The Stories of John Cheever

The Stories of John Cheever is a 1978 short story collection by American author John Cheever. It contains some of his most famous stories, including "The Enormous Radio", "Goodbye, My Brother", "The Country Husband", "The Five-Forty-Eight" and "The Swimmer". It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1979 and its first paperback edition won a 1981 National Book Award.

Stories
• "Goodbye, My Brother"

• "The Common Day"

• "The Enormous Radio"

• "O City of Broken Dreams"

• "The Hartleys"

• "The Sutton Place Story"

• "The Summer Farmer"

• "Torch Song"

• "The Pot of Gold"

• "Clancy in the Tower of Babel"

• "Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor"

• "The Season of Divorce"

• "The Chaste Clarissa"

• "The Cure"

• "The Superintendent"

• "The Children"

• "The Sorrows of Gin"

• "O Youth and Beauty!"

• "The Day the Pig Fell Into the Well"

• "The Five-Forty-Eight"

• "Just One More Time"

• "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill"

• "The Bus to St. James's"

• "The Worm in the Apple"

• "The Trouble of Marcie Flint"

• "The Bella Lingua"

• "The Wrysons"

• "The Country Husband"

• "The Duchess"

• "The Scarlet Moving Van"

• "Just Tell Me Who It Was"

• "Brimmer"

• "The Golden Age"

• "The Lowboy"

• "The Music Teacher"

• "A Woman Without a Country"

• "The Death of Justina"

• "Clementina"

• "Boy in Rome"

• "A Miscellany of Characters That Will Not Appear"

• "The Chimera"

• "The Seaside Houses"

• "The Angel of the Bridge"

• "The Brigadier and the Golf Widow"

• "A Vision of the World"

• "Reunion"

• "An Educated American Woman"

• "Metamorphoses"

• "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin"

• "Montraldo"

• "The Ocean"

• "Marito in Città"

• "The Geometry of Love"

• "The Swimmer"

• "The World of Apples"

• "Another Story"

• "Percy"

• "The Fourth Alarm"

• "Artemis, the Honest Well Digger"

• "Three Stories"

• "The Jewels of the Cabots"

The John Cheever Audio Collection
In 2004, Caedmon released a recorded compilation of selected stories from The Stories of John Cheever, each read either by Cheever, George Plimpton, or a professional actor. Benjamin Cheever reads the introduction written by his father, and the full track list of stories is as follows: • "The Enormous Radio" read by Meryl Streep

• "The Five-Forty-Eight" read by Edward Herrmann

• "O City of Broken Dreams" read by Blythe Danner

• "Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor" read by George Plimpton

• "The Season of Divorce" read by Edward Herrmann

• "The Brigadier and the Golf Widow" read by Peter Gallagher

• "The Sorrows of Gin" read by Meryl Streep

• "O Youth and Beauty!" read by Peter Gallagher

• "The Chaste Clarissa" read by Blythe Danner

• "The Jewels of the Cabots" read by George Plimpton

• "The Death of Justina" read by John Cheever

• "The Swimmer" read by John Cheever

Reception to the collection was positive. Publishers Weekly called the readers a "first-class lineup of narrators" and stated that "Cheever's archived readings that steal the show. His performance of "The Swimmer," in particular, boldly displays his contempt for the country-club set, while still evoking readers' sympathy for the hapless main character. The inclusion of [his] readings makes for a deeply personal, resonant finale to a truly superb production."