Laments for the Living

Laments for the Living - Hardcover

$48.89
Sale price  $48.89 Regular price 
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Laments for the Living

Laments for the Living - Hardcover

by Dorothy Parker
$48.89
Sale price  $48.89 Regular price 

Book Overview

"Laments for the Living" is a seminal collection of short stories and sketches by the celebrated American author Dorothy Parker. Renowned for her razor-sharp wit and uncompromising observation of social pretense, Parker captures the disillusionment, heartbreak, and brittle humor of life in the early 20th century. This collection features thirteen masterful pieces, including the O. Henry Award-winning "Big Blonde," which offers a poignant and devastating look at the life of a fading socialite.

Through her unique blend of satire and pathos, Parker explores the complexities of human relationships, the quiet desperation of urban existence, and the rigid social expectations of her era. From the agonizing inner monologue of a woman waiting for a phone call to the cynical banter of the New York elite, these stories remain strikingly modern in their psychological depth and economy of language. "Laments for the Living" showcases Parker's mastery of the short story form, cementing her reputation as one of the most significant and influential literary voices of the Jazz Age. Readers will be captivated by her ability to balance acerbic comedy with profound tragedy, providing an enduring portrait of the human condition.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you may see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

ISBN9781025452548
Author Dorothy Parker
PublisherTradd Street Press
GenreLiterature
FormatHardcover
PublishedFebruary 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages254
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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About Dorothy Parker

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 Fairand 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. Marion Meade is the author of Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? andBobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties. She has also written biographies of Woody Allen, Buster Keaton, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Victoria Woodhull, and Madame Blavatsky, as well as two novels about medieval France.

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