The Portable Dorothy Parker: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) [ペーパーバック]

Penguin Classics has honored the "Portable Dorothy Parker" with the attention it deserves. A new editor: Marion Meade, author of the bestselling Parker biography, "What Fresh Hell is This?" (Villard, 1988). She tossed out the old Brendan Gill introduction and crafted a new one: "We do not care that she failed to write the Great American novel," Meade wrote, "Or the Great American Poem because we value her writing for its uniqueness. Her work has never been out of print, an extraordinary accomplishment in itself. Readers of all ages, including those who have no particular interest in the 1920s, continue to find her stories irresistible."

Meade also carefully pared down the back third of the book, excising numerous superfluous bits and adding in new Parker material. Gone are book reviews of tomes even ardent bibliophiles never heard of; gone are drama reviews that seemed a bit dust-covered.

But Penguin Classics has gone a step further. They tapped one of the best illustrators in the business, the single-moniker cartoonist Seth, to create a knock-out jacket. This brilliant jacket art goes beyond the cover, it encompasses an illustrated spine, back cover, and flaps on the inside (front and rear). He packs in witty, charming and humorous comic strip panels starring Dottie Parker. Imagine if Charles Schulz had let Lucy and Peppermint Patty walk into the Algonquin Hotel, this is how they would turn out. Readers will want to own the book just to enjoy Seth's artwork. If they give out prizes for best book jackets -- and certainly they must in the book industry -- Penguin better nominate Seth. And if he doesn't win, I'll come looking for the panel of judges.

This is the edition that Parker fans will want to own. They will want to buy it and press it on friends they are eager to convert to the Parker Faithful. The book looks gorgeous and the editing decisions have shaped a much-improved edition. In addition, hats off to the publisher for resetting the entire book in a fresh-looking typeface.

It isn't often that one can write about a beloved book and say that a publisher has made it better. But in this instance, the newly revised "Portable Dorothy Parker" is a book that all Parker fans simply must own, must give to friends, and must display in the front windows of their homes and apartments.

Before I bought this book, I admit that I (like most people) knew of Dorothy Parker only through her pithy one-liners and wisecracks (i.e. "men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses", or commenting that a performance of Katherine Hepburn "runs the gamut of emotions from A to B"). However, this wonderful compendium shows a much more versatile, prolific Dorothy Parker - she truly is much more than the bitter joker most people think.

Although her short stories (including the oft-anthologized 'Big Blonde', as well as lesser-known gems such as 'Too Bad') formed the main part of the original 'Portable Dorothy Parker', this newly revised version includes those stories but also a wide variety of dramatic and literary criticisms (including a very enjoyable, incisive review of a performance of Oscar Wilde's play 'An Ideal Husband'), poetry, and letters. I found the letters to be especially fascinating - even when Parker was writing to her family and closest friends, she was still remarkably witty and erudite.

In addition to the content by Parker herself, I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction by Marion Meade, the author of the Dorothy Parker biography "Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?" Although I have not read the previous edition of 'The Portable Dorothy Parker', I have heard that the introduction was very unpleasant because the writer seemed to not like Ms. Parker. Luckily, that is certainly not the case with Marion Meade's introduction - she obviously greatly respects Ms. Parker's body of work, and the introduction (which is really a 15-page biographical sketch of Parker) gives an positive impression of Ms. Parker overall, without glossing over the more unsavoury aspects of her life (such as her alcohol and sedative addictions).

One inclusion in this version of the 'Portable' which I found especially intriguing as a transcript of an interview Dorothy Parker did with 'The Paris Review' in 1956. It really gives a sense of Ms. Parker's personality, and shows her views on a number of topics (including her own description of the famed 'Algonquin Round Table', of which she was a member).

Lastly, the cover art for this version of the 'Portable' is absolutely fantastic. The cover is fanciful withough being needlessly silly, and the inner flaps and the back cover use whimsically retro line-drawings to illustrate, among other things, the major happenings in Dorothy Parker's life. The illustrator (Seth) has really done a great job making sure the work of Ms. Parker doesn't look too stodgy to the casual eye.

I urge everyone to pick up a copy of this book, and discover the genius of Dorothy Parker for themselves - my words simply cannot do it justice.

I'm one of those who, like some other reviewers, has worn out at least three copies of the earlier edition and found this one to be the only new one available. It's not as good as the earlier one.

Although some of the new materials are welcome, many of the insightful and very funny reviews from the last third of the book are missing in this version. What happened to the review of Sinclair Lewis's _The Man Who Knew Coolidge_, "Mr. Lewis Lays It on with a Trowel," which gives a portrait of the age as well as an accurate, if savage, picture of the book? Or the hilarious review of Lou Tellegen's _Women Have Been Kind_? ("Mr. Tellegen is one who kisses, among other things, and tells.")

Those aren't reviews of "dusty tomes," as one reviewer put it, but significant articles for those interested in Parker or twentieth-century literature.

In short, some of the strongest material has been deleted. Those who want to see the real genius of Parker's work need to purchase the earlier edition, too.

Edited to correct an error: The statement attributed to Tellegen above, which I'd included from memory, is actually from "An American Du Barry," a review of Warren G. Harding's mistress Nan Britton's account of her affair with Harding.

From the review: "The book bears the subtitle _Revealing the Love-Secret of President Harding_, which is but a mild statement. For when Miss Britton gets around to revealing, Lord, how she does reveal. She is one who kisses, among other things, and tells. An attempt was made to suppress the book. The author states, in one of her prefaces, that 'six burly policemen' (on the day that that man bites that dog, another front-age item is going to concern a policeman who is not burly) 'and John S. Sumner, agent for the Society for the Suppression of Vice, armed with a 'Warrant of Search and Seizure,' entered the printing plant where the making of the book was in process. They seized and carried off the plates and printed sheets.' 'Lady,' you want to say to the author, 'those weren't policemen; they were critics of literature dressed up.'"