The Persephone Book of Short Stories

488pp
ISBN 9781903155905

Persephone Book No. 100 is The Persephone Book of Short Stories. The hundredth book was something of a landmark for us and we wanted to find a way to celebrate the diversity and range of ‘our’ writers. The best way to do so was by gathering together a varied collection of stories in one large (450 page) volume. We have printed the following comment on the flap: ‘“Most of the stories focus on the small, quiet or unspoken intricacies of human relationships rather than grand dramas” wrote our proofreader, and she pointed out that “the use of metaphor is delicate and subtle; often the women are strong and capable and the men less so; shallow and selfish motives are exposed, and all the stories except the last are third-person. Interesting!”’ The dates of the stories range from 1909 to 1986 and there are thirty in all. The authors of the stories include many of 'our' writers such as Susan Glaspell, Katherine Mansfield, E M Delafield, Malachi Whitaker, Dorothy Whipple, Irène Némirovsky, Betty Miller, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Norah Hoult, Helen Hull, Mollie Panter-Downes, Elizabeth Berridge, Frances Towers, Margaret Bonham, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Diana Gardner,  Penelope Mortimer, Diana Athill, as well as a number of others that we don't (yet) publish such as Pauline Smith, Dorothy Parker, Edith Wharton, Phyllis Bentley, Angelica Gibbs, Kay Boyle, Shirley Jackson, Elizabeth Spencer, Penelope Fitzgerald and Georgina Hammick. The perfect introduction to Persephone Books.

Also available as a Persephone e-book.

Endpaper

The front endpaper is taken from a roller-printed cotton twill designed in 1911 for Arnold Print Works and the endpaper at the back of the book is taken from 'Cote D'Azure', a 1983 screen-printed cotton by Collier Campbell. 

Picture Caption

Rosemary Rutherford (1912-72) pen and wash drawing of a VAD nurse c. 1941