and inspiring collection of some of the most beautifully written British short stories, Philip Hensher has chosen an eclectic group of stories, some from famous names such as Defoe and Dickens, others by authors who are less wellknown today like Stacy Aumonier and Viola Meynell.
There is a wide range of topics covered, including those which have a particular resonance today such as poverty, exploitation of workers and hostility towards immigrants.
There are also entertaining detective stories, ghost stories, studies of love and hate, slices of the lives of ordinary people.
My favourites were Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad and Behind the Shade by Arthur Morrison both of them are powerful but understated tales of the human condition.
There were none I didn't enjoy, although I do find it hard to engage with stories where the dialogue is written in dialect while it does make the story feel more authentic, it's just too much effort for me!
I also have the second volume of stories, covering more contemporary writers, and am looking forward to another enjoyable collection.
Hilarious, exuberant, subtle, tender, brutal, spectacular, and above all unexpected: these two extraordinary volumes contain the limitless possibilities of the British short story.
This is the first anthology capacious enough to celebrate the full diversity and energy of its writers, subjects and tones.
The most famous authors are here, and many others, including some magnificent stories never republished since their first appearance in magazines and periodicals.
The Penguin Book of the British Short Story has a permanent authority, and will be reached for year in and year out.
This volume takes the story from its origins with Defoe, Swift and Fielding to the 'golden age' of the fin de siècle and Edwardian period.
Edited and with an introduction by Philip Hensher, the awardwinning novelist, critic and journalist, The Penguin Book of the British Short Story, Volume: Daniel Defoe to John Buchan,
Thirtyfive stories by thirtyfive authors, all significant writers of English literature, Its like travelling through the history of the British short story, fromto,
It begins with Daniel Defoes A True Relation of the Apparition of Mrs Veal, the title itself giving a clue to this verbose and incomprehensible affair which I found almost unreadable.
Then follows Swifts advice to his footman, typically satirical, and a surprisingly unexpected story of a lesbian crossdressing deceiver by Henry Fielding.
Towards the middle, within the Victorian age, the stories tend to settle into more domestic scenarios, though the writing gets tighter and a greater economy of words and for the final quarter of the book, the stories have a contemporary familiar feel about them.
I enjoyed this book though, for me, there was a lot to get throughpages, I had intended to dip in and out of this while reading another book but in the event they drew me in.
Some names were unfamiliar but good to discover, such as Mrs, Ernest Leverson, Margaret Oliphant, James Hogg, and Frederick Maryatt, while others confirmed an earlier disliking of them what is it with G.
K. Chesterton I dont get it and some old favourites Dickens, ConanDoyle Holmes and H, G. Wells. There were also some well known names in literature which I hadnt read before, such as D, H. Lawrence, Rudyard Kipling, Saki, and Arnold Bennett,
The authors biographies at the back of the book make interesting reading too, A diverse range of professions these people had before turning to writing, Some unfortunate lives, as well, All in all a good collection,
With the sun hanging low on its western limit, the expanse of the grasslands framed in the counterscarps of the rising ground took on a gorgeous and sombre aspect.
A sense of penetrating sadness, like that inspired by a grave strain of music, disengaged itself from the silence of the fields.
The men we met walked past slow, unsmiling, with downcast eyes, as if the melancholy of an overburdened earth had weighted their feet, bowed their shoulders, borne down their glances.
Joseph Conrad, sitelinkAmy Foster,
It took me two years and two months to read this delightfully voluminous anthology ofshort stories written byBritish authors from cover to cover, which made it quite a unique reading experience to me.
As I am fond of the short story form, never before was I given a birthday present that offered me so many hours of pleasure besides the lovely feline sitelinkBella my children gifted me two years ago, but cats versus books perhaps constitute a pretty unfair competition.
Thomas Girtin, The White House at Chelsea,
As my acquaintance with British literature is at best patchy, it would be out of my capacity to judge the quality or representability of the selection Philip Hensher made.
As a stranger to the Anglosphere I am sure I missed out on the finesse of its peculiar appeal to a British audience, but I mostly enjoyed this as a wondrous introduction that gives a flavour of the writing of a great variety of British authors, of which I only read one story sitelinkSilver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle and eight authors Mary Lamb, Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Conan Doyle, Conrad, Arnold Bennett, Kipling, D.
H. Lawrence before. Many names were new to me, Nine stories were written by women, I can be wrong but I dont think a similar collection for Dutch short stories covering the same periodwould do better from the gender point of view I wondered about but couldnt check Joost Zwagerman's sitelinkDe Nederlandse en Vlaamse literatuur vanafinverhalen, but among the names I found mentioned in a review on that anthology only features one woman, Maria Dermoût.
At first I had the impression the stories were organised chronologically by the year of birth of the authors, starting with Daniel Defoe born inand ending with Buchan born inor in order of date of publishing, but this was only roughly so Dorothy Edwards, whose story precedes Buchans in the book, was born insitelinkHoliday Group by E.
