Complete Poems (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Dorothy Parker (Author), Marion Meade (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Classics | Publication Date: April 6, 2010

The firecracker verse of a true American original

Best remembered as a member of the Algonquin Round Table, the fabled Jazz Age literary coterie, Dorothy Parker built a reputation as one of the era's most beloved poets. Parker's satirical wit and sharp-edged humor earned her a reputation as the wittiest woman in America. This Penguin Classics edition of her poetry-the companion to Parker's Complete Stories and introduced by her noted biographer, Marion Meade-is the only complete collection available, showcasing the dry quips and piercingly introspective verse of a writer whose legend continues to fascinate.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) was a celebrated poet, short story writer, critic, and an Oscar-nominated screenwriter. Much of her work was published in magazines including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
Marion Meade is the author of Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? and editor of The Portable Dorothy Parker.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (April 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143106082
• ISBN-13: 978-0143106081
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the Parker you need, December 8, 2001

By 

Scott Woods (Columbus, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dorothy Parker (Complete Poems) (Paperback)

If Margaret Cho could really, really write, and was a young white socialite in the 1920-30s, she'd have been Dorothy Parker. Dorothy is sharp, and she cuts people to the quick, and in no better light than in this Penguin collection. She hates husbands, wives, smart-asses (though she is the preeminent smart-ass woman of her time), summer resorts...you name it, Parker trashes it.

The cool thing about her is that she does this with such cosmopolitan flair (small surprise since she wrote for Vogue and Vanity Fair for years) and obvious care (her poems almost always rhyme and subscribe to some traditional structure) that she makes herself almost untouchable to critic. She's good, she knows she's good, and watch out world, here she comes.

Not just another pretty muse for a Prince song, and great for classes.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A display of sparkling wit and dark introspection, February 4, 2000

By 

Chris - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dorothy Parker (Complete Poems) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful collection of poems from the "wittiest woman in America". She clearly earns that title here, with her hilarious attacks on anything and everything deserving of ridicule, of which her "Hymns of Hate" are a delightful example. Parker's prose also has a darkly introspective side; one often finds allusions to her painful romantic life and her four suicide attempts (such as perhaps her most famous poem, "Resume"). As her serious poems and her cynically comical ones start off in the same tone, one never knows quite what one is getting into.

Parker's poems are as much for the hater of poetry as the aficionado- they are in a sense a direct attack on the affected melodrama that pervades and stereotypes poetry. And if one doesn't find them, like some reviewers, "dark", "beautiful" and "moving", at least one will get a laugh.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the greatest wits, March 13, 2000

By 

[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dorothy Parker (Complete Poems) (Paperback)

dorothy parker was one of the sharpest wits we've ever seen, and this collection of poems shows her talents at their best. you do get a little tired of her cynicism after a while, but her first two classics, Enough Rope & Sunset Gun both make it worthwhile to read. she is one of the best poets we've had.