Wasp, where is thy sting? [Hardcover]

Florence King (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1977

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Stein and Day (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812821661
• ISBN-13: 978-0812821666
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #967,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book on Who WASPs Are, July 7, 2005

By 

C. Perelli-Minetti (Old Greenwich, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wasp, where is thy sting? (Hardcover)

This is one of the funniest, and most accurate, books ever written on the once-dominant Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture in America. Weighted to the South (though not so much as King's Southern Ladies and Gentlemen) because of Miss King's Anglo-Southron Washington DC area up-bringing, she explores in her inimitable "pointing up" style a vast number of the details of WASPiness that are common knowledge among WASPs, at least those who are "old stock" WASPs, but utterly unknown to most Catholics (who may be Anglo-Saxon) and non-Anglo-Saxon ethnics -- even those of Northern European stock who generally "pass" as WASPs.

If any part of your family comes from the sorts of backgrounds described in the book, you will immediately recognize the types among your relatives. I found a dozen or so, which seems typical. I've given away, or lent and had not returned, probably a dozen copies of this lamentably out-of-print book over the past 20 years since I was first introduced to it by an Episcopal seminarian (how appropriate!)

One of Miss King's most seminal services for non-WASPs in this book is her (now somewhat dated) explication of the varieties of Protestantism, and particularly the fact that in many cases denominational affiliation has less to do with specific doctrine than social background and ethnicity.

I honestly believe this to be a book that every serious student of American society should read with care.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mother of All Curmudgeons, November 14, 2003

By 

Cleobulus ""Freedom is the right of every... (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wasp, where is thy sting? (Hardcover)

A superb read - especially the last section on Lizzie Borden, pointing up the WASPishness of the whole thing, even unto the disgusting food (and sanitary) habits of this family, which would be enough to make anyone snap.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hysterical!, December 11, 2010

By 

irishlass72 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wasp, where is thy sting? (Hardcover)

As a lifelong Catholic, I have little knowledge of the WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) world that Ms. King writes about. This book was funny and witty and provided a sneak peak at life across the ecumenical line.