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Short Stories from the Strand
A collection of short stores from the Strand Magazine, including: The Lepers' Guest by Max Pemberton; The Pot of Caviare by Arthur Conan Doyle; Honeysuckle Cottage by P. G. Wodehouse; Proofs of Holy Writ by Rudyard Kipling; Revenge in a Beauty Shop by Pearle S. Buck; and more.
- GenresShort StoriesClassics
318 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 27, 2022
This is a great collection and includes some of my favorite authors such as Huxley ,Bennett, Wodehouse and others. My favourite were Stolen Body by Wells, Pot of Caviare (about boxer revolution) by Conan Doyle, A Service of Love O Henri, Ticket Please Lawrence, Honeysuckle Cottage Wodehouse, Umbrella Bennett, Brownlows newspaper Wells, Standard of Living Dorothy Parker, All but Empty (Empty Cinema) Graham Greene.
November 20, 2022
I wanted to read P.G. Wodehouse’s story called Honeysuckle Cottage and this compilation of short stories was where I found it.
What an interesting book! There are several of my favorite authors and a short history of the Strand magazine is included.
Dr. Max Pemberton was an adventure/mystery novelist, who wrote during what I consider the golden age of English literature. He was a contemporary of Dr. Author Canon Doyle and contributed to many literary periodicals in London.
His contribution to this book is a short story called “The Leper’s Guest”. It strikes the reader as an old writing style with a first-person narrative. It is like the writing style of Edgar Allen Poe. His narrative is full of very descriptive phrases that set the tone of suspense and tension while graphically telling the author’s story, this style is just a joy to read.
Our narrator is on a journey to a town in Spain and he meets a man at an English club at Pau. Their discussions are friendly and quite candidate. Senor Quiroga tells our friend that he owns three castles in the Basque provinces. At his request, and since our narrator is going in that direction, he expresses a willingness to contact the overseer of one of the castles, spend the night and then meet up with Senor Quiroga the next day and describe the condition of his holdings. The trip to the site of this castle is quite arduous and is beautifully described. Our narrator finds himself in the castle alone for the night but is not scared, until he is awakened by a mob of lepers who are about to kill him until he tells them about Senor Quiroga and his mission. He befriends a young woman in this group who is not a leper. The next morning, they travel together to meet Senor Quiroga. Before he gets to his friend, the young woman has killed him and disappeared. We then learn that Senor Quiroga was not a nice man and had persecuted this colony of lepers.
The story is short but quite riveting, a little scary but brilliantly illustrated and fun to read. I envisioned myself on a bus going to work in London, reading my latest edition of the Strand and maybe missing my stop while I was captivated by the story and its surprise ending.
My first encounter with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in this book is a story called, The Pot of Caviare. Unfortunately, from the start the reader just knew the outcome.
During the Boxer insurrection In Northern China, a group of Europeans huddled together and held on for dear life until rescue came, among them were women, a priest, a German officer and an old professor. They were low on food and ammunition, so they could not hold out long, the only hope was a rescue from the coast by a European squadron.
In a private conversation, the old professor and the German officer discussed what the professor had experienced many years prior when in similar circumstances he witnessed murder and torture of woman by these same Boxers, and the memory of those similar events haunts him. He had sworn at that time that he would not allow a situation like that to happen again, and now he was facing a similar crisis. Over the next few hours their situation ebbed and flowed then the German officer informed him that all was lost, the rescue would not happen, and the Boxers were about to overrun their small group. The professor did what he thought was the right thing, he poisoned the women and others that he felt were vulnerable because he did not want to see them tortured in a horrible death. After he made good on killing these people, the rescue comes, and he realizes his mistake and he killed himself.
The story has some interest, yet the reader just knows the outcome. Doyle makes it obvious in his narrative and this made the story somewhat of a letdown. I expected more from Sir Arthur. I envision this short story to be just that, something that Doyle put together quickly maybe to meet a deadline. A short little narration to please a publisher but disappoint an admirer.
But now, next up P.G. Wodehouse and a story called “Bertie Changes His Mind” and it’s a joy. Wodehouse is the creature of these stories about an amicable English gentleman, Bertie, one of the idle rich and Jeeves, his man servant whose intelligence manages to save Bertie from numerous awkward situations. This combination of characters and Jeeves manipulations of the unsuspecting Bertie make for a comedic and interesting read. Jeeves is the narrator in these stories. Iin this episode he senses that his governor is about to get himself into a mess when Bertie expresses an interest in adopting a young girl. Jeeves gets Bertie involved in some mayhem at a girl’s boarding school, in the end Bertie flees and dismisses any notion of disrupting his idyllic life to Jeeves’ relief and the readers’ laughter.
