Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893) is recognized as one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of it's finest exponents. From the humorous to the tragic to the gruesome, with an economy and precision of language , his stories can delight or disturb. Here are ten of them:

"The Hand"
"The Apparition"
"The Diary of a Madman"
"The Blind Man"
"On the River"
"Mother Sauvage"
"Tombstones"
"A Tress of Hair"
"The Diamond Necklace"
"An Uncomfortable Bed"