The 111 Greatest Story Collections
Often an author's compilation of short stories is acclaimed as much as or more than any particular work in the collection. That's what this list is for. It presents the greatest story collections from all genres, cultures and times.
Preference is given to volumes published by authors during their writing careers, though we have occasionally had to resort to later selected and collected works.
Titles most appreciated by readers, writers, critics and scholars have been determined through the same extensive research and surveys that created The Greatest Literature of All Time.
This list is a work always in progress. New publications, changing tastes and further research will continue to prompt additions and revisions for years to come.
Latest update: March 16, 2024
c.600–500 BCE
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, Greece
Story collection, also known as Fables, includes "The Fox and the Grapes", "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs", "The Tortoise and the Hare", and others.
c.300 BCE
Zhuangzi
by Zhuang Zhou, China
Story collection
c.200–300 BCE
Panchatantra
Anonymous, India
Story collection
c.290
Records of Diverse Matters
by Zhang Hua, China
Story collection
c.800
Book of Misers
by Al-Jahiz, Iraq
Story collection
c.800–1200
Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
Anonymous, Persia
Story collection
c.800–1400
One Thousand and One Nights
Anonymous, Persia
Story collection, also known as Arabian Nights, includes "Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni", "The Tale of the Three Apples", "The Barber's Tale of Himself", and others.
c.1100
Mabinogion
Anonymous, Wales
Story collection
1335
Tales of a Parrot
by Nakhshabi, Persia
Story collection, also known as The Tootinameh
1348
The Decameron
by Giovanni Boccaccio, Italy
Story collection
c.1387–1400
The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, England
Prose and poetry collection
Back to top
1558
The Heptaméron
by Marguerite de Navarre, France
Story collection
1697
Tales of Mother Goose
by Charles Perrault, France
Story collection, also known as Stories or Tales from Past Times, originally Histoires ou contes du temps passé: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye, includes "Cinderella", "Puss in Boots", "Sleeping Beauty", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Bluebeard", and others.
1766
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio
by Pu Songling, China
Story collection
1812–1857
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Story collection, also known as
Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales or
Children's and Household Tales, includes stories "Cinderella", "Little Red Cap", "Hansel and Gretel", "Rapunzel", "Snow White", "Rumpelstiltskin", "Tom Thumb", and others.
Take "The Frog Prince". It's about a beautiful princess who kisses a frog to turn it into a handsome prince, right? Wrong. The princess is a petulant, promise-breaking brat who tries to get rid of the frog by smashing.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
1819–1820
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Story and essay collection includes "Rip Van Winkle, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and others.
1832
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka
by Nikolai Gogol, Ukraine
Story collection
1837
Twice-Told Tales
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, United States
Story collection
1839
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
Story collection includes "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall", "MS. Found in a Bottle", and others.
First, put this book's title aside. No one really knows what "tales of the grotesque and arabesque" means. Poe himself indicated he intended more than the usual meanings of bizarre and fanciful writing; his theories on.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1845
Tales
Story collection includes "The Gold-Bug", "A Descent into the Maelstrom", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Purloined Letter", and others.
1852
A Sportsman's Sketches
by Ivan Turgenev, Russia
Story collection
1858
Scenes of Clerical Life
by George Eliot, England
Story collection
1872
Fairy Tales and Stories
by Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark
Story collection
In a Glass Darkly
by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Ireland
Story collection
1882
New Arabian Nights
by Robert Louis Stevenson, Scotland
Story collection includes "The Pavilion on the Links", "A Lodging for the Night", "The Sire de Malédroit's Door", and others
1886
Motley Stories
by Anton Chekhov, Russia
Story collection includes "The Huntsman", and others
1887
At Dusk
by Anton Chekhov, Russia
Story collection, also known as In the Twilight, includes "Dreams", "A Trivial Occurrence", "A Bad Business", "At Home", "A Restless Guest", "On the Road", "Agafya", and others.
1888
Plain Tales from the Hills
by Rudyard Kipling, England
Story collection
1892
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Story collection includes "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Red-Headed League", "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", and others.
