The Oxford Book of English Short Stories

by A. S. Byatt (Editor)

Overview

From Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy, through Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf, to Graham Greene, J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Ian McEwan, and many others, The Oxford Book of English Short Stories encompasses comedy and tragedy, farce and delicacy, elegance and the grotesque. Edited by noted novelist A.S. Byatt, the thirty-seven stories gathered here range from social realism to surreal fantasy, from rural poverty to war-blitzed London, from tales of the supernatural to precise delineations of the mundane.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199561605
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/07/2009
Series:	Oxford Books of Prose & Verse
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

A. S. Byatt is a novelist, essayist, broadcaster, and reviewer, and has taught at University College London. She won the Booker Prize for her novel Possession (1990), and her other books include Angels and Insects (1992), and Babel Tower (1996).

Hometown:

London, England; France

Date of Birth:

August 24, 1936

Place of Birth:

Sheffield, England

Education:

B.A., Newnham College, Cambridge, 1957; graduate study at Bryn Mawr College and Somerville College

Table of Contents

Introduction, A. S. ByattThe Sacristan of St Botolph, William GilbertThe Haunted House, Charles DickensRelics of General Chassé, A Tale of Antwerp, Anthony TrollopeA Mere Interlude, Thomas HardyLittle Brother, Mary MannTwo Doctors, M. R. JamesBehind the Shade, Arthur MorrisonWireless, Rudyard KiplingUnder the Knife, H. G. WellsA White Night, Charlotte MewThe Toys of Peace, SakiThe Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown, G. K. ChestertonSome Talk of Alexander, A. E. CoppardThe Reverent Wooing of Archibald, P. G. WodehouseSolid Objects, Virginia WoolfThe Man who Loved Islands, D. H. LawrenceA Tragedy in Green, Ronald FirbankA Widow's Quilt, Sylvia Townsend WarnerNuns at Luncheon, Aldous HuxleyLandlord of the Crystal Fountain, Malachi WhitakerOn the Edge of the Cliff, V. S. PritchettA Dream of Winter, Rosamund LehmannAn Englishman's Home, Evelyn WaughThe Destructors, Graham GreeneThe Waterfall, H. E. BatesThe Troll, T. H. WhiteThe Blush, Elizabeth TaylorAt Hiruharama, Penelope FitzgeraldMy Flannel Knickers, Leonora CarringtonEnoch's Two Letters, Alan SillitoeDream Cargoes, J. G. BallardTelephone, John FullerMy Story, John FullerThe Kiss, Angela CarterThe Beauty of the Dawn Shift, Rose TremainSolid Geometry, Ian McEwanDead Languages, Philip Hensher

Editorial Reviews

A solid collection of 37 stories, presumably intended to accompany an earlier volume edited by the late V.S. Pritchett. Byatt has cast her net widely and well, and included such overlooked gems as Graham Greene's "The Destructors," Charlotte Mew's "A White Night," and H.E. Bates's amazingly rich "The Waterfall." Byatt's long Introductionþwhich might well stand as a capsule history of its subjectþsensibly emphasizes "the evocation of the concrete" as a common feature of English (as opposed to other British Isles' or Commonwealth) short fiction, while offering superb concise assessments of classic writers like Dickens, Trollope, Hardy, and Wells. If some of her omissions (especially de la Mare, Lessing, and Angus Wilson) are hard to defend, one is grateful for her unearthing of neglected writers like Arthur Morrison, Malachi Whitaker, and (the other) Elizabeth Taylor. All in all, one of Oxford's best, and another feather in Byatt's richly decorated cap.

Kirkus Reviews

"Byatt has cast her net widely and well.... Her long introduction—which might well stand as a capsule history of the subject—sensibly emphasizes 'the evocation of the concrete' as a common feature of English short fiction, while offering superb concise assessments of classic writers like Dickens, Trollope, Hardy, and Wells.... One of Oxford's best, and another feather in Byatt's richly decorated cap."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher