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.

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A very good mix of stories. Collection has clearly been well thought through. I like the fact that it's in chronological order as it's interesting to see the styles change, not only author to author but decade to decade.

As with all short story collections, some are better than others. A great variety here though. ( )

Five stories in this collection were standouts for me:

At Hiruharama (by Penelope Fitzgerald)
Nuns at Luncheon (by Aldous Huxley)

and

The Destructors (by Graham Greene)
Solid Objects (by Virginia Woolf)
Toys of Peace (by Saki)