First published 1979
This anthology presents stories in multiple versions, revealing how authors reshape their work across time. Jack London's "To Build a Fire" appears in two different iterations. Katherine Mansfield's "The Child-Who-Was-Tired" sits alongside Chekhov's "Sleepy." D.H. Lawrence's "Odour of Chrysanthemums" unfolds in three distinct versions. The collection includes paired works like Guy de Maupassant's "The Jewelry" with Henry James's "Paste," and contrasts different takes on similar themes through Isak Dinesen's "The Heroine" and Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover" versus Shirley Jackson's "The Daemon Lover." Authors featured range from Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne to contemporary voices like James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, and Ralph Ellison. The anthology demonstrates how writers refine their craft, showing the evolution of individual stories and the conversation between authors working with shared material. Each pairing illuminates the choices writers make in structure, character, and theme.
Genres: fiction, anthologies, 20th-century
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
689 pages · Paperback · Houghton Mifflin