The Collected Stories of Peter Taylor

In this collection of short fiction, one of the heralded masters of the form examines the lives of men and women in the 1930s and ’40s South—a region and a time he knew at first-hand. Living in a well-ordered world that’s beginning to lose its equilibrium, Taylor’s fascinating characters struggle to come to terms with the constricting circumstances into which they were born. Delicately interweaving the joys and pains of these families, Peter Taylor goes beyond regionalism to the simple truths recognizable to people everywhere.

Dean of men
First heat
Reservations
The other times
At the drugstore
A spinster’s tale
The fancy woman
Their losses
Two pilgrims
What do you hear from ’em?
A wife of Nashville
Cookie
Venus, Cupid, folly and time
1939
There
The elect
Guests
Heads of houses
Mrs. Billingsby’s wine
Je suis perdu
Miss Leonora when last seen