M. Delafield and Olive and Camilla by A, E. Coppard as first published inwere more recently published than the last story in the collection which was published insitelinkThe King of Ypres.
The anthology gathers some very famous stories like Stevensons sitelinkThe Body Snatcher, the aforementioned sitelinkSilver Blaze by Conan Doyle, and sitelinkThe Village That Voted the Earth Was Flat by Rudyard Kipling a vicious story of revenge and mass delusion and manipulation.
Many of the stories have separate entries and are reviewed here on GR, I most enjoyed Jonathan Swift Directions to the footman very funny, Frederick MarryatSouth West and by West three quarters West, a sailors love story with a fairy tale element,
Elisabeth Gaskell sitelinkSix Weeks at Heppenheim, Thomas hardy sitelinkThe Three Strangers, Margaret Oliphant sitelinkThe Library Window, beautifully written and atmospheric, a tad too longwinded, Max Beerbohm sitelinkEnoch Soames, for its playful take on the supernatural and social critique.
Surprisingly my favourite story turned out to be Joseph Conrads sitelinkAmy Foster moving, profound, melancholic and gorgeously written.
I was also touched by the feminist take of Dorothy Edwards A country house, on the oppression of women in marriage.
Both authors I will read more of, Stacey Aumoniers story on a simple man in the Great War The Great Unimpressionable was a punch in the gut.
T. Baron Russells A Guardian of the Poor and Arthur Morrisons Behind the shade are wry stories on abject poverty, denouncing a merciless society in which poverty is a shame.
John Constable, Barges on the Stour with Dedham Church in the Distance,
I was a little proud on myself for having had the discipline to skip the introduction from Philip Hensher who selected and compiled the stories and plunge into the stories directly.
This turned out a good decision, The introduction is instructive, as rightly elaborating on how debatable the definitions of British, and short story in this context are, touching on the formal limits of the form and situating it as a phenomenon in time in the broader and more rigid sense.
Very interesting I thought how Hensher compares current reading habits of reading collections of single authors fiction instead of like in previous times reading a short story published in magazines or journals, clarifying that most of the stories were not intended to appear in a collection.
Short story writing on a certain moment turned into a very lucrative business for some of the most popular authors like Conan Doyle and the publishing in magazines also implied that stories could swiftly respond to social and political change and events.
Hensher also points at some of the distinguishing qualities which characterise the British short story yielding to a national taste for the theatrical, playfulness, interest in the overlooked and the apparently insignificant writing on proletarian subjects, characterised by withdrawn exactitudeness as M.
R. James wrote on the ghost story, 'Reticence conduces to effect, blatancy ruins it' as well as the extravagant and fantastical, use of mixed tones within one story, dependence on comedy in any and all circumstances, its love of Grand Guignol, its surprise quality in taking unforeseeable directions, its resting on suggestion and airy implication.
I am not sure whether or not all of these features are really so uniquely or mostly British all I know is I am glad that when starting this collection back inI went straight to the first story and didnt come across Henshers in my humble opinion rather bold and disturbing opening statement that The British short story is probably the richest, most varied and most historically extensive national tradition anywhere in the world.
Hensher did the Herculean effort to plough through a very large quantity of British stories, systematically reading thousands of stories by hundreds of writers in journals, collections and magazines, to dug out his selection.
It is hard for me however to imagine he did the same with the American, German, Japanese or Russian Pushkin, Turgenev, Gogol, Leskov, Dostoevsky, Chekhov short story traditions to assess them properly on their merits like he did with the British one.
I thought this jingoistic slip of the tongue did Henshers titanic work a disservice, while it is in weird contrast to his acknowledgment later in his introduction 'that there is no point in trying to elevate ones national writers in the form over another by which he criticises Lorrie Moore and an unnamed Indian author for praising their own American and Indian short story tradition as extraordinary and powerful.
Walter Richard Sickert, The Little Tea Party: Nina Hamnett and Roald Kristian
The book closes with mini biographical entries on all the authors sampled, which for someone new to many of these names is highly interesting as also pointing at the links between certain authors like David Garnett and Dorothy Edwards.
As Philip Hensher in the introduction also alludes on some of the stories and authors he included in the second volume of British short stories sitelinkThe Penguin Book of the British Short Story, Volume: From P.
G. Wodehouse to Zadie Smith I am tempted to read that second volume as well slowly, Glancing through the copy of that second volume that meanwhile has arrived by post, I noticed that the general introduction is reproduced integrally.
First I will however read sitelinkEnglish Literature: A Very Short Introduction, hoping it will be of help to gently broaden the horizon.
Walter Richard Sickert, Bath, Belvedere,
If it is true, as some German fellow had said, that without phosphorus there is no thought, it is still more true that there is no kindness of heart without a certain amount of imagination.
Joseph Conrad, Amy foster
Where would we be without stories written in the past and at present keeping our sense of imagination alive.