Frances TowersBesprekingen

10 stories

In this collection of short stories, dreamy young women struggle to project their private luminescence onto the prosaic world.

When I read Derek Hudson's Classic English Short Stories, 1930-1955, I was startled to discover an assortment of good authors about whom I had never heard: Elizabeth Bowen, Nigel Kneale, Frances Towers.

Unfortunately, Derek Hudson apparently did an excellent job choosing the best story from each author, because their other work has been disappointing. I couldn't finish Bowen's The Last September or Kneale's Tomato Cain, and my successful completion of Towers' Tea with Mr Rochester took a great deal of grim perseverance. Towers does very fine secondary characters, and her writing is subtle and sharp -- and then a character will open his or her mouth, and the entire story falls apart. I don't think I have ever encountered such wooden, clunky, expository, heavy-handed, awful dialogue from an author who can, otherwise, write very well. The dialogue ruins nearly every story here; "The Golden Rose" is the only successful combination of exquisite observation and human-sounding conversations. Which is a pity -- if only you could render all of Towers' characters mute, her stories would be excellent.

Book of short stories which have a definite "feel" to them....unrequited love, the coming together of two like minded individuals; getting a handle on the "real" meaning of stuff when surrounded by the shallow and the phony....and all set in slightly magical places.....beautiful old houses, the wondrous natural world.
"The passing reflexions of Charlotte in red, Brenda in green made a faint shimmer on the walls as they drifted about, as if a herbaceous border were reflected momentarily in water."
Rather lovely writing.

When I first pick up this book I thought this was a novella. So it took a minute to figure out that it was short stories. I general don’t like reading short story, I have a tenancy to not finish them. This one I did finish and it is a gem.
My favorite stories were Tea with Mr. Rochester, The Little Willow and Strings in Hollow Shells. Some of the stories had a magical and dream quality, some were endearing and other just a bit dramatic and silly. What I enjoy about her stories is the setting of the scene. They seem just as much as a character as the characters themselves. Like the discerption of the Hartwell House in Rose in the Picture, or the smoky light to highlight the character in The Chosen and the Rejected. It seems import to the writer that the scene was just as important as the characters. It is too bad this was the only book published by Frances Towers. It would have been nice to see how she would have written a novel. So I would say give it a try even if you are not a big fan of short stories.

This collection of short stories was wonderful, each like drinking a small glass of port. To quote the publisher Frances Towers "has the rare ability of the fine writer to recreate things to her own vision; so that, for a while after reading her stories, the world seems newly-minted and iridescent, charged with magical possibilities, an unfamiliar place, a different place to what it was before you read Frances Towers." If you like Jane Austen you'll love this book.

Persephone book number forty-four is a delightful little collection of short stories by an author you won’t have come across before – unless you have read this collection, as it was sadly the only book of Frances Towers’ stories ever published. Frances Towers spent many years teaching and the majority of her short stories were written during the 1940’s – this collection was published in 1949 a year after Frances Towers had died suddenly of pneumonia.

At the centre of these stories is the so called ‘literary daughter’ – the overlooked, downtrodden, disappointed and romantically inclined young women of the Jane Eyre type. There is romance here – small quiet romance – often unhappy, or disappointed, but there is also cynicism.
One of my favourite stories of this collection is the titular story – the second in the collection – in which a young girl Prissy, living with two aunts, when not away at school, has found her ideal Mr Rochester in Mr Considine a friend of her aunt’s. In this story Towers recreates beautifully the insular world of an unhappy adolescent girl, the fear of ridicule, and the carefully guarded romantic aspirations we have all known. One of Prissy’s aunts is a glacial beauty – with whom Prissy has a difficult relationship – Aunt Athene only sees the pale child in Prissy –

“And then there was Mr Considine. But Prissy did not speak of him, because gradually he had come to assume all the characteristics of Mr Rochester, and Mr Rochester belonged to that part of Prissy’s experience which was too poignant to be shared”
(From Tea with Mr Rochester)

That story is preceded by Violet – a story of a meddling maidservant. Sophy the rather over looked daughter of the house – one of three sisters – has, strangely enough, Violet, the maid, to thank for the romance that comes into her life. However there is a suggestion of something slightly too knowing about Violet, something a little sinister which gives the ending of this story a delicious little shivery feeling.
The Little Willow is a heartbreakingly poignant story of lost love, or rather love that never was given a chance; when Simon Byrne goes off to war, his love for Lisby the quiet, unremarkable sister of the household where he was once a guest – remains undeclared.

“Lisby said nothing. She had no poetic conception of herself to impose on the minds of others. However, she had her uses. She cut sandwiches and made coffee and threw herself into the breach when some unassuming guest seemed in danger of being neglected. And unassuming guests often were.”
(From The Little Willow)

Romantic love (oh never sex!) rears its head in Don Juan and the Lily – in which a naïve young girl, Elsa goes to work in an office. Here she meets the older Miss Dellow – a mysterious, enigmatic creature, who alone ministers to boss Mr Pelham. A fan of gothic fiction, having a preference for Wuthering Heights over Jane Austen, she weaves fantasies around Miss Dellow, which are brought up short when she is befriended by the goddess and visits her at home. When Miss Dellow goes on holiday Elsa is called unexpectedly into Mr Pelham’s office.

