Classic American Short Stories, Volume 1

By: William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Edith Wharton, more

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Unlike the other arts, American literature has been a powerful, influential, and leading aspect of American culture. By turns sedate and mercurial and possessing a moral mind set of various social values, the American short story reveals in its pages the psyche of a growing, sprawling nation whose sense of destiny has always been larger than life. Here are seven masterpieces that will make you smile, make you frown, and leave you pondering the mystery that surrounds the soul of a great nation.

Selections in Volume 1:
"A Journey" by Edith Wharton - A woman tries to conceal the death of her husband on a train trip.

"Impulse" by Conrad Aiken � After a lifetime of pushing his luck, a man pushes it a little too far.

"Only the Dead Know Brooklyn" by Thomas Wolfe � A lonely man with a map tries to understand a little piece of the earth.

"A Christian Education" by Robert Penn Warren � A troubled farmer recalls the life and death of a retarded boy.

"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner � In prose as fully mature and beautiful as anything he ever wrote, this is one of the most searing indictments of revenge ever put on paper.

"Paul's Case" by Willa Cather � A youth decides to put his life of fantasy and that of the real world on a collision course.

"The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benét � This beautiful, riproaring tall-tale embraces all that is good in American life.

©Public domain; 1950 Conrad Aiken; 1935 Thomas Wolfe; 1945 Robert Penn Warren; 1939 William Faulkner; 1936 Stephen Vincent Benét (P)2004 Audio Connoisseur

Critic reviews

"Charlton Griffin is dazzlingly good, with regional accents, with the change in timbre from a boy's voice to a woman's and a man's, and most of all with his nuanced understanding of how to deliver the narrative from writer to reader without getting himself in the way." (AudioFile)
"With its flawless technical recording values and masterful presentation, this first volume in the Audio Connoisseur Classic American Short Stories series will leave the listener eagerly awaiting a second volume!" (Midwest Book Review)

Distracting music spoils the listening experience

I like the narrator’s voice a lot. But the music is heavy handed and distracting.
I would like it better without the music.

One of my favorite audible purchases - OUTSTANDING

Every one of these stories is a true class, and so well-read. Charlton Griffin is the best voice actors I've heard anywhere. The selection is so well-curated. All of them are truly classic. The order in which the stories appear are perfect and most demand a second listen.

I was introduced to Conrad Aiken for the first time. What an amazing short story writer. The story sent me down a rabbit hole of modernist literary criticism, and into the biography of Aiken himself. The story was criticized by some at the time it was written for being immoral. How times have changed.

The only story I had heard of was "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and perhaps I have read it before, but Griffin brings it to life in such a way that I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. It is funny and brilliant.

The Willa Cather story I've now listened to twice. I'm surprised it's not more famous. It's a long short story, almost a novella.

Some say this is "over produced," but I found the format refreshing. Story breaks have a little music or sound effects, and I found them charming. The story on the train is accompanied by quiet train sounds. I listen to audible as I fall asleep and turned the volume down just a notch, so that the music didn't disturb me. The only problem is that the stories were so good and so riveting that I did keep myself awake long enough to complete them (and then I listened to them again the next day, getting even more out of them).

I hope there are more in this series by Griffin or another amazing narrator.

Don't want to read about death? Read Mickey Mouse

Any additional comments?

Some reviewers apparently want to read classic American literature, but not encounter death. Suggestion, stay away from that Shakespeare guy; the stage is strewn with dead bodies at the end of many of his plays. But he's English, and that doesn't count. American optimism should triumph over European pessimism, n'est pas? So I would recommend Moby Dick, the great American novel of the sea where captain Ahab seeks to kill a whale. Oh oh! There's a death going to happen there. Better skip that one. We would be on safer ground to focus on a classic American humorist, say like Mark Twain. His short story, "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" is a real gem; the inquest scene is a real howler... but ... oh oh, the story ends darkly -- maybe even on a downer. Injun Joe dies at the end of "Tom Sawyer" and people die in "Huckleberry Finn" including Huck's father. O my Lord!

It's a pity, but death is a part of life; and literature seeks to reflect that reality. The stories in this collection reflect all that is in life, warts and all. "The Devil and Daniel Webster" approaches mythic proportions. The collection suffers only the omission of "A Man Without a Country" by Edward Everett Hale, and I would recommend this short story to the disappointed reviewers as a fabled study in 19th century American patriotism -- except that, dear me, the protagonist dies at the end.

Not bad

Good short stories and narrating is very good. I kind of liked that some of the stories are a little on the downer side - it sucks you into the characters. But it just wasn't too entertaining for me. I was a little bored. It was kind of like watching an old black and white movie. Its a classic, but still an old black and white. I'll take Matrix over Casa Blanca any day. If you prefer Casa Blanca you might like this.

Classic stories; amazing performance

The stories, which you may have read grudgingly in high school, come alive thanks to theatrical sound effects and music. Carlton Griffen has the most extraordinary range of voices -- full of dialectical subtly-- that I've ever heard.

Mixed Good to Great review

I have heard or read or seen movie versions of some of these stories for years. I have a B.A. in Literature and have even studied some of these academically. I am still a fan of Classic American literature and the genre is yet evolving. The presentation was great. The stories were exceptional. I look forward to Volume 2.

Excellent reader; varied dark stories

Reader was excellent in general and with dialects in particular -- his awful attempt at a Brooklyn accent notwithstanding.
Stories address the darker part of human experience.

Listening satisfied

It was a great pleasure to listen to mostly previously unknown works by known authors. The narrator and the format enhanced the experience. I did not mind the music nor the sound effects.

brilliant reading

I can't imagine a better reader--with the possible exception of Richard Brown, who narrated many of the O'Brian novels (Master and Commander, etc). The sound effects (trains, subways, old-time fiddle music) transform the reading--brilliant in itself; Griffin does an immense range of voice and accents--into something even greater. One reviewer complained that the stories are dark. Well, sure, most of them are dark. What else is new?

Mixed bag

I was anticipating a collection of great stories and found perhaps three compelling. I think Willa Cather's was the strongest. The narration was excellent and the sound effects brought the stories to life.