What do you think?
Rate this book
What A Life!: Selected Short Stories
From the appearance of the Devil in a provincial theatre, a pair of lovers who test each other s commitment in a department store s lift to three stories depicting the typical Yorkshire man, Mr Hebblethwaite, J. B. Priestley s short stories share the humour, social comment and faith in traditional English values of his novels. Along with Priestley s gift for characterisation and dialogue, What A Life! displays the generosity of spirit, and moral integrity, he showed throughout his life.
128 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2014
1 person want to read
About the author
J.B. Priestley
470 books290 followersJohn Boynton Priestley was an English writer. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and after schooling he worked for a time in the local wool trade. Following the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Priestley joined the British Army, and was sent to France - in 1915 taking part in the Battle of Loos. After being wounded in 1917 Priestley returned to England for six months; then, after going back to the Western Front he suffered the consequences of a German gas attack, and, treated at Rouen, he was declared unfit for active service and was transferred to the Entertainers Section of the British Army.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 2, 2015
What a Life! was part of a large bundle of books from my pop at Christmas this year. Besides reading and enjoying JB Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls in high school, I have no interest in reading anything else by him ever again but my dad’s a big fan and he wants to “educate” me on Priestley’s writing, so I decided to give his chosen offering a shot. Otherwise I’d never have read this because, unfortunately but expectedly, it sucks!
There are seven short stories in this small collection: What a Life!, Going Up?, Adventure, Handel and the Racket, An Arabian Night in Park Lane, The Taxi and the Star, and The Demon King, and I can’t say I really liked any of them.
The title story is about not judging people by their appearances - wow, what an original message! A bartender in a sleepy London hotel looks like a boring man but it turns out he’s had a pretty interesting life in the criminal underworld.
In Going Up?, the message is that if a man tricks a woman into liking you, she totally won’t be offended by your duplicity. Adventure is about a young man who tries slumming with the working class rogues of the seedy underworld and finds he doesn’t much like it and that he was taking his ordinary existence for granted.
Priestley really likes his Yorkshire character, Mr Hebblethwaite, who’s just a simple country man who goes to the city but shows his intelligence, wit, taste, etc. is the match of the sophisticated city folk. There’s even some unexpected action as he takes on some armed would-be kidnappers and beats them! Cor, blimey guv’nor - an Edwardian James Bond!
The Demon King sees the Devil take a starring role in a rural pantomime. He replaces the lead actor as The Demon King character, magical things start happening, the actor’s “costume” looks realistically scary, but no one twigs that it’s actually the Devil himself except for this reader who called it the instant Priestley hinted something was up.
It’s clear Priestley’s very fond of writing positively about the working class, giving them the starring roles and they always come out on top. That’s fine but kind of a banal detail. Because what I really look for, over political motivations, is a good story and I didn’t find any here. When I finished each story, I was surprised at how underwhelming it was and how easily pleased 1930s audiences must’ve been! That or maybe Priestley’s entertainments don’t speak to modern readers.
The stories themselves are written well though they’re just a bit too simplistic. The Demon King is a good example of telegraphing the reveal well ahead of the ending and then delivering it as predicted. It makes for such tedious reading when you can figure out the writer’s tricks ahead of time. And if they’re not predictable, they’re corny/dull. The love lives of ordinary working people, the rudeness of city folk, these aren’t subjects that interest me in the slightest!
My dad reads Priestley for the language - he says the writing in a book is what really satisfies him. I can appreciate that but I’m a story-driven reader so even if the execution is a bit sloppy, I can enjoy a book if it entertains. And What a Life!, while well-written, didn’t entertain at all.
There are seven short stories in this small collection: What a Life!, Going Up?, Adventure, Handel and the Racket, An Arabian Night in Park Lane, The Taxi and the Star, and The Demon King, and I can’t say I really liked any of them.
The title story is about not judging people by their appearances - wow, what an original message! A bartender in a sleepy London hotel looks like a boring man but it turns out he’s had a pretty interesting life in the criminal underworld.
In Going Up?, the message is that if a man tricks a woman into liking you, she totally won’t be offended by your duplicity. Adventure is about a young man who tries slumming with the working class rogues of the seedy underworld and finds he doesn’t much like it and that he was taking his ordinary existence for granted.
Priestley really likes his Yorkshire character, Mr Hebblethwaite, who’s just a simple country man who goes to the city but shows his intelligence, wit, taste, etc. is the match of the sophisticated city folk. There’s even some unexpected action as he takes on some armed would-be kidnappers and beats them! Cor, blimey guv’nor - an Edwardian James Bond!
The Demon King sees the Devil take a starring role in a rural pantomime. He replaces the lead actor as The Demon King character, magical things start happening, the actor’s “costume” looks realistically scary, but no one twigs that it’s actually the Devil himself except for this reader who called it the instant Priestley hinted something was up.
It’s clear Priestley’s very fond of writing positively about the working class, giving them the starring roles and they always come out on top. That’s fine but kind of a banal detail. Because what I really look for, over political motivations, is a good story and I didn’t find any here. When I finished each story, I was surprised at how underwhelming it was and how easily pleased 1930s audiences must’ve been! That or maybe Priestley’s entertainments don’t speak to modern readers.
The stories themselves are written well though they’re just a bit too simplistic. The Demon King is a good example of telegraphing the reveal well ahead of the ending and then delivering it as predicted. It makes for such tedious reading when you can figure out the writer’s tricks ahead of time. And if they’re not predictable, they’re corny/dull. The love lives of ordinary working people, the rudeness of city folk, these aren’t subjects that interest me in the slightest!
My dad reads Priestley for the language - he says the writing in a book is what really satisfies him. I can appreciate that but I’m a story-driven reader so even if the execution is a bit sloppy, I can enjoy a book if it entertains. And What a Life!, while well-written, didn’t entertain at all.
Displaying 1 of 1 review