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Selected Stories of Eudora Welty: A Curtain of Green And Other Stories / The Wide Net and Other Stories
Eudora Welty's subjects are the people who live in southern towns like Jackson, Mississippi, which has been her home for all of her long life. I've stayed in one place,' she says, and 'it's become the source of the information that stirs my imagination.' Her distinctive voice and wry observations are rooted in the southern conversational tradition. The stories in this volume, from the first two collections she published, range in tone from the quietly understated and psychologically subtle to the outrageously grotesque. Linking them all is Welty's remarkable ear for the language and point of view of the South. 'She's a lot smarter than her cousins in Beula,' someone remarks about a reputed suicide in one story. 'Especially Edna Earle, that never did get to be what you'd call a heavy thinker. Edna Earle could sit and ponder all day on how the little tail of the 'c' got through the 'I' in a Coca-Cola sign."
The stories in this volume, from the first two collections she published, range in tone from the quietly understated and psychologically subtle to the outrageously grotesque.
The stories in this volume, from the first two collections she published, range in tone from the quietly understated and psychologically subtle to the outrageously grotesque.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
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314 people want to read
About the author
Eudora Welty
244 books1,017 followersEudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.
Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.
During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.
Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.
Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.
Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.
During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.
Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.
Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 14, 2025
Welty was a masterful writer, whether it was short stories or novels.
June 11, 2020
I love Welty's writing, but I feel that most of the stories were good atmosphere and not enough action or plot. The Hitch-Hikers and Death Of a Traveling Salesman have surreal noir plots, dream sequence suspense but they do move. The Wide Net reminded me of Lonesome Dove.
November 19, 2013
To be clear, Eudora Welty is undoubtedly a master of the miniature, one of the best short story writers of all time-- but this book, despite whatever connotations its title might carry, is not quite a "best of" anthology; rather, these "selected" stories simply represent the contents of her first two short story collections.
Both, I think, are mixed bags. The first collection is called Curtain of Green, and it contains compact little stories that seem to revel in the (often violent and grotesque) oddness of the American South. They are not unlike Flannery O'Connor stories, minus the obsessions with religion and race, both of which are curiously absent from most of these stories. The volume contains her best-known story, the excellent "A Worn Path," and numerous other stories that delight in their quirks and their humor. A few feel a bit like literary geek shows, and some are so odd and inscrutable that they're a little off-putting, but overall this first collection is quite fine.
The second, A Wide Net, contains stories that are much more ambitious, sometimes fairly complex and relatively lengthy. There are some fine entries, but also some that are simply tough sledding. "First Love" is more elaborate than it needs to be, "A Still Moment" is so concerned with symbols and archetypes that it comes across as rather stuffy, and "The Winds" topples under its own melodrama. The others are compelling, and "A Wide Net" is a highlight of the whole collection.
All told, the book is a great resource to have for short story buffs-- though reading the whole thing cover to cover, as I did, is perhaps not the recommended approach.
Both, I think, are mixed bags. The first collection is called Curtain of Green, and it contains compact little stories that seem to revel in the (often violent and grotesque) oddness of the American South. They are not unlike Flannery O'Connor stories, minus the obsessions with religion and race, both of which are curiously absent from most of these stories. The volume contains her best-known story, the excellent "A Worn Path," and numerous other stories that delight in their quirks and their humor. A few feel a bit like literary geek shows, and some are so odd and inscrutable that they're a little off-putting, but overall this first collection is quite fine.
The second, A Wide Net, contains stories that are much more ambitious, sometimes fairly complex and relatively lengthy. There are some fine entries, but also some that are simply tough sledding. "First Love" is more elaborate than it needs to be, "A Still Moment" is so concerned with symbols and archetypes that it comes across as rather stuffy, and "The Winds" topples under its own melodrama. The others are compelling, and "A Wide Net" is a highlight of the whole collection.
All told, the book is a great resource to have for short story buffs-- though reading the whole thing cover to cover, as I did, is perhaps not the recommended approach.
February 4, 2019
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary says that the short story often concentrates on "creation of mood rather than plot." That is true of the stories of Eudora Welty.
