Looking for famous short stories you can read in one sitting? This collection gathers the tales everyone talks about, from Russian masters to British wits and American classics.
These are the classic short stories that show up in every anthology and classroom. Edgar Allan Poe, Anton Chekhov, Kate Chopin and O. Henry wrote endings readers still argue about a century later.
These classics are in the public domain, so every story is free to read online or download as PDF. Pick one tonight and you'll see why they never went out of print.
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Must-Reads
Most Famous Short Stories
Start here if you want the famous short stories that defined the genre. The Tell-Tale Heart, The Monkey's Paw and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge each fit a whole world into a few pages.
A murderer swears he is sane while the beating of a dead man's heart grows louder under the floorboards. Our own Project Aldus edition of Poe's most famous tale, short enough to read in ten minutes.
A cursed paw grants three wishes, and a quiet family learns too late to be careful what they ask for. Jacobs's 1902 tale still tops almost every list of the greatest short stories ever written.
A man stands on a railroad bridge with a rope around his neck, and then the rope breaks. Bierce's Civil War story holds one of the most famous twist endings in fiction.
A young couple with one dollar and eighty-seven cents each sell their most precious possession to buy the other a Christmas gift. O. Henry's best-loved story and the classic example of the ironic twist.
A newcomer to the Yukon ignores the old-timers' warning and sets out alone at seventy-five below zero, with only a dog for company. Jack London's tense survival story, read in classrooms for over a century.
Fifteen stories of ordinary Dublin lives, closing with The Dead, often called the finest short story in the English language. Joyce's first book and a landmark of modern short fiction.
Russian writers turned ordinary lives into short fiction that feels painfully honest. Chekhov, Tolstoy, Gogol and Dostoevsky did it with humor, cruelty and a lot of heart.
A lonely dreamer meets a young woman over four summer nights in St. Petersburg and lets himself hope. Our own Project Aldus edition of Dostoevsky's tender 1848 story.
A bored Moscow banker and a young married woman meet at a seaside resort and expect a brief affair, not love. Chekhov's most famous story leads this collection in Constance Garnett's classic translation.
Five of Gogol's best tales in one volume, led by The Mantle (The Overcoat), the story Russian writers said they all came out of. Also includes The Nose and Memoirs of a Madman, in Claud Field's translation.
A respected judge falls ill and, facing death, starts asking whether his comfortable life meant anything. Tolstoy's most famous short work, in the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation.
A man on the verge of suicide dreams of a planet where no one has ever sinned, and wakes up determined to change. Our own Project Aldus edition of Dostoevsky's strange and hopeful 1877 story.
Some of the most famous short stories ever written came from women who were told to stay quiet. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper and Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour still hit hard more than a century later.
A woman confined to an upstairs room for a rest cure begins to see a figure moving behind the wallpaper. Gilman's 1892 story is one of the most read and taught short stories by any woman writer.
Told that her husband has died in a train accident, Louise Mallard discovers a feeling she never expected. Kate Chopin's 1894 story fits a whole life into a single hour and ends with a famous twist.
A wealthy family prepares for a party on the day a poor neighbor is killed, and young Laura has to decide what that means. Katherine Mansfield's best-known collection of sharp, modern stories.
A shy country girl must choose between helping a charming young hunter and protecting the rare white heron she found in the woods. Sarah Orne Jewett's best-known story and a classic of American nature writing.
British short stories bring ghosts, sharp humor and a very polite kind of menace. Saki, Dickens, Kipling and Oscar Wilde wrote classic English short stories that always land the final line.
An American family buys a haunted English manor and refuses to be frightened by its 300-year-old ghost. Our own Project Aldus edition of Oscar Wilde's comic ghost story.
A nervous visitor arrives at a country house, and the calm fifteen-year-old niece tells him a tragic story about the open window. Saki's best-known tale, with one of the sharpest last lines in English fiction.
A railway signalman is haunted by a figure that appears before every disaster on his line. Dickens's most famous ghost story, written soon after he survived a real train crash.
Forty short stories from Kipling's early years as a journalist in India. The collection that launched his career, full of wit, romance and sharp portraits of Anglo-Indian life.
Guy de Maupassant wrote around 300 short stories, and The Necklace alone has kept readers guessing for generations. Here are three of his best to get you started.
Mathilde borrows a diamond necklace for one glamorous night and loses it. Maupassant's best-known story and its famous twist ending, ready to read in ten minutes.
Opens with Boule de Suif, the 1880 story about a coach full of respectable citizens and the woman they use and discard, which made Maupassant famous overnight. Volume I of his collected works, with Mademoiselle Fifi and more war stories.
Two Parisian friends sneak past the lines to go fishing during the Prussian siege, and run into the enemy. A short, devastating war story often read in school.
From Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle to Mark Twain's comic tales, American writers made the short story a national habit. These three picks, including Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, open the door to a much bigger shelf.
A 1904 anthology that follows the American short story from Rip Van Winkle through Poe, Hawthorne and Bret Harte. The editor's opening essay explains how the form took shape.
A young Puritan leaves his wife Faith for one night to walk into the forest, where he finds his whole village at a witches' meeting. Hawthorne's most read story, short enough for a single sitting.
Twain's 1893 collection led by the famous tale of a penniless American handed a million-pound note in London. Eleven late-career sketches on luck, manners, and the comedy of mistaken status.
A great short story stays with you far longer than it takes to read. Save a few of these classic short stories and keep them ready for a commute, a lunch break or a quiet night.
Want more? Browse our full collection of free short stories by genre and topic.
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