By William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, Jack London, Stephen Crane, Herman Melville, Edith Wharton, Edgar Allan Poe, Bret Harte, Henry James, Washington Irving, O. Henry, Sarah Orne Jewett, John Steinbeck, Ambrose Bierce, Ernest Hemingway, Fitz-James O'Brien
Rip Van Winkle / Washington Irving [Young Goodman Brown](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL455569W) / Nathaniel Hawthorne [Fall of the House of Usher](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL41078W) / Edgar Allan Poe The lightning-rod man / Herman Melville The diamond lens / Fitzjames O'Brien The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County / Mark Twain The outcasts of Poker Flat / Bret Harte [Damned Thing](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20084265W) / Ambrose Bierce The turn of the screw / Henry James The Hiltons' holiday / Sarah Orne Jewett The gift of the Magi / O. Henry The moving finger / Edith Wharton The open boat / Stephen Crane Lou, the prophet / Willa Cather The men of Forty Mile / Jack London Babylon revisited / F. Scott Fitzgerald [A rose for Emily](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL82884W)/ William Faulkner Big two-hearted river / Ernest Hemingway Flight / John Steinbeck
Severity reflects intensity, not value — “central theme” means a warning is a core part of the book, not that the book is bad.