Modern short stories with a clever revenge twist.

November 17, 2016 10:41 AM

What are some short stories that feature a clever way of taking revenge on a villain?
posted by storybored to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Steven King, Dolan's Cadillac.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:58 AM on November 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

Roald Dahl, Lamb to the Slaughter
posted by jeffjon at 11:02 AM on November 17, 2016 [7 favorites]

In the Penal Colony by Kafka.
posted by kevinbelt at 11:07 AM on November 17, 2016

It's been a while since I read "The Doorbell" by David H. Keller (1934), but if I recall correctly a character had a bad guy swallow a bunch of jagged metal pieces and strapped him to a table with a powerful electromagnet above him. Whenever someone rang the character's doorbell, they unknowingly activated the magnet, which caused the metal bits to slowly shred the bad guy's insides.
posted by ejs at 12:15 PM on November 17, 2016

Roald Dahl, "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat" (although I guess you could quibble with who is and is not the "villain" in that story).
posted by holborne at 12:32 PM on November 17, 2016

Roald Dahl was the king of these (though it's often hard to tell who is the actual villain). I'd pick William and Mary
posted by Mchelly at 1:22 PM on November 17, 2016

Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood, in her recent short story collection of the same title.
posted by kyla at 1:25 PM on November 17, 2016

Roald Dahl, "The Way Up to Heaven"
posted by fingersandtoes at 1:34 PM on November 17, 2016

Edgar Allan Poe - The Cask of Amontillado is a short story tale of revenge, although it is not clear that the victim is a "villain."
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 7:12 PM on November 17, 2016

I'm reading Helen Oyeyemi's What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (and it's fully amazing throughout) and the story "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" is a delicious revenge story with a slow, perfect burn.
posted by MsMacbeth at 8:43 PM on November 17, 2016