April 1, 2012
I loved the short stories and loved reading one each night before going to sleep. Classic southern lit.
August 7, 2018
"'Who told you you could have those, Miss Priss?' says Mama, fanning as hard as she could.
'I bought 'em and I'll keep track of 'em,' I says. 'I'll tack 'em up one on each side the post-office window, and you can see 'em when you come to ask me for your mail, if you're so dead to see 'em.'
'Not I! I'll never darken the door to that post office again if I live to be a hundred,' Mama says. 'Ungrateful child! After all the money we spent on you at the Normal.'
'Me either,' says Stella-Rondo. 'You can just let my mail lie there and rot, for all I care. I'll never come and relieve you of a single, solitary piece.'
'I should worry,' I says. 'And who you think's going to sit down and write you all those big fat letters and postcards, by the way? Mr. Whitaker? Just because he was the only man ever dropped down in China Grove and you got him - unfairly - is he going to sit down and write you a lengthy correspondence after you come home giving no rhyme nor reason for the presence of that child? I may not have your brilliant mind, but I fail to see it.'
So Mama says, 'Sister, I've told you a thousand times that Stella-Rondo simply got homesick, and this child is far too big to be hers,' and she says, 'Now, why don't you all just sit down and play Casino?'
Then Shirley-T. sticks her tongue at me in this perfectly horrible way. She has no more manners than the man in the moon. I told her she was going to cross her eyes like that some day and they'd stick.
'It's too late to stop me now,' I says. 'You should have tried that yesterday. I'm going to the P.O. and the only way you can possibly see me is to visit me there.'
So Papa-Daddy says, 'You'll never catch me setting foot in that post office, even if I should take a notion into my head to write a letter some place.' He says, 'I won't have you reachin' out of that little old window with a pair of shears and cuttin' off any beard of mine. I'm too smart for you!'
'We all are,' says Stella-Rondo.
But I said, 'If you're so smart, where's Mr. Whitaker?'"
'I bought 'em and I'll keep track of 'em,' I says. 'I'll tack 'em up one on each side the post-office window, and you can see 'em when you come to ask me for your mail, if you're so dead to see 'em.'
'Not I! I'll never darken the door to that post office again if I live to be a hundred,' Mama says. 'Ungrateful child! After all the money we spent on you at the Normal.'
'Me either,' says Stella-Rondo. 'You can just let my mail lie there and rot, for all I care. I'll never come and relieve you of a single, solitary piece.'
'I should worry,' I says. 'And who you think's going to sit down and write you all those big fat letters and postcards, by the way? Mr. Whitaker? Just because he was the only man ever dropped down in China Grove and you got him - unfairly - is he going to sit down and write you a lengthy correspondence after you come home giving no rhyme nor reason for the presence of that child? I may not have your brilliant mind, but I fail to see it.'
So Mama says, 'Sister, I've told you a thousand times that Stella-Rondo simply got homesick, and this child is far too big to be hers,' and she says, 'Now, why don't you all just sit down and play Casino?'
Then Shirley-T. sticks her tongue at me in this perfectly horrible way. She has no more manners than the man in the moon. I told her she was going to cross her eyes like that some day and they'd stick.
'It's too late to stop me now,' I says. 'You should have tried that yesterday. I'm going to the P.O. and the only way you can possibly see me is to visit me there.'
So Papa-Daddy says, 'You'll never catch me setting foot in that post office, even if I should take a notion into my head to write a letter some place.' He says, 'I won't have you reachin' out of that little old window with a pair of shears and cuttin' off any beard of mine. I'm too smart for you!'
'We all are,' says Stella-Rondo.
But I said, 'If you're so smart, where's Mr. Whitaker?'"
February 18, 2019
This collection contained stories from A Curtain of Green and The Wide Net. Curtain of Green was, in my opinion, Welty at her best and most accessible, and the stories from that collection are minor masterpieces. She grows less accessible as the collection wears on, as she tries on Surrealism and goes for artifice rather than storytelling. As a result, I found many of the latter stories ponderous and self-important. Exceptions from The Wide Net would be eponymous story, Livvie, and The Landing. Carson McCullers strikes me as a writer who was better able to blend the profound and the quotidian--there seems to be a massive division line in Welty's writing, in this particular collection, anyway, between these two impulses. She just seemed very self-conscious at times in the second half of the collection.
July 22, 2017
A wonderful collection - Welty's prose is gorgeous, her stories complex and sometimes difficult to follow, her gaze direct and unflinching - scarily so in some stories, which are dark and brooding, others light and yet also full of black humour. Shades of Flannery O'Conner weave through many of the lives depicted and I had to miss a few pages here and there because they were way too confronting and uncomfortable. I love the way she writes, the way she strings her sentences together, the words she uses, the amazing dialogue... but I always felt a little uneasy ...
May 7, 2017
This seemed to be hit or miss for me. The Key was my favorite piece. Her observations on the human condition were interesting to me, but the stories themselves seldom were; I felt no connection to most of them. As well, my personal opinion is that some of them were a bit over-written, and lacked the condensed power of a great short story.
The lady was talented, to be sure, just not always my cup of tea.
The lady was talented, to be sure, just not always my cup of tea.
May 22, 2021
A handful of these stories were wonderful, a handful more were beautifully written paintings of ambience, but others were muddy, lacked a narrative, or were otherwise impossible to get through. I would not recommend reading this book as a collection of short stories; rather it’s a fine reference book for Welty’s work. I wouldn’t run from future Welty, but this shows me that her work was pretty uneven as far as I’m concerned.
December 9, 2019
I started reading these stories years ago. I pulled the book down the other day and read some more. Now I’m putting it back. The stories are spotty. Some tug at the heartstrings with beautiful, sensitive imagery. Others just don’t reach me at all. Maybe, if I live long enough, I’ll try again. BTW, I liked the stories that were originally in "A Curtain of Green".
July 6, 2017
Eudora Welty paints a picture of the characters and the room - putting you "right there" in the Old South. I hear her voice when I read her stories - as I was a big fan of her stories told on NPR.
January 16, 2018
rereading this after many years, what a joy to know what one good writer could do. Judging from the intro, this collection preceded any novels written by Welty.
October 9, 2018
Dreary and often slightly surreal. Great literature, for sure. But I did not enjoy her stories.
January 4, 2014
Her writing has lovely lyrical turns, but she's a product of her white Southern (read: racist) time, and that made it hard to enjoy. More like 2.5 stars.
"It was dark and vague outside. The storm had rolled away to faintness like a wagon crossing a bridge." p.40
"People standing in the fields now and then, or on top of the haystacks, had been too far away, looking like leaning sticks or weeds, turning a little at the solitary rattle of his car across their countryside, watching the pale sobered winter dust where it chunked out behind like big winter squashes down the road." p. 206
"Come stand in my heart, whoever you are,and a whole river would cover your feet and rise higher and take your knees in whirlpools, and draw you down to itself, your whole body, your heart too." p. 214
"But in the west the sun shone with such a violence that in an illumination like a long-prolonged glare of lightning the heavens looked black and white; all color left the world, the goldenness of everything was like a memory, and only heat, a kind of glamor and oppression, lay on their heads." p. 303
"It was in a bar, a quiet little hole in the wall. It was four o'clock in the afternoon. Beyond the open door the rain fell, the heavy color of the sea, in air where the sunlight was still suspended. Its watery reflection lighted the room, as a room might have lighted a mouse-hole. It was in New Orleans." p. 369
"But now she was like a house with all its rooms dark from the beginning, and someone would have to go slowly from room to room, slowly and darkly, leaving each one lighted behind, before going to the next." p. 421
"It was dark and vague outside. The storm had rolled away to faintness like a wagon crossing a bridge." p.40
"People standing in the fields now and then, or on top of the haystacks, had been too far away, looking like leaning sticks or weeds, turning a little at the solitary rattle of his car across their countryside, watching the pale sobered winter dust where it chunked out behind like big winter squashes down the road." p. 206
"Come stand in my heart, whoever you are,and a whole river would cover your feet and rise higher and take your knees in whirlpools, and draw you down to itself, your whole body, your heart too." p. 214
"But in the west the sun shone with such a violence that in an illumination like a long-prolonged glare of lightning the heavens looked black and white; all color left the world, the goldenness of everything was like a memory, and only heat, a kind of glamor and oppression, lay on their heads." p. 303
"It was in a bar, a quiet little hole in the wall. It was four o'clock in the afternoon. Beyond the open door the rain fell, the heavy color of the sea, in air where the sunlight was still suspended. Its watery reflection lighted the room, as a room might have lighted a mouse-hole. It was in New Orleans." p. 369
"But now she was like a house with all its rooms dark from the beginning, and someone would have to go slowly from room to room, slowly and darkly, leaving each one lighted behind, before going to the next." p. 421
June 29, 2009
I had never read anything by Eudora Welty, outside of "Why I Live at the P.O", which I think I read in High School freshman year. So, over the years I have heard and read about her, how great she is and all that.
