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.

Within these ten stories our authors including Edgar Allan Poe, H G Wells, Guy de Maupassant and a host of others demonstrate the power and the motivation that revenge demands. Yes, the pen is mightier and more brutal than the sword.

01 - The Top 10 - Revenge - An Introduction

02 - Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F Scott Fitzgerald

03 - The Cone by H G Wells

04 - The Hand by Guy de Maupassant

05 - The Cask of Amontillardo by Edgar Allan Poe

06 - The Signal by Vsevolod Garshin

07 - The Caballero's Way by O Henry

08 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

09 - The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane

10 - The Scapegoat by Paul Laurence Dunbar

11 - A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell