An anthology of 100 short stories by different authors ranging from Aesop through to the modern day.

I love the idea of reading short stories by many different authors to get a feel for different styles of short storytelling across a variety of genres. However, this particular anthology was just a bit too literary for me - quite a few of the stories were a bit too subtle, or I felt that I’d missed the point. The book is arranged chronologically by the authors’ birth, so it could just be that an older style of short story is not my thing and I might have enjoyed the more modern stories, but it increasingly felt like a chore to pick up, so I DNFed it at almost halfway (I’m not sure why I persevered for quite so long - it’s over 800 pages). Of the stories that I did read, “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin stood out and was by far my favourite. Don’t be put off by my reaction - if you enjoy literary writing or are a big fan of the classics, this might be right up your alley!