Every Good Deed and Other Stories

Stories Collection #2

by Dorothy Whipple

Persephone's second volume of Whipple short stories (the first was The Closed Door and Other Stories) consists of a novella – Every Good Deed, originally published separately in 1944, about an adoption gone awry – and nine short stories.

The point about reading Dorothy Whipple is that there is an intimacy in her writing. But naturally this intimacy does not appeal to everyone. We feel that it appeals to people who like the writer Elizabeth Taylor and yet this is not always the case: we have a friend who adores Elizabeth Taylor but cannot love Dorothy Whipple (yes, there are people).

Yet one cannot but suspect that the younger novelist learnt a great deal from Dorothy Whipple. Take the short story in Every Good Deed and Other Stories called ‘Boarding House’, written in c. 1940. It is about a rather deplorable woman called Mrs Moore who ruins things for everyone else when she arrives at a small hotel – because she is bored and lonely. ‘“It’s cutlet for cutlet,” she thought bitterly. “I can’t entertain, so no one entertains me now. To think that I should have to come to a place like this. After the life,” she thought, “I’ve lived.”’ The last sentence is pure Elizabeth Taylor. A lesser writer would have put ‘After the life I’ve lived,’ she thought. Why it is funnier and so much more expressive to put ‘she thought’ in the middle of the sentence is a mystery; but it makes all the difference. And why ‘It’s cutlet for cutlet’ is funny is also a mystery, but it certainly is.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, British Literature

264 pages, Paperback

Published October 20, 2016

About the author

Born in 1893, DOROTHY WHIPPLE (nee Stirrup) had an intensely happy childhood in Blackburn as part of the large family of a local architect. Her close friend George Owen having been killed in the first week of the war, for three years she worked as secretary to Henry Whipple, an educational administrator who was a widower twenty-four years her senior and whom she married in 1917. Their life was mostly spent in Nottingham; here she wrote Young Anne (1927), the first of nine extremely successful novels which included Greenbanks (1932) and The Priory (1939). Almost all her books were Book Society Choices or Recommendations and two of them, They Knew Mr Knight (1934) and They were Sisters (1943), were made into films. She also wrote short stories and two volumes of memoirs. Someone at a Distance (1953) was her last novel. Returning in her last years to Blackburn, Dorothy Whipple died there in 1966.

Reviews

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my this was a disappointment. I really have not heard much about Dorothy Whipple’s short stories or of this novella, “Every Good Deed”, and there is probably good reason for that (after reading them). ☹

I wonder if I am in the minority on this one… after all, Persephone did reissue ‘Every Good Deed’ along with nine selected short stories.

In other Whipple novels, I could immerse myself in the lives of the characters…in the novella ‘Every Good Deed’ I really could not. Maybe because I did not like any of the characters, even the characters who were supposedly good, Miss Emily and Miss Susan. They were a couple of middle-aged dimwits who supposedly always meant well and always were willing to overlook people’s faults blah blah blah. The ending was totally, totally unbelievable. Sadly, this was one of those books where I was happy to have reached the end so I could be done with it. Imagine saying that about a Whipple book! Heresy! ☹

Here were the nine short stories in order in which they appeared along with where they were originally published and my ratings:
1. Miss Pratt Disappears – Argosy and Storyteller, 1931 – 5 stars (this is the first story I read in this Persephone collection, and it was pretty good and maybe because I was besotted with Whipple, I rated it higher than I should have, because after this my ratings were less generous when reality set in…that these stories were not all that good IMHO.
2. Susan –3.5 stars
3. Bitter Sauce –3.5 stars
The above three stories published also in the collection ‘On Approval’ (John Murray, 1937)
4. Exit – Lilliput, April 1941 – 2 stars
5. Boarding House –2 stars
6. One Dark Night –1.5 stars
The above three stories published also in the collection ‘After Tea’ [1941] ()
7. Tea at the Rectory – Atlantic Monthly, December 1945 – 2 stars
8. The Swan –2.5 stars
9. Sunday Morning –2 stars
‘The Swan’ and ‘Sunday Morning’ also published in the collection ‘Wednesday’ (1961)
Oh yeah…I rate the novella as 1.5 stars. So that evens out to 2.5 stars and so in my scheme of things that is a weak 3-stars. 😐

I would say for people who want to try Dorothy Whipple and have never read her works to definitely not start with this one. Try ‘Someone At a Distance’ or ‘Because of the Lockwoods ‘ or ‘The Priory’ (and then ‘Young Anne’).

