The Second Penguin Book of English Short Stories

The Penguin Books of Short Stories

by Christopher Dolley (Editor), Thomas Hardy (Contributor), Rudyard Kipling (Contributor)

alternate cover for ISBN 0140032525/9780140032529

A collection of 15 short stories by authors such as Thomas Hardy, Kingsley Amis, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Joyce Cary, James Joyce, Muriel Spark and others.

Contents:
- Editorial Foreword by Christopher Dolley
- The Distracted Preacher by Thomas Hardy
- William the Conqueror by Rudyard Kipling
- The Bucket and the Rope by T.F. Powys
- The Road from Colonus by E.M. Forster
- Ivy Day in the Committee Room by James Joyce
- The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf
- The Horse Dealer's Daughter by D.H. Lawrence
- Feuille d'Album by Katherine Mansfield
- Government Baby by Joyce Cary
- The Lost Chinese by Robert Graves
- Handsome Is As Handsome Does by V.S. Pritchett
- The Destructors by Graham Greene
- After the Show by Angus Wilson
- You Should have Seen the Mess by Muriel Spark
- Interesting Things by Kingsley Amis

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Classics

318 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

By far, I liked the short stories by Hardy, Kipling, Forster, Graves and Graham Greene, more than I liked the others, although all of them are beautifully written. Although I made an effort to take into account the historical context, some stories annoyed me due to the way they portray man/women relationships, with men being usually the bright, leading part and women the futile, submissive and not always very clever ones. One great exception was William the Conqueror, by Rudyard Kipling, which was also (although not just because of this) one of my favourites. Now I want to find novels by the first two authors to read, as unlike the others, I haven't read much by any of them.
- The Distracted Preacher by Thomas Hardy: 4.5
- William the Conqueror by Rudyard Kipling: 4.5
- The Bucket and the Rope by T.F. Powys: 2.5
- The Road from Colonus by E.M. Forster: 4.5
- Ivy Day in the Committee Room by James Joyce: 2.5
- The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf: 3.5
- The Horse Dealer's Daughter by D.H. Lawrence: 2.5
- Feuille d'Album by Katherine Mansfield: 3
- Government Baby by Joyce Cary: 2.5
- The Lost Chinese by Robert Graves: 4
- Handsome Is As Handsome Does by V.S. Pritchett: 4
- The Destructors by Graham Greene: 4.5
- After the Show by Angus Wilson: 3
- You Should have Seen the Mess by Muriel Spark: 2.5
- Interesting Things by Kingsley Amis: 3

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories has something coquette about it, with that statement I mean that many of the stories here are coquettish in between the traditional short story frame of an anxiety driven plot. It's not a modern collection by any means, and the short story that most pleased me happened to be Mr. Hardy's "The Distracted Preacher" simply because it was the most humorous, and more of a novelette.

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

The list of authors in this collection is a role call of famous writers from the first half of the 20th century - Kipling, Graves, Spark, Lawrence, Mansfield, Greene, Amis (K). However, apart from the first story ‘The Distracted Preacher’ by Thomas Hardy and ‘The Mark on the Wall’ which was, well, very Virginia Woolf, I found the stories dull, difficult to engage with and very dated.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the First Penguin Book of English Short Stories.

I have been using short stories for plane reading. I like reading a story, taking a break, then going back to the next one. It makes the flight go quicker for me.

The First PBOSS had a high % of stories I hadn't read that were excellent. This one starts good. Thomas Hardy's "The Distracted Preacher" is about smuggling on the English coast. He has a good story, a complicated strong female hero, some wry humor and a great sly footnote at the very end of the story. The second story, Kipling's "Wiiliam the Conqueror" also has a strong female hero, but it is not as sharp and focused.

Most of the rest were good but not great. There is a Virginia Wolfe story with no plot, a V. S. Pritchard story about an unpleasant couple, a silly love tale by D. H Lawrence and an odd Graham Greene story about a very unpleasant child.

The stories by Muriel Spark, James Joyce, and Robert Graves were all solid but were not the best of those authors. Dolley seems to be trying to collect lesser-known stories.

E. M. Foster does have this spot-on bit about getting old in his story, "The Road from Colonus"

"He had this in common with Oedipus, that he was growing old. Even to himself it had become obvious. He had lost interest in other people's affairs, and seldom attended when they spoke to him. He was fond of talking himself but often forgot what he was going to say, and even when he succeeded, it seldom seemed worth the effort. His phrases and gestures had become stiff and set, his anecdotes, once so successful, fell flat, his silence was as meaningless as his speech. Yet he had lived a healthy active life, had worked steadily, made money, educated his children. There was nothing and nobody to blame: he was simply growing old."

Not sure why that particular paragraph resonated so much with me.

[O · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very uneven book, it wasn't as fun as the previous collection. For what it's worth here is my order of preference:

I liked:
Handsome is as Handsome does (I really enjoyed the atmosphere the author created and the vivid characters he conjured even if there was a bit too much describing of traits and not enough showing)
the lost Chinese (entertaining story with a neat little twist)
William the conqueror (I'm always a sucker for Indian colonial stories from Kipling)
Interesting Things (actually funny)

Stories I found somewhat average. They were just a bunch of words in a page.:
The distracted preacher (way longer than I felt it needed to be)
after the show

I didn't like the following:
the destructors (sad and not at all funny)
government baby (o k)
ivy day in the committee room (the Irish political references were the only interesting thing about this. Sorry Joyce.)
the bucket and the rope (not at all my kind of humour)
the road from colonus (fine. another example of black humour that wasn't to my taste)
the horse dealers daughter (rather dull and depressing)
you should have seen the mess (was this supposed to be funny? This was painful.)
the mark on the wall (I found the stream of consciousness ramblings to remind me of my own pointless teenage ramblings that were equally devoid of insight or wit. I cringed.

[Imogen Lamb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apart from the Virginia Wolf story the rest of the stories were not very enjoyable. Either I couldn't really get the meaning behind the stories or the stories themselves were pretty problematic. Wouldn't personally recommend however I think it was because I struggled to understand the stories and their greater meaning.

[Aelita Hopper · Rating 1 out of 5]

For me, it is so hard to understand the meaning of each story.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please see my review for the First Penguin Book of English Short Stories.

I didn't get on with these particularly well, as you will see if you read the first review.

[Federico · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro con diversos cuentos de autores reconocidos. Algunos bien entretenidos pero otros muy tediosos.

[Ajith · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rather boring collection of stories.

[Edzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent but not superlative. Too many of the better stories (Woolf, Joyce, Lawrence, Greene) have been anthologized elsewhere. The rest are a bit lackluster.