In the following essay, Pettit regards Parker's short fiction as part of the sentimental tradition.

In the following excerpt, Kinney traces Parker's poetic development.

The following is Kinney's study of Parker's maturation as a poet, offering a comparison of her with other poets of her generation and persuasion.

In the following essay, Pollak traces the influence of Jonathan Swift on Parker's review essay “The Professor Goes in for Sweetness and Light.”

In the following essay, Barreca delineates the defining characteristics of Parker's short fiction and counters the negative critical assessment of her work.

In the following essay, Simpson examines racial themes in “Big Blonde,” contending that the story provides “a penetrating view of the divides of American identity, and of one white author's attempt to write that identity.”

In the following essay, Johnson surveys the critical reaction to Parker's oeuvre and examines her unique use of repetition in her work.

In the following essay, Walker asserts that “the medium of the book review allowed for an expression of personal tastes that can provide insight into a woman of integrity and high standards.”

In the following essay, Melzer offers a feminist perspective on Parker's work.

Throughout her life, Dorothy Parker was quick to sympathize with those who suffered or were indentured—those she could pity because of misfortune in politics, money race, or sex. She admired the servant class and those who, like her "Big Blonde," were defeated by conditions they could not understand or overcome. And she was as quick to attack the causes of their exploitation. From her early poetry of unrequited love to "Clothe the Naked" she attacks pretension and blindnes...

Here, Kinney provides a discussion concerning Parker's use of meter and verbal simplicity to better satirize her view of society.

Wilson compares and contrasts Parker's poetry to that of her contemporaries, noting in particular those elements which make her work distinctive.

Readers coming to Mrs. Parker for the first time may find it as hard to understand the high place she held in the literary world of forty or fifty years ago as to understand the critical disregard into which she subsequently fell. The first precaution for such readers is to bear in mind the fact that the so-called world that gave her her reputation was really only a province, and, like all provinces, it considered itself much bigger and more important than it was…. The small literary set that centere...

Canby believes that the techniques Parker uses in Death and Taxes produce “poetry deserving high praise.”

In this review, Kronenberger discussed Parker's exploration of emotion and sentimentality through her use of wit and cynicism.

In the following essay, Horder provides an appreciation of Parker's literary contributions.

Hutchison reads Death and Taxes as a “small package of literary delights,” that reveals truth amid a mixture of the serious and lighthearted.

Luhrs appreciates Parker's honest look at society and her ability to craft poetry that appeals to the general reader.

Busey reviews Sunset Gun, discussing what she believes is Parker's appeal for readers.

Walton examines Sunset Gun, noting the devices Parker uses to “puncture old illusions and then caper wickedly among the ruins.”

Benét reviews Sunset Gun, pointing out that Parker's writing, like her personality, is difficult to categorize.

In the following review, Benét studies Parker's stature as a poet dealing with the experiences of living as depicted in the poems included in her recent collection, Not So Deep As A Well.

Rosenberg focuses on Death and Taxes with respect to sentiment, wit, and poetic quality.

The critic appraises Parker's poetry, especially her timely treatments of established forms.

In this review, Redlich supports Parker's poetry for its unembellished deceptions of “the vanity of human wishes.”

Mrs. Parker's published work does not bulk large. But most of it has been pure gold and the five winnowed volumes on her shelf—three of poetry, two of prose—are so potent a distillation of nectar and wormwood, of ambrosia and deadly nightshade, as might suggest to the rest of us that we all write far too much. Even though I am one who does not profess to be privy to the intentions of posterity, I do suspect that another generation will not share the confusion into which Mrs. Parker�...

Of the writers of the 1920's and 1930's who produced stories on the order of those of Ring Lardner, only [Dorothy Parker] came close to matching his telling irony and satire and his ear for recording common speech. Narrower in range than Lardner, she excelled in witty and humorous monologue and dialogue rather than in storytelling, as attested to by most of the pieces in her two collections of sketches and stories, Laments for the Living (1930) and After Such Pleasures (1933). Undoubtedly her ...