A Rose for Emily and Other Short Stories is a compilation of short fiction by noted Southern author William Faulkner. The title story deals with a town's opinions of an old and eccentric reclusive spinster, Emily, whose personal life is the subject of much debate. Other stories in the collection pursue Faulkner's common themes of Southern life, the decline of the South after the Civil War, and the dynamics of living in small towns.
Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories contains several classic early American tales, including that of Ichabod Crane, the nervous schoolteacher who is frightened by the Headless Horseman, and Rip Van Winkle, who falls asleep for 20 years only to awaken and discover that his nagging wife has died. These stories often delve into class issues and display an affection for poorer, virtuous characters; colonial America, English tradition, greed, imagination, and death are also explored in these stories.
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald is a collection of the noted author's short fiction and novelettes. These stories dwell on certain central themes integral to the Jazz Age culture of the post-World War I American upper crust. These themes include class mobility, the impossibility of the American Dream, and the interconnectedness of crime, finance, and the profession of law. The stories are ruminative in tone, representing much of Fitzgerald's later work.
Short Stories is a selection of early 19th century short fiction that explores the author's native New Zealand. The stories deal with different aspects of colonial and modern life, including prejudice against the Maori people, the alienation of rural life, and the immediacy of youth. The theme of homosexuality is also touched upon, and many of the stories in the collection contain lushly sensory descriptions of both places and emotions.