A Spirit Rises

The original U.S. blurb says it well, '. . .But some readers consider her short stories the best vehicle for her impeccable craftsmanship, her peerless ability to sketch in a few deft lines a man or woman in a brief moment of destiny - tragic, comic, absurd or moving. These fourteen new stories are once again evidence of her wit and irony, her grace and poise.'

A Spirit Rises comprises fourteen stories: "Youth and the Lady"; "The Locum Tenens"; "The Fifth of November"; "A Question of Disposal"; "Barnby Robinson"; "In a Shaken House"; "The Old Nun"; "Randolph"; "On Living for Others"; "A Dressmaker"; "A Spirit Rises"; "The Snow Guest"; "During a Winter Night"; "A Work of Art."

Many of the stories first appeared in The New Yorker which makes the dedication to William Maxwell all the more appropriate. A Spirit Rises is one of four collections of Sylvia Townsend Warner's short stories that Faber Finds are reissuing: "Winter in the Air"; "A Spirit Rises"; "A Stranger with a Bag"; "Scenes of Childhood."