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Table of Contents
About The Book
“Does anyone know how hard it is to be that funny? . . . Read her book reviews. Read them now and see how good they are.” —Fran Lebowitz
When Dorothy Parker became a book critic for the New Yorker, in 1927, she was already a legendary wit, a much-quoted member of the Algonquin Round Table, and an arbiter of literary taste. In the year that she spent as a weekly reviewer, under the rubric “Constant Reader,” she created what is still the most entertaining book column ever written. Parker’s hot takes have lost none of their heat, whether she’s taking aim at the evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson (“She can go on like that for hours. Can, hell—does”), praising Hemingway’s latest collection (“He discards detail with magnificent lavishness”), or dissenting from the Tao of Pooh (“And it is that word ‘hummy,’ my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up”).
Here, for the first time in one volume, is the complete set of weekly reviews that Parker published from October 1927 through November 1928, in all their variety, with gimlet-eyed appreciations of the high and low, from Isadora Duncan to Al Smith, Charles Lindbergh to Little Orphan Annie, Mussolini to Emily Post.
When Dorothy Parker became a book critic for the New Yorker, in 1927, she was already a legendary wit, a much-quoted member of the Algonquin Round Table, and an arbiter of literary taste. In the year that she spent as a weekly reviewer, under the rubric “Constant Reader,” she created what is still the most entertaining book column ever written. Parker’s hot takes have lost none of their heat, whether she’s taking aim at the evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson (“She can go on like that for hours. Can, hell—does”), praising Hemingway’s latest collection (“He discards detail with magnificent lavishness”), or dissenting from the Tao of Pooh (“And it is that word ‘hummy,’ my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up”).
Here, for the first time in one volume, is the complete set of weekly reviews that Parker published from October 1927 through November 1928, in all their variety, with gimlet-eyed appreciations of the high and low, from Isadora Duncan to Al Smith, Charles Lindbergh to Little Orphan Annie, Mussolini to Emily Post.
Excerpt
Table of Contents
Foreword by Sloane Crosley
October 1, 1927
The Highly Recurrent Mr. Hamilton—Al Smith, and How He Grew—Bad News of May Sinclair
October 8, 1927
Mrs. Colby's Second Novel --The Private Papers of the Dead--The Philosopher Takes a Long Look at Himself
October 15, 1927
An American Du Barry—A Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
October 22, 1927
Re-enter Margot Asquith—Something Young—A Masterpiece from the French
October 29, 1927
A Book of Great Short Stories—Something About Cabell
November 5, 1927
The Professor Goes in For Sweetness and Light Short Stories from One Who Knows How to Do Them—Sketches, Mostly Unpleasant—A Biography of a Much-Talked-About Lady
November 12, 1927
Mr. Morley Capers on a Toadstool—Mr. Milne Grows to be Six
November 19, 1927
Adam and Eve and Lilith and Epigrams—Something More About Cabell
November 26. 1927
Madame Glyn Lectures on “It,” with Illustrations
December 3, 1927
The Most Popular Reading Matter
December 10, 1927
The Socialist Looks at Literature—A Lyricist Looks at His Neighbors
December 17, 1927
The Short Story, Through a Couple of the Ages
December 31, 1927
Mrs. Post Enlarges on Etiquette
January 7, 1928
More Troubles for Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh
January 14, 1928
Poor, Immortal Isadora
January 28, 1928
Re-enter Miss Hurst, Followed by Mr. Tarkington
February 4, 1927
A Good Novel, and a Great Story
February 11, 1928
Literary Rotarians
February 18, 1928
Excuse It, Please
February 25, 1928
Our Lady of the Loudspeaker
March 10, 1928
Unfinished Endeavors
March 17, 1928
The Compleat Bungler
March 24, 1928
