The nineteenth century introduced some of the best short story writers into the world. This is the century that gave us Poe, Chekhov and Maupassant.
Below are 19 19th century short stories from the best writers of the century, plus links to where you can find the stories in a collection or elsewhere online.
1. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
“I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.”
Edgar Allan Poe...
…is almost synonymous with the short story form. He categorised short stories as something that should be read in a single sitting. He also stressed the importance of short fiction containing a sense of unity.
Story Summary
The Fall of the House of Usher sees the narrator travelling to the home of his friend, to assist with a mysterious illness that has befallen the house.
2. The Birthmark by Nathanial Hawthorne
“His love for his young wife might prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength of the latter to his own.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne...
…struggled to find success with his short stories. It wasn’t until the success of his novel The Scarlett Letter that he gained recognition.
Story Summary
A young scientist becomes increasingly obsessed about a small red birthmark on the cheek of his beautiful wife.
3. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
“You never see a frog so modest and straightforward as he was, for all he was so gifted.”
Mark Twain...
…is often hailed as one of the best humorist writers in the US. His short story about a frog was a big hit and brought him international attention.
Story Summary
The narrator retells a story from a bartender named Simon Wheeler, about a gambling man named Jim Smiley, who trained a frog to jump and uses it in a bet with Wheeler.
4. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman...
…entered a long-drawn depression soon after he birth of her daughter and was angered by the advice of the time for her to concentrate on a quiet domestic life away from any creative endeavours.
Story Summary
The Yellow Wallpaper tells the story of a woman’s deteriorating health as she is forced on a “rest cure”.
5. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
“Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”
Kate Chopin...
…started writing late in her life after the death of her husband. Her career was short lived when her novel The Awakening was condemned for its frank talk of adultery and mixed marriage.
Story Summary
The Story of an Hour is about a woman who received news of her husbands death and after experiencing grief, begins to think on the opportunities and freedom the news brings her.
6. The Lady with the Little Dog by Anton Chekhov
“She was walking alone, always wearing the same béret, and always with the same white dog; no one knew who she was, and every one called her simply "the lady with the dog.”
Anton Chekhov...
…is hailed by many as the master of the short story. His uncanny knack of filling the seemingly insignificant with meaning has shaped many modern short stories.
Story Summary
The Lady with the Little Dog tells the story of an adulterous affair between an unhappy banker and a married woman whilst they are both on vacation.
7. Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov
“Country life has its advantages,' he used to say. 'You sit on the veranda drinking tea and your ducklings swim on the pond, and everything smells good. . . and there are gooseberries.”
Story Summary
Gooseberries tells the story of a government official who dedicates every action in his life to buying an estate outside of the city, where he can eat as many gooseberries as he likes.
8. The Overcoat by Nikolay Gogol
“How much savage coarseness is concealed beneath delicate, refined worldliness.”
Nikolay Gogol...
…was very influential on Russian literature. A common quote regarding other writers in relation to him is that “We all come out from Gogol’s ‘Overcoat’.”
Story Summary
The Overcoat tells the story of a government clerk who has his new overcoat stolen and no one seems concerned enough to help him recover it.
9. The Necklace by Guy De Mauppasant
“She removed the wraps, which covered her shoulders, before the glass, so as once more to see herself in all her glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry. She had no longer the necklace around her neck!”
Guy de Maupassant...
…apprenticed himself to Flaubert to learn the craft of fiction for 10 years. He published hundreds of short stories and became known as a master of the twist.
Story Summary
A woman named Mathilde sees herself as part of the aristocracy but in reality is far removed from it. A chance to attend a grand ball presents itself but a borrowed necklace spells disaster for her and her family.
10. A Parisian Affair by Guy De Maupassant
“The one whose story I want to tell you about was a little provincial woman who had led until then a boringly blameless life.”
Story Summary
A Parisian Affair is the story of a woman who has a burning desire to visit Paris and experience the luxury, decadence and extravagance it offers.
11. La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac
“At about a hundred paces from Vendome, on the banks of the Loir," said he, "stands an old brown house, crowned with very high roofs, and so completely isolated that there is nothing near it…”
Honore de Balzac...
