The Lydia Steptoe Stories

by Djuna Barnes

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.

'I have quite changed my mind. I am going to run away and become a boy.'

In these three stories, written by Djuna Barnes under the pseudonym Lydia Steptoe, three characters find themselves on the brink of a sexual awakening - accompanied by guns, whips, and worldly innuendo.

A fourteen-year-old girl plans to become 'a virago', until her mother intercepts her first tryst by dressing up as her male lover. A boy of the same age is lured into the forest by his father's mistress. A woman of forty falls in love and longs to kill herself, so unbearable is the return of the youth she thought she wanted. 'Alice', she tells herself, 'be a man.'

Barnes makes gender and desire seem slippery and joyful - and makes the fictional Lydia Steptoe seem like a writer for our time.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, 20th Century, The United States Of America, Queer, Literary Fiction

42 pages, Paperback

Published January 3, 2019

About the author

Djuna Barnes was an artist, illustrator, journalist, playwright, and poet associated with the early 20th-century Greenwich Village bohemians and the Modernist literary movement.

Barnes has been cited as an influence by writers as diverse as Truman Capote, William Goyen, Isak Dinesen, John Hawkes, and Anaïs Nin. Bertha Harris described her work as "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world" since Sappho.

Barnes played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens. Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T. S. Eliot. It stands out today for its portrayal of lesbian themes and its distinctive writing style. Since Barnes's death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Obscure 20th century writer Djuna Barnes wrote three stories under the pseudonym Lydia Steptoe from 1922 to 1924 and they’re collected in this dinky little paperback apparently for the first time. And they suck!

A 14 year old girl tries it on with an older man – but not if her ma has anything to say about it! A 14 year old boy is lured into the forest during a hunting trip – with disastrous results! A 40 year old woman falls for a younger man. Zzz…

It’s not that they’re badly written but there’s really nothing to them. They feature characters proud of being sexual liberated – and that’s about it. Little happens that’s remotely interesting, the stories are much too short to leave an impression and Barnes isn’t saying or doing anything remarkable or original with her writing.

I can’t imagine this collection appealing to anyone. I can see why I never heard of this writer before!

[Paula Mota · Rating 4 out of 5]

- The Diary of a Dangerous Child - 5*
- The Diary of a Small Boy - 4*
- Madame Grows Older: A Journal at a Dangerous Age - 4*

Mais um fantástico livrinho da Faber 90, desta vez com três contos que assumem a forma de excertos de três diários de personagens um pouco alucinadas: uma rapariga de 14 anos, um rapaz da mesma idade e uma mulher de 40 anos. Um mimo.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Djuan Barnes penned these three interconnected, diary-style short stories as the fictional character, Lydia Steptoe. The reader gets to see Lydia grow to adulthood and, to a measure, mature over the three stories and through the ironic style they are penned in. All were enjoyable enough little reads but had no impact for me, when I failed to see what the point of each actually was.

[tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

(7/30 faber stories)
i went in with zero expectations of the sort but THESE ARE THE FUNNIEST STORIES I HAVE READ IN MY LIFE i wish there were more! absolutely hilarious. if you rate this a couple stars or less you’re weak and natural selection is coming for you.

“today i am fourteen: time flies: women must grow old.
today i have done my hair in a different way and asked myself a question: ‘what shall be my destiny?’
because today i have placed my childhood behind me, and have faced the realities.”
/
“do you love your mother?” she asked soon, and i answered:
“yes. my father is a great man—”

[Brown Girl Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just ok. The writing is good but the story is flat. I could have cared less about this little girl and the people she talks about. This probably wasn't the best place to start with Djuna Barnes.

[Myra Schmitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in awe of Djuna Barnes

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Imagine how it might look to the outer world if I should go around looking as if I held a secret."

"I'm old when I'm alone."

[Elisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Djuna Barnes ranks very highly on my list of authors to reread/read more of, so I sought this little book out as soon as I learned of its existence. Unfortunately, I don't think these stories are the most inspiring thing she ever wrote. They're certainly not bad, and kept me very much entertained during a train journey, but, being as short as they are, they needed to leave a lasting impression, and I don't feel that any of them did. Whilst they all contain surprises, tension, and jeopardy, I didn't feel there was enough narrative development to really add weight to those things, and the prose style within these stories isn't as beguiling as in Nightwood. So, overall, this small collection proved to be a disappointment, even though it was still definitely worth the read. I shall certainly be continuing my voyage into Djuna Barnes's oeuvre at some point in the near future, with the hope that the next work I read by her is a little more spectacular than this.

