Great Short Stories by American Women

Embracing a wide variety of subjects, this choice collection of 13 short stories represents the work of an elite group of American women writing in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The earliest stories are Rebecca Harding Davis' naturalistic "Life in the Iron Mills" (published in 1861 and predating ?mile Zola's Germinal by almost 25 years) and Louisa May Alcott's semiautobiographical tale "Transcendental Wild Oats" (1873). The most recent ones are Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat," an ironic tale of a failed marriage, published in 1926, and "Sanctuary" (1930), Nella Larsen's gripping and controversial tale of contested loyalty.
In between is a grand cavalcade of superbly crafted fiction by Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Djuna Barnes, Susan Glaspell and Edith Wharton. Brief biographies of each of the writers are included.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486287769
• ISBN13: 9780486287768
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

A book to keep

This is a great collection at an affordable price. All the stories are classics, but that doesn't mean that they are irrelevant or uninteresting to today's readers. Some stories deal with women's issues: "A New England Nun" introduces a woman torn between the freedom and tranquility of her single life and the expectation for her to marry; "Smoke" is about a woman who endures domestic abuse year after year and finally finds vindication in unexpected means; "A Jury of Her Peers" offers a subtle but chilling picture of the systematic killing of women's spirit in domestic life, and then a hopeful suggestion of women's strength when they support one another. Other stories are insightful character studies, sometimes tragic, sometimes satirical, and often revealing about a social problem and the many sacrifices an individual must make to struggle against it. The story "Life in the Iron Mills" is about the poverty, and "Stones of the Village" describes how one person's life could be twisted by racism. However, the stories are much more than a medium for a simple message. They are stories of life, so richly imagined that we feel the characters live on outside of the pages. I also find the introduction before the story informative. Though brief, it often offers useful information on the story's background. For example, we find out that the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper" has based the story on her own struggle with mental illness, and that "Transcendental Wild Oats" was based on the author's childhood experience with an overzealous Transcendentalist father.

Great compilation of American women writers!

This compilation of American women is a fantastic introduction to the genre--from the American experience of Rebecca Harding Davis, to the superiorly intelligent prose of Edith Wharton (my personal favorite, although her story here is not my fav.) to the feminist leanings of Kate Chopin and Zora Neale Hurston---I could go on and on. This edition makes a super (and super cheap) travel companion; especially, if like me, you prefer to read short stories when traveling, rather than longer works. This book would make a great gift for a young woman, say age 13 to 25, who would appreciate the varied perspectives on life that these women provide; and its a great way to generate interest in the authors and reading. The stories are very entertaining and thought provocing; the ideas are readily accesible. You certainly cannot go wrong with this edition... I guarantee it will leave you or the lucky recipient wanting more.

Incredible classroom text!

As a college student, I am burdened with purchasing many expensive books for classes. "Great Short Stories by American Women," however, was not a burden to purchase at all. The book showcases great works from many great female authors in the late 19th and early 20th century. Zora Neale Hurston, Edith Wharton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Louisa May Alcott are just a few of the authors featured in the book. In my class, we spent an hour discussing just one of the stories each day. "Great Short Stories by American Women" is an excellent classroom resource, and is very inexpensive.Also, I highly recommend "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman for class discussion. It is a compelling piece, and especially interesting to high school and college age students. It makes for an involved discussion.

Great classroom text for American literature

This book contains some key texts in 19th and early 20th Century American short fiction, including "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Life in the Iron Mills," which are normally only available in volumes costing considerably more. A great teaching text.