This story is probably just long enough for the tram ride to work, and I would have left the tram with a smile on your face.
The next P.G. Wodehouse story in this publication is called “Honeysuckle Cottage’. It is interesting on a few levels. I saw something about this story around the time of Halloween and assumed it was a ghost story. In some respects, it is because it is about a haunted house that was left to James by his aunt with the proviso that he lives in the house. There are no ghosts but there is an atmosphere that moves James, who is a detective writer, to write in the style of mush that his aunt was so successful at, when she wrote love stories for publications.
James is a bachelor by choice, but he senses that some of his aunts’ writings are moving him against his will to marry a young girl who has by necessity moved into his house. He fights these urges but greatly fears that he is succumbing to a spell, created by his aunt, that he cannot overcome. At the time of greatest temptation, James is rescued by a clumsy actions of dog that up to that point hated. James and the dog leave the house and move to London and live happily ever more, to be tempted into marriage no more.
This piece by Wodehouse was another joy to read, yet it made me wonder if Wodehouse was in fact a confirmed bachelor. My research proved this suspicion wrong. He married a little late in life, but it was a happy successful marriage.
I believe my favorite story in this cadre of great stories is “The Umbrella” by Arnold Bennet. A father, while travelling through an area close to his daughter’s home and wanting to surprise her appears at her home unannounced. After knocking on the door with no success, he tries the doorknob, and the door opens. He searches the house for any signs of life and then leaves, forgetting his umbrella, that he inadvertently set down in an upstairs bedroom.
This umbrella, when found by the daughter causes chaos in the home and Village. The daughter thinks that her housekeeper had a man in the house while she was a way. The housekeeper thinks her mistress has a boyfriend, who spent some time in her bedroom.
The housekeeper talks to her counterparts while at the market. The daughter talks to her friend and confidante about the issue, so now the entire village is involved. The issue is finally resolved when the father returns to reclaim his umbrella. Arnold Bennet did a masterful job of creating a titillating adventure out of something so common place as a misplaced umbrella.
I have stated that this book would be a great companion on the morning or evening tram ride to work. It would also be a valued book on the nightstand, for those times when sleep just will not come and a quickly read short story will do the trick.
There is no need to list or quote each story in this wonderful compilation of short stories by famous writers, although I feel the urge to do so! So, I will end my review by stating the obvious, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
What an interesting book! There are several of my favorite authors and a short history of the Strand magazine is included.
Dr. Max Pemberton was an adventure/mystery novelist, who wrote during what I consider the golden age of English literature. He was a contemporary of Dr. Author Canon Doyle and contributed to many literary periodicals in London.
His contribution to this book is a short story called “The Leper’s Guest”. It strikes the reader as an old writing style with a first-person narrative. It is like the writing style of Edgar Allen Poe. His narrative is full of very descriptive phrases that set the tone of suspense and tension while graphically telling the author’s story, this style is just a joy to read.
Our narrator is on a journey to a town in Spain and he meets a man at an English club at Pau. Their discussions are friendly and quite candidate. Senor Quiroga tells our friend that he owns three castles in the Basque provinces. At his request, and since our narrator is going in that direction, he expresses a willingness to contact the overseer of one of the castles, spend the night and then meet up with Senor Quiroga the next day and describe the condition of his holdings. The trip to the site of this castle is quite arduous and is beautifully described. Our narrator finds himself in the castle alone for the night but is not scared, until he is awakened by a mob of lepers who are about to kill him until he tells them about Senor Quiroga and his mission. He befriends a young woman in this group who is not a leper. The next morning, they travel together to meet Senor Quiroga. Before he gets to his friend, the young woman has killed him and disappeared. We then learn that Senor Quiroga was not a nice man and had persecuted this colony of lepers.
The story is short but quite riveting, a little scary but brilliantly illustrated and fun to read. I envisioned myself on a bus going to work in London, reading my latest edition of the Strand and maybe missing my stop while I was captivated by the story and its surprise ending.
My first encounter with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in this book is a story called, The Pot of Caviare. Unfortunately, from the start the reader just knew the outcome.
