The innocents abroad: Maggie Meriwether's rich experience -- The children's game -- The echo and the nemesis -- The maiden -- A modest proposal -- Caveat emptor. The Bostonians, and other manifestations of the American scene: Life is no abyss -- The hope chest -- Polite conversation -- A country love story -- The bleeding heart -- The Lippia lawn -- The interior castle. Cowboys and Indians, and magic mountains: The healthiest girl in town -- The tea time of Stouthearted ladies -- The mountain day -- The darkening moon -- Bad characters -- In the zoo -- The liberation -- A reading problem -- A summer day -- The philosophy lesson. Manhattan Island: Children are bored on Sunday -- Beatrice Trueblood's story -- Between the porch and the altar -- I love someone -- Cops and robbers -- The captain's gift -- The end of a career

Twenty-nine-year-old Jean Stafford made a bold entrance onto the American literary scene in 1944 when her first novel Boston Adventure became a surprise best seller, its style inviting comparisons to James and Proust. Sonia Marburg, the protagonist of Boston Adventure, grows up in the North Shore village of Chichester, the daughter of an angry marriage between immigrant parents who remain outsiders in America. Seeking to escape the material and spiritual impoverishment of her childhood, Sonia looks across the bay at the State House dome in Boston for the promise of a richer life. Her dreams seem to find fulfillment when she finds a position assecretary-companion to Miss Lucy Pride, a summer guest at the hotel where Sonia cleans rooms, and moves into her Beacon Hill home. Boston Adventureis a perceptive satire of upper-class Boston society and a quicksilver portrait of a young woman trying to navigate a singular transit between very different worlds.

"A lighthearted concoction of extraordinary events, told with affection and humor." ― The New York Times."Oh, what an admirable cat is Elephi! (And what an admirable writer is Jean Stafford!) … Don't you miss knowing Elephi. (Or Erik Blegvad's apt illustrations.)" ― Publishers Weekly.Elephi Pelephi Well Known Cat Formerly Kitten lives a comfortable life with a kind but dull couple who often leave him to his own devices. Being a cat with a high IQ, he longs for stimulating companionship, and when he spies a snow-covered car outside his Fifth Avenue apartment, Elephi recognizes the opportunity for an adventure. Taking advantage of an open door, the intrepid cat bolts out to the street and devises a rescue for the abandoned vehicle, a daring maneuver that leads to comic confusion and a surprising new friendship. Splendid black-and-white drawings that evoke New York City of the 1960s complement this classic by the winner of the 1970 Pulitzer...

This book displays at their height the wit, sensibility and psychological penetration that distinguish Miss Stafford's work. There are nine stories and a novella. They range in mood from the title story, a comic portrait of a resourceful child-criminal named Lottie Jump, to "The End of a Career," an elegiac and ironic tale of the declining years of a great beauty. In "A Reasonable Facsimile" Dr. Bohrmann, a retired professor philosophy, is unexpectedly rescued from an aggressively boring young house guest. "Cops and Robbers" is a chilling story of childhood horror and lovelessness that revolves around a father's trip to the barber with his five-year-old daughter.Several of the stories have as their common setting Miss Stafford's fiction town of Adams, Colorado—including an amusing saga of a girl's frustrated attempts to find a quiet spot to read ("A Reading Problem"), and two stories of failure ("In the Zoo") and success ("The Liberation") in the effort to escape...

Children Are Bored on Sundays is a collection of short stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jean Stafford.