Little Tales of Misogyny

More about the book

There are women who destroy their men and women who destroy themselves; girls who notch up their conquests and girls who go too far. From 'Oona, the Jolly Cave Woman' to 'The Fully Licensed Whore, or, The Wife', seventeen ironical, bizarre and sophisticated stories. With an eerie simplicity of style, Highsmith turns our next-door neighbors into sadistic psychopaths, lying in wait among white picket fences and manicured lawns. In the darkly satiric, often mordantly hilarious sketches that make up Little Tales of Misogyny, Highsmith upsets our conventional notions of female character, revealing the devastating power of these once familiar creatures—"The Dancer," "The Female Novelist," "The Prude"—who destroy both themselves and the men around them. This work attesets to Highsmith's reputation as "the poet of apprehension" (Graham Greene).