"Like most great comedy," writes Darin Strauss in his Introduction, "Mr. Beluncle makes sport of the Stuffed Shirt, the Hypocritical Pious Gentleman, and the Tyrant, as well as the Big Spender - and all these descriptions fit a single character: Mr. Beluncle himself." One of V. S. Pritchett's most enduring characters, Mr. Beluncle is narcissistic, sanctimonious, and self-indulgent, yet despite these flaws he is undeniably compelling. Readers who follow this quirky British furniture salesman on his seemingly ordinary escapades - shopping for ridiculously expensive houses, attending services at his peculiar church, presiding over a tumultuous family meal - are in for a delightful and disquieting ride.

Nine works are presented by the English master of the short story

Gathers short stories, literary criticism, and essays by the British writer who began as a journalist in the 1920s

On Swift, Kipling, Conrad, Greene, James, Wilson, Bellow, O'Connor, Lady Murasaki and other English and American writers, characters and exotics.

The eminent English critic and short-story writer reflects, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, on his present day-by-day life and changes in himself and the quality of life over the course of the century