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Short Stories
Walter de la Mare
Short Stories 1895-1926
(ISBN 9781900357036
eISBN 9781900357401)
was published in November 1996
508 pages 42 stories
£21.99
Short Stories 1927-1956
(ISBN 9781900357043
eISBN 9781900357418)
was published in June 2001
576 pages 40 stories
£25.00
Short Stories for Children
(ISBN 9781900357050
eISBN 9781900357425)
was published in April 2006
378 pages 19 stories 19 line illustrations
£17.99
see separate page
Each volume appears in hardcovers in a 234 x 156 mm format.
Vols I, II & III together (ISBN 9781900357302)
£39.99
Comments from readers and reviewers
Peter Parker in TLS: ‘What strikes one most about [them] is how truly peculiar they are...it is good to see these dark and disquieting stories back in print.’ On SS 1895-1926 and SS 1927-1956
William Palmer in Slightly Foxed: ‘...nearly all [the stories] contain some remarkable passage of writing or imagery worth searching out, and most of the [fourteen] titles mentioned above are completely realized and worth reading over and over again...these superbly written and utterly original works by a neglected master.’ On SS 1895-1926 and SS 1927-1956
Matthew Sweeney in the Observer: talks about ‘Strangers and Pilgrims’, ‘Disillusioned’, ‘Miss Duveen’, ‘Seaton’s Aunt’, ‘The Riddle’, ‘All Hallows’ (‘the finest story...the control of the ominous mood is masterful’), ‘Mr Kempe’, ‘Missing’, ‘The Three Friends’, ‘The Almond Tree’ and ‘Kismet’ in SS 1895-1926
Professor Martin Seymour-Smith in Scotland on Sunday: ‘...a consummate modernist...He was so...‘great’ that, like all the greatest, his greatness functions as an assumption that goes hardly even recognized...the chief emotion is, as it should be, one of immense gratitude.’ On SS 1895-1926
Philippa Pearce in the Tablet: ‘Remote in de la Mare countryside stand ancient structures – a house, a church, a cathedral – whose emptiness, especially if swept and garnished, may invite danger...Readers should never take a de la Mare story for granted. There is often not only a visible complexity, but also something below the surface...’ On SS 1895-1926
Malcolm J.C. Addison: ‘Some of these stories form one of the richest, strangest, and, at the same time, reassuringly assertive parts of the canon of English literature...A particular quality of some [of them] is their being as finely crafted as poetry, yielding up more and more fresh content on successive readings...They are vehicles of transformation, with some operating upon both individual and allegorical planes. They deliver far more than the general reader expects from experience with other writers...I have read ‘The Bird of Travel’ many times. Others to which I regularly go back are ‘All Hallows’, ‘Miss Duveen’, ‘Crewe’, ‘The Wharf’, ‘The Vats’ and ‘Mr Kempe’.’ On SS 1895-1926 and SS 1927-1956
Icarus (British Mensa): ‘De la Mare... is far and away in a class of his own. His style of writing is an inspiration that has influenced more than a few of the greatest wielders of the pen in this century...That the volumes have rolled from the presses once more is a matter for intense joy and celebration...’ On SS 1895-1926
Peter Mudford in Agenda: ‘Throughout his life, de la Mare viewed consciousness as probing, and questioning; as a means of intuiting what finally might not be understood or resolved; and imagination, prompted by memory, as a journey into the unknown. Without this possibility of exploration in the still room of the writer, consciousness would be hell. What he asked about the individual in his tales, he also questioned in life itself in many of his poems.’ Commenting on ‘The Riddle’: ‘As with many of his tales we are left with a riddle, what he called...‘the interrogation of the unknowable, retrieved from the edge of things.’ ’ On SS 1895-1926
Punch on the children’s stories: ‘Whether Walter de la Mare is writing of scarecrows or piccaninnies, cats, fish, very old ladies, an admiral with a magic jacket or a godmother who could offer three centuries of life, he is enchanted and enchanting. There is a wisdom as well as magic – or perhaps one should say a magical wisdom.’
Angela Carter in her Introduction to Memoirs of a Midget: ‘De la Mare is a master of mise-en-scene...Prose with the most vivid and unsettling intensity, which resembles some of what the surrealists were producing in France...’
Graham Greene on the list he produced of his seventeen favourite de la Mare short stories in A Tribute to Walter de la Mare: ‘...Prose unequalled in its richness since the death of James, or, dare one say...Robert Louis Stevenson.’
Lord David Cecil: ‘Beautiful, enigmatic and disquieting stories.’
Description
For many people Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. W.H. Auden, who used to read de la Mare stories to his niece as well as compiling A Choice of de la Mare's Verse, would have been one of them. But the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. Short Stories brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published.
