# Name this short story

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-short-story/388394>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 17, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-short-story/388394 "2007-01-17T23:04:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-short-story/388394/1 "2007-01-17T23:04:51Z")

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Hopefully this is acceptable here, although perhaps it is a cafe society question. There is a short story about a women who was once an actress taking her fur coat (the kind with the head and paws of the animal) out of the closet and to the park. She acts like it is a real animal, talking to it and stroking it and such. Does this short description ring a bell with anyone? If it does, does anyone have an online link to it?

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-short-story/388394/2 "2007-01-17T23:26:40Z")

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In general, book questions do best in Cafe Society. Moved.

**samclem** GQ moderator

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**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-short-story/388394/3 "2007-01-18T01:02:55Z")

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Your story may be [Miss Brill](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mansfield/garden/brill.html), by Katherine Mansfield.

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**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-short-story/388394/4 "2007-01-18T03:45:08Z")

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Gah! I remember having to write a report on “Miss Brill” in high school, and whether her character was “dynamic” or “static.”

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**Author:** ![dauerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@dauerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dauerbach)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-this-short-story/388394/5 "2007-01-18T13:34:53Z")

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Yep, Miss Brill it is. Thank you very much. My daughter had to answer questions on this short story during a mid-term exam. She had never seen it before, and only remembered bits and snatches to describe it. I was curious to read it, and figured it was probably well known. Personally I think that having 10 minutes to read it and answer short answer questions is a tad unreasonable. A couple of the kids in her class, having never seen or even imagined a fur stole with the animals head attached couldn’t figure out what was going on. She said she knew such things existed because it was in the game SIMS.