Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere.

In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author?

The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature.

Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something.

Love has many facets, many sides. Sometimes love hurts, it falls away and is dissolved by the tide of time or snatched away in an impulsive instant. The result is loss and sadness. Whether a wound or a pain or a numbing aching hurt. It may lessen but may never fully leave. True sadness.

1 - The Top 10 Short Stories - Sad Love - An Introduction

2 - The Dead - Part 1 by James Joyce

3 - The Dead - Part 2 by James Joyce

4 - About Love by Anton Chekhov

5 - Odour of Chrysanthemums by D H Lawrence

6 - On the Gull's Road by Willa Cather

7 - The Lagoon by Joseph Conrad

8 - The Victory by Rabindranath Tagore

9 - Her Lover by Maxim Gorky

10 - Desiree's Baby by Kate Chopin

11 - The District Doctor by Ivan Turgenev

12 - The Furnished Room by O Henry