John Cournos (1881–1966)

I got this book in a box of old books from a friend. Being short stories, and of an earlier time, I thought it might be interesting. And it was.

The stories were published between July 1921 and June 1922. Yup, 100 years ago. I find it interesting the different story lines, descriptions of surroundings and activities from earlier, and later, eras. These stories were published in various publications such as “The Strand,” The English Review,” “The Dial” and more.

They are vignettes of show more life at the time: people going through life and dealing with situations, good, bad and humorous.

The first one is titled “Where Was Wych Street?” Four men and a woman are sitting in the Wagtail in Wapping, discussing the recent death of a local. During the conversation, mention was made about Wych Street. Each person claims to have had personal dealings on or about the street. Interesting thing was each person had a different view of where the street had been located and what it was like.

Another is “The Bat and Belfry Inn.” A couple is touring North Wales and comes across a little picturesque hotel with a beautiful view of the valley. They stop for tea and to decide if they want to spend a few days there. What they find is a charming hotel with a staff comprised of some very strange characters. All is not what it seems.

Some stories are humorous and are sad, but all are interesting. It was enjoyable reading work by different authors under one cover. show less

The best of modern literature . . . interesting. The title of this book is somewhat misleading. I for one fell into the trap of reading it as "a world of great short stories," but the fact is that much of the book is filled with excerpts from larger works. The editors attempted to find representative short fiction from every country of the world — except African countries. Seems odd to me that they couldn't even find something to excerpt from Egypt or South Africa, but what do I know about show more Egyptian or African literature between 1900 and 1947?

In reading these stories one is left with a sense of how bleak, primitive and hopeless humanity was in the first half of the 20th century. How different a world that was from what most of us living and reading today have experienced. Of course, the effects of the world wars between 1914 and 1945 created living horrors, personal and economic, that we can barely imagine today. A huge majority of the stories collected here reflect badly on humanity both collectively and individually. However, there are a few bright spots. Some of the stories actually leave the reader with at least an inner smile.

The editors state at the outset that most countries did not have a short story tradition, so it would have been impossible to create such an international collection of short fiction without resorting to excerpts from novels and even one play.

Altogether this is a significant collection of tales representing the period. I read the stories randomly, and as luck would have it, ended on a high note. I found some authors whose work interests me enough to look for more of their writing. show less

This is an enjoyable collection of short stories ranging through various great authors of western lit. Anthologies frequently raise questions of the discrimination of the editors; this one is no exception. But that too is part of the enjoyment and learning process.

As its title suggests, this is a collection of short stories from all over the world. It is an amazing collection that surveys works from countries and authors familiar to English language readers, and provides translations of works from less familiar: divided into sections, 'Romance' includes works by Marcel Proust, Jean-Paul Sartre and Luigi Pirandello; 'Germanic and Scandinavian' includes stories by Rainer Marie Rilke, Isak Dinesen, and Sigrid Undset; 'Russian and East European' showcases show more stories by Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky and Karel Capek; the 'Oriental' section provides works by Lu Tsun, Mao Tun, Rabindranath Tagore, and Tawfiq Al-Hakim. These are just the authors I have a passing familiarity with. The 'Latin American' section provides treats from authors hitherto completely unknown to me, such as Augusto Cespedes and Jorge Ferretis. The English language world, labelled the 'American and British' lists luminaries such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Eudora Welty, G. K. Chesterton, Saki, James Joyce and Liam O'Flaherty. Australia is represented by Katherine Susannah Prichard, New Zealand by Katherine Mansfield. show less