Short story

Short story, form of prose fiction, usually limited in character and situation and between 500 and 20,000 words long. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio's Decameron of the 14th century are prototypes of short stories. The art form was revived in the 19th century, and prominent short-story writers include Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, Katherine Mansfield, Guy de Maupassant, John O'Hara, Edgar Allen Poe, Jean Stafford, and Eudora Welty.