Mary Eleanor Wilkins FreemanBesprekingen

An excellent set of stories of New England life, in particular The Revolt of Mother and my favorite A New England Nun. As a woman who has lived alone for many, many years, Nun went straight to my heart and soul! Mary Elizabeth Wilkins Freeman is a writer who connects with a female audience with works that ring true.

These collections of "Tales of the Weird" from the British Library continue to provide a great way to catch up with long out-of-print stories and tales, and introduce new authors. No exception here: some really excellent creepy stories.

Another novel by Wilkins Freeman that is set in rural New England (I think in the 1800's but I don't know that the book says one way or the other). This one is a bit different because all of the main characters are quite flawed in one way or the other. Madelon, in particular, is too proud, too head-strong and too passionate. Burr is a weak man, but steps up to protect another. And Lot is so love-sick for Madelon (who is in love with Burr) that he can't even think straight. The only true joy in the book comes through the music of Madelon and her family. A satisfying read, but not a great one.½

A long short story with a moral. Not really much to it.

This was a hard read at times, but totally worth it. At one point, I was so angry at one of the characters, it was visceral. And I wanted to slap a few others for their stubborn idiocy, but somehow the book still worked for me. Maybe because it rang true in depicting the foibles of human nature, pride and misplaced piety. And because a tiny bit of good emerges from the ash heap at long last.

Son front, entre les courbes lisses de ses cheveux gris, était doux et bienveillant, et des lignes dociles tombaient autour de son nez et de sa bouche ; mais ses yeux, rivés sur le vieil homme, semblaient signifier que cette docilité était le fruit de sa propre volonté, certainement pas de celle d’un autre.
(p. 44, “La révolte de « Maman »”).

Je l’avoue, la couverture du livre, avec cette femme en salopette croquant dans sa pomme (un fruit défendu ?) avec un regard qu’on pourrait qualifier d’effronté, y est pour beaucoup dans mon envie de lire ce livre. Puis quand j’ai vu qu’il s’agissait d’un recueil de nouvelles écrit au tournant du siècle (pas ce tournant, celui d’avant…) par une femme elle-même peu conventionnelle qui n’avait jamais été traduite en français, je savais que c’était un livre pour moi.
Et j’ai apprécié ma lecture de bout en bout. Je n’ai bien sûr pas le recul pour savoir dans quelle mesure les nouvelles choisies ici sont représentatives de l’œuvre de Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, mais je crois que je serais prête à lire n’importe quel recueil de nouvelles écrites par elle et qui viendrait de ce côté-ci de l’Atlantique ! Parce qu’elles sont vraiment chouettes ces nouvelles, ces femmes qui tout d’un coup, pour une raison ou pour une autre, décident que cette décision-là ne sera pas prise à leur place par quelqu’un d’autre. Parfois ces femmes sont jeunes, parfois très âgées, mais la plupart du temps elles sont d’âge mûr. Elles ne sont pas là pour révolutionner la société, elles y ont leur place, celle qu’on leur a assignée, mais elle veulent juste, pour un moment ou pour plus longtemps, faire pour une fois un pas de côté.
Ce n’est pas un féminisme revendicatif, ni même un féminisme qui dit son nom. Est-ce d’ailleurs du féminisme ? Oui, parce que toutes les héroïnes sont des femmes, mais il m’a semblé que ces nouvelles décrivaient avant tout l’émancipation d’un être humain, qui se trouve être une femme, certes, mais un être humain avant tout, pris dans les rets de la société à laquelle il appartient. Cette société, c’est la société rurale de la Nouvelle-Angleterre à la fin du XIXème et au début du XXème siècles, un cadre plutôt atypique pour des nouvelles féministes, mais qui me parle, car il a le calme des vies droites et des bonheurs simples, ce que j’aimerais peut-être que ma vie soit de temps en temps (le patriarcat en moins, cependant, j’aurais du mal à me contenter de faire le ménage et la cuisine toute la journée et tous les jours).
Ces huit nouvelles forment un tout cohérent, avec une trame assez similaire de l’une à l’autre (sauf la dernière, qui m’a prise par surprise) : une femme qui tout à coup décide de partir dans une direction qu’on ne lui a pas indiquée, et qui fait fi de tous les obstacles qu’elle rencontre sur son chemin. Elle obtient ce qu’elle veut, payant un prix plus ou moins élevé pour cela, et tout rentre dans l’ordre d’une façon ou d’une autre. Comme un étang dans lequel on aurait jeté une pierre et dont les vaguelettes s’évanouiraient peu à peu. Mais ces nouvelles resteront en moi pour bien plus longtemps que ces quelques vaguelettes, et j’espère avoir la chance de recroiser Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman dans mes pérégrinations de lectrice.

