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EDITORIAL FOREWORD
This volume of English short stories is the first in the series to be published by Penguins. Other volumes will include Modern Short Stories and American Short Stories. The aim of this collection is to appeal to the reader at large. No attempt has been made to conduct a historical survey of the English short story, and the collection starts in the mid nineteenth century, from which date the short story developed into a recognizable genre.
Most of the stories I have included are by outstanding novelists. However, an advantage of the short story as a literary form in its own right is that it allows an essentially minor talent to fulfil itself. Katherine Mansfield is a good example, and Somerset Maugham and H. G. Wells are as likely to be remembered for their stories as for their novels. Even Virginia Woolf, notwithstanding To the Lighthouse, is at her best in some of her marvellous early short stories.
The short story still flourishes, and the aim of this collection is to give some idea of the variety and individuality which the genre has developed over the last hundred years.
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