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The Oxford Book of Short Stories
V. S. Pritchett, one of our greatest short story writers, has chosen forty-one stories from nine countries written in the English language for this volume, producing a collection that successfully displays the wealth and variety of an art that spans some 200 years.
The United States, Great Britain, and Ireland have fine traditions of short story writing that have developed from the time of Sir Walter Scott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the twentieth century the art was perfected by Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, John Updike, and V. S. Pritchett himself. Other contributions in the book come from such masters as James Joyce, Mark Twain, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Frank O'Connor, H. E. Bates, William Trevor, and Liam O'Flaherty. Now, the collection of short story masters extends to Canadian, Indian, New Zealander, and Australian writers, who show in the works included here the full range of invention and ability in a genre that continues to flourish.
The United States, Great Britain, and Ireland have fine traditions of short story writing that have developed from the time of Sir Walter Scott and Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the twentieth century the art was perfected by Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, John Updike, and V. S. Pritchett himself. Other contributions in the book come from such masters as James Joyce, Mark Twain, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Frank O'Connor, H. E. Bates, William Trevor, and Liam O'Flaherty. Now, the collection of short story masters extends to Canadian, Indian, New Zealander, and Australian writers, who show in the works included here the full range of invention and ability in a genre that continues to flourish.
576 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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423 people want to read
About the author
V.S. Pritchett
158 books71 followersVictor Sawdon Pritchett was the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (née Martin). His father, a London businessman in financial difficulties, had come to Ipswich to start a shop selling newspapers and stationery. The business was struggling and the couple were lodging over a toyshop at 41 St Nicholas Street where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after the Queen. Pritchett never liked his first name, which is why he always styled himself with his initials; even close friends would call him VSP.
Pritchett's father was a steady Christian Scientist and unsteady in all else. Walter and Beatrice had come to Ipswich to be near her sister who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to Woodford, Essex, then to Derby, and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in Sedbergh, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit, and his easy deceit obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited but life was always precarious; they tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family. They returned to Ipswich in 1910, living for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St. John's School. Subsequently Pritchett attended Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and Dulwich College but he stayed nowhere for very long. When his father went to fight in World War I, Pritchett left school. Later in the war Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, of which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation, and faith healing.
Pritchett was a leather buyer from 1916 to 1920, when he moved to Paris, where he worked as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for the Christian Science Monitor, which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for the paper and for the New Statesman, which later appointed him literary editor.
Pritchett's first book described his journey across Spain (Marching Spain 1928) and Clare Drummer (1929) was about his experiences in Ireland. Whilst in Ireland he met his first wife, Evelyn Vigors, but it was not to be a happy marriage.
Pritchett published five novels but he claimed not to enjoy their creation. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories (The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories (1932)).
In 1936 he divorced his first wife, and married Dorothy Rudge Roberts; they had two children. The marriage lasted until Pritchett's death, although they both had other relationships. His son is the journalist Oliver Pritchett and his grandson (son of Oliver) is the cartoonist Matt Pritchett.
During World War II Pritchett worked for the BBC and the Ministry of Information whilst continuing to submit a weekly essay to the New Statesman. After the war he wrote widely and he started taking teaching positions at universities in the United States: Princeton (1953), the University of California (1962), Columbia University and Smith College. He was fluent in German, Spanish, and French, and published successful biographies of Honoré de Balzac (1973), Ivan Turgenev (1977) and Anton Chekhov (1988), although he did not know Russian and had never visited the Soviet Union.
Pritchett was knighted in 1975 for his services to literature and became Companion of Honour in 1993. His awards include Heinemann Award (1969), PEN Award (1974), W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990), and Golden Pen Award (1993). He died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Pr...
Pritchett's father was a steady Christian Scientist and unsteady in all else. Walter and Beatrice had come to Ipswich to be near her sister who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to Woodford, Essex, then to Derby, and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in Sedbergh, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit, and his easy deceit obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited but life was always precarious; they tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family. They returned to Ipswich in 1910, living for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St. John's School. Subsequently Pritchett attended Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and Dulwich College but he stayed nowhere for very long. When his father went to fight in World War I, Pritchett left school. Later in the war Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, of which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation, and faith healing.
Pritchett was a leather buyer from 1916 to 1920, when he moved to Paris, where he worked as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for the Christian Science Monitor, which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for the paper and for the New Statesman, which later appointed him literary editor.
Pritchett's first book described his journey across Spain (Marching Spain 1928) and Clare Drummer (1929) was about his experiences in Ireland. Whilst in Ireland he met his first wife, Evelyn Vigors, but it was not to be a happy marriage.
Pritchett published five novels but he claimed not to enjoy their creation. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories (The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories (1932)).
In 1936 he divorced his first wife, and married Dorothy Rudge Roberts; they had two children. The marriage lasted until Pritchett's death, although they both had other relationships. His son is the journalist Oliver Pritchett and his grandson (son of Oliver) is the cartoonist Matt Pritchett.
During World War II Pritchett worked for the BBC and the Ministry of Information whilst continuing to submit a weekly essay to the New Statesman. After the war he wrote widely and he started taking teaching positions at universities in the United States: Princeton (1953), the University of California (1962), Columbia University and Smith College. He was fluent in German, Spanish, and French, and published successful biographies of Honoré de Balzac (1973), Ivan Turgenev (1977) and Anton Chekhov (1988), although he did not know Russian and had never visited the Soviet Union.
Pritchett was knighted in 1975 for his services to literature and became Companion of Honour in 1993. His awards include Heinemann Award (1969), PEN Award (1974), W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990), and Golden Pen Award (1993). He died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Pr...
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 6, 2019
This collection from 1981 is not perfect at all but I'm going to contrary-wise give it 5 stars because there are achingly wonderful stories here by authors who are new discoveries for me, and who I will explore more. I feel my life has been hugely enriched by reading it.
An interesting recurring theme is children, stories seen from their point of view. It got me to thinking, are there disproportionate numbers of short stories about children? The form seems to lend itself excellently to capturing their sometimes black/white way of seeing morality, which can be shorn of excessive contingencies and caveats. Also, the way children experience a single event and as a result radically change their approach to life, becoming almost a different person. (Eddie Limonov's piece in Granta 14: Autobiography is the best example of this, but there are elements of it in the HE Bates, Morley Callaghan, Saki and de la Mare stories here).
Some are incomprehensibly forgotten. One of my favourites was William Sansom's Various Temptations. Sansom "was once described as London's closest equivalent to Franz Kafka" (bit odd that - was there someone in Glasgow, or Birmingham, who was closer to Kafka than him? Or was the aim to emphasise how much of a London-rooted author he was?) Various Temptations is a great example of an author setting himself an almost impossible task, in order to push his skills to the limit - imagine a young, lonely woman, on her own in her flat, reading about a serial killer who has been preying on .... well yes of course, young lonely women. It's beautifully written, and utterly compelling. Sansom's most popular book on GR has 44 ratings. It makes you think about the nature of long-term fame. We tend to think time is an efficient and fair sorter of wheat from chaff. But really, why are some writers forgotten? I'm definitely going to read more by him.
William Trevor is of course much better known. Still, 5701 is his maximum rating here - hardly Lee Child, or even Raymond Carver. His story, Going Home, of two miserable people - one a 13 year old schoolboy, the other his 39 year old teacher - in a kind of verbal "who is the most tortured soul" competition on a train, is un-put-downable.
Other joys here, which I will be exploring more: Bret Harte, O. Henry, Ring Lardner, Frank O'Connor, A.E. Coppard, Katherine Anne Porter. And Katherine Mansfield, who I'm on to right now.
Of late, I've been delving into the wonders of the 19th Century, but I would still categorise myself as - mainly - a late 20th / early 21st Century soul. Novertheless, the most recent contribution here, by John Updike, wins the prize for most hated. A nice idea - a theology student, who works as a lifeguard on a beach during the summer holidays - what thoughts might he have, during those long hours up there on his high chair? What parallels might he draw with his studies? But, though short, Updike makes it a turgid slog of pyrotechnic literary masturbation. And, maybe predictably, being Updike, we have a mention of why skinny intellectual types like our young hero make the best lovers, despite having no recognisable connection to the theme (oh wait ... lifeguards are usually jocks ... connection established ... sigh).
This would nowadays be called "Oxford Book of English-language Short Stories". There are no translations. It is quite a conservative selection, RK Narayan is the only representative of the developing world (well OK, there is also Doris Lessing... ). In fact, Oxford have not updated it - instead we now have collections of American, Canadian, Welsh, Scottish, English - the country not the language - etc. which means, ironically, that the developing world gets even less of a look-in, apart from a Caribbean collection.
An interesting recurring theme is children, stories seen from their point of view. It got me to thinking, are there disproportionate numbers of short stories about children? The form seems to lend itself excellently to capturing their sometimes black/white way of seeing morality, which can be shorn of excessive contingencies and caveats. Also, the way children experience a single event and as a result radically change their approach to life, becoming almost a different person. (Eddie Limonov's piece in Granta 14: Autobiography is the best example of this, but there are elements of it in the HE Bates, Morley Callaghan, Saki and de la Mare stories here).
Some are incomprehensibly forgotten. One of my favourites was William Sansom's Various Temptations. Sansom "was once described as London's closest equivalent to Franz Kafka" (bit odd that - was there someone in Glasgow, or Birmingham, who was closer to Kafka than him? Or was the aim to emphasise how much of a London-rooted author he was?) Various Temptations is a great example of an author setting himself an almost impossible task, in order to push his skills to the limit - imagine a young, lonely woman, on her own in her flat, reading about a serial killer who has been preying on .... well yes of course, young lonely women. It's beautifully written, and utterly compelling. Sansom's most popular book on GR has 44 ratings. It makes you think about the nature of long-term fame. We tend to think time is an efficient and fair sorter of wheat from chaff. But really, why are some writers forgotten? I'm definitely going to read more by him.
William Trevor is of course much better known. Still, 5701 is his maximum rating here - hardly Lee Child, or even Raymond Carver. His story, Going Home, of two miserable people - one a 13 year old schoolboy, the other his 39 year old teacher - in a kind of verbal "who is the most tortured soul" competition on a train, is un-put-downable.
Other joys here, which I will be exploring more: Bret Harte, O. Henry, Ring Lardner, Frank O'Connor, A.E. Coppard, Katherine Anne Porter. And Katherine Mansfield, who I'm on to right now.
Of late, I've been delving into the wonders of the 19th Century, but I would still categorise myself as - mainly - a late 20th / early 21st Century soul. Novertheless, the most recent contribution here, by John Updike, wins the prize for most hated. A nice idea - a theology student, who works as a lifeguard on a beach during the summer holidays - what thoughts might he have, during those long hours up there on his high chair? What parallels might he draw with his studies? But, though short, Updike makes it a turgid slog of pyrotechnic literary masturbation. And, maybe predictably, being Updike, we have a mention of why skinny intellectual types like our young hero make the best lovers, despite having no recognisable connection to the theme (oh wait ... lifeguards are usually jocks ... connection established ... sigh).
This would nowadays be called "Oxford Book of English-language Short Stories". There are no translations. It is quite a conservative selection, RK Narayan is the only representative of the developing world (well OK, there is also Doris Lessing... ). In fact, Oxford have not updated it - instead we now have collections of American, Canadian, Welsh, Scottish, English - the country not the language - etc. which means, ironically, that the developing world gets even less of a look-in, apart from a Caribbean collection.
May 6, 2018
Great collection. Made me want to read more William Trevor.
June 30, 2013
This is a nice short story collection that presents different writers and writing styles to you. It is a nice book to read if you want to be a writer and are trying to figure out your own style of writing :).
August 14, 2015
A few of these stories were truly impressive but most of them felt "important" because of their author or precedence rather than the merit of the stories themselves.
did-not-finish
July 10, 2020Currently reading, will update with individual story reviews as I complete them. I was going to do this in the private notes field, but I didn't realize it was character limited until I hit a wall, lol.
THE TWO DROVERS (Sir Walter Scott)
3 stars - I did end up liking it somewhat, but it was very hard to get into at the start.
THE BIRTHMARK (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
2 stars - Look, I get what he's doing in this story and the Message Behind It, but I just couldn't find either character likable, though I did feel very sorry for Georgiana. Also I just kind of don't like Hawthorne that much so maybe I'm biased.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Edgar Allan Poe)
5 stars - Love Poe, love this story. Definitely did not pick up the implications about the Usher family when I last read this probably more than a decade ago so that was certainly a shocker.
THE TWO DROVERS (Sir Walter Scott)
3 stars - I did end up liking it somewhat, but it was very hard to get into at the start.
THE BIRTHMARK (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
2 stars - Look, I get what he's doing in this story and the Message Behind It, but I just couldn't find either character likable, though I did feel very sorry for Georgiana. Also I just kind of don't like Hawthorne that much so maybe I'm biased.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Edgar Allan Poe)
5 stars - Love Poe, love this story. Definitely did not pick up the implications about the Usher family when I last read this probably more than a decade ago so that was certainly a shocker.
Currently reading
January 15, 2012My edition: Hardcover
April 22, 2018
Read in 2008 with my Dad.
Our November challenge book.
Admittedly many of these stories are drawn from older/earlier writers, but a big chunk of them felt dated to me moreso in their style than anything else. This is just a random, not researched or well thought out, theory but modern short stories seem to have stronger plots, better drawn (and perhaps intenser) situations, more things happen, and people have stronger reactions to the happenings, while many of the stories from earlier times seem more passive: one character “telling the story” to another, i.e., stories told at a remove (via third person, epistolary, storytelling or other device). Stories where almost nothing happens, or the sense that something “might” happen (sometimes a very specific thing) turns out…not. And then the story just…ends.
Although the Byatt-edited collection we read earlier in the year had stated that it picked “scary” stories purposely, we both found a lot of those icky, or super sad, but not scary. This collection however had some real creep-you-outers.
My favorite was “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen.
Our November challenge book.
Admittedly many of these stories are drawn from older/earlier writers, but a big chunk of them felt dated to me moreso in their style than anything else. This is just a random, not researched or well thought out, theory but modern short stories seem to have stronger plots, better drawn (and perhaps intenser) situations, more things happen, and people have stronger reactions to the happenings, while many of the stories from earlier times seem more passive: one character “telling the story” to another, i.e., stories told at a remove (via third person, epistolary, storytelling or other device). Stories where almost nothing happens, or the sense that something “might” happen (sometimes a very specific thing) turns out…not. And then the story just…ends.
Although the Byatt-edited collection we read earlier in the year had stated that it picked “scary” stories purposely, we both found a lot of those icky, or super sad, but not scary. This collection however had some real creep-you-outers.
My favorite was “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen.
November 8, 2019
You usually find some duds among the winners in any collection, but Pritchett's rate of not-so-good short stories is much lesser than that of the sci-fi short story collections I've read in the past. (And although I don't have a review of them here, I remember reading sci-fi short stories from the 60's through the 90's since they were in my house when I was a child)
Some of these are reprinted in other short story collections, but I think that is since they are truly good stories.
I liked The Birthmark, for example. And the one a little later on which discusses getting up at four.
So the forty-one stories here beckon for you to come and frolic in their ways of thought!
Some of these are reprinted in other short story collections, but I think that is since they are truly good stories.
I liked The Birthmark, for example. And the one a little later on which discusses getting up at four.
So the forty-one stories here beckon for you to come and frolic in their ways of thought!
March 14, 2021
A nice collection of 41 short stories from different authors of various backgrounds. Some stories are better than others but all take you back in time and give some insight as to what it was like to live back then in those particular places. Short stories are often weird and while I'm sure that they all have an underlying theme and message, some are difficult to understand, sometimes due to the unfamiliar language and use of words. Still, I read every story in order from start to finish and kept notes on each one to help me remember them.
July 13, 2024
I find it really tough to get through a book of short stories. Inevitably some are good, some are bad and most are instantly forgettable. It has taken me this long to finish this book as I read a few stories then put the book down for a week or so.. then repeated the process.
None in this collection will stay with me even though I enjoyed reading them at the time.
None in this collection will stay with me even though I enjoyed reading them at the time.
October 6, 2017
i want to read it today and as a result in which i will tll you what i think of it
December 18, 2017
Not sure this is the version of the book I read but whatever version it was I enjoyed this collection. Good mix of stories that all felt sufficiently different.
February 9, 2018
Didn't read all of it. I enjoyed half of the stories I read but the other half seemed insignificant and dry.
August 26, 2019
I truly enjoyed reading this book of short stories, but missing is Stefan Zweig. I'm reading The Collected Stories of Stefan Zweig too; he was a marvelous narrator.
February 5, 2022
17th to early 20th century authors. Excellent historical insights into plots and characters worthy of focus as time has passed.
July 18, 2024
Many of the stories here were on the depressing side, as opposed to uplifting. A.S. Byatt's collection (Oxford Book of English Short Stories) appealed to me a lot better.
June 14, 2025
Quite a mixed bag: probably best that way....something for everyone. Top of my list: 'Sredni Vashtar' and 'Who dealt?'
June 28, 2014
Beyond the confines of school rooms where once the young fidgeted in their seats waiting for the bell that saves them from the horrors of recitation, the memory is revisited and the experience of stories of the yore are savoured fountain of youth...
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April 28, 2015Thank you
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews