Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness
The 1972 omnibus this volume was made from.
Read our take
The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories
Thirty-eight stories, and the half of the 1972 City Lights omnibus that kept the wildest material.
- 1983
About Charles Bukowski
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories, published by City Lights in 1983, is one of the two books City Lights made when it divided Charles Bukowski's 1972 collection Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness into halves. This volume holds thirty-eight stories, drawn from the first part of that omnibus: bar life in Los Angeles, dead-end jobs, gambling, drinking and sex, written in the first and third person, with his fictional alter ego Henry Chinaski appearing throughout. The title story is about a woman named Cass, and it is among the most reprinted things Bukowski wrote. Both halves of the split have stayed in print ever since, which is why most readers meet these stories here rather than in the 1972 original.
The story, in more detail
The stories come from the years when Bukowski was writing a weekly column for underground newspapers and selling fiction to small magazines, and they move at that speed: short, unrevised-sounding, often funny, sometimes deliberately unreliable. The split was made by content rather than by date, so the two 1983 volumes are not simply an early half and a late half. This one collects the harder and more extreme stories; Tales of Ordinary Madness holds the rest.
Themes and analysis
Cass at work in clay
The title story briefly lists Cass's painting, dancing, singing and clay work, giving her abilities that exceed the beauty everyone discusses. Her creativity counters the assumption that she has only an attractive body to offer. Yet the narrator's attention repeatedly returns to her appearance, even when he insists that he understands her better than other men. This tension makes his account more difficult than a tribute to an exceptional woman: he recognizes the inadequacy of the labels around Cass without fully escaping them. The clay work suggests a person whose activities exceed his portrait.
A quiet meal by the sea
At the beach, shared food, silence and sleep briefly replace the bar's scrutiny. The narrator values this undramatic companionship more than sexual excitement, allowing intimacy to emerge through ordinary time together. But the peaceful afternoon is not a completed rescue story. Cass declines his later invitation to live together, and his account ends in grief and self-accusation after learning of her death. Read retrospectively, the outing exposes the limits of what he understood. His guilt belongs to his narration; it does not establish that one different decision would have explained or prevented her death.
Why we recommend it
Thirty-eight stories in one place
The wildest half of the City Lights material, in the edition that has stayed in print for forty years.
The story people quote
The title story about Cass is among the most reprinted pieces of Bukowski's fiction.
Different voices in a shared city
First- and third-person stories allow varied approaches to the jobs, rooms, and relationships of Bukowski’s Los Angeles.
What this book explores
Timeline
1972
City Lights publishes the omnibus collection of Bukowski's stories.
1983
The omnibus is divided into two volumes; this one takes thirty-eight stories from its first part.
March 1983
Pauline Kael reviews Ferreri’s Tales of Ordinary Madness, discussing its portrayal of Cass from the collection’s title story.
Book editions
- Paperback
- City Lights
- 1983
- 9780872861565
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
South of No North
The Black Sparrow story collection from the same years — a quieter selection from the same world.
Read our take
Notes of a Dirty Old Man
The underground newspaper column these stories were written alongside.
Read our takeThe Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories: frequently asked questions
What is The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories?
A collection of thirty-eight Charles Bukowski short stories, published by City Lights in 1983. It is one of two volumes the publisher made by dividing his 1972 collection Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness in half.
How is it different from Tales of Ordinary Madness?
They are the two halves of the same 1972 book, split by content rather than by date. This volume takes the stories from the first part of the omnibus and is the harder and more extreme of the two.
What is the title story about?
A woman named Cass. It is among the most reprinted stories Bukowski wrote, and gave the collection its name.
Should I read this or the 1972 original?
The 1972 omnibus is out of print and collected; both 1983 halves have stayed in print. Most readers use these.
Is Henry Chinaski in these stories?
Yes, throughout. Chinaski is Bukowski's fictional alter ego, the same character who narrates Post Office and Factotum.
Where did these stories first appear?
In underground newspapers and men's magazines of the late 1960s and early 1970s, before City Lights gathered them into the 1972 omnibus this volume was later split from.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories
NovelCharles Bukowski, 1983Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2The Most Beautiful Woman in Town — title-story transcription
WebsiteHomo Sum / Chris McLaren, 2007Used forFull public transcription of the title story; the readings concern Cass's creativity and the beach outing, not the unread collection as a whole.
3The Most Beautiful Woman in Town — 2013 edition contents and publication record
WebsiteCity Lights Publishers / Google Books, 2013Used forPublisher-supplied 2013 edition contents confirm inclusion of the title story; not a collation of the 1983 printing.
4Charles Bukowski
BiographyReaktion Books, 2012Used forThe City Lights relationship and the stories' underground-press origins.
5The Most Beautiful Woman in Town
WebsiteWikipediaUsed forThe 1983 split, the story count, and the contents.
6Charles Bukowski timeline (bukowski.net)
WebsiteUsed forPublication chronology of the City Lights volumes.
7Charles Bukowski: books and chapbooks (Verdant Press checklist)
WebsiteUsed forBibliographic details checked against the checklist.
8The New Yorker — Night Life
WebsiteUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories page.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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