Diana Secker Tesdell

A very solid collection of short stories from the 19th/20th centuries that all have something to do with the sea. I particularly enjoyed Jack London's "The House of Mapuhi" and Stephen Crane's "The Open Sea", which read like a watercolour painting; I didn't get on with Patricia Highsmith's "One for the Islands" or the last story, Mark Halprin's "Sail Shining in White" (smug; wildly unconvincing dialogue). Definitely one to dip into if you've got a thematic interest in the sea or seafaring.

A pleasant mix of stories but nothing that really made my brain zing. I think I liked the Conrad and Butler stories best.

Stories that I quite enjoyed: "Young Goodman Brown" (Hawthorne); "Troll Bridge" ( Gaiman); "The Poacher" (Le Guin); "The Bottle Imp" (Stevenson); "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"—perhaps my faviourite of the bunch (Bierce); "The Country of the Blind" (Wells); "The Tiger's Bride" (Carter); and "The Dancing Dwarf" (Murakami).

But I can't say I found any of the stories to be truly captivating, while some felt positively ponderous. Hence, three stars for the book overall.

Personal highlights include the evocative, atmospheric tales by Bradbury, Poe, Stevenson, Crane, and Ballard; and the rich character studies of Lessing, Updike, Conrad, and Dinesen.