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Stories Collection #1
The Closed Door and Other Stories
The ten short stories in 'The Closed Door and Other Stories' are a selection from the three volumes of stories that Dorothy Whipple published in her lifetime: 'On Approval' in 1935, 'After Tea and Other Stories' in 1941 and 'Wednesday and Other Stories' in 1961.
Dorothy Whipple's key theme is ‘Live and Let Live’. And what she describes throughout her short stories are people, and particularly parents, who defy this maxim. For this reason her work is timeless, like all great writing. It is irrelevant that Dorothy Whipple’s novels were set in an era when middle-class women expected to have a maid; when fish knives were used for eating fish; when children did what they were told. The moral universe she creates has not changed: there are bullies in every part of society; people try their best but often fail; they would like to be unselfish but sometimes are greedy.
Dorothy Whipple's key theme is ‘Live and Let Live’. And what she describes throughout her short stories are people, and particularly parents, who defy this maxim. For this reason her work is timeless, like all great writing. It is irrelevant that Dorothy Whipple’s novels were set in an era when middle-class women expected to have a maid; when fish knives were used for eating fish; when children did what they were told. The moral universe she creates has not changed: there are bullies in every part of society; people try their best but often fail; they would like to be unselfish but sometimes are greedy.
229 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 2007
6 people are currently reading
641 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Whipple
29 books344 followersBorn in 1893, DOROTHY WHIPPLE (nee Stirrup) had an intensely happy childhood in Blackburn as part of the large family of a local architect. Her close friend George Owen having been killed in the first week of the war, for three years she worked as secretary to Henry Whipple, an educational administrator who was a widower twenty-four years her senior and whom she married in 1917. Their life was mostly spent in Nottingham; here she wrote Young Anne (1927), the first of nine extremely successful novels which included Greenbanks (1932) and The Priory (1939). Almost all her books were Book Society Choices or Recommendations and two of them, They Knew Mr Knight (1934) and They were Sisters (1943), were made into films. She also wrote short stories and two volumes of memoirs. Someone at a Distance (1953) was her last novel. Returning in her last years to Blackburn, Dorothy Whipple died there in 1966.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
January 17, 2024
A really strong collection - lots of great stories, with interesting themes and perspectives. Dorothy Whipple is a great writer.
September 1, 2024
Boy, is Dorothy Whipple ever good at ordinary villains! This collections has two longer short stories, The Closed Door (so good, so painful!) and Family Crisis (so good, less painful!), and eight short stories. My favorite short stories were Youth, The Handbag, and Cover.
August 8, 2020
These 10 short stories were all excellent, not a bad one in the bunch. Dorothy Whipple seems to be one of those authors that can do novels and short stories equally well.
December 10, 2024
The Closed Door - 5/5 - Truly a horrific story about the worst parents. The mother was horrible, but the father probably made me even more angry. This was such an upsetting, claustrophobic story, but powerful because of it.
The Rose - 4/5 - A very short story about a wife’s jealousy, somewhat misplaced.
Youth - 3.5/5 - Another young woman being held back by a domineering guardian, which is a theme Whipple clearly likes to explore. This one resists.
The Handbag - 4/5 - A delightfully satisfying tale of a woman who gets back at her unfaithful husband. Hard not to read the ending with a smirk.
Family Crisis - 5/5 - Great story and a great lesson about a crisis making people realise what actually matters. While I do enjoy Whipple's shorts, the two longest stories in this collection were just so much stronger.
After Tea - 4/5 - quick satisfying story. Whipple loves a young woman breaking free. Dishes out lessons.
Wednesday - 5/5 - What a horribly sad story. A divorced mother gets to see her children only on the first Wednesday of the month. Whipple really does capture all the ways women could be controlled, restrained and just totally screwed by both laws and societal attitudes.
Summer Holiday - 4/5 - A story from the POV of a young girl, innocently observing her nurse’s affair with a man.
Saturday Afternoon - 3.5/5 - Probably the weakest, but still enjoyable to read. A dutiful husband turns out to be a
Cover - 4.5/5 - About the hypocrisy of men “doing [a woman] a favour” by ignoring her sexual past.
These ratings may not average out at 5 but I'm rating it 5 stars because I can't remember ever liking every single story in a collection of shorts. Also, the 5 star stories were that good.
The Rose - 4/5 - A very short story about a wife’s jealousy, somewhat misplaced.
Youth - 3.5/5 - Another young woman being held back by a domineering guardian, which is a theme Whipple clearly likes to explore. This one resists.
The Handbag - 4/5 - A delightfully satisfying tale of a woman who gets back at her unfaithful husband. Hard not to read the ending with a smirk.
Family Crisis - 5/5 - Great story and a great lesson about a crisis making people realise what actually matters. While I do enjoy Whipple's shorts, the two longest stories in this collection were just so much stronger.
After Tea - 4/5 - quick satisfying story. Whipple loves a young woman breaking free. Dishes out lessons.
Wednesday - 5/5 - What a horribly sad story. A divorced mother gets to see her children only on the first Wednesday of the month. Whipple really does capture all the ways women could be controlled, restrained and just totally screwed by both laws and societal attitudes.
Summer Holiday - 4/5 - A story from the POV of a young girl, innocently observing her nurse’s affair with a man.
Saturday Afternoon - 3.5/5 - Probably the weakest, but still enjoyable to read. A dutiful husband turns out to be a
Cover - 4.5/5 - About the hypocrisy of men “doing [a woman] a favour” by ignoring her sexual past.
These ratings may not average out at 5 but I'm rating it 5 stars because I can't remember ever liking every single story in a collection of shorts. Also, the 5 star stories were that good.
December 8, 2024
I read this on and off over a fairly long period of time, which I think was probably the best way for this collection. A few of the stories have similar themes, bad parents oppressing their daughters, infidelity, etc. They are mostly very well written, as I have come to expect from Dorothy Whipple, but as they were originally written for magazines, they are not meant to be read back to back, and I suspect they would suffer for it if they were. That said, she excelled at these types of family drama. My favourite was After Tea, such a satisfying ending, and one of my first Dorothy Whipple short stories, as it is one that was read around by Francesca Beauman at 'Elevenses with Fran'.
March 18, 2012
Short stories are a funny genre – they seem to either loved or loathed – I sort of fall somewhere in between. I generally find modern short stories a disappointment – that is probably a bit of a generalisation I am sure there would be some I enjoy – however I do tend to steer clear of them. So many short stories written today seem to be a bit too clever by half, and suffering a bit of style over substance, the endings so often, leave me at least, with a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. I do however find what one might call ‘old fashioned’ short stories a complete delight. Just before Christmas I read a book of short stories by Stella Gibbons, for me the simple well written stories were wonderful.
Having already read five of the six Dorothy Whipple novels re-published by the divine Persephone books – I looked forward eagerly to these stories – wishing before I had even begun reading that is was a fatter book. Like so many women writers of her generation Dorothy Whipple presents the worlds inhabited by her characters in a way that is instantly recognisable and familiar even at a distance of eighty years. Hers is a society in which a wife’s adultery means a ruined life, deemed unfit to have custody of her children she may see them once a month. A daughter is unquestioningly obedient to her parents – even If they are unreasonable or even cruel – she owes them that obedience, to do otherwise is unthinkable.
Many of the themes encountered in her novels are present in these wonderful stories. Marriage, society and family, the so often fragile veneer of middle class respectability. Not all the people in her stories are nice – some are downright horrid – many are sad, allowing life to pass them by. Yet Whipple treats them with affection – their flaws often bringing them to a better understanding.
The title story – The Closed Door – is by far the longest story in this collection – and one I found both sad and compelling. It is the story of an unwanted daughter and the suffocation of her life by her dreadful parents. Dorothy Whipple can also be darkly comic too however, as in the stories ‘Handbag’ and ‘After tea’ I have been trying to decide if I had a favourite in this collection – but I am not sure that I do – I loved each of them for different reasons. Overall it is Dorothy Whipple’s eye for detail and minute observations of life that I enjoy most. Her writing has a wonderful subtlety about it – pared down to the bone – she isn’t a writer to labour a point – it is clear and uncomplicated. It does appear that she has been over looked in the past. But I believe she was a wonderful writer and I thank goodness for Persephone for bringing her work to a wider audience.
December 23, 2024
Another cracking read from Dorothy Whipple—this year's greatest discovery for me.
Most often, with short story collections, I usually find one or two really good ones, several decent ones, and a couple that don't work in my opinion. Here, Dorothy Whipple gives us a collection made entirely of quality, readable stories. She writes some of the realest characters I can recall, and I find myself attached to them quickly. She makes ordinary lives utterly compelling as she puts her characters through the mangle and takes the reader with them.
Marvellous. I hope her writing becomes much better known.
Most often, with short story collections, I usually find one or two really good ones, several decent ones, and a couple that don't work in my opinion. Here, Dorothy Whipple gives us a collection made entirely of quality, readable stories. She writes some of the realest characters I can recall, and I find myself attached to them quickly. She makes ordinary lives utterly compelling as she puts her characters through the mangle and takes the reader with them.
Marvellous. I hope her writing becomes much better known.
March 19, 2012
This is a wonderful book.
It is in the style of its time - careful, measured, thoughtful and effective. The short stories centre on relationships, most of which involve a person experiencing considerable pain. But there's wit there too and something life-enhancing in the sense of the author -- the person who comes through. She must have been wise, but also humorous. She likes people...
If you come across anyone who tells you how things used to be in the good old days, when nobody got divorced and everyone was content, give them this book to read. It will put them in their place good and proper. It is also a beautiful volume to handle and read, like all the Persephone publications.
It is in the style of its time - careful, measured, thoughtful and effective. The short stories centre on relationships, most of which involve a person experiencing considerable pain. But there's wit there too and something life-enhancing in the sense of the author -- the person who comes through. She must have been wise, but also humorous. She likes people...
If you come across anyone who tells you how things used to be in the good old days, when nobody got divorced and everyone was content, give them this book to read. It will put them in their place good and proper. It is also a beautiful volume to handle and read, like all the Persephone publications.
May 3, 2009
This book has what my other favourite Persephone books has -- the weak, the over-shadowed, the dull, the plain and worn out getting justified revenge or their happy-ending, over-coming selfishness, material circumstance and ill-will with dignity and quiet perseverance. They're mordern fairy-tales, or were when they were written, and if they are unlikely they are heartening, witty and satisfying.
And then the last four, the author suddenly sticks the knife in and you discover that she has deadly aim. Brutal, sad and with just as much life as the others -- maybe even more so because of the sadness. These are stories that speak of the outlook of women in the author's time -- which again, is a Persephone goal.
Definitely worth reading. I'd like to own this one.
And then the last four, the author suddenly sticks the knife in and you discover that she has deadly aim. Brutal, sad and with just as much life as the others -- maybe even more so because of the sadness. These are stories that speak of the outlook of women in the author's time -- which again, is a Persephone goal.
Definitely worth reading. I'd like to own this one.
July 1, 2009
I listened to one of the stories from this book (summer holiday) on radio 4 and now I must get hold of the book and read the rest.
Afternoon Reading - The Closed Door - 5. Summer Holiday
Series of stories by Dorothy Whipple, an often neglected writer of the interwar years who was described by JB Priestley as 'the Jane Austen of her age'.
A child's innocent remark has devastating consequences for a favourite nursemaid.
Read by Patience Tomlinson. Broadcast on:BBC Radio 4, 7:45pm Sunday 28th June 2009 Duration: 15 minutes Available until: 8:02pm Sunday 5th July 2009 Category:Drama
Afternoon Reading - The Closed Door - 5. Summer Holiday
Series of stories by Dorothy Whipple, an often neglected writer of the interwar years who was described by JB Priestley as 'the Jane Austen of her age'.
A child's innocent remark has devastating consequences for a favourite nursemaid.
Read by Patience Tomlinson. Broadcast on:BBC Radio 4, 7:45pm Sunday 28th June 2009 Duration: 15 minutes Available until: 8:02pm Sunday 5th July 2009 Category:Drama
April 22, 2012
I did enjoy these stories but not as much as I had expected. I found that the first one (which is very long) rather dragged, and then the same theme of daughters trying to escape from tyrannical parents seemed to repeat over and over again. They were not all the same by any means - there were also some stories about infidelity and those seemed much more original to me. I liked the gentle prose and some of the stories had great twists. If I was rating individual stories then there would be a few 5 stars, but as a collection I didn't think it was that great.
July 14, 2021
I should be pacing myself with Whipple’s books because I only have four to go...but I can’t stop myself and I just ordered another one 🥰
April 2, 2024
So charming! Loved every story. She captures human behaviour and emotions so cleverly! Didn’t want the stories to stop.
October 20, 2021
八月末去了趟巴斯。和男友在城中闲逛时，走进了一间有趣的书店 Persephone Books.
书店里书的封面都一致为淡灰色的底，但书中的蝴蝶页（endpaper）却是别出心裁，且每本书都配有与蝴蝶页相同花样的书签。由书店目录可知，1999年至今，这家书店共出版了135本书 （小说，日记，诗歌，烹饪书）；这些作品多为女性所写，时间主要是20世纪早期至中期。
还记得大学时，在外文系上了一整年的女性文学。那时候每次读文本都很快乐。或许，只有女人才更懂女人，只有女人才能真正写好女人？
我买下书店出的第74本，由Dorothy Whipple写的.
这本书由9篇短文集结而成，故事多围绕 1930年代家庭生活（琐事）展开，主要涉及了父母与子女关系，婚姻，爱情，女孩的友谊与成长。
最喜欢的故事是. 书中主人公是位中年妇女，老公的政治前途如日中天，渐渐不再愿意带她在大型场合出头露面。于是，她在家中一心操持家务；但同时，她很羡慕近来在公共事务上大受瞩目的一位年轻寡妇。直到一日，女主人公在家收到一个包裹。打开一看，她认出是这位寡妇的手提袋，意识到丈夫的出轨。于是，她决定复仇。（故事的结局，出轨的丈夫与小三在众人注视下，仓皇而逃，真是大快人心！）
作者的魅力在于：能令绝境豁然开朗，将崭新的希望照进主人公的新生活；能令按既定轨道发展故事突然岔道，撞出新的火花；能随意支配读者心情，令看似悲剧的故事演变为喜剧，以皆大欢喜收场…
总而言之，这本书读起来颇为轻松愉快，英文也较简单。空闲的时间，可以随意翻开一个故事。只管享受阅读吧，Dorothy 不会让你猜到结局！
书店里书的封面都一致为淡灰色的底，但书中的蝴蝶页（endpaper）却是别出心裁，且每本书都配有与蝴蝶页相同花样的书签。由书店目录可知，1999年至今，这家书店共出版了135本书 （小说，日记，诗歌，烹饪书）；这些作品多为女性所写，时间主要是20世纪早期至中期。
还记得大学时，在外文系上了一整年的女性文学。那时候每次读文本都很快乐。或许，只有女人才更懂女人，只有女人才能真正写好女人？
我买下书店出的第74本，由Dorothy Whipple写的.
这本书由9篇短文集结而成，故事多围绕 1930年代家庭生活（琐事）展开，主要涉及了父母与子女关系，婚姻，爱情，女孩的友谊与成长。
最喜欢的故事是. 书中主人公是位中年妇女，老公的政治前途如日中天，渐渐不再愿意带她在大型场合出头露面。于是，她在家中一心操持家务；但同时，她很羡慕近来在公共事务上大受瞩目的一位年轻寡妇。直到一日，女主人公在家收到一个包裹。打开一看，她认出是这位寡妇的手提袋，意识到丈夫的出轨。于是，她决定复仇。（故事的结局，出轨的丈夫与小三在众人注视下，仓皇而逃，真是大快人心！）
作者的魅力在于：能令绝境豁然开朗，将崭新的希望照进主人公的新生活；能令按既定轨道发展故事突然岔道，撞出新的火花；能随意支配读者心情，令看似悲剧的故事演变为喜剧，以皆大欢喜收场…
总而言之，这本书读起来颇为轻松愉快，英文也较简单。空闲的时间，可以随意翻开一个故事。只管享受阅读吧，Dorothy 不会让你猜到结局！
January 5, 2010
“Family Crisis” was probably my favorite story in this collection. The stories were little melodramas for the most part, but, as always, Whipple knows how to keep you turning the pages. Many were Cinderella stories about downtrodden young women forced to take on the burdens of housekeeping in the parental home instead of being allowed to get an education or go out to work. Many of the mothers are tyrants, although in “Family Crisis” it’s the father who’s tyrannical and the mother who’s weak and ineffectual. Very curious ...
October 30, 2015
I was recently introduced to Dorothy Whipple's work by a bookseller at Persephone Books. Whipple's work is quiet but hard hitting. She explores relationships, parent and child, husbands and wives, withing the setting of pre and post WWII. All the social constraints and gender roles of the period are on display yet the situations remain timeless ; how people use one another, guilt and the longing for self-expression. Lest this make the stories sound depressing there are wonderful elements of sly humor throughout. Readers of Barbara Pym and Margaret Forster will enjoy.
May 10, 2010
Persephone have republished several works by Dorothy Whipple, and she is their highest-selling author. This collection of short stories shows why that is the case. Her protagonists here are all women in less than ideal domestic settings, portrayed with compassion and even affection. The writing is witty and often with a twist in the tale, as seen in my favourites in the collection - The Handbag and After Tea.
April 11, 2021
I allowed myself one or two a week so as to hang around in Whipple world longer. Her witty moral indignation and her sense of the weight of daily things light up these stories. It's wonderful to watch her wave her fairy godmother's wand over a frustrated, disappointed life, whether she is coming to the rescue or burning a tragedy into the reader's memory.
March 25, 2013
I loved this superb collection of tales of domestic life, set mostly between the two wars. Stifling dull marriages, bullied, repressed unmarried daughters, domineering mothers, and a sad divorced mother forced to be separated from her children, and many more. Faultless and brilliant. If it were possible to give it more than 5 stars I would!
March 14, 2013
Quite interesting stories with believable characters. Most involve the meaness that can be inflicted on others who are too young or weak to fend for themselves. But, most of them come right in the end. Very well done.
February 25, 2016
3.5 stars. Enjoyable but with similar themes and motifs throughout the collection.
December 20, 2023
all about unhappy women finding their escapes… kinda loved it
September 3, 2024
Really liked the subtle/not so subtle bad-guys and women in the book, I also liked that it is a not so subtle critique of society, and that I picked it up on a while and that I liked it so much.
November 6, 2024
Randomly picked at a beautiful library in Bath, UK, but such a nice surprise!
January 30, 2017
Investigating the everydayness of life in all its beauty and unseemliness, Dorothy Whipple creates a tour de force in her short stories. THE CLOSED DOOR AND OTHER STORIES is a collection of 10 short stories, collected and republished by Persephone Books. In each of the stories, the author confronts the realities of life in the first half of the twentieth century. There is sadness and beauty in each of the stories. There are infidelities between spouses, misunderstandings, romances squashed or squandered, oppressive restrictions on females, ambitious and domineering men, uninterested and opportunistic parents, missed opportunities, and scandal. There are also seaside vacations, beautiful gardens, dear friendships, caring relations, and a general lack of poverty.
Whether the story is 60 or 6 pages in length, the author is very skilled at evoking emotion in such a way that the reader may both be left breathless yet deeply affected. This is the great skill of Dorothy Whipple, to take as seemingly uninteresting a topic as quiet, everyday life and make it the most fascinating and engaging material. I cannot wait to read more of her work.
Whether the story is 60 or 6 pages in length, the author is very skilled at evoking emotion in such a way that the reader may both be left breathless yet deeply affected. This is the great skill of Dorothy Whipple, to take as seemingly uninteresting a topic as quiet, everyday life and make it the most fascinating and engaging material. I cannot wait to read more of her work.
December 5, 2022
“But since nature discriminates against women, why should men do otherwise?”
This collection of short stories by Dorothy Whipple was so consistently engaging and entertaining. Not just because I love other people’s relationship mess and drama lmaooo but she crafted these stories in such a smart way that you catch the intimacies and nuances of being a woman in various relationships—daughter, wife, friend, mother, mistress—in a patriarchal world without being hit in the head with it. All the characters and stories she develops felt so real and familiar even reading them today, as if you could think of someone in your own life (or perhaps even yourself) that have been or could be in these positions.
This collection of short stories by Dorothy Whipple was so consistently engaging and entertaining. Not just because I love other people’s relationship mess and drama lmaooo but she crafted these stories in such a smart way that you catch the intimacies and nuances of being a woman in various relationships—daughter, wife, friend, mother, mistress—in a patriarchal world without being hit in the head with it. All the characters and stories she develops felt so real and familiar even reading them today, as if you could think of someone in your own life (or perhaps even yourself) that have been or could be in these positions.
January 12, 2023
This is an excellent collection of stories. I had never read a Dorothy Whipple work before, and I love Persephone Books' focus on publishing neglected or underappreciated authors. Whipple's stories in this collection generally fall into two categories: tales of daughters stifled by life under their parents' roofs, and domestic narratives about unhappy housewives. Despite the motif of restlessness recurring throughout each short story, you never quite feel like you are reading the same story again. Instead, the dreariness serves to further Whipple's point: there are hundreds of people (mostly women) who feel trapped in domestic life. I am looking forward to re-reading these stories and exploring Whipple's other works.
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January 9, 2010I love reading Dorothy Whipple, I love her plain yet distinctive authorial voice. When I reached the story that may have been my favorite in this book, “Summer Holiday,” I had to start it over again to figure out what felt so disarming, then realized that was because it was in the first person (in fact, mostly first-person plural), unlike everything else I’ve read by her. Several of these tales read like sketches for mini-novels, broadly drawn tales on familiar Whipple themes, but I didn’t mind at all.
April 19, 2015
There are few authors that I can say never disappoint me, that every work I read by them is as good or better than the last. Dorothy Whipple is one of those treasured authors. I just finished this short story collection and it was brilliant. If you've never read her before, this would be a fine introduction and if you have read her novels, you will feel right at home.
The entire collection is phenomenal but standouts include; "The Closed Door", "The Handbag" and my favorite was "Family Crisis" which is one of the best short stories I have ever read.
The entire collection is phenomenal but standouts include; "The Closed Door", "The Handbag" and my favorite was "Family Crisis" which is one of the best short stories I have ever read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews