Selected Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Even though I was surprised that the Elfin tales did not thrill me (normally I love fairy tales and most versions thereof), the other stories – almost without a single exception – moved me, touched me, and awed me with their deft and economical power. If five stars means “amazing,” then, yeah, five stars.
I will go on record right now to say that “Oxenhope” is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read – and may be the most beautiful. “Total Loss” broke my heart (what’s left of it, anyway, after 60+ years of animals in my life); “At the Stroke of Midnight” is sharp, tragic, desperate, and a dark reprise of Lolly Willowes, a novel I cherish. A single half-sentence in “The Red Carnation” made me gasp.
The stories are small in scale, sparely written, often about people (especially women) trapped by their lives and circumstances and their attempts to free themselves. Yet there is a wry, sympathetic narrative tone that keeps them from being merely grim, but instead poignant, affecting. Every one of them prompts lightning flashes of recognition: “Oh, yes, I know exactly how that feels.”
On my shelf of lifetime treasures.
