A short history of the short story

The short story emerged in a blitzkrieg of 19th-century magazine publishing, reached its apotheosis with Chekhov, and became one of the great 20th-century art forms. William Boyd reveals his taxonomy of the short story, and assesses the state of the British form

By William Boyd

July 10, 2006

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William Boyd is a judge of the National Short Story Prize. He is the author of eight novels and three collections of short stories: On the Yankee Station (1981), The Destiny of Nathalie X (1995) and Fascination (2004)

Short Stories Virginia Woolf Charles Dickens Culture David Foster Wallace