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Collected Stories of Carson McCullers, including The Member of the Wedding and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

Collected Stories of Carson McCullers, including The Member of the Wedding and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
By Carson McCullers

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Product Description

Carson McCullers--novelist, dramatist, poet--was at the peak of her powers as a writer of short fiction. Here are nineteen stories that explore her signature themes: wounded adolescence, loneliness in marriage, and the tragicomedy of life in the South. Here too are "The Member of the Wedding" and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," novellas that Tennessee Williams judged to be "assuredly among the masterpieces of our language." (A Mariner Reissue)

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #82897 in Books
  • Published on: 1998-09-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 416 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
This work collects for the first time all 19 of McCullers's stories from a 1951 edition and from The Mortgaged Heart (1971). Her most critically acclaimed novels round out the reader, while the author's biographer Virginia Carr provides a lucid, thoughtful introduction. McCullers patented the Southern gothic genre that embraces grotesque, morbid characters with such pervading themes as unrequited love and wounded adolescence. Largely set in the South and richly autobiographical, her writings have endured because of their great power and originality. Sure to appeal to the general reader, the volume will also satisfy scholars with its broad look at McCullers's oeuvre. Edward C. Lynskey, Documentation, Atlantic Research Corp., Alexandria, Va.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
This work collects for the first time all 19 of McCullers's stories from a 1951 edition and from The Mortgaged Heart (1971). Her most critically acclaimed novels round out the reader, while the author's biographer Virginia Carr provides a lucid, thoughtful introduction. McCullers patented the Southern gothic genre that embraces grotesque, morbid characters with such pervading themes as unrequited love and wounded adolescence. Largely set in the South and richly autobiographical, her writings have endured because of their great power and originality. Sure to appeal to the general reader, the volume will also satisfy scholars with its broad look at McCullers's oeuvre. Edward C. Lynskey, Documentation, Atlantic Research Corp., Alexandria, Va.
(Library Journal )

About the Author

Carson McCullers (1917-1967) was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, Reflections in a Golden Eye, and Clock Without Hands. Born in Columbus, Georgia, on February 19, 1917, she became a promising pianist and enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York when she was seventeen, but lacking money for tuition, she never attended classes. Instead she studied writing at Columbia University, which ultimately led to The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, the novel that made her an overnight literary sensation. On September 29, 1967, at age fifty, she died in Nyack, New York, where she is buried.

Customer Reviews

A wonderful collection5
This book contains a wealth of moving stories by a great writer, including a well-written introduction by her biographer. This would definitely be one of my desert island books.

Interesting...5
I have always read stories in the past that gave me feelings right away. After reading these short stories, I was somewhat confused why McCullers didn't elaborate, or why she ended the story where she did. It was only after reading her biography, that I began to reread the stories and became obsessed with all of them. The meanings became clearer, the ideas behind them were revealed, and she has become my favorite author. I would recommend this to anyone, and I would also recommend her novels too. Enjoy.

A master of characterization and setting4
What strikes me most about McCullers is the simple yet rich complexity of her characters. While some of the earlier stories in this book felt too incomplete for me, as if they were more vignettes than stories, the tales grew stronger as I read on. The Haunted Boy is my favorite because it resonates with a sad truthfulness as a boy struggles to cope with a tragic event from the past which he's yet to deal with emotionally.

I think any true fan of literary storytelling will admit that, though perhaps not always perfect, Carson McCullers' writing as a whole is a sample of this genre at its best.