The Oxford book of English love stories Book

A pity Goodreads doesn't do half stars. Because this review is for 4 1/2 stars. Arranged chronologically, I didn't quite take to some two or three tales; the first one, by Aphra Behn, I didn't get at all (it was too archaic for this dense reader), ditto with The Wish House by Kipling, some of whose short stories I hold dear. Add to this Elizabeth Bowen's A Love Story--what was that all about?

In the hope that I may still be moved by some of the engaging to very powerful stories in this collection, below is my list of future recommended re-readings to myself:

- The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne by Anthony Trollope
- To Esther by Anne Ritchie (my first time to come across this lady writer, who intrigues me, as her plot and prose sound like Maugham's)
- Olive's Lover by C.C.K. Gonner
- Miss Winchelsea's Heart by H.G. Wells
- A Long-Ago Affair by John Galsworthy (these days, this delightful encounter would be filed under flash fiction)
- Episode by W. Somerset Maugham (having already devoured so many of his short, delectable treats, this one included, I can imagine the difficulty John Sutherland had in choosing only one Maugham love story to share here)
- Fifty Pounds by A.E. Coppard
- The Legacy by Virginia Woolf (my favorite from this selection)
- Love and Money by Phyllis Bentley
- Blind Love by V.S. Pritchett
- The Blue Film by Graham Greene (along with a handful of other stories, Sawi introduced this piece of flash fiction to me some summers ago; a summer or two later, I would discover Graham Greene's masterful and pointed wit on my own)
- An English Unofficial Rose by Paul Theroux
- A Small Spade by Adam Mars-Jones (the longest story here, this one's almost a novella)