Books in the The Penguin Book of English Short Stories series

This volume contains sixteen examples of the English short story at its best: immediately captivating and hugely entertaining. Some stories are classics, such as James Joyce s The Dead ; others like Mr Loveday s Little Outing by Evelyn Waugh are relatively unknown and a joy to discover. The collection also includes Charles Dickens premonitory tale, The Signalman which was inspired by his own horrific experiences in a train crash. Katherine Mansfield s The Voyage , meanwhile, is a sensual narrative centring on a boat journey and set in her native New Zealand. Virginia Woolf s Kew Gardens is different again, dramatically evoking its setting, awash with colour and light. Tragic or comic, traditional or modernist, each and every piece demonstrates perfectly how the short story form can be as engaging and satisfying as a novel, if not more so.

The short story is enjoying a revival all the more encouraging when viewed against the gloom surrounding the future of the literary novel . . .'Fifteen further short stories from the golden age of the short story offer more gems from some of the masters of the genre. Whether it is the lyrical prose of Thomas Hardy or the irreverent wit of Kingsley Amis, the monologues of Virgina Woolf or Muriel Spark, the authors here demonstrate that the vitality of the form remains as compelling today as when these stories were originally published.