This book reads like a highly entertaining series of lectures - and is none the worse for it (if true). Bayley in person could be unassuming and quietly spoken and that somehow made his acute and innovative insights more surprising. I can imagine the interests of students being piqued right at the start when Bayley doesn't begin with any of the great 19th century short story writers but with poets and the concept of the poem as a short story which he brilliantly illustrates with a discussion of Larkin's 'Dockery and Son'. The whole book is an understated treat in this vein - he is wonderful on Henry James for example and manages to talk about Todorov on James without ever becoming obscure. My only disappointment is that when he comes to 'Dubliners' he concentrates very largely on 'The Dead' and doesn't talk very much about the rest of the collection. You can't have everything though. This book is as much a pleasure to read as the primary sources and in some cases more so!

In the edition I borrowed (which is not on Goodreads) Harvester seem happy to connive with Bayley's stealth approach to quality and original criticism. The cover image (a Guy Malet wood engraving) is designed to convey I think that herein is a useful but unremarkable student crib. It is a lot more than that. ( )