
Constant Reader
The New Yorker Columns 1927-28
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $13.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Dina Pearlman
About this listen
Dorothy Parker's complete weekly New Yorker column about books and people and the rigors of reviewing.
When, in 1927, Dorothy Parker became a book critic for the New Yorker, she was already a legendary wit, a much-quoted member of the Algonquin Round Table, and an arbiter of literary taste. In the year that she spent as a weekly reviewer, under the rupic "Constant Reader," she created what is still the most entertaining book column ever written. Parker's hot takes have lost none of their heat, whether she's taking aim at the evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson ("She can go on like that for hours. Can, hell—does"), praising Hemingway's latest collection ("He discards detail with magnificent lavishness"), or dissenting from the Tao of Pooh ("And it is that word 'hummy,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader Fwowed up").
Introduced with characteristic wit and sympathy by Sloane Crosley, Constant Reader gathers the complete weekly New Yorker reviews that Parker published from October 1927 through November 1928, with gimlet-eyed appreciations of the high and low, from Isadora Duncan to Al Smith, Charles Lindbergh to Little Orphan Annie, Mussolini to Emily Post.
©2024 McNally Editions; Foreword copyright 2024 by Sloane Crosley (P)2025 Tantor MediaPeople who viewed this also viewed...
-
What Is Ancient History?
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.
By: Walter Scheidel
-
The Ocean
- How It Has Formed Our World - And Will Shape Our Destiny
- By: Sturla Henriksen
- Narrated by: Rupert Bush
- Length: 17 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henriksen, a former CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association and current Special Advisor to the UN presents a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the ocean's impact on geopolitics, climate, biodiversity, and the potential for a sustainable future. From the depths of the sea to geopolitical tensions in strategic maritime locations, Henriksen addresses the complexities of our relationship with the ocean. emphasizing the need for a holistic understanding to tackle the intricate interplay of environmental, economic, and geopolitical factors.
By: Sturla Henriksen
-
Exit Zero
- Stories
- By: Marie-Helene Bertino
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Death-shaped entities—with all of their humor and strangeness—haunt the twelve stories in Exit Zero. Vampires, ghost girls, fathers, blank spaces, day-old peaches, and famous paintings all pierce through their world into ours, reminding us to pay attention! and look alive! and offering many other flashes of wisdom from the oracle and author of Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino.
-
Dearly Beloved
- Prince, Spirituality, & This Thing Called Life
- By: Pamela Ayo Yetunde
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." When Prince spoke those words over celestial organ sounds in the opening moments of "Let's Go Crazy," he wasn't just inaugurating yet another Billboard Hot 100 hit—one of forty-seven in his career; he was also giving voice to the deep-seated and richly complex spiritual underpinning of his art.
-
-
An Anthem to the Soul of Prince
- By Ruth King on 05-05-25
-
The Dorothy Parker Reader: Enough Rope, Men I'm Not Married To and Sunset Gun
- By: Dorothy Parker
- Narrated by: Sara Nichols
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Collected here are three of Dorothy Parker's earliest works: two collections of poetry—Enough Rope and Sunset Gun as well as her short, hilarious collection of stories recounting all of the men she managed to avoid marrying named (appropriately) Men I'm Not Married To.
By: Dorothy Parker
-
The Dorothy Parker Audio Collection
- By: Dorothy Parker
- Narrated by: Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Alfre Woodard, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author, poet, screenwriter, and outstanding member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy Parker was known for her quick wit, keen observations, and remarkable insight into the human condition. Regarded as brilliant, but known to be an alcoholic and often depressed, Parker’s work pushes all buttons at once: humor, anger, love, pity, and everything in between...she pulled no punches, writing with pure, unadulterated passion; her work is timeless and as pertinent to today’s society as it was to that of the time she wrote.
-
-
These are wonderful
- By RueRue on 04-17-19
By: Dorothy Parker
-
What Is Ancient History?
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.
By: Walter Scheidel
-
The Ocean
- How It Has Formed Our World - And Will Shape Our Destiny
- By: Sturla Henriksen
- Narrated by: Rupert Bush
- Length: 17 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henriksen, a former CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association and current Special Advisor to the UN presents a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the ocean's impact on geopolitics, climate, biodiversity, and the potential for a sustainable future. From the depths of the sea to geopolitical tensions in strategic maritime locations, Henriksen addresses the complexities of our relationship with the ocean. emphasizing the need for a holistic understanding to tackle the intricate interplay of environmental, economic, and geopolitical factors.
By: Sturla Henriksen
-
Exit Zero
- Stories
- By: Marie-Helene Bertino
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Death-shaped entities—with all of their humor and strangeness—haunt the twelve stories in Exit Zero. Vampires, ghost girls, fathers, blank spaces, day-old peaches, and famous paintings all pierce through their world into ours, reminding us to pay attention! and look alive! and offering many other flashes of wisdom from the oracle and author of Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino.
-
Dearly Beloved
- Prince, Spirituality, & This Thing Called Life
- By: Pamela Ayo Yetunde
- Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." When Prince spoke those words over celestial organ sounds in the opening moments of "Let's Go Crazy," he wasn't just inaugurating yet another Billboard Hot 100 hit—one of forty-seven in his career; he was also giving voice to the deep-seated and richly complex spiritual underpinning of his art.
-
-
An Anthem to the Soul of Prince
- By Ruth King on 05-05-25
-
The Dorothy Parker Reader: Enough Rope, Men I'm Not Married To and Sunset Gun
- By: Dorothy Parker
- Narrated by: Sara Nichols
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Collected here are three of Dorothy Parker's earliest works: two collections of poetry—Enough Rope and Sunset Gun as well as her short, hilarious collection of stories recounting all of the men she managed to avoid marrying named (appropriately) Men I'm Not Married To.
By: Dorothy Parker
-
The Dorothy Parker Audio Collection
- By: Dorothy Parker
- Narrated by: Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Alfre Woodard, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author, poet, screenwriter, and outstanding member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy Parker was known for her quick wit, keen observations, and remarkable insight into the human condition. Regarded as brilliant, but known to be an alcoholic and often depressed, Parker’s work pushes all buttons at once: humor, anger, love, pity, and everything in between...she pulled no punches, writing with pure, unadulterated passion; her work is timeless and as pertinent to today’s society as it was to that of the time she wrote.
-
-
These are wonderful
- By RueRue on 04-17-19
By: Dorothy Parker