The Pritchett Century: A Selection of the Best by V. S. Pritchett (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Since my boyhood I have been vain of being born just before the end of 1900 and at every birthday thinking of myself as pretty..." (more)
Key Phrases: marvellous girl, cante hondo, girl comes home, Bill Williams, New York, Uncle Arthur (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sir Victor Pritchett disproved almost every cliché of literary life. After making a striking debut as a journalist and fiction writer during the 1920s, he not only failed to burn out in a fashionably bohemian style but got a second wind that carried him clear through the 1990s. In an age of specialization, he left his mark on a half-dozen genres--the novel, short fiction, memoir, casual essay, travel writing, and criticism. Throughout a career of such jaw-dropping duration, he resisted literary fads like the plagues that they are. Finally, he had that rarest of authorial virtues--common sense--which enlivens almost every word of The Pritchett Century. No doubt Pritchett fans will argue over what their hero did best. But his short stories, which leaven a near-Chekhovian delicacy with the driest of British wit, equal anything written in our age. And his criticism is as entertaining as it is accurate, particularly when he wrote about books he loved. (Here's Pritchett on Huckleberry Finn, for example, mixing his panegyric with a soupçon of poison: "Huck is a only a crude boy, but luckily he was drawn by a man whose own mind was arrested, with disastrous results in his other books, at the schoolboy stage; here it is perfect.") In any case, The Pritchett Century contains ample helpings of every genre, which adds up to an amazingly distinguished--let's say Victorious--anthology. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Pritchett has collected his favorite pieces from the impressive oeuvre of his father, noted critic and writer V.S. Pritchett (1900-97): parts of a Dickensian autobiography, travel pieces covering everything from the Amazon to the Appalachians, book reviews whose subjects range from Balzac to Rushdie, and, of course, his short stories. Raised in squalid surroundings he remembers with hardheaded affection, Pritchett became a revered knight of the realm. His own style was that of the great 19th-century realists?he remained so true to the traditions that a reader will have the impression of opening a book written in an earlier era?but he was open to stylistic innovations, as can be seen from the selections on Saul Bellow and Garcia Marquez. His short stories will undoubtedly remain for some time a model of the genre. With convincing dialog and apt descriptions, they begin near a turning point, presenting a slice-of-life that gives readers a great deal to discuss about human behavior. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Marilyn Gaddis Rose, SUNY at Binghamton
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library; Modern Library Paperback Ed edition (December 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037575217X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375752179
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #604,414 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unassuming Brilliance, September 21, 2002

By	P. A. Hogan (Providence RI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pritchett Century: The Selected Writings of V.S. Pritchett (Paperback)

"The Pritchett Century" is quality, from its gracious Foreword by Pritchett's son Oliver and John Bayley's lucid Introduction, on through 695 pages authored by "the grand old man of letters" himself. Bayley tells us, "Pritchett was fascinated by trades." This volume offers only a fraction of Pritchett's achievements over a 70-year span as a master craftsman in the writing trade whose stunning output included novels, memoirs, literary criticisms, and books of travel. In his short fiction, his true genius shines through with an unassuming sort of brilliance. This fine collection is merely a "teaser," but a hefty one chosen by his son with loving care: three selections of autobiography, eight of travel writing, passages from two novels, 13 short stories, passages from biographies of Turgenev and Chekhov, and 21 literary criticisms of writers as diverse as Sir Walter Scott, S.J. Perelman and Salman Rushdie.

Pritchett's short stories deserve particular mention. Here, Oliver has chosen some of his own favorites as well as those of his father and mother; all 13 were first published between 1938 and 1989. They are wonderful. Like chocolate truffles, you must taste them to know how delectable they really are, so indulge yourself in a miniature gem like "The Liars," a tale of two people, aged and lonely and helping each other make it through the afternoon. And, "When My Girl Comes Home," cited as the author's favorite. There are 11 others to savor. Then, surely you'll agree with what was said of V.S. Pritchett: "No one living writes a better English sentence."

We know that "The Pritchett Century" was the 20th Century - his life spanned 1900 to 1997. Read Pritchett. Read his novels, his memoirs, his literary criticisms, his travel books, but above all read his short stories. Read other 20th Century masters of short fiction, like Isaac Bashevis Singer, Elizabeth Bowen. And read William Trevor who, into the 21st Century, keeps on creating exceptional stories that are graced with a similar sort of unassuming brilliance.