My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro

Description

A wide-ranging and eclectic collection of short stories on the theme of love in its various forms: romantic, erotic, impossible, undying and exhausted. No other aspect of the human experience regularly inspires such an outpouring of poetry, prose and philosophy as love. From passionate declarations to clinical analysis, writers of every age have been fascinated, tormented and inspired by love. This beautifully produced collection of short stories will combine the best of contemporary and classic fiction on the theme of love, from Catullus to Alice Munro. Edited and introduced by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Middlesex', this wonderfully heterodox look at love will include, amongst others, 'A Rose for Emily' by William Faulkner, 'The Lady with the Lapdog' by Anton Chekhov and stories by Lorrie Moore, Milan Kundera and Guy de Maupassant.

Jeffrey Eugenides graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, and received an MA in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University in 1986. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Yale Review, Best American Short Stories and Granta's 'Best of Young American Novelists'. His first novel, 'The Virgin Suicides', has been translated into fifteen languages and made into a major motion picture. His second novel, 'Middlesex', won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003.

'[A] brilliant collection of love stories!An absolute must-read.' Harper's Bazaar, Editor's picks of the month 'Better than a bunch of flowers, if not so sweet.' Metro 'Eugenides has written a marvellous little essay on the love story to introduce his choices! an outstanding collection' Joanna Trollope, The Times '[Eugenides's] artful arrangement of the stories adds to their pleasure. The collection is full of intriguing echoes that complement...one's responses' Sunday Telegraph 'There are plenty of stories here which any lover of good writing -- if not perhaps every lover -- will enjoy.' Scotsman 'A wonderful anthology of short stories.' Red 'The mix chosen by Eugenides is wonderful!The plots are wildly different; the range in tone, form and style is immense. This brings unexpected delights! And it is a bigger thrill to realize that however painful the heartbreak, love offers real rewards -- and these stories are among them.' LA Times