What is the saddest short story you've ever read?

[mongoose]

Dean Paschal's "Death of a Street Dog" in his collection By the Light of the Jukebox, which describes precisely what the title states.

https://www.amazon.com/Light-Jukebox-Dean-Paschal/dp/0865381054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497217419&sr=1-1&keywords=Paschal+jukebox

 

https://www.amazon.com/Light-Jukebox-Dean-Paschal/dp/0865381054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497217419&sr=1-1&keywords=Paschal+jukebox

[qcrisp]

Possibly 'Separate Ways' by Higuchi Ichiyo, but there is some competition.

[ToALonelyPeace]

There are different sadness, so I would say:

Taman by Mikhail Lermontov (translated by Paul Foote)--the bitter and absurd type where I half-choked on laughter and tears

and

The Make-Up Artist by Nikolay Leskov (translated by William Leatherbarrow)--brutal tragedy and then more brutality

[Mr. Veech]

Georg Heym's "Jonathan." It's about a young man who experiences unrequited love while getting his legs cut off in a dingy hospital room.

[cannibal cop]

I'm not sure about the saddest, but at least as far as horror stories go, one of them must be Des "Nemonymous" Lewis's "Welsh Pepper", which I read in a Year's Best Horror Stories book some 25 or so years ago. Opens with Beatles musings before detailing a solitary traveler's strange, tragic encounter in Arthur Machen country.

While we're on the subject of Beatles and Year's Best Horror Stories collections, a story called "John's Return to Liverpool" is up there as well (also discovered in a Year's Best Horror paperback--maybe even the same one as the Lewis story).

[Raul Urraca]

Chekhov's story, "In the Ravine," moved me to tears. The detective son who loses his faith, commits counterfeiting, and is sent to prison; his wife, who has her infant scalded to death by her sister in law yet carries on- horribly sad.

[Zaharoff]

"The Biscuit Position" by Bernard Wolfe.
This is from Harlan Ellison's Again, Dangerous Visions anthology.
I am not going to set up unfamiliar souls with a gotcha moment.
This is an unpleasant and disturbing story.
There is also a family pet involved.
Animal lovers, fair warning.

[Druidic]

Short stories rarely leave me feeling sad mainly because the author doesn't have enough space to create characters you care about.

But Hodgson's "The Call in the Dawn" is one of the most unforgettable depictions of loneliness, isolation and terrifying Desolation I've ever read.

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by mongoose

Dean Paschal's "Death of a Street Dog" in his collection By the Light of the Jukebox, which describes precisely what the title states. https://www.amazon.com/Light-Jukebox...aschal+jukebox

Great choice. Paschal is a genius. That story and collection are both masterpieces.

My favorite from the book and, to me, the saddest of the bunch, is "Moriya."

"A mechanically minded teen encounters an enticing, life-sized doll with spookily realistic movements and gestures."

You'd be right if you thought I have a penchant for weird doll-tales, but there are few quality ones, and this is one of the very best.

[dr. locrian]

Quote Originally Posted by Druidic

Short stories rarely leave me feeling sad mainly because the author doesn't have enough space to create characters you care about. But Hodgson's "The Call in the Dawn" is one of the most unforgettable depictions of loneliness, isolation and terrifying Desolation I've ever read.

That's also a great one. Speaking of sad stories and Hodgson, The House on the Borderland is the most depressing novel I've ever read. Cosmically depressing.