I have to say 2 stars because I skipped through a lot of the book. Antiquity writing and a culture of long ago just didn't keep up my interest. However I did enjoy reading The Tell Tale Heart, the first story in the book. It has been many years since I last read it.
As I think I commented before, this is mostly a dreary compendium of tedious characters! A few pieces may be suitable for classroom analysis, such as "Of this Time, Of that Place," "The Ledge," & "The Rocking-Horse Winner," however overall these do not reflect well either upon Western culture -- or the collective mind of writers and editors, if these are considered among our "best."
So glad I picked up this little gem of a book, although I had to keep taping it up to hold it together! So worth it though! I enjoyed all of the stories and I am going to look for more from certain authors, I.e., Frank O'Connor, Katherine Mansfield, Isaac Babel, Sherwood Anderson, and Joseph Conrad. I have the Viking Portable Library of D.H. Lawrence that I can't wait to read after The Rocking-Horse Winner. And I even enjoyed rereading James Joyce's The Dead! Amazing!