The Camberwell Beauty and Other Stories

First published in 1974, this collection of short stories observes English and sometimes foreign lives at close range: marriages, small businesses, lodgings, and the vanities of writers and dealers. The title story concerns a recluse who keeps a young woman among his antiques. Other pieces turn on embarrassment, sudden intimacy, and the gap between what people say and what they want. Settings are often London streets and provincial rooms. The book is a set of independent character studies, not a novel and not a social survey.

Bound in picture blocked dark green cloth. Dark green slipcase and endleaves. Dark green slipcase.