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The British and Irish Short Story Handbook guides readers through the development of the short story and the unique critical issues involved in discussions of short fiction. It includes a wide-ranging analysis of non-canonical and non-realist writers as well as the major authors and their works, providing a comprehensive and much-needed appraisal of this area. Guides readers through the development of the short story and critical issues involved in discussions of short fiction Offers a detailed discussion of the range of genres in the British and Irish short story Includes extensive analysis of non-canonical writers, such as Hubert Crackanthorpe, Ella D'Arcy, T.F. Powys, A.E. Coppard, Julian Maclaren-Ross, Mollie Panter-Downes, Denton Welch, and Sylvia Townsend Warner Provide a wide-ranging discussion of non-realist and experimental short stories Includes a large section on the British short story in the Second World War
List of contents
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
Part 1 A Brief History of the British and Irish Short Story 1
Part 2 Issues in Short Story Criticism 33
Definitions 35
Genre? 40
Collections 42
Marginality 48
Canonicity 51
Institutions 54
Part 3 Genres 57
The Ghost Short Story, the Supernatural Short Story, and the Gothic Short Story 61
The Science Fiction Short Story and the Fantasy Short Story 63
The Fable 66
The Short Story of Exotic Adventure 68
The Detective and Crime Short Story 70
The Historical Short Story 72
The Realist Social-Psychological Short Story 74
The Metafictional/Experimental Short Story 77
Part 4 Key Authors 81
Richard Aldington (1892-1962) 83
J. G. Ballard (1930-2009) 84
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) 86
Frances Bellerby (1899-1975) 88
John Berger (born 1926) 89
Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) 91
Angela Carter (1940-1992) 93
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) 95
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) 97
A. E. Coppard (1878-1957) 99
Hubert Crackanthorpe (1870-1896) 101
Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) 103
Hugh Fleetwood (born 1944) 104
Graham Greene (1904-1991) 106
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) 108
Henry James (1843-1916) 110
Gabriel Josipovici (born 1940) 112
James Joyce (1882-1941) 114
James Kelman (born 1946) 116
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) 118
Hanif Kureishi (born 1954) 120
James Lasdun (born 1958) 122
Mary Lavin (1912-1996) 124
D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) 126
Doris Lessing (born 1919) 128
George Mackay Brown (1921-1996) 130
Julian Maclaren-Ross (1912-1964) 132
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) 134
Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) 136
E. A. Markham (1939-2008) 138
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) 140
Ian McEwan (born 1948) 142
John McGahern (1934-2006) 144
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) 146
H. H. Munro ("Saki") (1870-1916) 148
Frank O'Connor (1903-1966) 150
Sean O'Faolain (1900-1991) 152
Mollie Panter-Downes (1906-1997) 154
T. F. Powys (1875-1953) 156
V. S. Pritchett (1900-1997) 158
Jean Rhys (1890-1979) 161
Alan Sillitoe (1928-2010) 163
Muriel Spark (1918-2006) 165
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) 167
Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) 169
William Trevor (born 1928) 171
H. G. Wells (1866-1946) 173
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) 175
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) 176
Part 5 Key Works 177
Robert Louis Stevenson, "Markheim" (1885) 179
Oscar Wilde, "The Canterville Ghost: A Hylo-Idealistic Romance" (1887) 182
Oscar Wilde, "The Selfish Giant" (1888) 186
Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" (1892) 188
Hubert Crackanthorpe, "Modern Melodrama" (1895) 191
Henry James, "The Altar of the Dead" (1895) 194
Joseph Conrad, "Amy Foster" (1901) 199
George Moore, "Home Sickness" (1903) 203
H. G. Wells, "The Valley of Spiders" (1903) 206
M. R. James, "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" (1904) 209
H. H. Munro ("Saki"), "Sredni Vashtar" (1911) 212
James Joyce, "An Encounter" (1914) 214
D. H. Lawrence, "Tickets, Please" (1919) 217
Virginia Woolf, "Kew Gardens" (1919) 221
Katherine Mansfield, "The Strange
Report
"Overall, The British and Irish Short Story Handbook willbe a useful tool in the teaching of the short story atundergraduate and postgraduate level. Further, for scholars new tothe field of short story criticism it is an accessible yetwell-informed entry point. With the range of resources itoffers and the succinct summaries it provides of key issues, topicsand debates it collates some of the central tenets of the field. Iam sure it will set people off on a fruitful journey into theever-developing field of the British and Irish short story andshort story criticism." ( Irish Studies Review , 21November 2013)
" The British and Irish Short Story Handbook is anexcellent introduction to the short story as a literary form, butis of greater interest to the student than to a general reader, andmy reservations on the entry on Warner should not detract from thefact that her inclusion in it draws her closer to mainstreamliterary fiction as it is taught in schools and universities. Andfor that we should be grateful." ( Journal of the Sylvia TownsendWarner Society , 1 February 2013)
"Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates andgeneral readers." ( Choice , 1 November 2012)
