Bad Characters Read online

“Do like it,” I say and laugh and hold out both hands to him. “I’ve decided to give up trying to write poetry.” He really should not look so pleased.

  “Well, in that case—” he says and pours a glass for himself. “Isn’t that jacket new?”

  “No, it’s old. It’s as old as the hills.”

  “It’s hideous,” he says. He is right; perhaps seventeen years ago it was not so coy as it is now. I turn back to the stuck clock for a split second and during it I think, my God, Jew or not he was a Nazi; and then I think, what did Nazi mean when I was twenty? So, finding no reason for preserving my guilt, I watch it give up the ghost. Tomorrow at this time we will be in Bermuda.

  “I know it’s hideous,” I say. “But Nan won’t know it is.”

  Books by Jean Stafford

  Boston Adventure

  The Mountain Lion

  Children Are Bored on Sunday

  The Catherine Wheel

  Elephi, the Cat with a High I.Q.

  The Interior Castle (collection)

  Bad Characters

  About the Author

  Jean Stafford (1915-79) was the author of three novels as well as several children’s and nonfiction books. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1970. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Bad Characters

  The End of a Career

  A Reasonable Facsimile

  In the Zoo

  Cops and Robbers

  The Liberation

  The Captain’s Gift

  A Reading Problem

  Caveat Emptor

  A Winter’s Tale

  Books by Jean Stafford

  About the Author

  Copyright

  FIRST PRINTING

  Copyright © 1946, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1964 by Jean Stafford

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  eISBN 9781466896581

  First eBook edition: November 2016