God's Eyes A-Twinkle - T. F. Powys

God''s Eyes A-Twinkle offers a conspectus of thirty eight short stories by T. F. Powys drawn from the following collections: Bottle''s Path; No Painted Plumage; Captain Patch; The House with the Echo; The White Paternoster; The Left Leg.

The stories included are: A Loud Lie; Darkness and Nathaniel; Only the Devil; The Seaweed and the Cuckoo-Clock; Jesus'' Walk; The Key of the Field; I Came as a Bride; The Gong; The White Weathercock; When Thou wast Naked; Charlotte Bennett; John Pardy and the Waves; Mr Pim and the Holy Crumb; King Duck; The Bucket and the Rope; The Devil; The Only Penitent; The White Paternoster; The Stone and Mr Thomas; My Money; Christ in the Cupboard; Archdeacon Truggin; The Left Leg; A Christmas Gift; The Candle and the Slow-Worm; The Lonely Lady; The Rival Pastors; The Golden Gates; The Dog and the Lantern; Captain Patch; No Room; The Dewpond; Bottle''s Path; Gold; In Dull Devonshire; Lie The Down, Oddity!; John Told and the Worm; The Corpse and the Flea.

Charles Prentice, who had been T. F. Powys'' editor, concludes his preface in a way that would be difficult to better, ''They (the stories) should all be read slowly. Powys is not a literalist; his words convey more than their face value. These stories treat of the general and unalterable, with subtlety of thought and feeling, and with simplicity of presentation. Wisdom and humour are embedded in them. They reveal the infinite mystery, the fluid inconsistencies of life. They are delicate, wiry and human. ''God''s eyes'' are ''a-twinkle''. But the main business is the incalculable doings of that oddity Man.''

In addition to God''s Eyes A-Twinkle, Faber Finds are reissuing the following T. F. Powys books: Mr Tasker''s Gods; Mark Only; Fables; Mockery Gap; Innocent Birds.