Preface An Introduction to Reading Short Stories I. Plot William March Aesop’s Last Fable Irwin Shaw The Girls in Their Summer Dresses William Faulkner A Rose for Emily O. Henry After Twenty Years II. Character Bernard Malamud The Magic Barrel Stephen Crane The Open Boat Ernest Hemingway A Clean, Well-lighted Place James Thurber The Catbird Seat Jack London The Law of Life III. Point of View James Baldwin Going to Meet the Man Frank O’Connor My Oedipus Complex Ring Lardner Haircut William Somerset Maugham A Friend in Need IV. Theme Oscar Wilde The Happy Prince Sally Benson The Overcoat Liam O’Flaherty Red Barbara Shirley Jackson The Lottery Sherwood Anderson The Egg