Miss Bracegirdle and Others

Stacy Aumonier was Britain's best-kept literary secret, the kind of writer whose work makes you wonder why he isn't mentioned alongside Saki and Maugham. This 1923 collection opens with "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty," a comic masterpiece about a prim spinster on her first trip abroad who finds herself trapped in a Bordeaux hotel room with a stranger asleep on the bed, and the door handle broken off in her hand. The comedy is meticulously observed, built on character rather than punchlines. But Aumonier's true gift lies in the darker currents beneath the surface: the jealousy, obsession, and quiet desperation that haunt his characters. "The Octave of Jealousy" tears open the polite facade of British respectability to reveal something raw and devastating underneath. These are stories about the things people don't say, the desires they suppress, and the catastrophic moments when the mask slips. For readers who savor the English short story at its most polished and psychologically acute, Aumonier remains a revelation.