About This Book
Four stories of comedy, deception, and revenge, including one previously unpublished, from the acclaimed author of "Heir to the Glimmering World". Cynthia Ozicks new work of fiction brings together four long stories, including the novella-length Dictation, that showcase this incomparable writers sly humor and piercing insight into the human heart. Each starts in the comic mode, with heroes who suffer from willful selfdeceit. These not-so-innocents proceed from self-deception to deceiving others, who do not take it lightly. Revenge is the consequenceand for the reader, a delicious, if dark, recognition of emotional truth. The glorious new novella Dictation imagines a fateful meeting between the secretaries to Henry James and Joseph Conrad at the peak of their fame. Timid Miss Hallowes, who types for Conrad, comes under the influence of Jamess Miss Bosanquet, high-spirited, flirtatious, and scheming. In a masterstroke of genius, Ozick hatches a plot between them to insert themselves into posterity. Ozick is at her most devious, delightful best in these four works, illuminating the ease with which comedy can glide into calamity.
