What do you think?
Rate this book
A Very Pleasant Evening with Stevie Smith
A poet and novelist (Novel on Yellow Paper), Stevie Smith also wrote short prose. In A Very Pleasant Evening with Stevie Smith we find eight stories and four essays mixing throw-away charm and deadly sophistication. Her stories delight and surprise; her essays defend favorite subjects, such as cats and the suburbs. "Life in the suburbs is richer at the lower levels. At these levels people are not self-conscious at all, they are at liberty to be as eccentric as they please, they do not know they are eccentric."
- GenresShort Stories
89 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1995
About the author
Stevie Smith
74 books131 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith (20 September 1902 – 7 March 1971), was an English poet and novelist.
Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith (20 September 1902 – 7 March 1971), was an English poet and novelist.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Want to Read
December 8, 2019#1
Anna went and sat beside her brother. She was a happy, silent child, easily silenced by her clever brother, a fair, silent child, a clever child, far cleverer than Hughie, but she was his loving slave. She had a strong neat comfortable body and wore only a pair of pants. Helen loved Anna; she thought she was like a seal.
#2
When she had finished it she took it round to Lopez, who was also a writer. Lopez was a very clever quick girl, she had a brilliant quick eye for people, conversations, and situations. She read the story right through without stopping. 'It is very good, Helen,' she said, and then she began to laugh.
#4
It is a pleasant English summer's day in the Gardens and in the Park. The brother of the sister has an ice-cream which he is eating, it is plastered upon his mouth, it is all over his whole face; he relishes the ice-cream. The sister anxiously combs back from her brow with long soiled finger the lank lock; she is worried to keep at the same time an eye upon the eater of the ice-cream and upon the younger brother who will paddle in the serpentine, nobody shall say him no.
#6
When Peg was a child she used to play with the Herriot children. One day she was coming home from school when a schoolboy pulled her hair. Coke Herriot was coming along behind, Peg ran back and said: 'Please fight that boy, Coke.' Coke punched the boy's nose and it began to bleed.
#7
'Zing,' went the telephone, and downstairs padded Greta, mopping at her nose with a chiffon scarf which by a fortunate chance was in the pocket of her dressing gown. The thought of the evil was upon her, and the thought that death itself was no escape from it.
#8
In the basement was a wide cool old kitchen, were Anita Rambeloid, formerly Hickson, neé exactly what Lisa forgot though she had been at college with her, was cooking the dinner. How nice it smells, said Lisa, slipping a tomato into her pocket and advancing to the stove where Anita was boiling a stew.
#11
Dogs in suburbs are very popular and are not trained at all not to bark. 'Why should my dog not bark if he wants to?' is rather the idea. It is a free country, they also say. But not apparently so free that you do not have to listen to the dogs barking.
#12
Le Plaisir aristocratique de déplaire also lies open to those who live simply. But again you must be careful, or you will cut your nose off to spite your face, and so defeat the purpose of simplicity, which is enjoyment.
Anna went and sat beside her brother. She was a happy, silent child, easily silenced by her clever brother, a fair, silent child, a clever child, far cleverer than Hughie, but she was his loving slave. She had a strong neat comfortable body and wore only a pair of pants. Helen loved Anna; she thought she was like a seal.
#2
When she had finished it she took it round to Lopez, who was also a writer. Lopez was a very clever quick girl, she had a brilliant quick eye for people, conversations, and situations. She read the story right through without stopping. 'It is very good, Helen,' she said, and then she began to laugh.
#4
It is a pleasant English summer's day in the Gardens and in the Park. The brother of the sister has an ice-cream which he is eating, it is plastered upon his mouth, it is all over his whole face; he relishes the ice-cream. The sister anxiously combs back from her brow with long soiled finger the lank lock; she is worried to keep at the same time an eye upon the eater of the ice-cream and upon the younger brother who will paddle in the serpentine, nobody shall say him no.
