Review: The Closed Door and Other Stories, by Dorothy Whipple

Pages: 229
Original date of publication: 1930s
My edition: 2010 (Persephone)
Why I decided to read: Dorothy Whipple is one of my favorite authors

How I acquired my copy: Persephone subscription, May 2011

The Closed Door and Other Stories is a collection of 10 short stories. Dorothy Whipple is skilled at describing the relationships between people: parents and their children, husbands and wives, young girls experiencing the thrill of their first potential romance. The stories are less plot-driven, but character development is strong, even though some of these stories are very short. The title story, The Closed Door, is more like a short novel than a short story, and it tells the story of a young girl as she grows up and gets married to get out from under the thumb of her repressive parents. As such, it skips over a lot of stuff, and I think this story might have been good as a longer novel. Other than that, though, I really loved the stories in this collection; some of them have a very strong emotional impact on the reader.

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