Every Good Deed and Other Stories

This is the second volume of Whipple short stories published by Persephone Books (the first wasThe Closed Door and Other Stories, Persephone Book No. 74). It consists of  a novella  – Every Good Deed, originally published separately in 1944 –  and nine short stories. Both volumes show Dorothy Whipple at her best. Yet, as we all know, her work, although beloved by Persephone readers, is (still) ignored by the world at large. The novelist Harriet Evans has written memorably about Dorothy Whipple. She said in her Preface to Because of the Lockwoods (wishing its author was in the pantheon of great twentieth century British novelists) that one reason she isn’t is that although she depicts ‘solid, normal lives’, the ‘cultural tide of opinion is, these days, against her.’ She says that Whipple is an ‘intensely moral writer’ (this also does her a disservice) and that ‘there is something about the clarity of expression and calm curiosity of her prose which is hugely pleasing. She never employs excess to drive her point home but uses each word carefully and simply.’ Finally, there is the ‘readability factor: perhaps that is what mostly damages her reputation, the fact that she is so damned unputdownable. The thinking is the same as it has been for years: shouldn’t real literature be hard to read?’ The world at large may think so; Persephone readers know better.