A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman

From the acclaimed writer Margaret Drabble come her short stories, in Penguin Modern Classics for the first time.

Margaret Drabble is one of the major literary figures of her generation. In this collection of her complete short fiction from across four decades, she examines the intense private worlds and passions of everyday people.

From one man's honeymooning epiphany in Hassan's Tower to the journeying fantasies of A Voyage to Cythera, and from the sharp joy of The Merry Widow to the bloody reality of the collection's title story, these are moving, witty and provocative tales. They explore cruel and loving relationships, social change and personal obsessions, confirming her status as a leading practitioner of the art of the short story.