The Complete Short Stories: Volume 1 - Softcover

Ballard, J. G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007242298 ISBN 13: 9780007242290

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2014

Synopsis

First in a two volume collection of short stories by the acclaimed author of ‘Empire of the Sun’, ‘Crash’ and ‘Super-Cannes’. The new edition is introduced by Adam Thirwell.

With eighteen novels over four decades – from ‘The Drowned World’ in 1962 to his final novel ‘Kingdom Come’ in 2006 – J.G. Ballard is known as one of Britain’s most celebrated and original novelists.

However, during his long career he was also a prolific writer of short stories; in fact, many people consider that he is at his best in the short-story format. These highly influential stories have appeared in magazines such as New Worlds, Amazing Stories and Interzone, and in several separate collections, including ‘The Terminal Beach’, ‘The Venus Hunters’, ‘Vermilion Sands’, ‘Low-Flying Aircraft’ and ‘Myths of the Near Future’.

Set out in the original order of publication and frequently the point of conception for ideas he further developed in his novels, these stories provide an unprecedented opportunity to see the imagination of one of Britain’s greatest writers at work. This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Robert Macfarlane, Iain Sinclair, James Lever and Ali Smith) and brand-new cover designs from the artist Stanley Donwood.

About this title

Review:

The Complete Short Stories of JG Ballard are required reading for all connoisseurs of Ballard's writing. This compilation brings together 96 short stories drawn from previous collections of Ballard's short stories, including The Voices of Time and War Fever, as well as four previously uncollected stories. The result is an exhilarating overview of Ballard's development as a short-story writer, from the singing orchids of Vermilion Sands in Prima Belladonna, completed in 1956, to the millennial anxieties of Report from an Obscure Planet, written in 1992.

The Complete Short Stories confirm Ballard's stature as a craftsman of the short story, which often suits his surreal brilliance above and beyond later novels such as Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes. In his Introduction, Ballard reflects, "the short story is coined from precious metal, a glint of gold that will glow for ever in the deep purse of your imagination." Time and again, whether exploring the furthest reaches of science fiction, or the banal surrealism of English suburban life, Ballard's perverse insight lodges itself in your imagination, as he explores and often punctures what he refers to as "that over-worked hologram called reality". This collection will delight devotees, but it will also allow readers new to Ballard to experience a short-story writer of the stature of Borges, Bradbury or Edgar Allan Poe. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

‘More than one thousand compelling pages from one of the most haunting, cogent and individual imaginations in contemporary literature’ William Boyd

‘A marvel ... there is something a little shaming in reading Ballard: you have to face the fact that there exist writers with such fresh imaginations they can’t write five pages without stumbling on an alternate world’ Zadie Smith

‘Simply a master story writer – the maker of unforgettable artefacts in words’ Jonathan Lethem

‘Indispensable ... probably the most original English writer of the last century’ China Miéville

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0007242298
• ISBN 13: 9780007242290
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 784