Elizabeth Jane Howard is probably best known for her panoramic CAZALET series, which chronicles the rise and fall of an upper middle class British family before, during, and after WWII. (It was made into a Masterpiece Theater Presentation.)But in this collection of short stories she shows off her versatile range, writing about contemporary (Sixties)English women of privileged backgrounds who sometimes -- but not always -- find modern life in democratic, post-war Britain both exhilarating and empowering.MR. WRONG, the title story, is a chilling tale of murder and suspense worthy of Hitchcock at his finest. The heroine is a young woman of means, yet alone in vast and impersonal London she is easy prey for a satanic stalker with almost superhuman powers. The endless agony of suspense is almost worse than the ghastly conclusion. Definitely not for the faint of heart!But not all the stories in this collection end in sheer horror. In the sensual and tender TOUTES DIRECTIONS, a sheltered English miss engaged to a dull but suitable man takes a short trip to France, with entirely predictable results. The seduction of a prim and proper English girl by a skilled and knowing Frenchman is a concept that goes back centuries, but in this story the romance is fresh and modern and very, very sophisticated.It's interesting that Howard presents most of these women as being modern and liberated in the outward sense, smoking and drinking and having casual affairs, yet still subject to all the timeless tears and heartbreak of being a woman. Cynical and romantic, tender and scornful, perceptive and bitter, these stories of modern British women -- both in love and out -- are works to treasure.
