Since the series' inception in 1915, the annual volumes of The Best American Short Stories have launched literary careers, showcased the most compelling stories of each year, and confirmed for all time the significance of the short story in our national literature. Now THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES OF THE CENTURY brings together the best -- fifty-six extraordinary stories that represent a century's worth of unsurpassed achievements in this quintessentially American literary genre.

 

audio added thanks to camhuy

The Borrowers Aloft - With the Short Tale Poor Stainless

Two stories about a family of tiny people called the Borrowers, in which the family is kidnapped, and the youngest boy is discovered missing.
Imprisoned in an attic by a greedy couple who want to use them as performers, the Borrowers escape by balloon.

Nineteenth-Century Short Stories by Women

This anthology brings together twenty-eight lively and readable short stories by nineteenth-century women writers, including gothic tales to romances, detective fiction and ghost stories. It contains short fiction by well-known authors such as Maria Edgeworth, Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Gaskell and Margaret Oliphant.

A Man of Many Parts - Gissing's Short Stories, Essays and Other Works

This comprehensive study of George Gissing’s short stories and related non-fiction is essential reading for students of nineteenth-century realism. For the first time readers will be able to follow the development which transformed Gissing’s unremarkable early stories into the very individual tales that elevated his work to the vanguard of realistic short fiction.

The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard

First published in 1978, this collection of nineteen of Ballard's best short stories is as timely and informed as ever. His tales of the human psyche and its relationship to nature and technology, as viewed through a strong microscope, were eerily prescient and now provide greater perspective on our computer-dominated culture. Ballard's voice and vision have long served as a font of inspiration for today's cyber-punks, the authors and futurist who brought the information age into the mainstream.