John Updike's best known, most anthologized and most frequently taught short story, "A & P," first appeared in The New Yorker (22 July 1961: 22-24), a publication that assumes a reader with considerable literary and cultural knowledge. Updike, for whom literature and art have been intertwined since youth,1 uses allusions to art and to art criticism to give the informed reader of "A & P" the experience of dramatic irony as a means toward constructing significance for the story. …showed first 75 words of 4836 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4836 total…W. "Checking Out Faith and Lust: Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown; and Updike's 'A & P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 23 (1986): 321-23. Updike, John. "A & P." Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories. New York: Knopf, 1969. 197-96, [Reference] -. Assorted Prose. New York: Knopf, 1965. Self-Consciousness. New York: Knopf, 1989. -. "What MoMA Done Tole Me." just Looking. Essays on Art. New York: Knopf, 1989. 3-18. Wells, Walter. "John Updike's 'A & P': A Return Visit to Araby." Studies in Short Fiction 30 (1993): 127-24.