V.S. Pritchett, The Pritchett Century ***

You see them in your grandmother's house or in model homes that aspire to class up their libraries. Faux-leather-bound books with the names of vaguely remembered authors in gold lettering on the spine: Horace, Trollope, Richardson, Bellow. In its musty pages you find a collection of poems, biographical excerpts, chapters from novels, and essays from defunct periodicals. V.S. Pritchett is a well-respected mid-century author that no one reads anymore, and The Pritchett Century is just this kind of miscellany collection, with short stories, autobiography, literary criticism, and excerpts from novels. The title derives from the fact that Pritchett was born in 1900 and died in 1997.

Pritchett has a clear smooth prose style. He is best known for his stories, many of which get their drama from a narrator slowly coming to realize that his assumptions about another character are wrong. For example, in "When My Girl Comes Home" a woman returns home after the Second World War and her family and friends believe she suffered hardship overseas; they have a hard time adjusting as the real story of her time away contradicts the picture they've had of her.

The autobiographical sections were entertaining, especially his childhood visits to Yorkshire, and it was fun to spot the details that made their way into the stories. His travel pieces and literary criticism seemed insightful, although they were often about places or authors I don't know well.

Overall, The Pritchett Century was a reminder of the many fine authors who once enjoyed a substantial (and deserved) reputation but are drifting out of fashion. Not just Pritchett himself, but also several of the writers he discusses: Walter Scott, Tobias Smollett, George Meredith, Saul Bellow, S.J. Perelman.