Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1Someone at a Distance (1953)Someone at a Distance (1953)Published 1 Jan 1953Whipple’s last novel appeared in 1953; Persephone has helped return her domestic fiction to regular reading-group discussion. A French visitor’s arrival unsettles an apparently secure English marriage, and the force lies in small shifts of power, money and attention. Choose the Persephone edition…0
  2. 2The fortnight in September (1931)The fortnight in September (1931)Published 1 Jan 1931Warmly received in 1931 and later revived by Persephone, Sherriff’s novel gives an ordinary family’s Bognor holiday the attention usually reserved for grand adventures. Preparations, small expenses and hopes for private freedom make the period social world tangible. Its present Persephone edition…0
  3. 3MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (1938)MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (1938) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1938This 1938 comedy became one of Persephone’s conspicuous revival successes, so it is no longer a secret discovery. A struggling governess enters a glamorous woman’s chaotic day and discovers capacities that respectability had kept hidden. The illustrated Persephone edition preserves the fairy-tale…0
  4. 4The home-maker (1924)The home-maker (1924) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1924An immediate bestseller in 1924, The Home-Maker has acquired a further life through Persephone’s recovery of neglected domestic fiction. An unhappy mother and an unhappy breadwinner discover that their allotted roles do not match their abilities. The family’s children have inner lives of their own,…0
  5. 5The blank wall (1947)The blank wall (1947)Published 1 Jan 1947Holding’s 1947 suspense novel, now available from Persephone, turns the wartime household into a place of criminal danger. Lucia’s effort to protect her daughter must coexist with shortages, domestic duties and an absent husband. The neglected pleasure here is how ordinary obligations tighten the…0
  6. 6The Vet's Daughter (1981)The Vet's Daughter (1981) 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1981First published in 1959 and subsequently reissued by Virago and NYRB Classics, Comyns’s novel deserves space beyond the usual lists of strange little books. Alice’s plainspoken account of a brutal household gradually admits the impossible without losing its peculiar directness. The NYRB edition…0
  7. 7The Moonflower Vine (1962)The Moonflower Vine (1962)Published 1 Jan 1962A bestseller in the 1960s, Carleton’s Missouri family novel returned through Harper Perennial in 2009 with Jane Smiley’s introduction. Its shifts among family members revise the affectionate picture established at the start. The reason to bring it back is that patient movement from shared family…0
  8. 8Ex-wife (1929)Ex-wife (1929) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1929Published anonymously in 1929, Parrott’s bestseller returned in McNally Editions’ 2023 reissue. A divorce and its aftermath expose the practical costs beneath Jazz Age freedom: earning, drinking, friendship and the terms men offer women. Its dry, quick intelligence makes the revival more than a…0
  9. 9The stone face (1963)The stone face (1963) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished 1 Jan 1963NYRB’s 2021 reissue brought renewed attention to Smith’s 1963 novel about a Black American journalist in Paris. What first seems refuge becomes an encounter with French violence against Algerians and the limits of expatriate comfort. The novel deserves discussion for making solidarity a difficult…0
  10. 10The Narrows (1953)The Narrows (1953)Published 1 Jan 1953Petry’s 1953 novel has lived in the shadow of The Street, rather than being forgotten by every readership. The Virago edition with Kaitlyn Greenidge’s introduction offers a way to reconsider it. A Black graduate working as a bartender and a wealthy white woman become entangled within a Connecticut…0