V. S. Pritchett, one our greatest short-story writers, has chosen forty-one stories written in the English language for this volume, producing a collection that successfully displays the wealth and variety of an art that spans some 200 years.
Great Britain, America, and especially Eire have fine traditions of short-story writing that have developed from the time of Sir Walter Scott and Nathaniel Hawthorne, while in the last century the art was perfected by Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, John Updike, and V. S. Pritchett himself. The Irish contribution includes such masters as James Joyce, Frank O'Connor, and Liam O'Flaherty, and stories by Canadian, Indian, New Zealand, and Australian writers show the full range of invention and ability in a genre that continues to flourish.
Features
- A personal collection by a distinguished writer of short stories, novels, and travel books
- An impressive list of authors including Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, H. E. Bates, William Trevor
- 41 stories from nine countries
Introduction
The Two Drovers
The Birthmark
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
The Iliad of Sandy Bar
The Coupe de Grâce
Paste
Thrawn Janet
The Secret Sharer
The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot
Telemachus, Friend
Sredni Vashtar
The Open Boat
An Ideal Craftsman
An Official Position
I Want to Know Why
The Field of Mustard
Grace
The Rocking-Horse Winner
Who Dealt?
The Woman at the Store
Flowering Judas
The Tent
Dry September
Hills Like White Elephants
The Demon Lover
Many Are Disappointed
Sinners
Guests of the Nation
The Runaway
Never
A Horse and Two Goats
A Visit of Charity
Various Temptations
My Vocation
Five-Twenty
Goodbye, My Brother
Mrs Fortescue
Parker's Back
Going Home
Lifeguard
References and Acknowledgements
Index of Authors
Readers of short stories, English literature, and V. S. Pritchett's novels. Students of English literature.