…mainly has a reputation as a novelist but La Comédie humaine is for the majority made up of short stories. Balzac wrote short stories throughout his career and many of his longer works developed out of this shorter fictions.
Story Summary
Le Grande Breteche is a manor house to which no one is permitted to enter. That was the final wish of the late lady of the manor who had a traumatic experience in the house trying to conceal her secret lover from her husband.
12. The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson
“The more things are wrong the more we must act as if all were right.”
Robert Louis Stevenson...
…is best known for his stories Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jeykll and Mr Hyde, but he also wrote a number of short stories.
Story Summary
The Body Snatcher is the story of a doctor in need of bodies to dissect. It takes inspiration from the infamous Burke and Hare murders which were notorious at the time of Stevenson writing.
13. The Red-Headed League by Arthur Conan Doyle
“There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.”
Arthur Conan Doyle...
…created perhaps one of the most well known fictional characters with Sherlock Holmes. He wrote 56 short stories featuring the detective. He was so popular at the time that when Conan Doyle published a story killing him off, there was public outcry to bring him back and continue his adventures.
Story Summary
The Red-Headed League sees Holmes take on the case of a small business owner who feels he has been conned. He was given the job of copying out a longhand version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which he does for weeks only to find that the league who employed him vanish without a trace.
14. The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy
“Gasping for breath, Rhoda, in a last desperate effort, swung out her right hand, seized the confronting spectre by its obtrusive left arm, and whirled it backward to the floor, starting up herself as she did so with a low cry.”
Thomas Hardy...
…wrote many stories in his fictional world of Wessex. They are pastoral tales of country life but many of them like The Withered Arm also touch on the supernatural.
Story Summary
Rhoda Brook, mother to an illegitimate child conceived with her landlord becomes jealous when the the landlord takes a new wife. When she throws the wife aside in a dream by grabbing onto her arm, she is surprised to see bruises and finger marks on the wife’s arm the next day…
15. The Altar of the Dead by Henry James
“He had kept each year in his own fashion the date of Mary Antrim’s death. It would be more to the point perhaps to say that this occasion kept him: it kept him at least effectually from doing anything else.”
Henry James...
…was a prolific writer of short fiction and his stories have had a large impact on the genre in the UK. Like his famous novella The Turn of the Screw, many of his writings deal with the supernatural and gothic.
Story Summary
George Stransom devotes his adult life to the memory of his deceased fiancée and all the other people from his life who have passed away. Inside an old church he consecrates an altar for his personal remembrance and one day meets a fellow mourner.
16. The Poor Clare by Elizabeth Gaskell
“He thought that I was helpless, because he saw me lonely and poor; but are not the armies of Heaven for the like of me?”
Elizabeth Gaskell...
…wrote over 40 short stories in her lifetime. It’s only in recent evaluations of the Victorian period that her contributions towards experimentation within the form have really been appreciated.
Story Summary
The Poor Clare is a ghost story about an unintentional family curse that a grandmother places on her granddaughter.
17. The Signal Man by Charles Dickens
“The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man.“
Charles Dickens...
…is one of the most well know writers in the world and has created a universe of characters like Oliver Twist, Miss Havisham, and Scrooge.
Story Summary
The Signal Man is perhaps Dickens most well known short story. In it, the narrator meets a man who has been seeing a strange apparition on the railways.
18. The Boarding House by Charles Dickens
“A little flirtation she thought, might keep her house full, without leading to any other result.”
Story Summary
The Boarding House was one of Dickens first published stories. In it we meet Mrs Tibbs, a landlady who encourages her guests to flirt with each other.
19. The Dream by Mary Shelley
“…softer and sweeter was the gentle spirit of Constance; and love and duty contending crushed and tortured her poor heart.”
Mary Shelley...
…is synonymous with gothic writing thanks to the prominence of her novel Frankenstein. Her short stories contain many of the same gothic elements and dallies with the supernatural.
Story Summary
The Dream is the story of two people in love, who cannot marry because their fathers are enemies. An attempt to gain wisdom from Saint Catherine threatens to bring tragedy to them both.
Conclusion
I hope these 19 stories give you plenty to explore and add to your bookshelves. The writers of the 19th century contributed some amazing work to the short form and the modern short story would not be what it is today without them!