It May Never Happen and Other Stories

It May Never Happen and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction by V. S. Pritchett published in 1945 by Chatto & Windus. The volume was republished by Reynal & Hitchcock, New York in 1947.

Stories

Source:

• "The Sailor"
• "The Lion's Den"
• "The Saint"
• "It May Never Happen"
• "Peacock Passes"
• "The Oedipus Complex"
• "The Voice"
• "Aunt Gertrude"
• "Many Are Disappointed"
• "The Chestnut-Tree"
• "The Ape"
• "The Clerk's Tale"
• "The Fly in the Ointment"
• "The Night Worker"

Reviews

Time observes that "outwardly, nothing much happens" to the array of working class characters who appear in It May Never Happen. Nonetheless, the reviewer considers Pritchett "a fine storyteller."

Critic John J. Stinson praises "the excellence" of the collection and reports that "the three most noteworthy stories of It Never May Happen may be "The Sailor," "The Saint," and "It May Never Happen."

Footnotes

Sources

• Stinson, John J. 1992. V. S. Pritchett: A Study of the Short Fiction. Twayne Publishers, New York. Gordon Weaver, General Editor.
• Treglown, Jeremy. 2004. V. S. Pritchett: A Working Life. Pimlico-Random House, London. (paperback).
• Pritchett, V. S.. 1946. It May Never Happen and Other Stories, Chatto & Windus. OCLC 1921342