A brief survey of the short story part 39: William Trevor
Trevor's greatest skill is seamless characterisation: words that appear authorial are actually those of his protagonistsWilliam Trevor was born in County Cork in 1928 and has lived in England since the...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 40: JD Salinger
Salinger's style evolved over the years before his self-imposed silence, but his stories share an 'uncanny, hypnotic readability'JD Salinger, who died in 2010, last published a piece of fiction in the...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 41: Rudyard Kipling
George Orwell thought he was 'morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting', but Kipling's stories are both original and excitingFor George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling was "a jingo imperialist morally...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story: Nikolai Leskov
Perennially falling into and out of fashion, he is a stunningly versatile writer and a very un-Russian Russian greatA brief survey of the short story: read more blogposts“I calculated once,” Vladimir...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story: Robert Aickman
Written with real psychological depth, these enigmatic tales rise far beyond straightforward ghost stories, writes Chris PowerThe lending history of my ex-library copy of The Attempted Rescue, one of...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story: John Updike
The longevity and prodigal output of this ‘conspicuously autobiographical writer’ give his complete works – and especially his celebrated stories – the shape of an entire life• More from Chris Power’s...
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A brief survey of the short story part 12: Heinrich von Kleist
He committed suicide at 34, but Heinrich von Kleist was no nihilist. His work, though, is riven with flickering hope and mountainous sorrowDan Fredenburgh in Heinrich von Kleist's play The Prince of...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 13: Franz Kafka
Kafka's 'obscure lucidity' ensures that his stories remain fertile however many times you read themIf we accept Vladimir Nabokov's judgment that "a good reader, a major reader, an active and creative...
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A brief survey of the short story: part one
Anton Chekhov's subtle portrayals of complex, morally ambiguous characters set an example writers are following to this day.A great observer ... Anton Chekhov. Photograph: CorbisThis is the first in a...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 24: Leo Tolstoy
The best of Tolstoy's short fiction confronts the reality of death better than any other writerBy 1877 Leo Tolstoy was finished with the long-form novel: no other vast work would flow from his pen to...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 32: James Joyce
With just one collection of stories, Joyce left his mark on almost every short story writer who followed himJames Joyce wrote just one collection of short stories, but it ranks among the finest in...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 33: Deborah Eisenberg
Intellectual and moral seriousness blends with great wit in the stories of Deborah Eisenberg, as well as a gift for metaphorFor most people there is a gap between the person we are and the person we...
View ArticleChris Power | A brief survey of the short story part 35: Tadeusz Borowski
In Borowski's stories atrocity is piled upon atrocity, but it has been argued that the close identification of character with creator was a deliberate moral decision"I saw the death of a million people...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 37: Alice Munro
The easy, conversational flow of her stories conceals an almost Proustian complexity of constructionAlice Munro is so routinely called one of the greatest living short story writers that the accolade...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 15: F Scott Fitzgerald
He himself belittled them, and critics have followed suit, but these stories have a rare poise and beautyIn 1940, the year F Scott Fitzgerald died, his books – four novels and four short story...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 23: JF Powers
Powers's depictions of frustrated priests have a subtle humanity that the most secular reader can appreciateIt's embarrassing to tell, but idle daydreaming while working as a bookseller led me to JF...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 22: Julio Cortázar
Cortázar's vividly experimental, uncanny tales are among the best work of 'el boom' in Latin American writingSince his death in 1984, Argentine novelist, poet and short story writer Julio Cortázar's...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 45: John Cheever
As National Short Story week draws to a close, Chris Power considers a master of the form who brings something shadowy and troubled – not to mention enchanted – to his depictions of suburban New...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 47: Machado de Assis
Still neglected by English readers, the Brazilian writer is one of the very greatest of the early modern eraThe Brazilian Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis is, to English-language readers, perhaps the...
View ArticleA brief survey of the short story part 48: Angela Carter
By harnessing the peculiar power of fairytales, Carter invested her stories with a vibrant emotional and intellectual energyIn an interview Angela Carter gave in 1991, not long before her death from...
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