Reviews for The Oxford book of English short stories

The average rating for The Oxford book of English short stories based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-07-27 00:00:00 Morris Moton Jr An anthology such as The Oxford Book of English Short Stories may be judged by many measurements: does it anthologize well-known works or hidden gems? Does it have a discernible theme? Are the authors well-balanced, through time and genre? A.S. Byatt has compiled a singular classic in this one. As an avid reader of anthologies of all kinds, one of the most important criterion for me is whether or not it is a rehash of the canon or introduces something new to the mix, and Byatt does not disappoint. Though some of the stories were familiar - I know I've read "The Troll" by T.H. White somewhere before - others were completely new, though I am intimately familiar with the authors. Byatt, additionally, has chosen what would at first glance appear to be a very odd theme. Of course, the title points you to the most obvious: English short stories. But what, Byatt wonders in the introduction, does it really mean to be English? She categorically rejects the twee countryside stories, filled with gentle countrymen and their stout, good-hearted wives, and instead focuses on the "thingyness of things". As I said, a very odd theme, but Byatt shows what an anthology should do, which is to illuminate the theme through the choices made. By the time I had reached the wicked tale of Huxley's fallen nun, I began to see what Byatt meant. There is a solidity, a practicality, a certain concreteness to the best of English authors. We see some, as M.R. James and Mew, use it to create horror; Wodehouse and Waugh to spark laughter; Lawrence and Pritchett to inspire thoughtfulness; and Kipling and Wells to provoke awe. I will admit that there did, for me, seem to be a "sweet spot" of the book, where the authors were at once familiar and beloved: G.K. Chesterton, Saki, Wodehouse, and others appear right in a row, and while Byatt chose stories that were largely unknown to me, their style was. The ones toward the end of the book* I was less keen on - some of them, to me, overshot literary prowess and landed straight in pretentiousness, while others seemed a little too self-aware. Where they worked, however, they worked - and give a glimmer of what it means to be English. * My copy had an unfortunate misprint which resulted in half of "Dream Cargoes" and the two John Fuller stories being completely unreadable. Only the last bit of "My Story" was intact - all the more galling, because it looks quite promising.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-10-07 00:00:00 Christoph Mollenhauer Great collection, I have read most of them at the time of writing this. I have found diamonds among some writers I had consumed to the mine of beneath my notice. I love what Byatt says in her introduction: "I found, reading in bulk, that I was developing a dislike for both the 'well-made tale' and the fleeting 'impression'. Manuals on how to write short stories, and much criticism, stress unity of form, stress that only one thing should happen, that an episode or incident should be developed, or an emotion caught, with no space for digression, or change of direction or tone.... Many of the stories in this collection break all the rules of unity of tone and narrative. They appear to be one kind of story and mutate into another. They make unexpected twists then twist again. They pack together comedy and tragedy, farce and delicacy, elegance and the grotesque. The workmanlike English story is bland....even-toned and neatly constructed. The great English story is shocking - even the sparest and driest - and hard to categorise."