Review: 'Stories of Books and Libraries,' edited by Jane Holloway

Libraries in literature resemble libraries in life: They are places to read, to learn, to find respite and even refuge. However, some writers render them hostile environments: Agatha Christie created a case for Miss Marple by planting a body in a library; Philip Larkin turned a provincial library into a dreary, chilly hell for the heroine of "A Girl in Winter." Other writers transform libraries into fantastical realms: Jorge Luis Borges' "The Library of Babel" describes an "infinite" universe containing copies of every book that has been written and will be written.

Borges' famous tale is included in an excellent new collection, "Stories of Books and Libraries." Editor Jane Holloway has gathered together a rich assortment of writing — not just stories — from a wide selection of writers. All of the pieces revolve around book-related themes, many are set in book-lined worlds and most feature book-loving people. It's a bibliophile's delight.

In their essays, Mary Arnold showcases the treasures in Oxford's Bodleian Library, and Montaigne proclaims that books constitute "the best provision I have found for this human journey." In a letter, English aristocrat and writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu reveals the salutary effects of reading: "I calm my cares by oblivion." In an extract from his great diary, Samuel Pepys recounts the pleasure of climbing into bed after a hard day and losing himself in "the best writ tale that ever I read in my life."

Two female writers, one Russian, one French, provide sharp recollections of childhood reading. Teffi looks back on her precocious 13-year-old self, consumed by "War and Peace" and in love with Prince Andrei. Colette's fictional incarnation learns a lot from books, not least that "love is complicated, tyrannical and even burdensome."

There are extracts from longer works such as Azar Nafisi's bestselling memoir "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and Umberto Eco's medieval murder mystery "The Name of the Rose" — the latter with a labyrinthine library central to the crime.

More satisfying, though, is the array of standalone stories. Helen Oyeyemi presents a secret library. Lorrie Moore tells of a librarian who falls apart: "She had lost her place, as in a book." One of the best tales is "Girl Reading" by the woman who will probably always be known as "the other Elizabeth Taylor." Etta leaves her widowed mother and her dark, drab home to spend a week of her summer vacation at her school friend Sarah's house in the country. The girls enjoy lazy days by the river, but while Etta is reading and making "a study of people in love," she is unaware that Sarah's brother is admiring her from afar.

Two sobering stories — one from Italo Calvino about a military raid on a library, another from Ray Bradbury about a government decree to burn books — serve as fitting reminders to cherish the printed word and, in the words of Isaac Babel here, the "kingdom of books."

Malcolm Forbes has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Stories of Books and Libraries

Edited by: Jane Holloway.

Publisher: Everyman's Library, 496 pages, $22.