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Extremely Entertaining Short Stories
Extremely Entertaining Short Stories
ERTA I NIN
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Short Stories
SHORT
STORIES
from
World War I
&
the 1920s
by
Stacy
Aumonier
PHTON
by
Stacy Aumonier
E
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y
e
l
r
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t
a
m
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ni n
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Short Stories
by
Stacy Aumonier
PHTON
PUBLISHING LTD.
978-0-9553756-3-7
978-0-9553756-5-1
paperback
hardback
vii
Introduction
viii
Introduction
Introduction
ix
xiv
Introduction
colds the whole time. When I spoke to Dr about
it, he acknowledged the dampness but said it didnt
do the patients any harm. Then he talked about the
men in the trenches. I could never quite see the
force of this comparisonIf well enough, I expect to
go to Switzerland in October for the winter.
xv
From a Foreword by John Galsworthy (winner of the Nobel
prize for literature in 1932) to a collection of some of Stacy
Aumoniers short stories. He wrote it in 1929, the year after
Aumoniers death.
xvi
A short-story writer is always beset by the temptation
to be inventive rather than creative or even recreative.
This is a temptation to which Aumonier rarely if ever
succumbed. He was profoundly in love with life, and
impregnated through and through by curiosity about life
and its manifestations, whether simple or queer. All types
were fish to his net; and he has given us the fruits of
his passion for, and his curiosity about, existence with
a deft and always interesting fidelity. And with what
sympathy he can hit off character!His humour is sly
and dry and frequent and wholly delightful. And how he
puts his finger on weak spots! Yet with what restraint he
satirizes!
Stacy Aumonier is never heavy, never boring, never
really trivial; interested himself, he keeps us interested. At
the back of his tales there is belief in life and a philosophy
of life, and of how many short-story writers can that be
said? He understands the art of movement in a tale, he
has the power of suggestion, he has a sense of line that
most of us should envy; he is wholly uninfluenced by the
dreary self-consciousness of novelty for noveltys sake. He
is not tricky. He follows no fashion and no school. He is
always himself. And cant he write? Ah! far better than
far more pretentious writers. Nothing escapes his eye, but
he describes without affectation or redundancy, and you
sense in him a feeling for beauty that is never obtruded.
He gets values right, and that is to say nearly everything.
The easeful fidelity of his style has militated against his
reputation in these somewhat posturing times. But his
shade may rest in peace, for in this volume, at least, he
will outlive nearly all the writers of his day.
John Galsworthy
xvii
Contents
story
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.
xi.
xii.
xiii.
xiv.
xv.
xvi.
xvii.
xviii.
xix.
xx.
xxi.
xxii.
xxiii.
xxiv.
xxv.
xxvi.
xxvii.
xxviii.
xxix.
an essay
page
1
21
37
54
68
81
100
119
133
159
183
199
211
229
249
260
271
297
319
337
357
382
397
419
437
463
485
508
529
551
he
was a schoolmaster, a most estimable kind gentleman.
They were never engaged
ii
A Source of Irritation
22
A Source of Irritation
23
iii
Juxtapositions
green
fancy loving
green! The idiot! Do you remember what Corot said? He
said Nature was too green and too badly lighted. Now the
old man was quite right
When Squidge starts talking in this strain he is rather
apt to go off the deep end. I yawned and murmured
sweetly:
We were talking about Colin St Clair Chasseloup.
Exactly! And Im trying to point out to you how,
with Colin St Clair Chasseloup, its all a question of
juxtapositions. You say that Colin is a frozen drunkard, a
surly bore, a high-pressure nonentity. Listen to me. Were
all nice people, every one of us. Give a man the right air
he should breathe, the right food he should eat, the right
work he should do, the right people he should associate
with, and hes a perfect dear, every one of him. There isnt
a real irreconcilable on the earth. But the juxtaposition
What has Chasseloup to complain of? He has money,
a charming wife, children, a place in the country, a flat in
town. He does exactly what he likes.
37
38
Juxtapositions
39
iv
The Room
The Room
55
56
xxviii
509
510
T REM E LY
X
E
ERTA I NIN
T
G
EN
SHORT
STORIES
from
World War I
&
the 1920s
by
PHTON
PUBLISHING LTD.
Paperback 12.99
Hardback 19.50
ISBN 978-0-9553756-3-7
9 780955 375637
Stacy
Aumonier
PHTON