Capricorn and Cancer

Stories, both comic and tragic, of the extremes to which men will go to get what they want At the height of World War II, a Spaniard fighting for Britain shoots a sergeant dead and resolves to face execution like a good soldier. On his first visit to Israel since 1919, a veteran of World War I remembers a long-ago encounter with Jewish refugees. When a gang of revolutionaries press a pistol to a general's neck, he dies in a fit of laughter. Working in the jungles of Argentina, a mechanic is surprised to discover himself falling in love. These are the tales that Geoffrey Household likes to tell. Some are funny; some are sad. Together, they span the oceans of the world.   Including the novellas "The Salvation of Pisco Gabar" and "The Case of Valentin Lecormier," this remarkable collection of short fiction shows that whether writing about war or love, Geoffrey Household understood what it meant to be human.