Despite the title of this book, it is far from a complete edition
of A. E. Coppard's short stories. I own the Knopf edition, which
came out back in the 1950's, and it contains 38 stories selected
from a corpus of over 200.

The selection is good and satisfying, but some of the omissions
are peculiar. In particular, I'd single out the absence of the
story "Black Dog," one of Coppard's best novella-length works.

The selection as such has no real clunkers, and it could serve
as a good introduction to Coppard's work, if the book can be
located. Coppard seems unjustly neglected these days, so it
might be difficult if one plans to wait for a new edition of
his work.

Personally, I'd like to see a _Complete Stories_, which I
would buy in a heartbeat. Such an occurrance seems of low
probability these days.

Readers who like these stories might give the stories of
Walter de la Mare, Frank O'Connor, and D.H Lawrence a
try (not Lawrence's novels, which are very different).