Un grand merci aux éditions Finitude pour m’avoir permis de découvrir ce livre dans le cadre de l’opération Masse Critique de Babelio.

Freeman writes "The Crucible" decades before Arthur Miller. And does a good job.

I'm working through the collected works of Freeman and this one left me a little flat. I finished reading just to find out what would happen to Jane and her daughter Lois, but I didn't find the book or the outcome particularly satisfying.

(Only read "A New England Nun")

Absolutely delightful fairy tale collection. So "fresh" that it seems impossible that they were first published in the 1890's. A couple stories at the end were included in another collection that I had already read and really didn't fit with the others.

Wilkins Freeman's depiction of New England children in the late 1800's is sweet (without being cloying) and somewhat sentimental, a charming look at the simple lives and desires of children as they maneuver the sometimes difficult, but seemingly always loving paths before them.

A really remarkable set of stories about a really remarkable character. Ann is so real that one forgets that she is a work of fiction. A strong yet flawed child who puts others before self and grows into a happy young woman. These stories may strike some as corny or maudlin, but they are so well written that the tales overcome any possibility of becoming cliche. They also give one a good feel of day-to-day colonial life as well, from making candle wiks to keeping your Sunday-go-to-meeting shoes from becoming scuffed and worn to driving the cows home from pasture. This is the second thing by Wilkins that I've read and I've become a big fan.

This edition has versions that have been "translated" into modern English. It also has the original versions in appendixes.

Luella Miller is a beautiful, selfish woman with an uncanny ability to make people do things for her, despite a succession of husbands, domestics, and doctors wasting away to an early death. She may be loosely characterized as a vampire - she effectively sucks the life out of her victims - albeit one lacking in all conventional Gothic trappings. The story offers few surprises but is nevertheless chilling.

At the time, it might have been terrifying.

I read this book over and over again as a child. For some reason this story just popped into my head and I had to "Google it" because I couldn't remember the title of it. I knew it immediately as soon as I saw the cover art. I used to spend hours studying the illustrations because they were so detailed and fun and the story, if I remember correctly, was kind of bizarre. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of this one again to refresh my memory.

This is an excellent collection of gently written short stories, set in the early part of the 20th century in New England. The first stories in the collection all have children as protagonists. Some of them are a little precious, but most of them enter into a child’s world in a respectful and subtle way. Many of these stories are people’s ordinary lives, and about the ways they find to escape from these lives. It takes a lot of courage for these characters to break away from the expectations of their families, but some of them do. The unsung hero shows up a lot here.

Cute tale with fanciful drawings. I can't help noticing how beautifully shaded the orange screening is over the b&w drawings.

If you are looking for a real taste of New England regionalism, look no further. Mary E Wilkins Freeman captures the essence of old, rural New England in this collection of short stories that also finds its footing in early feminism. Her female characters are outspoken, self-reliant, and unafraid to face life on their terms.

4448. Pembroke A Novel, by Mary E. Wilkins [Freeman] (read 10 Jun 2008) This 1894 novel reads like a 1894 novel, and tells of bull-headed New Englanders in a Massachussets village, who are dour and who sure seem to live lives of non-joyful desperation. Barrabas quarrels with his fiancee's father and the engagement is broken off, tho both remain in love with each other. One can tell that Wilkins (as her name was when the book was written) is a short story writer and not really a novelist. But the story seldom drags and one is interested in knowing how it will work out.½