I have to say, she really was a masterful short story writer, up there with whoever you want to put her with - she's got all the chops: deft characterization, dramatic sense, a great handle on story architecture, all the classic stuff.
But, what I like about her is the authentic Southern Gothic goods she delivers: small-town and rural Mississippi life in the thirties and forties. She brings this on in capital letters, so to speak. The stories are full of circus freaks, matrons, families, ex-slaves, rich people and hosts of supporting players. Her ear for dialog is great, her observations acute and her descriptions vivid. This is such a fantastic book that I'm going to read her novels next.
I have to say, she really was a masterful short story writer, up there with whoever you want to put her with - she's got all the chops: deft characterization, dramatic sense, a great handle on story architecture, all the classic stuff.
But, what I like about her is the authentic Southern Gothic goods she delivers: small-town and rural Mississippi life in the thirties and forties. She brings this on in capital letters, so to speak. The stories are full of circus freaks, matrons, families, ex-slaves, rich people and hosts of supporting players. Her ear for dialog is great, her observations acute and her descriptions vivid. This is such a fantastic book that I'm going to read her novels next.
September 21, 2011
PETRIFIED MAN - Petrified Man comes from the book, Selected Stories of Eudora Welty. For the purposes of this review, I will only discuss the short story (not the book in its entirety). The author conveys the character’s voices so remarkably well. That is, several women sitting in a beauty parlor, enduring the tortures of beauty treatments. The majority of their conversation is focused on men. For that reason, the battle of the sexes theme is apparent. The title refers back to the Medusa myth and a man in a freak show, turned to stone. Another highlight in this book is the short titled, Why I Live at the PO. Surprisingly, A Worn Path isn’t included in this selection.
November 2, 2010
To be fair, this is a 3 1/2 star bok for me. Though when the collection falls flat, it falls hard-there are some stories that are just not good-it contains some of my very favorite Welty stories as well, such as "Petrified Man" and "Why I Live at the P.O." Fans of Southern Gothic literature will really appreciate this collection.
August 24, 2010
After a long break from reading short stories, I found myself immersed and addicted to Welty's idiosyncratic world. Got me thinking about my grandmother, Kayaco, who, although no southerner, is just as zesty as a Welty character.... You can read my full review at: www.the-reading-list.com
May 18, 2013
I did not read all the short stories. I enjoyed her voice. I could visualize what she was saying, however some of the stories I finished thinking "now what was the point of that story?". Maybe there was no point, maybe it was just a snapshot of someone's life. I am not the one to say.
June 21, 2013
Read 5 short, very short, stories for a book discussion. Although I recognize Welty's talents as a writer, I just don't get the point of the stories. Perhaps there is none. I must admit that listening to the discussion made me think about the stories more.
June 2, 2012
I finally finished reading this collection of stories by iconic Southern author Welty, and all the promise of authentic dialogue and deft characterization is true.
August 7, 2016
On my top 100 books list - The Wide Net is one of my favorite stories ever... ad I'm not sure why :)
August 22, 2014
I re-read some of these stories for a book group recently and was astonished at Welty's economy and grace. What a writer! And not read enough these days, I'm afraid.
March 29, 2016
My favorite is "Livvie."
April 8, 2017
Every story is so wonderfully perfect I have to walk away after each one and savor it before I can begin the next.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews