V. S. Pritchett - The Oxford Book of Short Stories (Oxford Books of Prose Verse)

THE OXFORD

BOOK OF

SHORT STORIES

C H O S E N B Y

V. S. P R I T C H E T T

N E W Y O R K

O X F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

1 9 8 1

This edition published 1981 by Book Club Associatesby arrangement with Oxford University PressIntroduction and selection V. S. Pritchett 1981

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, withoutthe prior permission of Oxford University PressBritish Library Cataloguing in Publication DataThe Oxford book of short stories.

I. Short stories, English

I. Pritchett, Sir Victor Sawdon

8zj'.oi'o8 PR1309.S5

ISBN 0192141163

Printed in the United States of America C O N T E N T S

I N T R O D U C T I O N

x i

SIR W A L T E R SCOTT

( 1 7 7 1 - 1 8 3 2 . , Scottish)

The Two Drovers

NATHANIEL H A W T H O R N E

( 1 8 0 4 1 8 6 4 , American)

The Birthmark

2 7

EDGAR ALLAN P O E

( 1 8 0 9 1 8 4 9 , American)

The Fall of the House of Usher

M A R K T W A I N

( 1 8 3 5 - 1 9 1 0 , American)

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of

Calaveras County

6 1

BRET HARTE

( 1 8 3 6 1 9 0 2 , American)

The Iliad of Sandy Bar

6 7

A M B R O S E B I E R C E

( 1 8 4 2 P i 9 i 4 , American)

The Coup de Grace

HENRY J A M E S

( 1 8 4 3 - 1 9 1 6 , American)

Paste

8 4

R O B E R T LOUIS STEVENSON

( 1 8 5 0 - 1 8 9 4 , Scottish)

Thrawn Janet

vi Contents

J O S E P H CONRAD

( 1 8 5 7 - 1 9 2 4 , Polish, naturalized British) The Secret Sharer 109

RUDYARD KIPLING

( 1 8 6 5 1 9 3 6 , English)

The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot 147

O. HENRY

( 1 8 6 7 1 9 1 0 , American)

Telemachus, Friend 167

H E C T O R HUGH MUNRO ( ' S A K l ' ) ( 1 8 7 0 - 1 9 1 6 , English)

Sredni Vashtar 174

STEPHEN CRANE

( 1 8 7 1 - 1 9 0 0 , American)

The Open Boat 179

WALTER DE LA MARE

( 1 8 7 3 - 1 9 5 6 , English)

An Ideal Craftsman 202

W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

( 1 8 7 4 - 1 9 6 5 , English)

An Official Position 219

S H E R W O O D ANDERSON

( 1 8 7 6 - 1 9 4 1 , American)

I Want to Know Why 238

A . E . COPPARD

( 1 8 7 8 - 1 9 5 7 , English)

The Field of Mustard 247

JAMES J O Y C E

( 1 8 8 2 - 1 9 4 1 , Irish)

Grace 255

Contents vii

D. H. LAWRENCE

( 1 8 8 5 - 1 9 3 0 , English)

The Rocking-Horse Winner 2.75

RING LARDNER

( 1 8 8 5 - 1 9 3 3 , American)

Who Dealt? 2.90

KATHERINE M A N S F I E L D

( 1 8 8 8 - 1 9 2 . 3 , N e w Zealand)

The Woman at the Store 300

KATHERINE ANNE PORTER

( 1 8 9 0 1 9 8 0 , American)

Flowering Judas 310

LIAM O ' F L A H E R T Y

( 1 8 9 6 - , Irish)

The Tent 3Z2.

W I L L I A M FAULKNER

( 1 8 9 7 1 9 6 2 , American)

Dry September 330

ERNEST H E M I N G W A Y

( 1 8 9 8 - 1 9 6 1 , American)

Hills Like White Elephants 341

E L I Z A B E T H BOWEN

( 1 8 9 9 - 1 9 7 3 , Irish)

The Demon Lover 346

V.S. P R I T C H E T T

( 1 9 0 0 - , English)

Many Are Disappointed 353

SEAN O ' F A O L A I N

(1900 , Irish)

Sinners 362.

viii Contents

FRANK O CONNOR

( 1 9 0 3 1 9 6 6 , Irish)

Guests of the Nation 371

M O R L E Y CALLAGHAN

( 1 9 0 3 - , Canadian)

The Runaway 382

H. E. BATES

( 1 9 0 5 - 1 9 7 4 , English)

Never 391

R. K. NARAYAN

( 1 9 0 6 - , Indian)

A Horse and Two Goats 395

EUDORA W E L T Y

( 1 9 0 9 - , American)

A Visit of Charity 411

W I L L I A M SANSOM

( 1 9 1 2 - 1 9 7 6 , English)

Various Temptations 417

MARY LAVIN

( 1 9 1 2 - , Irish)

My Vocation 432

PATRICK W H I T E

( 1 9 1 2 - , Australian)

Five-Twenty 443

J O H N CHEEVER

( 1 9 1 2 - , American)

Goodbye, My Brother 466

DORIS LESSING

( 1 9 1 9 - , British)

Mrs Fortescue 487

Contents ix

F L A N N E R Y O ' C O N N O R

( 1 9 2 5 - 1 9 6 4 , American)

Parker's Back 5 01

W I L L I A M TREVOR

( 1 9 2 8 - , Irish)

Going Home 5 20

J O H N U P D I K E

(1932 , American)

Lifeguard 539

R E F E R E N C E S AND A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S 5 4 5

I N D E X O F AUTHORS 5 4 9

I N T R O D U C T I O N

This anthology is a selection of short stories written in the much-travelled English language by authors whose roots are in five continents and are nourished by a variety of cultures. The period covered is from the early nineteenth century to the present day.

There is no suggestion that they are 'the best'. All anthologies are a matter of personal taste: the only claim I can make for this one is that it has been formed by seventy years of passionate addiction to the short story and fifty years as a fellow writer in an art or craft that is distinctive and, for the writer, exquisitely difficult. The bond between all of us is our fascination not only with the 'story' but with its relatively new and still changing form wherever it appears; and I fancy that, as a body, we are more conscious of what other story writers have done in other languages, in France, Italy, Northern Europe, Russia, and Latin America and even in what is called the Third World, than our novelists commonly are. In private life, story-telling is a universal habit, and we think we have something that suits especially well with the temper of contemporary life.

For my purposes two stories in English literature by Sir Walter Scott - The Two Drovers and The Highland Widow - seem to establish the short story as a foundational form independent of the diffuse attractions of the novel: the novel tends to tell us everything whereas the short story tells us only one thing, and that, intensely.

More important - in American literature, Washington Irving and, above all, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne - defined where the significance of the short story would lie. It is, as some have said, a 'glimpse through' resembling a painting or even a song which we can take in at once, yet bring the recesses and contours of larger experience to the mind. If we move forward to the stories written, say, since 1910 I would say the picture is still there - but has less often the old elaborately gilded frame; or, if you like, the frame is now inside the picture. But, to go back to the nineteenth century after Scott, it is noticeable that American writers and those in young societies took to the new art with more alacrity than the British who were overwhelmed by the vitality of the great English novelists of that prolific age. The short stories of Dickens, Thack-xii Introduction

eray, Mrs Gaskell, Hardy, and many excellent minor writers, do read like crowded episodes of a continuing novel, or like novels that have been started and then given up. Hardy's stories could as well be novels; his genuine short stories are in his laconic poetry.