELLISON (1914-1994)
Battle Royal
BERNARD MALAMUD (1914-1986)
My Son the Murderer
SHIRLEY JACKSON (1916-1965)
The Lottery
RA Y BRA DBURY (b. 1920)
There Will Come Soft Rains
JAMES BALDWIN (1924-1987)
Sonny's Blues
FLANNERY O'CONNOR (1925-1964)
A Late Encounter with the Enemy
CYNTHIA OZICK (b. 1928)
The Shawl
DONALD BARTHELME (1931-1989)
The School
JOHN UPDIKE (1932-2009)
The Persistence of Desire
PHILIP ROTH (b. 1933)
Defender of the Faith
ANNIE PROULX (b. 1935)
The Mud Below
RA YMOND CARVER (1938-1988)
Are These Actual Miles?
JOYCE CAROL OATES (b. 1938)
Heat
RUSSELL BANKS (b. 1940)
The Child Screams and Looks Back at You
EDMUND WHITE (b. 1940)
Give It Up for Billy
RICHARD FORD (b. 1944)
Under the Radar
TOBIAS WOLFF (b. 1945)
Hunters in the Snow
TIM O'BRIEN (b. 1946)
The Things They Carried
STEPHEN KING (b. 1947)
The Reach
T. C. BOYLE (b. 1948)
Filthy with Things
AMY HEMPEL (b. 1951)
Today Will Be a Quiet Day
LOUISE ERDRICH (b. 1954)
Fleur
JEFFREY FORD (b. 1955)
The Drowned Life
HA JIN (b. 1956)
Children as Enemies
LORRIE MOORE (b. 1957)
How to Become a Writer
DAVID FOSTER WALLACE (1962-2008)
Good People
PINCKNEY BENEDICT (b. 1964)
Mercy
JHUMPA LAHIRI (b. 1967)
Hell-Heaven
JUNOT DÍAZ (b. 1968)
Edison, New Jersey
Author Index