Top 10 Short Stories

This is a story of almost forgotten times for a little boy named Jack when his Chinese mother used to make him origami animals that she was able to magically bring to life by simply blowing on them. Jack tries hard to forget what he sees as ‘childish things’ and fit in with his new friends after relocating to Connecticut in the USA.

We now look at a short story that focuses on jealousy, isolation and misconception in ‘Cathedral’ by Raymond Carver. The narrator talks about his wife – who he loves dearly – who keeps getting visits from a blind man, Robert. This relationship remains private to the narrator, which only serves to stoke his paranoia and distrust.

Our next tale is one of folly and misadventure as an unnamed man tries against all reason to cross 10 miles of inhospitable Yukon wilderness in ‘To Build a Fire’ by Jack London. Despite conditions being about as severe as they can be with temperatures dropping down to 75 below zero, the man attempts to make his journey and meet his compatriots at a camp a mere two hours later.

Heading back to the American Civil War now with a psychological thriller written by Ambrose Bierce. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge will take you this way and that as a war between the Confederates and the Yankees leads to Peyton Farquhar finding himself standing with a noose wrapped around his neck on the end of a plank.

If it’s ironic twists and black humour you’re after, then Beyond the Door is a short story that will appeal to you. Larry Thomas loses his beloved wife Doris to Bob, an antique enthusiast after he catches them in flagrante in the marital home. Whilst throwing out the pair, he decides to keep a cuckoo clock that he had recently bought for Doris out of spite, but it ends up silently mocking him and his situation.

All in the Mind is a story by Gene L Henderson that combines the macabre with existential thought. Waking up in a black void, Mel Carson felt himself floating but had no idea where or why, until his memory starts to return to him. He recalls working in a remote, mountain-based research lab, experimenting on animal brains.

Our next short story is a moral tale that teaches you where bravado and arrogance can get you, as U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant Ranson mocks a well-known outlaw known as “The Red Rider”. Whilst boasting to his fellow officers, he states that what this outlaw had done was mere piffle and that he himself could hold up a stagecoach using nothing but a pair of scissors – something that he succeeds in doing.

Quite different to the image that ‘A Place in the Sun’ conjures up, this intriguing short story by Stephen Marlow follows a shapeshifting character known as Johnny Mayhem who can assume the form of any person he likes. Thrills abound as Mayhem is ordered to rescue a spacecraft that is on a direct collision course with the fiery Sun.

Set in a fictional Central American Country known as Anchuria, ‘Cabbages and Kings’ is a complex story that focuses on the people who live there, their politics, society and commerce. During the story, their deposed leader has committed crimes against his people and robbed huge amounts of money from the Federal Reserve.

An epic that was made famous in a film starring Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain actually started off as a short story by Annie Proulx. Ennis Del Mar, a cowboy who has lost his job and must move from his house unexpectedly falls for another man who crosses his path called Jack Twist.