The Late Mrs. Dorothy Parker [Hardcover]

Leslie Frewin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A prolific British biographer (Dietrich writes carelessly about the witty but unhappy short-story writer, versifier, critic and playwright Dorothy Rothschild Parker (18931967). For all her irreverent maxims, epigrams and bon mots, he notes, Parker's wit "ambivalently contained the seeds of a deep, personal sadness." A manic-depressive who resented the fact that her father was Jewish, and who had numerous unsuitable affairs with tall, handsome WASPs, she was twice married to the half-Jewish bisexual Alan Campbell and attempted suicide at least three times. Only with Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood and Donald Ogden Stewart was she able to maintain nonbitchy relationships. Her remark about a book on science having been written "without fear and without research" might well be applied to Frewin's pretentious biography: he sedulously oversimplifies, confuses the chronology, pads the background with anachronisms and inappropriate names, relies heavily on the expression "met up with," and ruins many of Parker's best witticisms by inappropriate presentation. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dorothy Parker, the "Guinevere of the legendary Algonquin Round Table," lived at the center of American intellectual life from the mid-1910s to the 1950s. Peppered with Parker's quips and verses, Frewin's book pulls together biographical details and the impressions of her contemporaries to portray the "surface gaiety and hidden misery" of Parker's life and times. In this regard, Frewin's work largely duplicates John Keats's You Might as Well Live (1970). Parker's friends saw her as an enigma, and she remains frustratingly remote in Frewin's biography. Had he offered an artistic critique of her work, the book would have been more satisfying. Recommended for public and academic libraries, although Keats may suffice. Barbara Carroll, M.L.S., Eau Claire, Wis.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 622 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co; 1St Edition edition (May 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025413104
• ISBN-13: 978-0025413108
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,872,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thin line between witt and menace, December 26, 2001

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Sasha "lampic" (at sea...sailing somewhere) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Late Mrs. Dorothy Parker (Hardcover)

Its fascinating to read interesting book about quitte anoying character: supposedly sharp and witty Dorothy Parker was not one of the most loved persons between her contemporaries and at the end she was left alone because nobody had energy to deal with her.Leslie Frewin wrotte very interesting biography: he is clearly fascinated with his subject but he is not covering her weknesses under the rug and althought its said that nobody ever knew real Dorothy Parker,somehow the picture of insecure woman who had protect herself with sarcasm and menacing jokes eventually emerges from these pages.Parker could be funny occasionally but it gets tiresome after some time - people who are loved and find their satisfaction in life dont have a need to critisize everything under the sun,and Parker had her share of "issues" - yes,she was life & soul of the party,but nobody really wanted her around after the party was finished.Frewin gives clear picture of jet-set in 1920's and some of the characters in the background (Lillian Helman,Hemingway,F.Scott Fitzgerald) are as fascinating and important as the main subject.