The Lydia Steptoe Stories : Faber Stories

Author(s): Barnes, Djuna,
Binding: Paperback,
Date of Publication: 03/01/2019,
Pagination: 48 pages,
Series: Faber Stories,
Imprint: Faber & Faber,
Published By: FABER & FABER ,
Book Classification: Short stories,
Dimensions: 114 x 159 x 4
ISBN13/EAN/SKU: 9780571352470

---

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. 'I have quite changed my mind. I am going to run away and become a boy.'In these three stories, written by Djuna Barnes under the pseudonym Lydia Steptoe, three characters find themselves on the brink of a sexual awakening - accompanied by guns, whips, and worldly innuendo.

A fourteen-year-old girl plans to become 'a virago', until her mother intercepts her first tryst by dressing up as her male lover. A boy of the same age is lured into the forest by his father's mistress. A woman of forty falls in love and longs to kill herself, so unbearable is the return of the youth she thought she wanted. 'Alice', she tells herself, 'be a man.'Barnes makes gender and desire seem slippery and joyful - and makes the fictional Lydia Steptoe seem like a writer for our time.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.