Much of
A Book is adapted from writing that appeared in the earliest years of Barnes' career, during the 1910s and early 1920s . . .Of the twenty-six pieces of writing between its covers - twelve stories, eleven poems, and three plays - at least nine had appeared in print beforehand, in modernist "little magazines" like
The Little Review, or in one of the several news publications that Barnes wrote for in New York. She republished
A Book twice after its first appearance, though under different titles, as
A Night Among the Horses (1929) and
Spillway (1962), revising, retitling, and cutting along the way. . .
A Book's short stories and plays, which range from a few pages in length to no more than seventeen, often feature few characters, are heavy with dialogue, and exploit this structure to portray stilted, often viciously exploitative, economies of human difference. Among her common themes are: divides of class and status and the space between urban and rural sensibilities ("A Night Among the Horses," "Three from the Earth," "The Valet"); the differences of sexuality and gendered embodiment ("To the Dogs," "No-Man's-Mare," "The Dove"); the relationships of always-precocious children to their guardians and older generations ("Oscar," "A Boy Asks a Question of a Lady"); and the "performance" of national and racial belonging ("The Rabbit," "Katrina Silverstaff"). - from the Introduction
