“Something Rich and Strange” presents Mr. Rash’s work in a much broader context than either of those short volumes could. And it includes work from as far back as his obscure first book of stories, “The Night the New Jesus Fell to Earth and Other Stories” (1994), on through “Outlaws,” a story that ran in The Oxford American in 2013.

Image Ron Rash Credit... Ulf Andersen

His style has changed enormously, of course. The first book’s title story about the new Jesus’ fall is more broadly funny, even pratfall filled, than Mr. Rash’s later, more sharply honed writing. Which is not to say it isn’t good: Perhaps every new writer has to take pot shots at easy targets in his first story collection, in this case a used-car salesman, just to get it out of his system. Though Mr. Rash now incorporates subtle religious imagery into his work, he began with this used-car salesman’s plan to stage a gaudy, festive (sic) crucifixion in which he would star. The piece is narrated by his ex-wife, who views the guy’s antics with the requisite gimlet eye. She thinks of her ex, Larry, as such a hustler that “it was as if he came out of his momma talking out of both sides of his mouth, trying to hustle her, the nurse, the doctor, whichever one he saw first.”

The story is a comedy of errors for its characters — and, to some extent, its author. Only as a tyro would Ron Rash start a story with an amateurish “The day after it happened,” and refer on the very next page to “what happened.” He has more gripping, even breathtaking ways of commanding readers’ attention. This anthology begins with the story that most resembles the opening of “Serena” in its sudden, shocking act of violence that speaks volumes about the cost of pride and the savagery of those who lack it. The story, “Hard Times,” is set during the Depression in a rural “cove so damn dark a man about has to break light with a crowbar.”

A backwoods couple named Jake and Edna suggest to Hartley, the poorest man in that cove, that his dog may be stealing eggs from their henhouse. They’re hardly prosperous, but they still have eggs left to steal and to make them feel smug; what they don’t have is any real reason for suspicion. Still, Edna taunts Harley and intimates that his dog is the thief, and for a man so prideful, that suggestion is intolerable. Calmly and without warning, he slashes his own dog’s throat and leaves, saying, “You’ll know for sure now.”

If that is not precisely one of the “rich and strange” occurrences that this anthology’s title promises, there are truly eerie ones in store. Many of them are from “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” which emerges clearly as Mr. Rash’s best short book between “Serena” and this magnum opus. (For those seeking a wider sampling, the University of South Carolina Press has published “The Ron Rash Reader,” which overlaps considerably with this anthology. But it also includes some poetry and is arranged in chronological order. Instead of being a work for completists, the “Reader” is a shorter and much more expensive hardcover than this anthology is.)