Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages 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.

In this volume our classic authors turn their pens to the immortal quest for love. What they find and what they reveal are, of course, illuminating, beguiling and the best of magical literature.

01 - The Top 10 - Love - An Introduction

02 - Araby by James Joyce

03 - A Modern Lover - Part 1 by D H Lawrence

04 - A Modern Lover - Part 2 by D H Lawrence

05 - The Fullness of Life by Edith Wharton

06 - About Love by Anton Chekhov

07 - Mr and Mrs Dove by Katherine Mansfield

08 - The Blizzard by Alexander Pushkin

09 - On the Gull's Road by Willa Cather

10 - Madame Rose Hanie by Khalil Gibran

11 - The Gift of the Magi by O Henry

12 - The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde