Representing more than twenty years

of work, this collection brings together

Penelope Gilliatt s finest short stories

in one volume. The majority are from

her now hard-to-find collections Come

Back If lt Doesn t Get Better, Nobody s

Business, and Splendid Lives. Selec-

tions from the most recent, and ac-

claimed, Quotations From Other Lives

and They Sleep Without Dreaming

complete the collection.

Penelope Gilliatt brings to ] ife a rich

variety of characters and scenes. We

meet a female literary agent who smokes

cigars and whose face "looked like a

Buick"; two great actresses in ruthless,

polite combat; and a grandmother who

daily shuttles her grandson back and

forth between New York and Rome.

All the stories display Gilliatt s

unmistakable hallmarks--the subtle

irony, scrupulous eye for detail, and

impeccable ear for speech that have

made her one of the masters ot the

contemporary short story. She is a

buoyantly witty writer who is deeply

serious, a profound writer who is irre-

sistibly funny, and always a brilliant

stylist.