Suggest uncanny/unsettling short stories

[Kyriakos]

A few examples, from the ones i have read:

-The marionettes (Kleist) (about automatons, and also animals)
-The Sandmann (ETA Hoffmann; other works of his also apply, such as Councilor Krespel and the Elixiers of the Devil) (about automatons, doubles and death)
-He? (Guy de Maupassant) (about madness)

Generally, an uncanny story isn't firmly set in a horror genre; ie it doesn't presuppose a setting which itself would be identified with horror or the horrific (as in Lovecraft or other horror writers).

 

[Syno]

CivFanatics Off-Topic, Compendium of 2017 Edition.

 

[Kyriakos]

CivFanatics Off-Topic, Compendium of 2017 Edition.

That isn't so much uncanny as farcical

 

[JollyRoger]

Appendages of Trump by Marla Maples

 

[Kyriakos]

^Not the type of uncanny i am looking for...

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Didn't you already ask about such stories recently? There are lots of unsettling short stories.

How about The Last Question by Isaac Asimov?

If you want a moral quandary that would be encountered by time travelers whose job is to preserve history, try Delenda Est, by Poul Anderson.

 

[Kyriakos]

Didn't you already ask about such stories recently? There are lots of unsettling short stories.

How about The Last Question by Isaac Asimov?

If you want a moral quandary that would be encountered by time travelers whose job is to preserve history, try Delenda Est, by Poul Anderson.

No, that thread was about english short stories in general

I have read The Last Question. Imo it isn't "uncanny", though.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Cheever's The Swimmer and James' The Beast in the Jungle.

 

[Broken_Erika]

CivFanatics Off-Topic, Compendium of 2017 Edition.

That isn't so much uncanny as farcical

I would suggest the Apolyton OT Compendium of 2017, but that might not be enough to qualify as a paragraph, let alone a short story.....

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Probably not what you want as it was a children's story, and good look finding it anywhere, but the story "Swap Shop" in Nicholas Fisk's "Sweets from a Stranger" has always stuck with me from when I was young. I re-read it a few years ago and it was still creepy.

Here's a review thing of it

Oh... there is actually a link to a pdf here. I think "Nightmare's Dream" in there was quite creepy as well, although I think it was ruined with a happy ending, but I can't really remember after all this time.

 

[onejayhawk]

All You Zombies by RA Heinlein
Here be Dragons by LK Hamilton

What is your opinion of Bad Seed by William March?

J

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I would suggest the Apolyton OT Compendium of 2017, but that might not be enough to qualify as a paragraph, let alone a short story.....

Did Apolyton go under?

 

[stinkubus]

The Shadow at Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft. If that's not your thing then perhaps Dostoyevsky's The Gambler.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Did Apolyton go under?

That depends on how you define "under"
now it's where you go to play "Whack-a-Trumpster". Browse it's OT and you'll see what i mean. Or you could just ask Rah....

 

[Kyriakos]

The Shadow at Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft. If that's not your thing then perhaps Dostoyevsky's The Gambler.

I've read TSOI, and the gambler is more of a novella, but i may try it

 

[Kyriakos]

Cheever's The Swimmer and James' The Beast in the Jungle.

I just read the Beast in the Jungle. I had read James' the figure on the carpet (or some similar title, which i recall i liked a lot- read it many many many years ago).
The Beast in the Jungle was a nice small novella. Ultimately the ending could have been done a little better, imho (particularly the absolute ending). But a good story, thanks

 

[CurtSibling]

Anything by Ramsey Campbell.

 

[Borachio]

How about a story about a writer who wants to write an uncanny/unsettling short story, and asks advice on an Internet forum?

He then reads a post which posits a story about a writer who wants to write an uncanny/unsettling short story, and asks advice on an Internet forum.

 

[Kyriakos]

How about a story about a writer who wants to write an uncanny/unsettling short story, and asks advice on an Internet forum?

He then reads a post which posits a story about a writer who wants to write an uncanny/unsettling short story, and asks advice on an Internet forum.

Jeffry Archer is still in jail, no?

 

[Borachio]

It's to be hoped so.