During the Boxer insurrection In Northern China, a group of Europeans huddled together and held on for dear life until rescue came, among them were women, a priest, a German officer and an old professor. They were low on food and ammunition, so they could not hold out long, the only hope was a rescue from the coast by a European squadron.
In a private conversation, the old professor and the German officer discussed what the professor had experienced many years prior when in similar circumstances he witnessed murder and torture of woman by these same Boxers, and the memory of those similar events haunts him. He had sworn at that time that he would not allow a situation like that to happen again, and now he was facing a similar crisis. Over the next few hours their situation ebbed and flowed then the German officer informed him that all was lost, the rescue would not happen, and the Boxers were about to overrun their small group. The professor did what he thought was the right thing, he poisoned the women and others that he felt were vulnerable because he did not want to see them tortured in a horrible death. After he made good on killing these people, the rescue comes, and he realizes his mistake and he killed himself.
The story has some interest, yet the reader just knows the outcome. Doyle makes it obvious in his narrative and this made the story somewhat of a letdown. I expected more from Sir Arthur. I envision this short story to be just that, something that Doyle put together quickly maybe to meet a deadline. A short little narration to please a publisher but disappoint an admirer.
But now, next up P.G. Wodehouse and a story called “Bertie Changes His Mind” and it’s a joy. Wodehouse is the creature of these stories about an amicable English gentleman, Bertie, one of the idle rich and Jeeves, his man servant whose intelligence manages to save Bertie from numerous awkward situations. This combination of characters and Jeeves manipulations of the unsuspecting Bertie make for a comedic and interesting read. Jeeves is the narrator in these stories. Iin this episode he senses that his governor is about to get himself into a mess when Bertie expresses an interest in adopting a young girl. Jeeves gets Bertie involved in some mayhem at a girl’s boarding school, in the end Bertie flees and dismisses any notion of disrupting his idyllic life to Jeeves’ relief and the readers’ laughter.
This story is probably just long enough for the tram ride to work, and I would have left the tram with a smile on your face.
The next P.G. Wodehouse story in this publication is called “Honeysuckle Cottage’. It is interesting on a few levels. I saw something about this story around the time of Halloween and assumed it was a ghost story. In some respects, it is because it is about a haunted house that was left to James by his aunt with the proviso that he lives in the house. There are no ghosts but there is an atmosphere that moves James, who is a detective writer, to write in the style of mush that his aunt was so successful at, when she wrote love stories for publications.
James is a bachelor by choice, but he senses that some of his aunts’ writings are moving him against his will to marry a young girl who has by necessity moved into his house. He fights these urges but greatly fears that he is succumbing to a spell, created by his aunt, that he cannot overcome. At the time of greatest temptation, James is rescued by a clumsy actions of dog that up to that point hated. James and the dog leave the house and move to London and live happily ever more, to be tempted into marriage no more.
This piece by Wodehouse was another joy to read, yet it made me wonder if Wodehouse was in fact a confirmed bachelor. My research proved this suspicion wrong. He married a little late in life, but it was a happy successful marriage.
I believe my favorite story in this cadre of great stories is “The Umbrella” by Arnold Bennet. A father, while travelling through an area close to his daughter’s home and wanting to surprise her appears at her home unannounced. After knocking on the door with no success, he tries the doorknob, and the door opens. He searches the house for any signs of life and then leaves, forgetting his umbrella, that he inadvertently set down in an upstairs bedroom.
This umbrella, when found by the daughter causes chaos in the home and Village. The daughter thinks that her housekeeper had a man in the house while she was a way. The housekeeper thinks her mistress has a boyfriend, who spent some time in her bedroom.
The housekeeper talks to her counterparts while at the market. The daughter talks to her friend and confidante about the issue, so now the entire village is involved. The issue is finally resolved when the father returns to reclaim his umbrella. Arnold Bennet did a masterful job of creating a titillating adventure out of something so common place as a misplaced umbrella.
I have stated that this book would be a great companion on the morning or evening tram ride to work. It would also be a valued book on the nightstand, for those times when sleep just will not come and a quickly read short story will do the trick.
There is no need to list or quote each story in this wonderful compilation of short stories by famous writers, although I feel the urge to do so! So, I will end my review by stating the obvious, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
February 17, 2017
A "mixed bag" of stories published in the British magazine, The Strand, between the late 1800s and the first half of the 20th century. Admittedly, some of the stories in this anthology are quite dated, but there are enough that stand the test of time and retain their literary quality to make this a 3.5-4 star book for your pleasure.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews