Little Tales of Misogyny

by Patricia Highsmith

Overview

"These stories, once you get the hang of them, are very wicked, very funny and—this being Highsmith’s mission in life, as far as one can tell—very unsettling." —The Guardian

With an eerie simplicity of style, Highsmith turns our next-door neighbors into sadistic psychopaths, lying in wait among white picket fences and manicured lawns. In the darkly satiric, often mordantly hilarious sketches that make up Little Tales of Misogyny, Highsmith upsets our conventional notions of female character, revealing the devastating power of these once familiar creatures—"The Dancer," "The Female Novelist," "The Prude"—who destroy both themselves and the men around them. This work attests to Highsmith's reputation as "the poet of apprehension" (Graham Greene).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393345674
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/28/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	371 KB

About the Author

Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) was the author of more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.

Date of Birth:

January 19, 1921

Date of Death:

February 4, 1995

Place of Birth:

Fort Worth, Texas

Place of Death:

Locarno, Switzerland

Education:

B.A., Barnard College, 1942

Editorial Reviews

The 17 tales in Highsmith's new collection are a far cry from Strangers on a Train and her other unforgettable thrillers. These stories, although written with exemplary style, make the flesh crawl but not pleasurably, as reliable suspense fare does. Each focuses on a female doing in a male or, more often, herself. ``The Breeder'' Elaine persists in giving birth until her husband Douglas goes irrevocably mad, trying to support 17 children. ``The Victim'' is Cathy, fond of claiming she's been raped repeatedly in her nubile adolescence. During her career as an airline hostess, Cathy's sexuality pays better in rich gifts than in sympathetic attention. But greed and vanity spell the lush girl's doom. From the book's overall tone, readers could infer that its origin was bitter contempt for humans of either gender. The entries fail as real satire, which is always amusing, regardless of its stings. (April 16)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In Highsmith's singularly unusual approach to mysteries, A Dog's Ransom (1972) can be taken literally, as the crime at hand is the dognapping of a couple's favorite pooch. The book also presents a study of urban life. Little Tales (1977) sports 17 portraits of wicked women. Great fun. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"[T]his collection of linked stories, some just a page or two long, probes all manner of ways that men hate women, women hate themselves and everyone struggles under the weight of patriarchy. Sympathy is in short supply and the pH balance skews wildly acidic. Highsmith spares no one, including herself."

New York Times - Sarah Weinman