Reviews (all positive which goes to show you what do I know… 🤔 😑):
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2017/...
• https://northernreader.wordpress.com/...

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Dorothy Whipple, I think I've rated her books 5 stars so far. A large part of this collection is 'The Good Deed', two sisters take in a child from a nearby orphanage. I was hoping for a twist to the story, the sisters believed that with a loving home the child would grow into a kind and happy adult. Sadly the story seemed to follow the idea that some people turn out bad or lazy because of their genes, which is sad and dissapointing considering the main characters (the sisters ) didn't believe this was true. Perhaps this story could have been fleshed out more and been up to this author's usual standard. I didn't read the other short stories as this book had another reservation so had to go back to the library.

[Emily May · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Good Deed - 5/5 - A novella, really, and by far the longest story in the collection. A compelling story with a great villain and sympathetic characters.

Miss Pratt Disappears - 5/5 - This one starts a very sad story about a “spinster” considered a burden by a family that doesn’t want her… but her fortune is about to change.

Susan - 5/5 - Very sad, very short story. You know what is going to happen but anticipating it is horrible. A snapshot of how shit it could be to be a woman in the early 20th century.

Bitter Sauce - 5/5 - Just fabulous. The guy in this reminded me of the husband in Whipple's The Closed Door. Whipple has no time for these men.

Exit - 2/5 - Bit of a pointless non-story.

Boarding-House - 4/5 - An enjoyable story about a couple opening a seaside boarding house and getting way more than they bargained for when a truly horrific guest arrives.

One Dark Night - 3/5 - A snobby woman learns her lesson during a wartime blackout.

Tea at the Rectory - 3/5 - Whipple does good "old maid" characters, but not the most interesting story in this collection.

The Swan - 5/5 - Very short, sad story about a literal swan. I’d been expecting a pub or something.

Sunday Morning - 5/5 - Whipple does love poetic justice.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mixed bag for me, but the stories I liked, I really liked. My favorite is Miss Pratt Disappears followed by Tea at the Rectory and One Dark Night. The first story—Every Good Deed—was novella length and I loved the final fourth of it. The first three-fourths though made for tough reading because of the relational dynamic: two Good Samaritans who could have used a lot more worldly wisdom. Several of these stories take an interesting angle on WWII. And Whipple’s insights into the complexity of human relationships are always worth reading.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I hadn’t realised until I opened it to peruse the contents was that the first story Every Good Deed is a novella at 120 pages, I was excited at the idea of a really long story I could sink my teeth into. Every Good Deed spans a period of around twenty-five years, in the lives of two gentle, innocent sisters. The period is difficult to work out – perhaps it doesn’t matter much, though one sister does already own a car at the beginning of the novel and wears a mushroom hat. Neither of the world wars are mentioned, but I assumed the story to take place in the twenty five years before the second world war – the story first appeared in 1944.

The sisters at the centre of Every Good Deed are the Miss Tophams, Miss Emily and Miss Susan, already in their forties when the story opens. Left quite comfortable by their parents, the sisters live at The Willows together, getting along wonderfully well, each of them living their life according to their talents. Miss Susan manages the house and all domestic matters alongside their faithful cook while the elder sister Emily has her committees and public affairs. Miss Emily is capable and caring and the work she likes best is her involvement with the children’s home. It is the children’s home which indirectly changes their lives forever. The lives of the sisters have slipped along in the same quiet stream for years, they are very content with their lives, their friendship with Cook making her into more of a third member of the family. Their only brother James lives in London, keeping a distanced though not a too interfering eye on his sisters’ affairs.

On one visit to the Children’s home, Miss Emily meets a new arrival (the home has had dealings with this girl before) Gwen Dobson who is thirteen. The matron and her staff find her difficult to deal with, know her to be sly, manipulative little madam, wilful and disobedient. Miss Emily believes that the dear child merely needs kindness – and to diffuse a rapidly escalating situation late one evening Miss Emily takes the girl home to The Willows for the night.

Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2017/...

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say that I haven't said before? Whipple is IT. Another excellent collection of her short stories that range from a few pages to a novella. There are some that are achingly sad and others that are uplifting, some that show her genius and others that hint at it. Regardless, I enjoyed each and every one and I highly recommend this.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just perfect. I breathed an actual sigh of relief when I got to the end of the story "Every Good Deed" because I was so invested in the characters!

