Not a ""Must Book"" in terms of the big market -- Elizabeth Bowen writes for the discriminating, and this book, a volume of short stories, is likely to sell less well than her novels. But many feel that she is England's finest woman writer, and the book is deserving of special attention. It is one for the discerning, the cultivated, taste. Fastidious, alert, witty, subtle, hers is an immaculate art. She is concerned with a very private world, that of the frailties, the fallibilities, the small discontents and tragedies which underlie the surface of existence. Her stories are often not completely whole -- they catch an episode, a perspective, a mood. Her characters, invariably charming, invariably uncertain, are always seeking for some change in themselves -- in their circumstances -- in society. Three of the finest (Reduced, Idle Tears, The Easter Egg Party) are about children, and are quite reminiscent of Katherine Mansfield. All have their share of ironic poignancy, of verity, and of beauty. Perfection in small compass.