When we're talking about Arthur Conan Doyle's contribution to detective literature, we really mean the entire oeuvre of fifty-six Sherlock Holmes stories, plus four Holmes novels. But if you're looking for a.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
by Ambrose Bierce, United States
Story collection
1894
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
The Jungle Book
by Rudyard Kipling, England
Story collection
Tevye the Dairyman
by Sholom Aleichem, Ukraine
Story collection, also known as Tevye the Dairyman or Tevye the Milkman and the Railroad Stories
Back to top
1902
Just So Stories
by Rudyard Kipling, England
Story collection includes "How the Camel Got His Hump", "How the Leopard Got His Spots", "How the First Letter Was Written", and others
1904
Cabbages and Kings
by O. Henry, United States
Story collection
1905
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
by Arthur Conan Doyle, England
Story collection includes "The Empty House", "The Norwood Builder", "The Dancing Men", "Charles Augustus Milverton", and others.
Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy
1911
The Innocence of Father Brown
Story collection includes "The Blue Cross", "The Invisible Man", "The Hammer of God", and others.
The Innocence of Father Brown is the first of five collections of mystery stories featuring G.K. Chesterton's canny priest. It's probably the best collection and it introduces the holy detective—as well as his sometime.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy
1912
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Story collection
Stephen Leacock gets compared to Mark Twain all the time, which means people like me have to keep pointing out how different he is. We have to keep pointing to Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and showing.... Critique • Quotes • Text • At the movies • Buy
1914
Dubliners
Story collection includes "The Sisters", "Araby", "Eveline", "Two Gallants", "Ivy Day in the Committee Room", "The Dead", and others.
Dubliners is a wonderful collection of stories you can go back to at different times in your life and appreciate on different levels each time. They were written and published before James Joyce got sidetracked by his.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy
1914–1917
Bunch of Stories
by Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal
Story collection, originally Galpaguchchha
1919
Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson, United States
Story collection
1922
Rashōmon and Other Stories
by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Japan
Story collection
The Garden Party and Other Stories
Story collection includes "At the Bay", "The Garden Party", "The Daughters of the Late Colonel", "Miss Brill", and others.
If you wonder how Katherine Mansfield who published so little could have such a wide influence on modern writing, spend some time with this collection. Reading The Garden Party and Other Stories is like perusing.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
Tales of the Jazz Age
Story collection includes "May Day", "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", and others.
Scott Fitzgerald's prolific output of stories for magazines early in his career was distinguished by at least one that was undoubtedly great, many that could be called interesting, and more that are best forgotten.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1925
In Our Time
Story collection includes "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife", "The Three-Day Blow", "The Big Two-Hearted River", and others.
It may seem perverse to pick In Our Time as Ernest Hemingway's greatest story collection because many individual stories in later collections have become more familiar—and are arguably more accomplished than these earlier.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1926
Winnie-the-Pooh
by A.A. Milne, England
Story collection
1927
Men Without Women
Story collection includes "Hills Like White Elephants", "The Killers", "Ten Indians", and others
1928
Ashenden: Or the British Agent
by W. Somerset Maugham, England
Story collection
1931
Odessa Stories
by Isaac Babel, Russia
Story collection
Guys and Dolls
by Damon Runyon, United States
Story collection
1933
Winner Take Nothing
Story collection includes "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"; "A Natural History of the Dead"; "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio"; and others
1935
The Doctor's Son and Other Stories
Story collection
The short story "The Doctor's Son" could alone carry John O'Hara's reputation as a story writer. Conversely the collection in which it appears, his first book of short stories, is not enough to give justice to his reputation.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
1936
Now That April's Here and Other Stories
Story collection includes "All the Years of Her Life", "A Sick Call", "Now That April's Here", "Two Fishermen", and others
1939
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
by Katherine Anne Porter, United States
Story collection
1941
A Curtain of Green
by Eudora Welty, United States
Story collection
1941–1956
Fictions
by Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina
Story collection, originally Ficciones
1943
Mythology
by Edith Hamilton, United States
Story collection
1946
Dark Avenues
by Ivan Bunin, Russia
Story collection
Adventures in Time and Space
ed. Healy and McComas, United States
Story collection
1947
The Lottery and Other Stories
by Shirley Jackson, United States
Story collection
1950
I, Robot
Story collection includes "Robbie", "Runaround", "Reason", "Catch that Rabbit", "Liar!", "Little Lost Robot", and others.