Ethereal Mildness
March 31, 1928
A Very Dull Article, Indeed
April 7, 1928
Mr. Lewis Lays It on with a Trowel
April 14, 1928
Mrs. Norris and the Beast
April 21, 1928
These Much Too Charming People
May 19, 1928
Hard-Boiled Virgins Are Faithful Lovers
May 26, 1928
Mr. See Sees It Through
August 25, 1928
Back to the Book-Shelf
September 15, 1928
Duces Wild
September 29, 1928
How it Feels to be One Hundred and Forty-six
October 20, 1928
Far from Well
November 17, 1928
Wallflower’s Lament
Foreword by Sloane Crosley
October 1, 1927
The Highly Recurrent Mr. Hamilton—Al Smith, and How He Grew—Bad News of May Sinclair
October 8, 1927
Mrs. Colby's Second Novel --The Private Papers of the Dead--The Philosopher Takes a Long Look at Himself
October 15, 1927
An American Du Barry—A Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
October 22, 1927
Re-enter Margot Asquith—Something Young—A Masterpiece from the French
October 29, 1927
A Book of Great Short Stories—Something About Cabell
November 5, 1927
The Professor Goes in For Sweetness and Light Short Stories from One Who Knows How to Do Them—Sketches, Mostly Unpleasant—A Biography of a Much-Talked-About Lady
November 12, 1927
Mr. Morley Capers on a Toadstool—Mr. Milne Grows to be Six
November 19, 1927
Adam and Eve and Lilith and Epigrams—Something More About Cabell
November 26. 1927
Madame Glyn Lectures on “It,” with Illustrations
December 3, 1927
The Most Popular Reading Matter
December 10, 1927
The Socialist Looks at Literature—A Lyricist Looks at His Neighbors
December 17, 1927
The Short Story, Through a Couple of the Ages
December 31, 1927
Mrs. Post Enlarges on Etiquette
January 7, 1928
More Troubles for Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh
January 14, 1928
Poor, Immortal Isadora
January 28, 1928
Re-enter Miss Hurst, Followed by Mr. Tarkington
February 4, 1927
A Good Novel, and a Great Story
February 11, 1928
Literary Rotarians
February 18, 1928
Excuse It, Please
February 25, 1928
Our Lady of the Loudspeaker
March 10, 1928
Unfinished Endeavors
March 17, 1928
The Compleat Bungler
March 24, 1928
Ethereal Mildness
March 31, 1928
A Very Dull Article, Indeed
April 7, 1928
Mr. Lewis Lays It on with a Trowel
April 14, 1928
Mrs. Norris and the Beast
April 21, 1928
These Much Too Charming People
May 19, 1928
Hard-Boiled Virgins Are Faithful Lovers
May 26, 1928
Mr. See Sees It Through
August 25, 1928
Back to the Book-Shelf
September 15, 1928
Duces Wild
September 29, 1928
How it Feels to be One Hundred and Forty-six
October 20, 1928
Far from Well
November 17, 1928
Wallflower’s Lament
Product Details
- Publisher: McNally Editions (November 5, 2024)
- Length: 224 pages
- ISBN13: 9781961341258
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Raves and Reviews
“All I wanted in this world was to come to New York and be Dorothy Parker. The funny lady. The only lady at the table. The woman who made her living by her wit . . . Who always got off the perfect line at the perfect moment, who never went home and lay awake wondering what she ought to have said because she had said exactly what she ought to have.”
– Nora Ephron, Esquire
“It is through Parker’s refusal to claim authority, then, that her book reviews achieve it. She presents readers with an unpretentious, sometimes self-mocking voice that, while it expresses strong opinions, pretends no Olympian knowledge or status. Her use of humor is even-handed: she uses it to make fun of shallow, silly, or just plain bad published work, but she also turns it on herself . . . And, as a bonus, the reviews contain some of her own best, most spirited writing, which is the reason, finally, that we continue to read them with such pleasure.”
– Nancy A. Walker, Studies in American Humor
“Length doesn’t increase depth, necessarily, and just because her little characterizations of a book were short doesn’t mean they weren’t true.”
– Gloria Steinem
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): Constant Reader Trade Paperback 9781961341258
