The Golden Age of British Short Stories 1890-1914. Edited by Philip Hensher. Penguin Books.
This is the third anthology of short stories selected and edited for Penguin Books by Philip Hensher. Why does he describe it as a “golden age”? Because within this period three key elements came together to create a unique opportunity for writers and their readers: the 1871 Education Act had brought about mass literacy; print was cheap, assisting the rise of multiple magazines; and – crucially – visual entertainment in the form of the cinema had not captured the minds and hearts of the masses.
Thus, ordinary people – clerks, maidservants, shop workers and so on – had within their grasp access to the kind of literature that before had been the province of the middle and upper classes, the beneficiaries of a private and privileged education.