A Month by the Lake & Other Stories

New York: New Directions, 1987.

The first of three story collections published by New Directions after Bates's death, with a four-page introduction by Anthony Burgess (attached) in which the English novelist appreciates Bates's mastery of a variety of literary forms and notes his "variety of tone, the manner in which the vocabulary expands or contracts to fit the subject, and the faultless ear for human speech. Noting that "Bates's affection for ordinary people is one of his shining virtues," he adds that "I would never suggest that Bates opened up new territory, but he achieved such sovereignty of what literary land he inherited that he deserves the homage of our uncomplicated enjoyment."

Reviews:

• Studies in Short Fiction (Winter 1988, p. 79, Dean Baldwin, attached)
• Virginia Quarterly Review (Summer 1988, p. 79, attached)
• The New Criterion (Vol 6, no 7, March 1988, pp. 72-73, Brock Baker, attached)
  

Contains: A Month by the Lake, The Flame, Time, Sergeant Carmichael, It's Just the Way It Is, The Flag, Elaine, Country Society, The Evolution of Saxby, The Maker of Coffins, The Cowslip Field, Death and the Cherry Tree, The Butterfly, Where the Cloud Breaks, Mrs. Eglantine, The Chords of Youth, The Song of the Wren.