Short story

The short story is a form of short fictional narrative prose. Short stories tend to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Because of their brevity, successful short stories rely on literary devices such as character, plot, theme, language, and insight to a greater extent than long form fiction. Famous modern English-language short stories include The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, The Dead by James Joyce, To Build A Fire by Jack London, and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner.

Examples of classic short stories

• A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
• The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway, the classic stream-of-consciousness short story
• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
• The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)
• The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
• Why I live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty