Modern Short Stories
Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, O. Henry et Sherwood Anderson1979

This volume brings together work from twenty outstanding masters of the short story.
Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling make a triumphal entry followed by O. Henry, tragic-comic jester of life and master of the surprise ending, and Saki, urbane and matter of fact, in 'Tobermory'. Sherwood Anderson reveals the poetry of the commonplace; William Saroyan performs with his usual daring virtuosity. Fable and fantasy, here by natural right, are expressed in work by T. F. Powys, Richard Hughes and E. M. Forster.
No collection would be complete without W. Somerset Maugham, and one of his most skilful shorter tales is included. The comic element is brillantly represented in selections from Stacy Aumonier, Gerald Bullett, V. S. Pritchett. Conversely, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence and Katherine Mansfield reveal the tragic elements that so often underlie the surface of life. The key to the book is the great diversity exhibited in the short story - seen to advantage in A. E. Coppard and Stella Benson.
For good measure there are two contrasted pieces of lyricism, one from H. E. Bates, sweetly perceptive of a child's day, and the other, 'The Fairy Wooing of Mordred', a farcical squib gleefully let off by P. G. Wodehouse.