<p>V. S. Naipaul's legendary command of broad comedy and acute social observation is on abundant display in these classic works of fiction-two novels and a collection of stories-that capture the rhythms of life in the Caribbean and England with impressive subtlety and humor.</p><p><i>The Suffrage of Elvira </i>is Naipaul's hilarious take on an electoral campaign in the back country of Trinidad where the candidates' tactics include blatant vote-buying and supernatural sabotage. The eponymous protagonist of <i>Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion</i> is an aging Englishman of ponderously regular habits whose life is thrown into upheaval by a sudden marriage and unanticipated professional advancement. And the stories in <i>A Flag on the Island</i> take us from a Chinese bakery in Trinidad-whose black proprietor faces bankruptcy until he takes a Chinese name-to a rooming house in London-where the genteel landlady plays a nasty Darwinian game with her budgerigars.</p><p>Unfailingly stylish filled with intelligence and feeling here is the work of a writer who can do just about anything that can be done with language.</p>