The Top 10 Short Stories - 19th Century: The top ten short stories of the 19th century.

Written by Anton Chekhov, Ambrose Bierce, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and 6 more

Narrated by Liza Ross, David Shaw-Parker and Mark Rice-Oxley

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

Across far flung territories that are undergoing a forced globalization by military and Imperial means stories emerge from near and far of times that perfectly illustrate societies as they make their way through this bustling century of demands, opportunities, greed and despair.

The need for mass entertainment in a myriad of cheap periodicals and magazines brought forth wonders of word, of wit and of narrative.

1 - The Top 10 - The 19th Century - An Introduction

2 - An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

3 - The Bet by Anton Chekhov

4 - Desirees Baby by Kate Chopin

5 - Passion In The Desert by Honoré de Balzac

6 - The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

7 - The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

8 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol

9 - Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

10 - The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

11 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Copyright Group
• Release date: Apr 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781839679087

Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian doctor, short-story writer, and playwright. Born in the port city of Taganrog, Chekhov was the third child of Pavel, a grocer and devout Christian, and Yevgeniya, a natural storyteller. His father, a violent and arrogant man, abused his wife and children and would serve as the inspiration for many of the writer’s most tyrannical and hypocritical characters. Chekhov studied at the Greek School in Taganrog, where he learned Ancient Greek. In 1876, his father’s debts forced the family to relocate to Moscow, where they lived in poverty while Anton remained in Taganrog to settle their finances and finish his studies. During this time, he worked odd jobs while reading extensively and composing his first written works. He joined his family in Moscow in 1879, pursuing a medical degree while writing short stories for entertainment and to support his parents and siblings. In 1876, after finishing his degree and contracting tuberculosis, he began writing for St. Petersburg’s Novoye Vremya, a popular paper which helped him to launch his literary career and gain financial independence. A friend and colleague of Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, and Ivan Bunin, Chekhov is remembered today for his skillful observations of everyday Russian life, his deeply psychological character studies, and his mastery of language and the rhythms of conversation.