How strange that the most affecting characters Asimov ever created were robots. Perhaps it's the same phenomenon we find in film and television dramas in which synthetic creatures like Frankenstein's monster and.... Critique • Quotes • At the movies • Buy
The Martian Chronicles
Story collection
1951
The Complete Short Stories
by W. Somerset Maugham, England
Story collection
The Illustrated Man
Story collection
1953
The Burning Plain and Other Stories
by Juan Rulfo, Mexico
Story collection, also known as The Plain in Flames or El Llano in Flames, originally El Llano en llamas
Nine Stories
by J.D. Salinger, United States
Story collection includes "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", "For Esmé—With Love and Squalor", and others.
1955
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
by Flannery O'Connor, United States
Story collection includes "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", "The River", "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", "Good Country People", and others.
1958
The Magic Barrel
by Berbard Malamud, United States
Story collection
Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories
Novel and story collection
1962–1983
Labyrinths
by Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina
Story collection
1963
Stories of Manto
by Saadat Hasan Manto, Pakistan
Story collection
Short Friday and Other Stories
by Isaac Bashevis Singer, United States
Story collection
1965
Cosmicomics
by Italo Calvino, Italy
Story collection
Everything That Rises Must Converge
by Flannery O'Connor, United States
Story collection includes "Everything That Rises Must Converge", "Greenleaf", "The Lame Shall Enter First", "Revelation", "Parker's Back", "Judgement Day", and others
1967
Dangerous Visions
ed. Harlan Ellison, United States
Story collection
1968
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country
by William H. Gass, United States
Story collection
The Séance and Other Stories
by Isaac Bashevis Singer, United States
Story collection
Welcome to the Monkey House
by Kurt Vonnegut, United States
Story collection includes "Harrison Bergeron", "Welcome to the Monkey House", "D.P.", "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", and others.
1971
Lives of Girls and Women
by Alice Munro, Canada
Story collection
The Complete Stories
by Franz Kafka, Germany
Story collection
1972
Again, Dangerous Visions
ed. Harlan Ellison, United States
Story collection
1974
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
by Grace Paley, United States
Story collection
1975
The Wind's Twelve Quarters
by Ursula Le Guin, United States
Story collection
1976
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
by Raymond Carver, United States
Story collection
1977
The Beggar Maid
by Alice Munro, Canada
Story collection
Delta of Venus
by Anaïs Nin, France
Story collection
1978
Rumpole of the Bailey
by John Mortimer, England
Story collection
Kolyma Tales
by Varlam Shalamov, Russia
Story collection
The Stories of John Cheever
by John Cheever, United States
Story collection
1979
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
by Angela Carter, England
Story collection
1981
Couples, Pssersby
by Botho Strauss, Germany
Story collection
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
by Raymond Carver, United States
Story collection
1983
Cathedral
by Raymond Carver, United States
Story collection
1987
You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town
by Zoë Wicomb, South Africa
Story collection
1988
Where I'm Calling From
by Raymond Carver, United States
Story collection
1990
Like Life
by Lorrie Moore, United States
Story collection
The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien, United States
Story collection
1992
Jesus' Son
by Denis Johnson, United States
Story collection
1996
Quilt and Other Stories
by Ismat Chughtai, India
Story collection
Drown
by Junot Díaz, United States
Story collection
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
by George Saunders, United States
Story collection
1999
Interpreter of Maladies
by Jhumpa Lahiri, United States
Story collection
2001
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
by Alice Munro, Canada
Story collection, also known as Away from Her, includes "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage"; "The Bear Came Over the Mountain"; and others.
2002
Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang, United States
Story collection, also known as Arrival
2003
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
by ZZ Packer, United States
Story collection
2004
Runaway
by Alice Munro, Canada
Story collection
2006
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
by Haruki Murakami, Japan
Story collection
2008
Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri, United States
Story collection
2009
The Thing Around Your Neck
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria
Story collection
2013
Tenth of December
by George Saunders, United States
Story collection
2017
Her Body and Other Parties
by Carmen Maria Machado, United States
Story collection
Back to top
