The Gay Cockade

About the book

The title story introduces Jimmie Harding, whose youthful energy transforms the atmosphere of a weary government office. Encouraged by Elise, he leaves secure employment to write at an inherited Virginia house, a decision observed with fascination by colleagues who have surrendered similar hopes. 'The Hidden Land' begins with another departure: a woman disappears while apparently going for a swim, leaving a narrator who knows more than the accepted explanation allows. Bailey's collection places romantic aspiration beside the expectations of marriage, work, age, and respectable conduct. Its separate stories approach escape and commitment from different directions, often giving special weight to an observer's sympathy. Domestic interiors, professional routines, and remembered landscapes become measures of what a character wants to preserve or change.

• Aspiration and conformity
• Love and independence
• Sympathy and observation

Why read it

The contrasting departures in the first two stories make the collection's interest in unrealized possibilities immediately tangible.

English Grosset and Dunlap collection of fourteen stories, with the 1921 Penn copyright