Patty R. reviewed From Altar to Chimney-Piece: Selected Stories (Recovered Classics Series) (Recovered Classics Series) on + 96 more book reviews
From Library Journal
These stories chronicle the lives and mores of a Bohemian set of writers, actors, and artists who frequented the fashionable salons of Europe between the wars. In the story "With and Without Buttons," two sisters conspire to convince their neighbor that his house is haunted only to have the tables turned on them by what appear to be real ghostly manifestations. "In Bayswater" tells of a distraught mother who persuades the friend of her dissolute son to rent rooms in her house so that he can keep an eye on her son. The friend slowly comes to realize that the mother is at least as untrustworthy as his friend. The short stories of Mary Butts possess an intriguing relation to the present moment. "Lost" for 60 years, they appear now in the USA for the first time ever with freshness and panache.
These stories chronicle the lives and mores of a Bohemian set of writers, actors, and artists who frequented the fashionable salons of Europe between the wars. In the story "With and Without Buttons," two sisters conspire to convince their neighbor that his house is haunted only to have the tables turned on them by what appear to be real ghostly manifestations. "In Bayswater" tells of a distraught mother who persuades the friend of her dissolute son to rent rooms in her house so that he can keep an eye on her son. The friend slowly comes to realize that the mother is at least as untrustworthy as his friend. The short stories of Mary Butts possess an intriguing relation to the present moment. "Lost" for 60 years, they appear now in the USA for the first time ever with freshness and panache.
