Sylvia Townsend Warner's short stories are remarkable both for the diversity of their subject matter and for their number. Most frequently Warner's narratives are a blend of realism and the fantastic. Before the works of such writers as Gabriel García Marquez and Salman Rushdie lent fashionability to the term magic realism, Warner was creating her fictional worlds by combining what the eye of fancy fathoms with what the eye of nature observes. In some cases the place and its inhabitants are imaginary, as are the kingdoms of Zuy, Elfhame, Wirre Gedanken, Bourrasque, Castle Ash Grove, Brocéliande, and the dozen other elfin courts that Warner depicts as scattered throughout Europe. In other cases the settings and characters are scrupulously true to life. As in Marquez's and Rushdie's fiction, real people, places, and events from the past come to life in the present.

Warner was born...