If this is the first Djuna Barnes work that you've read, then I would urge you to also read Nightwood, whether you liked this or not. It's such a fascinating and haunting book that I only read last year and yet already want to read again. Please give Djuna another chance, because she is awesome and deserves more appreciation! These stories may not represent her at her best, but I sincerely hope that they act as a stepping stone that people can use to discover more of her work.

[Spencer Fancutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read Nightwood, my impression was not great:
"Nightwood is an excellent candidate for one of those prison libraries where access to reading material is guaranteed by law, but where authorities wish to stress that enjoyment is not."
I decided not to pursue a doctorate in the works of Djuna Barnes. Then, a colleague gave me this cheeky little number when she was offloading some of her books before moving to sunnier climes. I stand by my previous decision regarding a PhD, however this is far more penetrable (and enjoyable!!) and many pages shorter. Diary of a Dangerous Child is especially absolutely wonderful.

"October fourth:
I have succeeded. Noone guesses that my mind teems. Noone suspects that I have come into my own, as they say.
But I have. I came int it this afternoon when the diplomat from Brazil called.
My childhood is but a memory.
His name is Don Pasos Dilemma. He has great intelligence in one eye; the other is preoccupied with a monocle. He has comfortable spaces between his front teeth, and he talks in a soft drawl that makes one want to wear satin dresses."

[andreea. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Yes, at the end of the full moon, Don Pasos Dilemma will be expecting me. His evil mind has already pictured me falling into his arms, a melting bit of tender and green youth.
Instead he will have a virago on his hands! How that word makes me shiver. There's only one other word that affects me as strongly--Vixen! These are my words!
Oh to be a virago at fourteen! What other woman has accomplished it?
No woman."

---

"Do you love your mother? she asked soon, and I answered:
"Yes, my father is a great man--"
She said: "Do you want to grow up some day like your father, and marry a beautiful woman and have a son to tie you together forever and forever, so no other beautiful woman can tear you apart?"

---

This one was a collection of four short stories that fit so perfectly well together; they are about adolescence, wishing to grow up, attraction, and gender trouble at the end of 14. They will definitely stay with me.

[Mridula Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stories on embracing one's sexuality. While we know the final outcome of each of these stories, the writing is either not that intriguing, or adds us to a boring climax. A tad bit disappointed.

[Eirin]

Null rating enda!
En søt rar liten bok, må lese den igjen før jeg gir rating siden den var så sykt kort!

[Becca Vichi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!! This collection, short but so impactful with its humor, drama, bluntness, reflection, and sadness.

“One must not look inward too much, while the inside is yet tender. I do not wish to frighten myself until I can stand it.”

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sixth of the twenty Faber Stories that I have read, and the first that hasn’t really worked for me. My problem was that I couldn’t find much to like in this short trilogy.

Originally these three stories appeared in 1922, ‘’23 and ’24 in different US magazines, the first being Vanity Fair. All appeared under the pseudonym Lydia Steptoe, and this collection is the first time that the three have been collected together. It is hard to tell if any linkage was ever intended, but the similar themes behind them makes this a possibility. The theme of sexual awakening links the three quite different characters. The first is a fourteen-year-old girl who tries to set up a meeting with her sister’s older lover at which she intends to whip and beat him. The second story is about a boy of the same age who is lured into the woods by his older cousin, who is also his father’s mistress. The third story is of a forty-year-old widow who falls in love with a younger man and so finds herself transported back to the state of youth she thought she wanted, but once there she is not so sure.

All three stories use the same style, of dated diary entries, which all start in August or September and run for a few weeks or a month or two. They have anything between six and twelve diary entries to cover the period, and the first two have longer gaps before the final entry to allow some time to pass and sense to prevail.
In the first story, called The Diary of a Dangerous Child, where the girl arranges a tryst with her older sister’s lover, she rides out to meet him at midnight, determined to whip him. Up to this point she has engaged in a debate with herself:
“I am debating with myself whether I shall place myself in some good man’s hands and become a mother, or if I shall become wanton and go out in the world and make a place for myself.
Somehow I think I shall become a wanton.
It is more to my taste. At least I think it is.”
In the second story I particularly liked the boy’s description of his mother:
“She is small and dark and there is a hard softness about the place you put your head when you lean on her. She says “Dear” in a tone that makes you want to keep it away from everyone else.
She wears more rings than father, and her hands are kind, but they hurt if she wants them to. She wears loose clinging dresses, she walks in the garden with a hidden anger, and she cuts flowers for the house as if she were displeased, but all the time there is a smile in her face that makes you wait for something grand and terrible to occur.”

[Contrary Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are so full of symbolism. The kind of phallic symbolism that bathes its female narrator in power. Guns. Horses. Mirrrors.... the sense of freedom, of being equal they express is exhilarating. Yet as time progresses, things sour. Be careful what you wish for

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are all so weird and brilliant - I really enjoyed this short collection.

[Ginny Darke]

Djuana 'I'm not a lesbian, I just loved Thelma' Barnes is the one!

[sheena d! · Rating 5 out of 5]

these three itty bitty stories made me grateful that adolescence is a thing of my past. it's funny and not at all what i'd expect from the author of nightwood.

[Giuliettarube · Rating 2 out of 5]

“ forse significava che non ci saranno più guerre. Vai a sapere.! e io devo sapere. Sono fatta così.”
Tre insofferenti diari, tre inquietudini coinvolte in età distanti, che riflettono sulla vita.
“oh, se quel bruto di un Einstein si fosse preso a cuore la mia relatività! Il tempo e lo spazio mi sono nemici. Non fosse per il tempo, non sarei pericolosa e,non fosse per lo spazio non mi sentirei così costretta.! com’è crudele la ragione! come è affilato il pensiero, più di un dente di vipera! Com’è subdola l’assenza della ragione!”

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

And so on the next of the faber stories collection - this time a book of 3 short stories which follow the general theme of sexual awakening. The stories read almost like fables with their lyrical prose and use of imagery. These are as much cautionary tales as stories, each focusing on a particular aspect although not always obvious.

[LX · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 1st story was okay, I kind of laughed at the end with the image in my head because the scene from Father Ted when Bishop Brennan is running with the giant Cape flew into my mind.

The 2nd story didn't really do anything, but the 3rd for me was the best out of the 3 for the writing of the character and how she talks about her youth.

[Sofie Schurmans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the writing style but I felt like the stories were too short to get to know the characters. Every time I was ‘in’ the story, the tale came to an end.

[Rina (in a slump)]

I’ve no idea what I just read🤷‍♀️

[irene norae]

impossible de puntuar. he rigut m’he sorpres m’he confos i sobretot he fet servir molt es diccionari. una gran frase final

[harlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved the first and last stories

[Charlotte (Charlisabeths Nivis Pluma) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m unsure about this little collection. Though these three stories certainly share a common theme - sexual awakening (or reawakening) - and are admittedly quite funny in their ironic writing style, that’s about it. All of these stories were a great set-up for longer tales but due to their very short form leave no lasting impression.

[Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stories that could be finished in one sitting. I would say they are stories about a struggle with the current identity rather than sexual awaken. I think these three different people showed readers a true self asking questions, searching for true feeling etc. In these stories, one could find a girl who's completely in her own world, coming into age; a boy who thinks "matureer" than others; and a 40 years old widow who struggles with her current self. The author could grasp very well people's mind in various age groups, and by reading these diary entries, I feel like been brought back to those times, or being shown of a future.

[F.K. Maddison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed these three funny short stories by Djuna Jones. The Dairy of a Dangerous Child - a 14-year-old described how she falls for her sisters' lover, tries to tempt him, and gets caught by her mother. A Diary of a Small Boy - a naive boy, who thinks he is worlding, is tricked into the forest by his temptress 'cousin'. Madame Grows Older: A Journal at the Dangerous Age - a woman in her middling years cannot cope with the love she feels for a younger man. I do like how these stories are all written in the first person via diary/journal entries, and an interesting way to deliver a story, quick, hilarious, and fun to read.

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plucky, punchy, charismatic characters speaking honestly to you (as a diary). I wish I could know them more! The middle story didn’t really capture well for a short, in that there was a lack of narrative and relied on the first and last story to support it being there? Thought the writing was great. Overall a nice taster book to sample the author!

[Myra Breckinridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pure, albeit too-brief-42-page, joy.

Barnes spotlights rather than explores, and the result is a lively look at whimsical impulses and the frustration of 1920s-era womanhood.

In a way, it’s like the standup version of a negative event—finding the humour or heart, and eradicating the rest.