This indispensable volume, which includes the classic stories “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” and “Mr. Arcularis, ” is a testament to the dazzling artistry of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers A young woman passes through the countryside to visit her dying grandmother for a final time. A cabbie, exhausted from a long day’s work, fights to get an intoxicated woman out of his taxi. A man on his way to a bachelor party tries to come to grips with the brutishness that lies within every gentleman—and finds that Bacardi cocktails do nothing to help.   A master craftsman whose poetry and prose offer profound insight into the riddle of consciousness, Conrad Aiken thrills, disturbs, and inspires in all forty-one of these astute and eloquent tales.