#6
When Peg was a child she used to play with the Herriot children. One day she was coming home from school when a schoolboy pulled her hair. Coke Herriot was coming along behind, Peg ran back and said: 'Please fight that boy, Coke.' Coke punched the boy's nose and it began to bleed.
#7
'Zing,' went the telephone, and downstairs padded Greta, mopping at her nose with a chiffon scarf which by a fortunate chance was in the pocket of her dressing gown. The thought of the evil was upon her, and the thought that death itself was no escape from it.
#8
In the basement was a wide cool old kitchen, were Anita Rambeloid, formerly Hickson, neé exactly what Lisa forgot though she had been at college with her, was cooking the dinner. How nice it smells, said Lisa, slipping a tomato into her pocket and advancing to the stove where Anita was boiling a stew.
#11
Dogs in suburbs are very popular and are not trained at all not to bark. 'Why should my dog not bark if he wants to?' is rather the idea. It is a free country, they also say. But not apparently so free that you do not have to listen to the dogs barking.
#12
Le Plaisir aristocratique de déplaire also lies open to those who live simply. But again you must be careful, or you will cut your nose off to spite your face, and so defeat the purpose of simplicity, which is enjoyment.
November 13, 2022
A Very Pleasant Evening with Stevie Smith collects eight short stories and four essays Smith wrote between 1939 and 1964. The prose lacks some of the incandescence and eccentricity of her novels but still carries the surprises that her longer books deliver in abundance. The majority of the pieces were written in the immediate aftermath of World War II and reflect some of the melancholy of those years, when Britain, though emerging victorious, found itself greatly diminished on the world stage as the Empire disintegrated. But Smith's preoccupations are homely: a holiday by the sea, with children; visits by friends; in praise of life in London's suburbs; cats.
Several of them, though, have a deeper, and sometimes troubling, resonance. The title story, "A Very Pleasant Evening," ends with an ambiguous evocation of--perhaps--an extramarital affair, or at least mutual desire only partly fulfilled; it is a striking counterpoint to the rest of the story's recounting of an evening visit among friends. Her essay on life in the suburbs is a repudiation of the city, a defense of the quiet, almost mediocre life, and a sad evocation of the changes that have remade the suburb with the influx of new people after the war. And "To School in Germany," which recalls a 1930s year studying there and the confession by a young German boy of love for the English protagonist, ends with the discovery that his antisemitism led him to commit horrors (not described) during the war and a 15-year prison sentence afterwards.
Smith interweaves these sometimes shocking, sometimes tragic, sometimes merely melancholy themes into a prose that is always understated and shot through with humor. Anyone who's enjoyed her terrific novels will find much to savor in these short essays, and more reason to wonder why her name does not come up more often when one thinks of the great English writers of the 20th century.
Several of them, though, have a deeper, and sometimes troubling, resonance. The title story, "A Very Pleasant Evening," ends with an ambiguous evocation of--perhaps--an extramarital affair, or at least mutual desire only partly fulfilled; it is a striking counterpoint to the rest of the story's recounting of an evening visit among friends. Her essay on life in the suburbs is a repudiation of the city, a defense of the quiet, almost mediocre life, and a sad evocation of the changes that have remade the suburb with the influx of new people after the war. And "To School in Germany," which recalls a 1930s year studying there and the confession by a young German boy of love for the English protagonist, ends with the discovery that his antisemitism led him to commit horrors (not described) during the war and a 15-year prison sentence afterwards.
Smith interweaves these sometimes shocking, sometimes tragic, sometimes merely melancholy themes into a prose that is always understated and shot through with humor. Anyone who's enjoyed her terrific novels will find much to savor in these short essays, and more reason to wonder why her name does not come up more often when one thinks of the great English writers of the 20th century.
November 5, 2022
4.5 stars. Brief selection of prose (though some pieces include poems) from one of the 20th century’s greatest poets. For me the longish “Cats in Colour” essay keeps the book from 5 star status.
November 17, 2015
I would definitely read another novel by Stevie Smith but this one was a little disjointed and hard to follow. Painfully British.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews