| Synopsis: |
The Woman Who Had Imagination, H.E. Bates's fourth volume of stories, first published in 1934 (Jonathan Cape), is a fascinating collection of contrasts. The stories combine elements of realism and poetry, beauty and ugliness, tenderness and irony. Graham Greene, writing in the Spectator, lauded the collection as `the first volume of Mr. Bates's maturity' and Bates as `an artist of magnificent originality with a vitality quite unsuspected hitherto'.This is brilliantly demonstrated in the title story, `The Woman Who Had Imagination', the heart-rending story of an Italian woman, revealed through the casual meetings and conversations that take place on a day's outing of a country choir. The contrast between `The Waterfall', with its melancholy and grace, and the disturbing tensions in `The Brothers', emphasises Bates's mastery of both the delicate and the disquieting. It is also in this collection that we are introduced to the much-loved comic narrator, Uncle Silas, in `The Lily', `The Wedding' and `Death of Uncle Silas.'In addition to the original collection this edition includes two extra stories. `The Country Doctor' concerns a woman's grief on the death of her dearest friend. It was first published in the Fortnightly Review in 1931 with the title `The Country Sale', and later in the limited edition The Story Without an End and The Country Doctor (White Owl Press, 1932), and has not been reprinted since. `The Parrot' chronicles a man, a marriage and the eponymous parrot, and has only previously been published in 1928 in T.P.'s Weekly, founded by the radical MP, T.P. O'Connor. |