Famous Short Stories
Instructions: How well do you know the world's most celebrated short stories and their authors?
- 1.
Who wrote 'The Gift of the Magi,' a classic tale about a couple's Christmas sacrifices?
AEdgar Allan PoeBO. HenryCMark TwainDNathaniel Hawthorne - 2.
Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart' features a narrator haunted by what sound?
AFootsteps on stairsBA ticking clockCA ringing bellDA beating heart - 3.
Which author wrote 'The Lottery,' a shocking story about a small-town ritual?
AFlannery O'ConnorBEudora WeltyCJoyce Carol OatesDShirley Jackson - 4.
In which Washington Irving story does a man fall asleep for 20 years?
AThe Legend of Sleepy HollowBRip Van WinkleCThe Devil and Tom WalkerDThe Alhambra - 5.
Who wrote 'The Metamorphosis,' about a man who wakes up transformed into a giant insect?
AHermann HesseBFranz KafkaCRobert MusilDThomas Mann - 6.
Which Russian writer authored 'The Overcoat,' about a humble clerk who buys a new coat?
AAnton ChekhovBLeo TolstoyCNikolai GogolDIvan Turgenev - 7.
Which Ernest Hemingway short story follows an old fisherman's unsuccessful day in 'a clean, well-lighted' establishment?
AHills Like White ElephantsBA Clean, Well-Lighted PlaceCThe Snows of KilimanjaroDBig Two-Hearted River - 8.
Who wrote 'The Necklace,' about a woman who borrows a diamond necklace that she loses?
AGustave FlaubertBHonoré de BalzacCGuy de MaupassantDÉmile Zola - 9.
Which Arthur Conan Doyle story introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world?
AThe Adventure of the Speckled BandBA Scandal in BohemiaCThe Hound of the BaskervillesDA Study in Scarlet - 10.
Which author wrote 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find,' set in the American South?
ACarson McCullersBWilliam FaulknerCFlannery O'ConnorDHarper Lee - 11.
Ray Bradbury's short story 'There Will Come Soft Rains' depicts a house surviving after what event?
AA floodBA nuclear apocalypseCAn alien invasionDAn earthquake - 12.
Who wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' a story about a woman's descent into madness?
AKate ChopinBEdith WhartonCWilla CatherDCharlotte Perkins Gilman - 13.
Which Mark Twain short story involves a celebrated jumping frog contest?
AA Dog's TaleBThe $30,000 BequestCThe Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras CountyDThe Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg - 14.
In which story by James Joyce does Gabriel Conroy learn about his wife's past love at a party?
AThe DeadBArabyCEvelineDA Painful Case - 15.
Which Roald Dahl story features a wife who murders her husband with a frozen leg of lamb?
AThe LandladyBLamb to the SlaughterCTasteDMan from the South
Answer Key
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) published 'The Gift of the Magi' in 1905. The story of Jim and Della, who each sell their most prized possession to buy a gift for the other, is one of the most beloved Christmas stories.
In 'The Tell-Tale Heart' (1843), the guilt-ridden narrator believes he hears the heartbeat of the old man he has murdered beneath the floorboards. The story is a masterpiece of psychological horror.
Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' (1948) appeared in The New Yorker and generated more mail than any story the magazine had ever published. Readers were outraged and fascinated by its disturbing twist ending.
'Rip Van Winkle' (1819) tells of a man who drinks with mysterious strangers in the Catskill Mountains and awakens to find that 20 years have passed and the American Revolution has occurred.
Franz Kafka published 'The Metamorphosis' ('Die Verwandlung') in 1915. Gregor Samsa's transformation into a monstrous insect is one of the most famous opening situations in all of literature.
Nikolai Gogol published 'The Overcoat' in 1842. The tragicomic story of Akaky Akakievich, whose new overcoat is stolen, is considered a foundation of Russian realism. Dostoevsky reportedly said, 'We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat.'
'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place' (1933) depicts two waiters discussing an old man who lingers in their café. The story exemplifies Hemingway's spare style and themes of loneliness and existential despair.
Guy de Maupassant published 'The Necklace' ('La Parure') in 1884. Mathilde Loisel spends ten years paying for a replacement necklace, only to discover a devastating irony at the end.
'A Study in Scarlet' (1887) introduced both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Published in Beeton's Christmas Annual, it launched one of the most famous characters in all of fiction.
Flannery O'Connor published 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find' in 1953. The story of a family's encounter with an escaped convict called The Misfit is a masterwork of Southern Gothic literature.
'There Will Come Soft Rains' (1950) describes an automated house continuing its daily routines after its inhabitants have been killed by a nuclear blast. It appears in Bradbury's 'The Martian Chronicles.'
Charlotte Perkins Gilman published 'The Yellow Wallpaper' in 1892. Written partly from her own experience with postpartum depression, the story critiques the 'rest cure' prescribed to women at the time.
'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' (1865) was the story that first brought Mark Twain national fame. The humorous tale is narrated as a tall tale within a tall tale.
'The Dead' (1914) is the final and longest story in Joyce's collection 'Dubliners.' Gabriel's epiphany about love, loss, and mortality as snow falls over Ireland is considered one of the greatest short stories ever written.
'Lamb to the Slaughter' (1953) tells of Mary Maloney, who kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and then cooks it and serves it to the investigating police officers, destroying the evidence.