Here are some of the finest short stories by masters of the genre. From the lyrical prose of Thomas Hardy we move to the irreverent wit of Kingsley Amis via, among others, Virginia Woolf and Muriel Spark, whose two very different monologues appear in this collection. D. H. Lawrence, Joyce Cary and James Joyce demonstrate that they are as at home with the miniature of the short-story form as with the broad canvas of the novel. Together these fifteen stories demonstrate that the last century has been a golden age for the short story.