The twenty short stories collected here span five decades, from 1929 to 1977. Most of them first appeared in The New Yorker, and all of them appear here in book form for the first time. They are, therefore, an exceptional and wholly unexpected treasure trove.

They are crowded with irrepressible, living characters and even more animated objects and incidents. There are stories of romantic love and the mysteries of marriage; of artists who speak the truth even as they distort reality; of gardens and houses and very fine things and of those who fancy themselves their owners. The centerpiece of the collection is a series of five linked stories about an eccentric establishment, the Abbey Antiques Gallery, and its singular proprietor, the urbane Mr. Edom -- not to mention its uncontrollable inventory, staff, and clientele.

With a foreword by William Maxwell, her long time editor at the New Yorker, and edited By Michael Steinman, THE MUSIC AT LONG VERNEY is both an important supplement to Sylvia Townsend Warner's literary legacy and the perfect introduction to her light wit and spry social observation.

"On every page, there is something to be seen or smelled or felt... Her genius is uncannily equable openness to human data, and beneath her refined witchery lies a strange freshness one can only call, in praise, primitive." [John Updike]

"The wit of Sylvia Townsend Warner is a true physic for all maladies of the spirit, and the taste of the remedy is delicious. One of the most original and droll minds of the last century can be rediscovered at top form in this splendid volume of un uncollected stories." [Marina Warner]