<> De la Mare's earliest published works were stories, and he continued writing and rewriting stories throughout the rest of his life. There was always a creative counterpoint between the themes and imagery of his prose and his poetry. A full understanding of either is impossible without knowledge of both. The stories also have a special concern with psychology, personal relationships, perception, alienation, the absurd and the supernatural.
<> He began bringing out collections of stories when he published The Riddle and Other Stories in 1923. Short Stories 1895-1926 starts with this, with its fifteen stories, and continues with two other adult collections, Ding Dong Bell of 1924 with four stories and The Connoisseur and Other Stories of 1926 with nine; and it also has fourteen uncollected stories published between 1895 and 1920. Short Stories 1927-1956 includes On the Edge of 1930, with its eight stories, The Wind Blows Over of 1936 with eleven and A Beginning and Other Stories of 1955 with thirteen; and it also has four uncollected stories and four unpublished stories. The publication of Short Stories is a literary event of major significance.
[For Short Stories for Children, see separate page.]
Author
Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) was one of the leading poets and novelists of the twentieth century. His writings are known throughout the world, and have been translated into numerous languages. He wrote poetry and fiction for both adults and children. He is loved and admired equally by the young and the old. Together with the Complete Poems, published in 1969 and now back in print with Fabers -- and also edited by Giles de la Mare -- Short Stories I, II and III provide the definitive text of all Walter de la Mare’s creative writings apart from the four novels. De la Mare was in addition an anthologist of genius and an outstanding literary critic, serving as the main critic on the TLS for many years.
Contents
Walter de la Mare
Short Stories 1895-1926
Introduction, vii
Abbreviations, x
STORIES IN COLLECTIONS
THE RIDDLE AND OTHER STORIES (1923)
The Almond Tree, 3
The Count's Courtship, 23
The Looking-Glass, 32
Miss Duveen, 40
Selina's Parable, 51
Seaton's Aunt, 55
The Bird of Travel, 79
The Bowl, 87
The Three Friends, 94
Lispet, Lispett and Vaine, 99
The Tree, 113
Out of the Deep, 128
The Creatures, 150
The Riddle, 159
The Vats, 162
DING DONG BELL (1924, 1936)
Lichen, 167
'Benighted', 179
Strangers and Pilgrims, 186
Winter, 205
THE CONNOISSEUR AND OTHER STORIES (1926)
Mr Kempe, 215
Missing, 236
The Connoisseur, 263
Disillusioned, 289
The Nap, 307
Pretty Poll, 322
All Hallows, 337The Wharf, 362
The Lost Track, 373
UNCOLLECTED STORIES
Kismet (1895), 403
The Hangman Luck (1895), 407
A Mote (1896), 413
The Village of Old Age (1896), 422
The Moon's Miracle (1897), 429
The Giant (1901), 440
De Mortuis (1901), 444
The Rejection of the Rector (1901), 453
The Match-Makers (1906), 459
The Budget (1907), 461
The Pear-Tree (1907), 464
Leap year (1908), 469
Promise at Dusk (1919), 472
Two Days in Town (1920), 478
Bibliographical Appendix, 483
Chronological List of Earliest Known Printed Versions, 495
Walter de la Mare
Short Stories 1927-1956
Introduction, vii
Abbreviations, x
STORIES IN COLLECTIONS
ON THE EDGE: SHORT STORIES (1930)
A Recluse, 3
Willows, 28
Crewe, 53
At First Sight, 72
The Green Room, 124
The Orgy: An Idyll, 155
The Picnic, 178
An Ideal Craftsman, 192
THE WIND BLOWS OVER (1936)
'What Dreams May Come', 207
Cape Race, 215
Physic, 222
The Talisman, 236
In the Forest, 2,44
'A Froward Child', 250
Miss Miller, 267
The House, 278
A Revenant, 190
'A Nest of Singing-Birds', 314
The Trumpet, 333
A BEGINNING AND OTHER STORIES (1955)
Odd Shop, 359
Music, 363
The Stranger, 372
Neighbours, 379The Princess, 383
The Guardian, 392
The Face, 402
The Cartouche, 417
The Picture, 430
The Quincunx, 434
An Anniversary, 443
Bad Company, 464
A Beginning, 469
UNCOLLECTED STORIES
The Lynx, 487
A Sort of Interview, 489
The Miller's Tale, 495
A:B:O., 501
UNPUBLISHED STORIES
The Orgy: An Idyll, Part II, 515
Late, 533
Pig, 538
Dr Iggatt, 551
Bibliographical Appendix, 555
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