The Collected Stories [Paperback]

William TREVOR (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: (Viking) (1992)
• ASIN: B000X72IZA
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,121,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Trevor was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork. He has written many novels, and has won many prizes including the Hawthornden Prize, the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Award, and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. His most recent novel Love and Summer was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He is also a renowned short-story writer, and his two-volume Collected Stories was published by Viking Penguin in 2009. In 1999 William Trevor received the prestigious David Cohen Literature Prize in recognition of a lifetime's literary achievement, and in 2002 he was knighted for his services to literature. He now lives in Devon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WARNING: Intemperate Review Ahead!, October 9, 2002

By 

Eric J. Matluck (Hackettstown, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Trevor: The Collected Stories (Mass Market Paperback)

Not all stars are created equal. By awarding 5 stars to this book, the implication must be that they are stars of the purest gold. I have read some "5-star" novels and short story collections before, but little, in my experience, compares with this: the combination of an extraordinarily beautiful prose style, the seemingly effortless creation of literally hundreds if not thousands of alternately sympathetic and detestable (but always vividly memorable) characters, a profound insight into the psychology of the human mind to rival (and pretty easily surpass) that of any other writer alive, a recreation of atmosphere so real it clings, and a brilliant inventiveness when it comes to creating great story lines (and, often, superbly twisty [but never illogical] endings) places this collection among the very greatest of its kind. One measure of how deeply impressed I was with this book is that now, more than half a year since I finished it, I can look back through the table of contents and still remember not merely every story with tremendous vividness, but often where I was at the time I read it.

Stated broadly, Trevor's stories seem to fall into two distinct types, English and Irish. The former tend to be (as do many of the earlier stories) sharp and edgy, whereas the latter tend to be quiet and pastoral. Although it is the Irish stories that appear to garner the greatest praise from the critics, I prefer the greater cynicism (often bordering on, but never quite reaching, downright misanthropy) of the English stories.

Having to choose my favorites from among this potent collection is akin to separating gold coins that are 100% pure from those that are 99.975% pure (soft though they would be!), but three continue to haunt me just a little more than the others. "The Death of Peggy Meehan," one of the Irish stories, and one of the collection's shortest, tells the tale of a young lad who is taken to his first movie during a summer vacation, and how the fantasies he draws after seeing that movie color (for better or worse) the rest of his life. "In at the Birth," is, unusually for Trevor, a creepy ghost story that Rod Serling would have marveled over. In it, an elderly woman takes a baby-sitting job for a peculiar couple who turn out to be (and this is hardly among the most riveting revelations provided) childless. But rather than leave me frightened, it left me pondering the meaning of life, age, and human relationships. Finally, "The Hotel of the Idle Moon," is what I described to a friend as "the greatest short story ever written." Its title is especially evocative and, in its context, has a host (no pun intended!) of powerful resonances. The "set up" is baldly cliche: on a dark and stormy night a middle-aged couple stop in front of an estate, pretending that their car has broken down. Foul play, one can be sure, is bound to ensue. And so it does. But the play is much fouler and more upsetting than anything anyone can imagine (trust me, until you read this story you cannot imagine what happens). It is one of Trevor's gifts that such a story can't be adequately explained. It has to be read, felt, lived. Suffice it to say that by the end we realize that we have read nothing less than a parable of (very) contemporary times (I don't know when it was written) that manages, in a trice, to both limn and condemn humankind since the beginning of history.

High marks also to "The Table," which reads like a hilarious comedy of errors until the last line suddenly blackens everything that came before it with perfect (and perfectly uncanny) inevitability, "The Forty-Seventh Saturday," as poignant a story of loneliness as I know, and "O Fat White Woman" (the title may be funny; the story is anything but), which spins a tale of the tragedy that follows passive resistance. (And when is the last time you read a story that dealt with that? Why does it seem that Trevor is our only contemporary writer who consistently confronts such common yet seemingly taboo foibles?). As is usual with Trevor, the tragedy occurs on many planes and is of an inestimable magnitude.

Oh, heck, let me not forget "Nice Day at School," an incredibly sensitive and piercing drama, and the superb and highly regarded "In Isfahan," in which a married, middle-aged English man meets a married, youngish English woman on tour in Iran. They try to get close, but their chequered pasts prevent them. What we don't realize until the end, however, is that one of their pasts isn't real. Or is it? And what purpose does fantasy play in encroaching human relationships? Can it be used to repel as well as to lure? Or is it there to comfort? And, if so, comfort whom? Particularly rich stuff.

Amidst a sea of great short story collections, this one by William Trevor will always have its place at the top. There's a word for books like this, and that word is "perfect." May it never go out of print.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Prose Writer in the English Language, February 22, 2000

By 

Tom O'Leary "Writer" (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: William Trevor: The Collected Stories (Mass Market Paperback)

This book sits perched in the backseat of my car, easily accessed for a quick William Trevor fix. Trevor is, for me, God's greatest current gift to literature. Each of these stories is a gem. The characters are complex and the situations they find themselves in moving, funny and unique. I recommend this book to anyone who loves language, wit and perfect storytelling.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the greatest of all short story collections, April 23, 1999

By 

asphlex "asphlex" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: William Trevor: The Collected Stories (Mass Market Paperback)

This is, perhaps,the finest of all books. With 85 magnificent stories, virtually every one a solid masterpiece,William Trevor stands at the ultimate heights of his genre. Each story is a compressed gem and,while I have to admit that not every one is the greatest thing ever written, when you are blown away by about 1100 pages of a 1261 page opus, it is worth it in the end. Even the lesser stories have their merits, beautiful writing and sincere exploration of character. This is a book that everyone should read. I understand that this is a bit of an ethusiastic cliche and it is not a statement I have made before. But the sometimes comedic, usually heartbreaking tales contained within this book are just about all anyone needs to learn the wide range of emotions suffered by humanity. Do not pass up this unique offer. You will never have a better opportunity to be entertained while learning everything about human nature.