Fishing's best short stories
(Book)

A handful of sinister characters & dark plots pepper this collection, but for the most part, these 25 tales portray fishermen as endearing folk, good humored & quick with a yarn, eager to help a novice, & famously prone to exaggerate. The scenery includes roiling oceans, still ponds, swift rivers, & bubbling brooks, & the fish themselves range from the noble trout to salmon, tarpon, bass, dolphin, permit, flounder, grouper, weakfish, northern pike, & even a sea monster. Humor, chicanery, the surprise ending, love of the sport & skill at the craft, friendship between old & young, & romance in unexpected places--all are found here. This collection includes three timeless stories: the Grimm fairy tale "The Fisherman & His Wife," first published in 1815; "A Fishing Excursion," by the mid-19th-century French writer Guy de Maupassant; & Henry Van Dyke's 1899 tale, "The Fatal Success." The remaining stories span the 20th century & represent contemporary favorites such as Stephen King & E. Annie Proulx; early-century masters Stephen Vincent Benet & John Taintor Foote; & Philip Wylie, P.J. O'Rourke, Robert Traver, & more.