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A review by tombomp
The Persephone Book of Short Stories by Susan Glaspell
5.0
Favourite story so far is "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton, a perfectly executed story about the perils of hubris, jealousy and pride. The entire plot behind the spoiler, it's worth reading for yourself if you can Good (obviously 100% spoilers) analysis of it here http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/13384/1/13884.pdf
In general the book is just really solid, outside of the one I mentioned it's hard to pick standouts but it's also very hard to think of any I didn't really like. There were a few that I didn't completely "get", had weird endings or whatever but none I was annoyed by or wasn't affected by on some level. All the stories are emotionally engaging and some are really powerful. Most of the stories are about sad things happening or just the grinding misery of every day life - quite a lot are about just the every day life of women, particularly housewives, having to work all day and deal with the emotional burden of children, distant husbands, money stresses etc. The time range of writing (1909-1986, with most of the stories coming from before 1950) gives a fascinating insight into the social changes that went on and the war era stories are particularly good for this.
A few stories I remember as particularly good:
The Test by Angelica Gibbs (1940) - A really short and powerful story about racism at a driving test.
The Exile by Betty Miller (1935) - A rich family get a Russian exile as a new servant but find it difficult to deal with her emotions and history. Great about the callousness of the rich and ease with which we can dismiss people who make us doubt ourselves
A Few Problems in the Day Case Unit by Georgina Hammick (1986) - About a visit to a gynaecologist. The subject and plot is very everyday but the story really gets across the casual indifference and the feeling of the patient being dehumanised and the experience of being a woman forced to confront sexual problems on their own.
Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes (1947) - very reflective of the social changes at the time, a rich family have to deal with their total dependency on their servant who wants to leave. The social context is fascinating and the attitude of the rich family is funny/sad and very recognisable today still.
There's more good stories I just find it hard to pick which ones are particularly good. But a really great collection I definitely recommend it.
Oh also in case it's not obvious all the writers in this book (and every author published by Persephone) is a woman. There's also a very short bio of each writer in the back of the book, which is helpful. Think the only widely known short story here is The Lottery by Shirley Jackson - it's a good story but would probably have preferred a more obscure work of hers just out of interest in what else she's written.
Spoiler
So two rich ladies are in Rome with their daughters. The more high-flying, confident one and the more dowdy, quiet one. The confident one secretly feels very threatened by the quieter one and always has done, although she pretends to be certain of her superiority. The confident one does however strongly admire the quiet one's daughter. The confident one brings up ancient history, back when they were in Rome as young women, when she tried to hurt the quiet one by sending her an invitation supposedly from the confident one's fiancee but actually written by her, intending to upset her when he doesn't show. But the quiet one tells her he actually did show up, and in the very last line of the story tells the confident one that the daughter she admires so much was fathered by her husband. Written down it doesn't have the same impact, but the reversal of power that slowly takes place through the story as the quiet one gains a confidence while the confident one becomes more fretful is great and the final line is really cleverly done.In general the book is just really solid, outside of the one I mentioned it's hard to pick standouts but it's also very hard to think of any I didn't really like. There were a few that I didn't completely "get", had weird endings or whatever but none I was annoyed by or wasn't affected by on some level. All the stories are emotionally engaging and some are really powerful. Most of the stories are about sad things happening or just the grinding misery of every day life - quite a lot are about just the every day life of women, particularly housewives, having to work all day and deal with the emotional burden of children, distant husbands, money stresses etc. The time range of writing (1909-1986, with most of the stories coming from before 1950) gives a fascinating insight into the social changes that went on and the war era stories are particularly good for this.
A few stories I remember as particularly good:
The Test by Angelica Gibbs (1940) - A really short and powerful story about racism at a driving test.
The Exile by Betty Miller (1935) - A rich family get a Russian exile as a new servant but find it difficult to deal with her emotions and history. Great about the callousness of the rich and ease with which we can dismiss people who make us doubt ourselves
A Few Problems in the Day Case Unit by Georgina Hammick (1986) - About a visit to a gynaecologist. The subject and plot is very everyday but the story really gets across the casual indifference and the feeling of the patient being dehumanised and the experience of being a woman forced to confront sexual problems on their own.
Minnie's Room by Mollie Panter-Downes (1947) - very reflective of the social changes at the time, a rich family have to deal with their total dependency on their servant who wants to leave. The social context is fascinating and the attitude of the rich family is funny/sad and very recognisable today still.
There's more good stories I just find it hard to pick which ones are particularly good. But a really great collection I definitely recommend it.
Oh also in case it's not obvious all the writers in this book (and every author published by Persephone) is a woman. There's also a very short bio of each writer in the back of the book, which is helpful. Think the only widely known short story here is The Lottery by Shirley Jackson - it's a good story but would probably have preferred a more obscure work of hers just out of interest in what else she's written.