Stories for Lovers

A retired couple remove the mirrors from their lake house to let themselves only be reflected in each other’s eyes; two girls are cast as Romeo and Juliet in their college play; a woman bargains with God to let the man she loves telephone her.Women writers of the twentieth century had a complex relationship with romantic fiction, at once limited and legitimised by the often-denigrated category of ‘love story’. From sneaking out of the house to go on tentative first dates to honeymoon bliss and chance meetings on trains, the heady rush of falling in love infuses the stories in this collection. But there are few fairytale endings a woman shares the gothic tale of her first love, the rekindling of an old flame is complicated by the baggage of two lifetimes, and a musician conducts an extramarital affair with calculated precision.This anthology brings together forgotten and celebrated female masters of the short story format. In the spirit of the Women Writers series, these stories first appeared in books and periodicals published in the twentieth century. The result is a carefully curated collection of stories that sketch evolving understandings of love and female agency, as their heroines navigate romance and commitment, idealism and realism, innocence and experience.