Complete Stories

As this complete collection of her short stories demonstrates, Dorothy Parker's talents extended far beyond brash one-liners and clever rhymes. Her stories not only bring to life the urban milieu that was her bailiwick but lay bare the uncertainties and disappointments of ordinary people living ordinary lives. 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.

Dorothy Parker was born in West End, New Jersey, in 1893 and grew up in New York, attending a Catholic convent school and Miss Dana's School in Morristown, New Jersey. In 1916 she sold some of her poetry to the editor of Vogue, and was subsequently given an editorial position on the magazine, writing captions for fashion photographs and drawings. She then became drama critic of Vanity Fair and the central figure of the celebrated Algonquin Round Table. Famous for her spoken wit, she showed the same trenchant commentary in her book reviews for The New Yorker and Esquire and in her poems and sketches. Her collection of poems included Not So Deep as a Well and Enough Rope, which became a bestseller; and her collections of stories included Here Lies. She also collaborated with Elmer Rice on a play, Close Harmony and with Arnaud d'Usseau on the play the Ladies of the Corridor. She herself had two Broadway plays written about her and was portrayed as a character in a third. Her cynicism and the concentration of her judgements were famous and she has been closely associated with modern urbane humour. Her first husband was Edwin Pond Parker II, and although they were divorced some years later, she continued to use his name, which she much preferred to her own of Rothschild. Her second husband was an actor-writer Alan Campbell. They went to Hollywood as a writing team and went through a tempestuous marriage until his death in 1963, when Dorothy Parker returned to New York. She died in 1967. Regina Barreca is a professor of English and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut. She is the editor of seven books, including The Penguin Book of Women's Humor, and the author of four others. She writes frequently for the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Hartford Courant.

Complete StoriesIntroduction Suggestions for Further Reading Chronology A Note on the Text Stories Such a Pretty Little Picture Too Bad Mr. Durant A Certain Lady The Wonderful Old Gentleman Dialogue at Three in the Morning The Last Tea Oh! He's Charming! Travelogue Little Curtis The Sexes Arrangement in Black and White A Telephone Call A Terrible Day Tomorrow Just a Little One The Mantle of Whistler The Garter New York to Detroit Big Blonde You Were Perfectly Fine The Cradle of Civilization But the One on the Right Here We Are Lady with a Lamp Dusk Before Fireworks A Young Woman in Green Lace Horsie Advice to the Little Peyton Girl From the Diary of a New York Lady Sentiment Mrs. Carrington and Mrs. Crane The Little Hours The Waltz The Road Home Glory in the Daytime Cousin Larry Mrs. Hofstadter on Josephine Street Clothe the Naked Soldiers of the Republic The Custard Heart Song of the Shirt, 1941 The Standard of Living The Lovely Leave The Game I Live on Your Visits Lolita The Banquet of Crow The Bolt Behind the Blue Sketches Our Tuesday Club As the Spirit Moves A Dinner Party Anthology A Summer Hotel Anthology An Apartment House Anthology Men I'm Not Married To Welcome Home Our Own Crowd Professional Youth