With a biting wit and perceptive insight, Dorothy Parker examines the social mores of her day and exposes the darkness beneath the dazzle.
Best remembered as a member of the Algonquin Round Table, the fabled Jazz Age literay coterie, Dorothy Parker built a reputations as one of the era's most beloved poets. Parker's satirical wit and sharp-edged humour earned her a reputation as the wittiest woman in America. This Penguin Classics edition of her poetry - the companion to Parker's Complete Stories and introduced by her noted biographer, Marion Meade - is the only complete collection available, showcasing the dry quips and piercingly introspective verse of a writer whose legend continues to fascinate. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Collects short fiction, poems, reviews, and letters from the author renowned for her wit and satiric acumen.
'The young man with the scenic cravat glanced nervously down the sofa at the girl in the fringed dress. She was examining her handkerchief; it might have been the first one of its kind she had seen, so deep was her interest in its material, form, and possibilities.' Dorothy Parker captured early twentieth century American society like no one else could. She was a masterful observer of character, a witty, sharply exact composer of dialogue and a poignant reader of the subtleties of relationship. In these five stories, of relationships strained by ill-will, social distance or circumstance, all her strengths are clear.
This book includes The Sexes, The Lovely Leave, The Little Hours, Glory in the Daytime and Lolita.