{"product_id":"every-good-deed-and-other-stories","title":"Every Good Deed and Other Stories","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 340px;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/The_Critics_-_Harold_Harvey.jpg?v=1645909524\u0026amp;width=700\" alt=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN 9781910263082\u003cbr\u003e272pp\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003ePersephone's second volume of Whipple short stories (the first was\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e The Closed Door and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e) consists of a novella  – \u003cem\u003eEvery Good Deed,\u003c\/em\u003e originally published separately in 1944, about an adoption gone awry –  and nine short stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe point about reading Dorothy Whipple is that there is an intimacy in her writing. But naturally this intimacy does not appeal to everyone. We feel that it appeals to people who like the writer Elizabeth Taylor and yet this is not always the case: we have a friend who adores Elizabeth Taylor but cannot love Dorothy Whipple (yes, there are people).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eYet one cannot but suspect that the younger novelist learnt a great deal from Dorothy Whipple. Take the short story in \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eEvery Good Deed and Other Stories\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003ecalled ‘Boarding House’, written in c. 1940. It is about a rather deplorable woman called Mrs Moore who ruins things for everyone else when she arrives at a small hotel – because she is bored and lonely. ‘“It’s cutlet for cutlet,” she thought bitterly. “I can’t entertain, so no one entertains me now. To think that I should have to come to a place like this. After the life,” she thought, “I’ve lived.”’ The last sentence is pure Elizabeth Taylor. A lesser writer would have put ‘After the life I’ve lived,’ she thought. Why it is funnier and so much more expressive to put ‘she thought’ in the middle of the sentence is a mystery; but it makes all the difference. And why ‘It’s cutlet for cutlet’ is funny is also a mystery, but it certainly is.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eFor more on \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery Good Deed and Other Stories\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, take a look at the Persephone Perspective. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTaken from a 1950s dress fabric that is sometimes on display in the window of the Persephone bookshop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e'The Critics' (1922) by Harold Harvey\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dorothy Whipple","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098808832307,"sku":"azp1789695063002","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098808865075,"sku":"opb1789695063003","price":31.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098808897843,"sku":"ufr1789695063004","price":40.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098808930611,"sku":"wcq1789695063005","price":41.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/every-good-deed-and-other-stories_1.jpg?v=1789695068","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/every-good-deed-and-other-stories","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}