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving her full length novels, I thought a week of vacation was the perfect time to experience some of Whipple’s short stories. I was not disappointed and, as I neared the end of this collection, I ordered her other book of short stories.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hesitating between 4 and 5 stars. I loved these stories while reading them, but 5 days later I had to open the book to remind myself of them in order to write this review - but maybe that's just because Christmas and rather a lot of glasses of wine have intervened.

The title novella, Every Good Deed, is a study in nature versus nurture. Two comfortably-off elderly sisters, through their do-gooding charity work, offer a home to a difficult teenage girl from a deprived background, almost by accident. They expect comfort, care and education to change her - but everyone else, from their devoted cook to their neighbours, thinks they are deluded.

Then there are several other stories. As a collection, they are rather sad, although some have their funny moments, and the later stories have happier endings than the early ones. I don't know if Persephone planned it that way, but it does give a lift to the book.

[Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't always like DW but this collection of short stories was actually rather good. There was a good mix of generations, periods and moral or sting in the tales. DW certainly has a good eye for detail, a good ear for dialogue and a clear head for a story. Writing a short story is a real art and DW doesn't always succeed in that but she has produced a collection of quality nevertheless.
Toast

[Clare Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every Good Deed was originally published as a novella in 1944, but has been re-published in this Persephone collection along with nine other short stories. Miss Pratt Disappears was first in print in ‘Argossy & Storyteller’ in 1931, and was later published with Susan and Bitter Sauce in a collection called ‘On Approval’, in 1935. Exit first appeared in ‘Lilliput’ in 1941 but was later published with Boarding House and One Dark Night the same year in a collection called ‘After Tea’. Tea at the Rectory appeared in ‘Atlantic Monthly’ in December 1945. The Swan and Sunday Morning were published in the collection ‘Wednesday’ in 1961.
Because these short stories were written and published over a period of thirty years, it’s fascinating to observe British societal changes, viewed through fiction. This collection captures the seismic shifts in British society before and after WW2. For a historical fiction author like me with an obsession with how wartime affects families and relationships, this kind of contemporary fiction is a wonderful resource. For example Susan captures the life an inter-war housemaid. It is a beautifully observed and poignant rendering of a pregnant domestic servant’s final day at work. What would have been a fairly commonplace tale in the early 1930s could not have been written even ten years later. And although WW2 is only touched on obliquely, as in One Dark Night (set during the blackout) or Tea at the Rectory (where the main character is a recently-demobbed soldier), there is this sense of a desperate yearning for a happy ending in the later stories in the collection, which seems to be an echo of the mood of the country at the time.
Dorothy Whipple seems to me to be a quintessentially ‘British’ writer, and throughout reading this collection I’ve been trying to tease out what makes me think that.
Firstly it’s her championing of the underdog: housemaids, spinsters, traumatised soldiers, put-upon housewives – Whipple gives a voice to the voiceless and overlooked.
Secondly, it’s her decency: Whipple cares – and makes us care – about her characters and tells their stories with dignity and humour. She has been described as a ‘moral’ writer, because it appears that ‘good’ characters get happy endings, and ‘bad’ characters get their just desserts. But this is not always the case (as you’ll see if you read Susan). So I would not describe her as a ‘moral’ writer, but I would say that her writing is infused with a kind of very British decency.
Finally, it’s class. Whipple is acutely aware of the micro-layering of the British class system and renders it brilliantly in many of the stories in this collection, particularly in Susan and Boarding House.
I enjoyed all the stories in this collection, but for me the standout ones, because they so clearly and touchingly signify the pre-war and post-war era are Susan and Tea at the Rectory.

In short – a smorgasbord of stories spanning thirty years of twentieth century Britain. Never overwritten, this poignant collection gives an insightful glimpse, through fiction, into the inter-war and post-war mindset of the country.

[Grier · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another collection of stories by Whipple, written in her exact and confident style - so very evocative of a time that feels very much in the past. These stories set in the earlier twentieth century tell of lives compromised by misfortune, status and poverty. Yet at the heart of each story is good and warmth of human living. No matter how downtrodden a character may appear, the reader is left feeling there must be a better future for them. So, despite harsh circumstances, one feels a character is forever growing beyond the story.

It is Whipple's attention to detail, telling just enough, that gives her an edge as a short story writer. She can conjure up an entire character by describing a hat, for example. Whilst I may look at these stories as 'evidence' of times gone by, I also realise the stories are fictions and set-pieces, with a the feel of a stage play or film. Yes, as someone reading in the twenty-first century I do see these stories as both telling of times past and quietly playful - nothing too nostalgic, or bleak.

Overall, an enjoyable collection. The first story is a short novella with far shorter stories following on. If there could have been just a few more stories, I would have welcomed them! I got through this book rather quickly. As someone who enjoys short stories very much I will gobble up any fine collection.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book full of short stories that can evoke a wide range of emotions in the reader, there's something to suit every mood. My favourite was definitely Mrs Pratt Disappears, a sad beginning leads to a feeling of pride for the main character and her happy ending.

4.5 stars, I wish only that some of them were longer, the penultimate story 'Sunday Morning' especially, I would have loved to have seen how things turned out for John with the arrival of Arnold.

[Clare Paterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only wish Dorothy Whipple had lived longer and written more...

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

"I've just lived long enough to know I know nothing at all." -Miss Emily, Every Good Deed

[Ric Cheyney · Rating 2 out of 5]

SORRY, CAN'T RECOMMEND IT

My first PERSEPHONE book, and I love their style, quality, values, and special details which show great enthusiasm for their books, writers and readers. I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't. This was because very nearly half of it is taken up by the 120+ pages of the title story, which features some nice, well-meaning people getting repeatedly scammed by ne'er-do-wells. It was meant to be funny (I think!) but it went on so relentlessly that after 100 pages I gave up on it and speed-read the rest. I didn't miss a thing.

The rest of this anthology was much more bearable, which was not at all difficult by my criteria, but even so, without spoiling things for you, I can report that of the ten stories in this volume only four came anywhere near what you might call pleasant.

Perhaps for their time they served a useful purpose, providing lessons about life and the dangers of unwise, prideful, vain behaviour and so on, but I rather suspect that British humour is often distasteful to me because it almost always seems to need a victim to be laughed AT or sniggered about. Well, I'm too old for all that.

I've still got a big bunch of PERSEPHONE books to get stuck into, but I shan't be trying any more Dorothy Whipple, that's for sure.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never read Dorothy Whipple before, and now I am wondering how on earth she managed to slip under my reading radar for so long. This collection of stories was a pure delight! The novella, Every Good Deed, which opens the book, is brilliant. Not long into the story, I was wishing that I could know the Miss Tophams - they are both so delightful! - but experienced a strong desire to throttle Gwen. I think only a Miss Emily and a Miss Susan could have put up with her for so long! Miss Pratt Disappears again had characters that evoked a strong response, both negative and positive, and I loved the way Miss Pratt transformed as the story progressed. Susan's tale is hauntingly poignant and Bitter Sauce is very cleverly written - as is Amy's final letter. And I could go on! Writing short stories well is a real art and one in which Dorothy Whipple excels. Each entry in this collection is a complete story but also leaves you with questions and allows you to imagine outcomes for the various characters. And some of the final lines are just truly brilliant.

This may have been my first Dorothy Whipple, but it will definitely not be my last.

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Whipple's writing. She gets under the skin and needles away at the most genteel of settings.

My favourites in this collection were the eponymous novella but also Bitter Sauce. As if you weren't entranced enough by all of these great pen portraits, we meet, in this story, Rose of Rose, Modes & Robes! As in all these stories this cacophony of sharp women understand far more than those around them assume. Similarly Miss Pratt Disappears carries a similar tone of shock that women can actually think and act for themselves.

Nothing not to like and I have only scored this 4 because a couple of the stories did not seem to carry the same spark as the rest.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not a great one for short stories normally, which may be in part why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I did the novels.
The novella was ok, but the sisters were so naive and unworldly that I couldn’t feel any affection for them. A few of the stories were interesting but left things hanging and unresolved e.g. ‘Susan’. I also read the book in a day, while the novels were savoured more. A disappointment.

[travelsalongmybookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have so far only read Tea At The Rectory from this book, set at Christmas

[Anthea Wratten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of short stories. Dorothy Whipple captures the day to day lives of ordinary people. A snapshot of history beautifully drawn.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old fashioned middle class stories.