The Secret Self 1: Short Stories by Women

by Hermione Lee (Editor)

This immensely readable selection of 32 stories includes works from Gertrude Stein, Nadine Gordimer, Joyce Carol Oates, Katherine Ann Porter, Eudora Welty, Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, and Doris Lessing.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Feminism, Anthologies, Womens, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Hermione Lee grew up in London and was educated at Oxford. She began her academic career as a lecturer at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va (Instructor, 1970-1971) and at Liverpool University (Lecturer, 1971-1977). She taught at the University of York from 1977, where over twenty years she was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of English Literature. From 1998-2008 she was the Goldsmiths' Chair of English Literature and Fellow of New College at the University of Oxford. In 2008 Lee was elected President of Wolfson College, University of Oxford.

Lee is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's and St Cross Colleges, Oxford. She has Honorary Doctorates from Liverpool and York Universities. In 2003 she was made a Commander of the British Empire for Services to Literature.

Reviews

[Stacey]

4.5

I have been reading a story here and there for two months- I've never stretched a book out like this, generally it drives me nuts, but I savored these shorts, I wasn't in a rush to finish.

By far the best book of shorts I've read. It's comprised of 32 female authors, of which include, Mansfield, Welty, Rhys, Cather, Stein, O'Connor, Monro, Walker, Spark, Carol Oates and Atwood. I was surprised to like the shorts by women who's novels I didn't enjoy like Willa Cather and Dorothy Parker, and others whom I'd been told were great but I didn't enjoy Katherine Mansfield and Gertrude Stein, the surprises, Eudora Welty, Nadine Gordimer (whom I hadn't heard of) , Muriel Spark and Ellen Gilcrest, lastly the authors Ive liked and also enjoyed their shorts, Doris Lessing and Angela Carter.

In my experience, books of shorts are inconsistent, one story is great, another is terrible and one might be ok, and on it goes. There were only two stories out of 32 that I didn't enjoy. If Hermione Lee was responsible for choosing the shorts she did s bang up job! The title says The Secret Self 1, I hope there's a 2 and that it's equally as good! Highly Recommend!

[LG]

Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys, Flannery O’Connor, Alice Walker, Anita Desai, Margaret Atwood. Add 26 more acclaimed authors, and you have the stellar cast of writers featured this volume. It is one of my Absolute Favorites. Each story represents the finest world literature, evoking almost every reaction from delight to deep thought – and sometimes all of them together.

Dorothy Parker’s “Here We Are,” for instance, starts with an endearingly nervous couple en route to their honeymoon. Told mostly in dialogue, this 1931 story has been adapted into a one-act play that looks fun to perform. As the small talk develops into the newlyweds’ first tiff, Parker characteristically sharpens her critique on marriage. A similar critique – albeit much more sobering – comprises Ahdaf Soueif’s story, “The Wedding of Zeina,” which is told within a frame story. But of course women don’t write only about marriage: in Joyce Carol Oates’s “Small Avalanches,” 12-year-old narrator Nancy finds amusement in a disquieting chase.

For the rest, I’d love to tell you more, but then this review would be long enough for its own volume! One thing, though: I would love to get Vol. 2, so if anyone sees it somewhere, do let me know!

[Bunta Potter]

I have returned to this and its sister volume, The Secret Self 2, often over the years - just whenever I want a thoughtful, satisfying short story and am rereading now for the ???th time. The range of subjects, narrative viewpoints and voices across the two books is impressive, really something for every mood and season. Easily the best collections I've found. Enjoy!

[Mab Jones]

Yes, I like this :)

[Kerrie O'Neill]

I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.

[Bookaholics™ Mangalore]

Review by Irwin Ashish Coelho

3.5/5 🌟

The 32 stories in this book have been written by some prolific women writers (all the stories are by women) such as Gertrude Stein, Doris Lessing, Anita Desai, Jean Rhys, Alice Munro, Angela Carter, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Muriel Spark, Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood. I also got to know writers whom I had not heard of before (such as Willa Cather, Mary Lavin and Bobbie Ann Mason) and whose works I would love to explore further.

There's this one story by Doris Lessing titled 'The De Wets Come to Kloof Grange' that I really liked. In it, Mrs Gale anticipates the arrival of a South African couple, Mr and Mrs De Wet, at her home with dread because she likes her peace. The couple do arrive, and when Mrs Gale sees Mr De Wet mistreat his wife (because he holds conventional notions on how a household should be run based on patriarchy), he feels the full wrath of Mrs Gale.

In another fascinating, satirical story by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Katie is enamored by the experiences of her friend, Sofie, in an ashram in India. When she travels to this ashram, she finds Sofie missing, so she moves from ashram to ashram to finally settle on one that draws her heart in. There, she meets the enigmatic Master (the spiritual guru), and her life moves in unexpected directions.

Anita Desai's 'Private Tutition by Mr Bose', in which a scene of domestic happiness descends into domestic anarchy, was also brilliant.

Some of the stories were uninteresting, and there were 3 or 4 that I had to skip after a few pages because I couldn't understand where they were heading. A few of them have been told from the first-person perspective of a child trying to figure out adulting and the ways of adults; these were really good. So, overall, the tales were a mixed bag of happiness and disappointment.

[Seath Tankard-Crook]

Epic collection of short stories by women spanning the 20th Century. The only problem being that the strongest stories are from writers already known in the field - Katherine Mansfield, Alice Walker, Jean Rhys, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro. The examples from lesser known writers are not particularly strong; I was hoping to be inspired to read more from some less familiar authors. I'd heard great things about Shena McKay, for example, who is known for her work on short fiction, but the example here takes a sneery, superior tone to her characters.

There are many better (and shorter) anthologies.

[Amanda]

It's hard to review a book of short stories since I have different feelings about them all! But my overall review is that I enjoyed but these are generally more subtle short stories than they often are and I'm not sure that I will remember many of them.

[Dave Wunderlich]

I kept waiting for me to become engrossed. Instead, it was an exercise in pain - not my kind of book at all, set in a period not relevant and in styles didn't enjoy reading.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

The daughters of the late colonel / Katherine Mansfield --3
The storm / Kate Chopin --2
Paul's case: A study in temperament / Willa Cather --4
Solid objects / Virginia Woolf --3
Souls belated / Edith Wharton --3
*Her table spread / Elizabeth Bowen --
The man without a temperament / Katherine Mansfield --2
The sisters / Pauline Smith --
Here we are / Dorothy Parker --4
Two hanged women / Henry Handel Richardson --3
*Let them call it jazz / Jean Rhys --
Why I live at the PO / Eudora Welty --3
The happy autumn fields / Elizabeth Bowen --1
The house of clouds / Antonia White --
Rope / Katherine Anne Porter --3
The lottery / Marjorie Barnard --3
An unpleasant reminder / Anna Kavan --
Sunday at home / Stevie Smith --
*The De Wets come to Kloof Grange / Doris Lessing --
The ice wagon going down the street / Mavis Gallant --3
Everything that rises must converge / Flannery O'Connor --3
Looking for a rain god / Bessie Head --3
Mr. Wharton / Elizabeth Taylor --
*A summer day / Jean Stafford --
*Six feet of the country / Nadine Gordimer --
The loudest voice / Grace Paley --4
Everyday use / Alice Walker --3
The first year of my life / Muriel Spark --3
The lesson / Toni Cade Bambara --3
Private tuition by Mr Bose / Anita Desai --2
The weeping child / Jane Gardam --3
Swans / Janet Frame --3
Peter and the wolf / Angela Carter --4
Miles City, Montana / Alice Munro --3
Revenge / Ellen Gilchrist --3
The wedding of Zeina / Ahdaf Soueif --
Mamasita / Jayne Anne Phillips --
Shiloh / Bobbie Ann Mason --4
Weekend / Fay Weldon --3
Three feminist fables / Suniti Namjoshi --
Third time lucky / Rachel Ingalls --
The July ghost / A. S. Byatt --3
*What I have been doing lately / Jamaica Kincaid --
*Places to look for your mind / Lorrie Moore --
Friday payday / A. L. Kennedy --
Sleepwalking / Amy Bloom --1
*The dying room / Georgina Hammick --
*The candle maker / Rose Tremain --
Cloud-cuckoo-land / Shena Mackay --
Labour / Helen Simpson --
Ariadne after Naxos / Marina Warner --
Happy endings / Margaret Atwood--3