by PatriciaHighsmith (Author), Graham Greene (Foreword)
The legendary writer Patricia Highsmith is best remembered today for her chilling psychological thrillers The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train. A critically acclaimed best seller in Europe, Highsmith has for too long been underappreciated in the United States. Starting in 2011, Grove Press will begin to reissue nine of Highsmith's works. Eleven is Highsmith's first collection of short stories, an arresting group of dark masterpieces of obsession and foreboding, violence and instability. Here naturalists meet gruesome ends and unhinged heroes disturb our sympathies. This is a captivating, important collection from one of the truly brilliant short-story writers of the twentieth century (Otto Penzler). Includes an introduction by Graham Greene.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: Reissue
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 12 Jul 2011
ISBN 10: 0802145302
ISBN 13: 9780802145307
The mood of nagging apprehension is consistent, skillfully underplayed so that just the right amount of chill is induced with an economy of means. --J. R. Frankes, The New York Times Book Review
Highsmith is the poet of apprehension rather than fear. . . . In her short stories Highsmith naturally has to adopt a different method. She is after the quick kill rather than the slow encirclement of the reader, and how admirably and with what field-craft she hunts us down. --Graham Greene
Highsmith's genius is in presenting fantasy's paradox: successes are not what they seem . . . Where in the traditional fairy tale the heroine turns the toad into a prince, in Highsmith's fable the prince becomes a toad--success is nearly always fatal. . . . Combining the best features of the suspense genre with the best of existential fiction--a reflection--the stories are fabulous, in all senses of that word. --Paul Theroux
A brilliant collection. --The Sunday Times (UK)
One of the truly brilliant short-story writers of the 20th century. --Otto Penzler
She's sui generis, a writer of almost occult power. --Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times