Actually the only reference to anything remotely sexual is in the story The Rose in the Picture – in which a young woman anticipates the coming home of the son of the vicarage. He in his youth a remote being, whom she had once witnessed grappling with another girl – “gobbling as if they were starved” – an image she has been haunted by and has been responsible for her feelings for him ever since.

Spade Man From over the Water is a story also published in the Persephone book of short stories, but it is certainly one that is worth re-reading – as are any of them actually. It is a rather odd little story, which perhaps could be interpreted in a couple of different ways. Two women recent neighbours have become friends during the absence of the younger woman’s husband. The return of this husband seems to herald a change in their friendship – however we are left to wonder how real the friendship was for this lonely young wife.

A young girl, rather shallow and superficial staying in a large country house, has her opinions of this way of life altered, and finds love in Strings in Hollow Shells.

In The Chosen and Rejected tells a slightly cynical story of two spinster friends who have decided to throw their lot in together and share a cottage. The lady of the big house – recognising in the two ladies, people of her sort, befriends them, and then reveals rather shatteringly her plans for her husband when she is gone. There is a touch of darkness to this story, which I think is utterly brilliant.

Lucinda is a ghost story – and to say too much about it might be to spoil for future readers – so I won’t. It is a little odd, but also quite clever – although not quite as fully explored as the other stories – it is enjoyable but for me was the weakest of the collection.

“She lived by herself in a little house down in the village. Sometimes she was asked to a tea party of local ladies at the Manor, but never to meet any of my stepmother’s friends from London. I used to feel ashamed of my father and Julia, and deeply apologetic towards Aunt Essie. I would hold my thumbs for her when parties were being discussed, and would pray with pop-eyed fervour, till my veins stood out, that God would make them ask Aunt Essie.”
(From The Golden Rose)

The Golden Rose is one of several stories – that one could imagine almost being extended to a novella or novel, there was so much that could have been explored further in these characters. However Frances Towers’ story is really quite perfect as it is. Here we meet our narrator’s Aunt Essie, a woman living alone she has been declared as silly and irrelevant by the rest of the family. However Aunt Essie has had a life, she has a romantic secret that no one has ever suspected.

This was such a superb little collection, that I couldn’t help but be rather sad that it is the only book by Frances Towers that exsists.

Random quotes: "I think, Mr. Considine, that you are more knave than fool." From the titular story.

"I said to him, only the other night - When you are left alone, my dear, you must marry one of those dear creatures. I'll pave the way," I said. And, do you know, he looked quite alarmed. He said - "For God's sake, not - " From The Chosen and The Rejected.

This is the only book ever published by Frances Towers and it really feels like a shame. Ten short stories, all of them lovely, all of them with a focus on "the literary daughter". I can't say I didn't enjoy any of them, although Strings in Hollow Shells was not what I expected.½

This book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in 1949. Overall, I really liked this book; the stories are beautifully written and very charming. Here are my thoughts on the individual stories:

.....“Violet” – A mysterious maidservant meddles in the affairs of her employer’s family, which results in romance for their daughter Sophy. I liked this one, and it had a bit of a creepy twist ending.
.....“Tea with Mr. Rochester” – A young schoolgirl discovers the wonders of Jane Eyre and develops a crush on the man she perceives to be her real-life Mr. Rochester. This one was cute, but not one of my favorites in the collection.
.....“The Little Willow” – Three intelligent sisters live together and host parties of soldiers on leave from World War II; one of these soldiers makes a special impact on the youngest girl. This was definitely my favorite story in the bunch, both sweet and heartbreaking.
.....“Don Juan and the Lily” – A young woman takes a mundane job in an office and becomes enthralled with an older, more mysterious colleague. I thought this story was a bit uneven – it seemed to switch gears halfway through – but I still liked it.
.....“The Rose in the Picture” – A girl frets over the return of a neighbor’s son to her country village, because she simultaneously dislikes him and feels an attraction to him. I liked this one but thought it could have been expanded more, maybe even into a full-length novel.
.....“Spade Man from over the Water” – Two women are neighbors and extremely close friends, but everything changes when one of their husbands returns from out of town. This was a strange story that left me with more questions than answers.
.....“Strings in Hollow Shells” – A young and somewhat superficial girl stays for several weeks at a country house and slowly begins to revise her poor opinion of country life. This was one of my favorites as well; the heroine reminded me a lot of Jane Austen’s Emma.
.....“The Chosen and the Rejected” – Two friends living in a country cottage are fascinated by the local lady of the manor and her husband, but one of the friends soon perceives a deeper relationship between herself and the husband. This was a very intriguing story with a “Lady or the Tiger?”-ish ending.
.....“Lucinda” – The intellectual and artistic Quarles family believes it has a ghost named Lucinda in its midst. This was a quaint story with an interesting gimmick, but to me it didn’t feel as substantial as the other stories.
.....“The Golden Rose” – The narrator’s Aunt Essie is despised by most of her family for being old-fashioned and irrelevant, but she turns out to be hiding a romantic secret. This was another very good story that I wanted to be developed more fully.

I felt as though I had crossed into some sort of faery realm while I was reading the nine short stories in this book. Reality rippled and shifted, slanted eyes and sharp cheekbones floated through cool rooms, things and people were not what they seemed. Quirky, odd, delightful and otherworldly. Not a book for those with no sense of the fey.