L. P. Hartley is regarded as being one of the century's leading novelists but if he had written only short stories his fame would have been equally assured. The stories [collected in The Complete Short Stories of L. P. Hartley]—early and late—flow into one another with a curiously traumatic rhythm, displaying various aspects of his ability to probe, as Lord David [Cecil] puts it, 'with an insight into the process of the conscience so sharp as to be painful'. Whether it is an early story, such as the spine-chilling almost mystical The Killing Bottle or a humorous later vignette like Mr. Blandfoot's Picture, the same qualities of meticulous observation blended with perception in depth of human foibles and inconsistencies are apparent, while for wit and characterisation … Mrs. Carteret Receives must rank as a masterpiece by any standards. Keeping himself well in the background like a more urbane and lovable Somerset Maugham, the narrator records his visits over the years to the formidable Carterets in their ostentatious Venice residence. In the end, World War II catches up with them. The couple move away, die, the house falls into other hands—and little tangible evidence is left of their anachronistic reign. One could wish there were more of it—yet everything necessary has been said about the Carterets and their entourage in the compass of twenty printed pages. (p. 214)