New York Stories (Book)
The New York Stories is a collection of short stories by the American author Dorothy Parker . The selection corresponds to Here Lies: The Collected Stories of Dorothy Parker from 1939. Translated by Eva Roeder, it was published as short stories with a foreword by W. Somerset Maugham in 1947 by Humanitas-Verlag, Zurich. As York New stories known and widely used (as often reissued) newer German language translation, supervised by Fritz Senn , first appeared in two volumes: as the sexes and a strong blonde , (translated by Ursula-Maria Mössner and Pieke Biermann ) in Haffmans Verlag (Zurich 1985 and 1988). They appeared as New York Stories in a 1992 edition, then as a paperback by Rowohlt (Reinbek 1995 and 1997), Diana (Munich 2002), and for the first time as a hardback edition by Kein & Aber (Zurich 2003), Brigitte Edition (Hamburg 2005).
Unlike The Portable Dorothy Parker , New York Stories contain only narratives, no poetry or journalistic work by Parker.
content
Preface
Elke Heidenreich describes the author and her life. This prior knowledge is absolutely essential in order to interpret and interpret the stories.
A Strong Blonde (Short Story)
Published in 1929, original title Big Blonde, awarded the O. Henry Prize for “Best Short Story of the Year”. Beautiful, successful woman turns 30, gets married, falls in love, becomes depressed, succumbs to alcohol and wants to kill herself. The dialogue with the cleaner “Netti” is described in an interesting way.
New York - Detroit
A phone call between lovers who may not be in love (anymore)?
From the diary of a New York lady
Caricaturing diary entries with all their superficiality and everyday "little problems" that are hard to believe. High society, as it was then as it is today.
Cousin larry
The protagonist keeps complaining about the wife of a friend, "who almost belongs to the family", to a friend who is not shown or even reacts. At least that's what Parker makes the reader guess. In a different way, the following monologue, in which the protagonist herself repeatedly takes on a counterpart in order to be able to react to it, could also be viewed as a therapeutic session, if the superficiality of the topic does not almost rule out any real harm.
Comfort and light
A dialogue that isn't - similar to the previous story about cousin Larry from a different perspective and with a different subject. Strictly speaking, the protagonist pities her "best friend" in a selfish monologue. Parker pointedly shows that even to cultivate a friendship no real conversation is necessary and how selfish and ultimately cold-hearted a friendly performance can be.
literature
- Dorothy Parker: New York Stories . Diana, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-453-19603-1 ; Kein & Aber, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-0369-5113-X ; Gruner and Jahr, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-570-19526-0 (= Die Brigitte-Edition , Volume 10).
- Dorothy Parker: You were really great: New York stories (original title: The portable Dorothy Parker , translated by Pieke Biermann and Ursula-Maria Mössner), Kein und Aber, Zürich / Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-0369-5589-6 .