The Oxford Book of Short Stories

Book Overview

Only V.S. Pritchett, one of the most distinguished living writers of short stories in English, could tackle the daunting task of compiling a short story anthology, a project that entails displaying in a single volume the wealth and variety of an art that spans over 200 years and has evolved out of many divergent literary traditions. Accepting the challenge, Pritchett has chosen over forty stories written in the English language during the period between the early nineteenth century and the present day.
Since the time of Sir Walter Scott, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Great Britain, America, and especially Ireland have developed great traditions of short-story writing, which Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, Somerset Maugham, John Updike, and V.S. Pritchett himself have perpetuated in this century. Demonstrating the full range of invention and ability within the genre, Pritchett includes a sampling of stories by such Irish masters as James Joyce, Frank O'Connor, and Liam O'Flaherty, as well as stories by Canadian, Indian, New Zealand, and Australian writers.
In the Introduction, Pritchett stresses that the collection does not necessarily contain "the best" short stories. Instead, he has chosen these stories based on his own personal tastes seasoned by "seventy years of passionate addiction to the short story and fifty years as a fellow writer" in the art. Rejecting over-anthologized stories in favor of ones previously overlooked, Pritchett brings together some of the most original examples of this changing art. In this way, The New Oxford Book of Short Stories bears witness to the talent of the past and the talent that continues to flourish.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019282113X
• ISBN13: 9780192821133
• Release Date: June 1988
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 558 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.1" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Many hits, a few misses

The Oxford Book of Short Stories edited by V. S. Pritchett. Recommended. In his introduction to The Oxford Book of Short Stories, V. S. Pritchett discusses the short story's "relatively new and still changing form," an odd statement since one could make a case that the short story is ancient, whether in oral or written form. For his anthology of short stories written in English, Pritchett draws on approximately two centuries and writers from several countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand. Pritchett suggests that an anthology is bound to be a matter of personal taste. When I began reading this particular anthology, I learned that Pritchett is a much-respected short story writer, so it's to be assumed that his opinion and his taste are to be respected. Given the difficulties of editing an anthology, which he mentions in the introduction and which include copyright issues as well as the length of a story and how much it has been anthologized, Pritchett has done an adequate job of representing the short story in a relatively short volume. For me, the problem with this volume-and the "still changing" form of the short story-is alluded to in the last paragraph of the introduction, where Pritchett says, "A modern story comes to an open end." In my opinion, this approach helps to negate the beauty and the power of the short story as distinguished from the novel, that is, "the novel tells us everything, whereas the short story tells us only one thing, and that, intensely." This point is easily illustrated in great short stories, like Sir Walter Scott's "The Two Drovers" and D. H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner (both surprising choices because they are so often included in anthologies). Unlike Pritchett (and, I would suspect, many others), I do not see "Grace" as a story in which James Joyce's "genius was first signalled"; rather, it's a pointless exercise in tedium, like watching people you don't know doing nothing interesting, that left me feeling I couldn't justify the time wasted reading it. There is nothing "intense" about "Grace," nor about Pritchett's own contribution, "Many Are Disappointed," which is an apt description of my reaction. When a short story is "intense"-and good-the reader cannot be left feeling indifferent by an "open end." Stories like "The Rocking-Horse Winner," with its straightforward narrative and fable-like simplicity, evoke strong feelings of horror and dread, despite the commonplace setting and people-a household perpetually in growing debt, like so many, and men who indulge in casual horse betting, like so many. The normalcy of the tone underscores the weirdness of the tale. Other stories, like "The Coup de Grâce" (Ambrose Bierce), "Sredni Vashtar" (Hector Hugh Munro, also known as Saki), "An Official Position" (W. Somerset Maugham), "The Woman at the Store" (Katherine Mansfield), "Various Temptations" (William Sansom), and "Parker's Back" (Flannery O'

bibliographic data provided by EarthTomes:

Title: The Oxford book of short stories / chosen by V.S. Pritchett. Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1981. Edition Date: 1981 Language: English Notes: Many are disappointed / V.S. Pritchett -- Sinners / S. O'FaolaÌ?in -- Guests of the nation / F. O'Connor -- The runaway / M. Callaghan -- Never / H.E. Bates -- A horse and two goats / R.K. Narayan -- A visit of charity / E. Welty -- Various temptations / W. Sansom -- My vocation / M. Lavin -- Five-twenty / P. White -- Goodbye, my brother / J. Cheever -- Mrs Fortescue / D. Lessing -- Parker's back / F. O'Connor -- Going home / W. Trevor --Lifeguard / J. Updike. Physical Details: xiv, 547 p. ; 23 cm. Other Authors: Pritchett, V. S. (Victor Sawdon), 1900- Subjects: Short stories, English. Short stories, American.