The Ballad Of The Sad Caf And Other Stories

A Southern woman is undone by love and gossip in the classic novella, one of seven stories in this “brilliant . . . panorama of remarkable talent” (The New York Times). One of the most celebrated and enduringly popular works in Southern literature, this collection assembles Carson McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” A haunting tale of love and violence in a small Southern town, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable woman whose home serves as the town’s gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes McCullers’s first published story, “Wunderkind,” about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. First published in 1951, The Ballad of the Sad Café was adapted for the stage by the Edward Albee and later made into a film starring Vanessa Redgrave and Keith Carradine. “McCullers's finest stories.” —The New York Times

'Brilliant ... a panorama of a remarkable talent ... McCullers's finest stories' The New York Times Few writers have expressed loneliness, the need for human understanding and the search for love with such power and poetic sensibility as the American writer Carson McCullers, and The Ballad of the Sad Café collects her best-loved novella together with six short stories, published in Penguin Modern Classics. Miss Amelia Evans, tall, strong and nobody's fool, runs a small-town store. Except for a disastrous marriage that lasted just ten days, she has always lived alone. Then Cousin Lymon appears from nowhere, a strutting hunchback who steals Miss Amelia's heart. Together they transform the store into a lively, popular café where the locals come to drink and gossip. But when her rejected and dangerous ex-husband Marvin Macy returns, the result is a bizarre love triangle that brings with it violence, hatred and betrayal. Among other fine works, the collection also includes 'Wunderkind', McCullers's first published story written when she was only seventeen, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.

Six stories including "Wunderkind," "A Domestic Dilemma," and "The Sojourner" accompany the novella about shattered dreams in a small Southern town.

A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers s best stories, including her beloved novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose cafe serves as the town s gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes Wunderkind, McCullers s first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. Newly reset and available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South s finest writers."

Presents a collection of critical essays on Poe's novel, The tell-tale heart, arranged chronologically in the order of their original publication.