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. ( )

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. ( )

The Closed Door and Other Stories is a collection of 10 short stories. Dorothy Whipple is skilled at describing the relationships between people: parents and their children, husbands and wives, young girls experiencing the thrill of their first potential romance. The stories are less plot-driven, but character development is strong, even though some of these stories are very short. The title story, The Closed Door, is more like a short novel than a short story, and it tells the story of a young girl as she grows up and gets married to get out from under the thumb of her repressive parents. As such, it skips over a lot of stuff, and I think this story might have been good as a longer novel. Other than that, though, I really loved the stories in this collection; some of them have a very strong emotional impact on the reader. ( )

22 Jan 2011 (bought with Bridget's token for 2010 birthday)

You know where you are with a Whipple, as I've probably said before: you know you're going to get realistic family situations, the theatre of the domestic, nothing too violent or overt but a delicate portrayal of the smallest emotions and conflicts - which can of course involve huge emotional violence. The title story is the longest, and encapsulates the common themes - difficult parents, difficult marriages, the redemptive nature of frendships and the small pleasures and triumphs in life. Whipple roots for her heroines, however stuck in their situations, and leads, rather than tells, us to do so too. ( )

Short stories exploring the themes of parents and children, especially the way parents exploit and control children for their own ease or pleasure. Slightly too keen on a happy ending, but the constraints of family life, especially for adult daughters reared to be used as cheap servants for their parents, were well-expressed. An interesting read with Singled Out in mind, showing how difficult it was for unmarried young women to make their own way in the world without their parents' support and consent, and with echoes of E M Delafield's Consequences, in which a mother's iron grip on her daughter is only broken by escape into a convent. ( )