75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World's Literature

Started out trying to read this straight through a long time ago and got bored. Many of these stories are anything but masterpieces, and it is difficult to remember some of them a minute or two after finishing. The selection is certainly wide-ranging, covering authors from all over the world, but the editor's chosen themes are not mine. Just not arresting enough, except in the case of honored classics like John Collier's "The Chaser". So, I ended up leaving this on my nightstand, and over the past few weeks have finally finished it and can now relegate it to the stacks of books overflowing my shelves. But as I sometimes say, your mileage may vary, so please read it and post your own review. I do find it interesting that as of this show more writing, 270 members have this book in their libraries, but I'm the first to post a review. That seems to imply a lot of shelf-sitting. show less

There are so many excellent short stories, but goodman chose only a few of them. many were disappointing, and only a few were enlightening. douglas marked the good ones for me, and i appreciated that. it was more interesting to read about the lives of the authors and to see their values presented in the stories.