The short story is a literary style that is "incomparably beautiful". Using a limited narrative space to accommodate the whimsical creative ideas, reproducing the colorful life scenes and complex and multi-faceted inner world of human beings, is undoubtedly a challenge to the writer's skill.
The five masters of short stories introduced today are very good at dealing with challenges. Some names are thunderous: Chekhov, Hemingway, which immediately conjures up the classics. Some of them are hidden, their long works are selling well, but they are also at ease in the field of short stories: Henry James, Maugham, F. S. Fitzgerald, you may not know that they have written so many wonderful short stories!
This short classic series brings together five short story masters, and their long works are not lost in terms of richness and depth, so that people can feel the drama of the writer's life in a very short period of time.
01
Hemingway's Snow in Kilimanjaro
The quickest way to get to know Hemingway is to look at this collection of short stories, which brings together 26 representative works such as "The Snow of Kilimanjaro" and "The White Elephant Mountains", which perfectly presents Hemingway in his peak state: precision, restraint, mystery, sadness.
(Hemingway Figure Source Network)
In the book, you'll join Hemingway, the Nobel prize winner and founder of the "press-style" novel, between pristine natural beauty and intense human confrontations. His concise brushwork is known as the "iceberg theory", the description is precise, the dialogue is short, the concealment is measured, the combination of virtual and real, conveying infinite connotations in a limited space, each article is impeccable, like a small universe, self-contained. This technique has attracted countless future generations of writers to imitate, and has never been surpassed!
02
Chekhov's "Uninteresting Story"
Although the book is called "Uninteresting Story", in fact, each one is full of ingenuity, which makes people throw themselves into it as quickly as possible.
Chekhov, who began to deal with him as a student, must be no stranger to you, but his novels need a certain amount of life experience to read, and it is worth repeatedly tasting, which is the charm of Chekhov's novels.
Chekhov changed the rules of the game of the short story, did not rely on the twists and turns of the bizarre plot to attract readers, he with the calmness of the bystander, silent, did not render emotions, through the tragedy hidden in daily life to expose the social ugliness, so that people feel the depth of the back of the paper, creating a group of distinctive "little people". Concise language, superb satire, he is good at setting up those laughable plots, but behind this laugh there is a pair of eyes with compassion.
This book does not include representative works such as "Chameleon" and "The Man in the Set", but selects Chekhov's excellent short stories that have not been circulated much, so that readers can deeply understand and appreciate the different aspects of this short story master.
03
Henry James, The Living Thing
The title "Living Things" is easy to think about, what kind of writer is Henry James?
He is one of the longest and most influential literary giants in the modern writers of Europe and the United States. In Europe and the United States, his name is thunderous, he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times, creating a precedent for the 20th century Western psychological realist novel, known as the "Shakespeare of the novel world". If there is one word to describe him, it is "complex", the long and difficult sentences he is good at writing is no small challenge for readers, and his novels complete seemingly impossible transformations through psychological descriptions, reflecting the unpredictable and variable world and the survival value of people.
This book selects 7 short masterpieces such as "Living Things" that cover Henry James's long creative career, focusing on the extraordinary creativity of this novel master in the field of short story creation.
These short stories complement his novels, embodying the diversity and modernity of James's creative themes and narrative styles, and showing his holistic perspective and evaluation of social life and the characteristics of the times. In the process of reading, you will see a serious writer, constantly experimenting with multiple dimensions to find the narrative that best suits his artistic view.
04
F.S. Fitzgerald," Rejuvenation
During his lifetime, he wrote 5 novels, 150 short stories, and many works were put on the screen, among which the film of the same name adapted from "Rejuvenation" (aka "The Wonders of Benjamin Button") was nominated for the 81st Academy Awards.
(Poster for the American version of the movie "The Wonders of Benjamin Barton")
Fitzgerald has been hailed as "one of the most controversial novelists of the 20th century" with a very personal style and a unique style among his contemporaries. He is also known as a novelist of "split personality", whose characters are indulgent and hedonistic, and whose sentences are beautiful and gorgeous, and beyond all this is the serious attitude and profound intention of his works, "like a slave to the painstaking and meticulous repetition of each word".
He was born in the "jazz age" of the United States, witnessed the First World War and the financial crisis, and countless people's dreams were shattered, fell into the clouds, lost their dignity, and had to live a humble life. His short stories faithfully record the life experiences of him and his contemporaries, reflecting the social changes and life atmosphere of that turbulent era.
The book "Revisiting Babylon" is fitzgerald's middle and late-stage masterpiece, telling the story of a prodigal son who turns back, when he breaks away from the life of the former drunken fan, reforms, doubts and provocations do not stop, he is angry, bitter, wandering... There was nothing they could do. Fitzgerald uses fantastic words to portray a generation's war trauma and spiritual crisis, asking thought-provoking questions, as he writes in the book: Why is everything gone? They used to exist so literally, but now they are empty.
05
Maugham's The End of The Escape
Maugham is like a stranger you meet on a train, his stomach full of stories, gossiping about the legendary experiences that happened to ordinary people. He has traveled to three continents, Europe, Asia and the United States, and has created countless novels with rave reviews.
In addition to the well-known "The Moon and Sixpence" and "Blade" and other long stories, Maugham's literary genius is concentrated in his short stories, the humor of language, the analysis of human nature into the wood, and the unexpected ending, which are the characteristics of Maugham's works that are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
His short stories are so beloved by readers that they have not only been reprinted in Europe and the United States, but have also been translated into many languages and adapted, and have been widely circulated around the world. Maugham has thus been hailed as the "Holy Hand of Stories," "the Maupassant of England," and "the greatest short story writer of the twentieth century."
The book's title selection is a different approach, avoiding some well-known classic short stories such as "Lunch", and selecting 16 from more than 150 works in Maugham's complete collection of short stories, which can not only meet the needs of Maugham's loyal fans, further understand the writer's literary genius, but also open a new door for readers who do not know Maugham.
(Stills from the film "The Veil" based on Maugham's novel of the same name)
Friendly reminder: Maugham can be called the "short story product manager" of the twentieth century, his creation has always put the reader first, compact structure, plot twists, excellent reading experience, therefore, this book should not be read on the subway, if you are not careful, you will sit on the station!