Book Description

First published in 1964, The Fabulous Mrs. V. is a late collection of twelve stories celebrating comedy and Bates's ability to paint amusing, idiosyncratic women. 'A Couple of Fools' follows two fashionable young women, ripe for a luxurious Sunday afternoon outing, who find that their flamboyant hats win them attention and favours at every step. They and their male admirers become too drunk for anything but a taxi home. Another story similarly celebrates liquor, food, and sex. 'A Party for the Girls' is a comic celebration of life where a group of older women drink lavish quantities of alcohol at a luncheon and compete for the attention of the sole male guest. 'The Trespasser' is a comic piece involving a near-sighted and eccentric spinster 'who looked not at all unlike a round fresh radish,' and a young man who watches with some disgust as his aunt orchestrates the seduction of her future husband. But it is not just the women who are given Bates's quirky treatment. 'The Cat Who Sang' observes an overworked teacher who hallucinates that his black cat Susie is able to sing Schubert's 'Trout' theme. In 'A Dream of Fair Women' a body building adolescent boy engages in vivid fantasies about women risque enough to be reprinted in Penthouse Magazine in 1965. Also included with this cast of quirky characters is a retired Reverend in bonus story 'The Electric Christ', who becomes enamoured with a statue of Christ with an electric halo and purchases it for his home. The Times Literary Supplement found that the collection 'demonstrates that both his vigour and unique ability to evoke, visually, his settings and characters remain undiminished.'