The Magnificent Spinster: A Novel - Hardcover

Sarton, May

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039302220X ISBN 13: 9780393022209

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1985

Synopsis

The fifty-year friendship of two remarkable women, Jane and Cam, is relived as Cam, in her seventies, recalls and celebrates the personality, compassion, and fulfilling career of her recently deceased friend

About this title

About the Author:

May Sarton (1912-1995) was an acclaimed poet, novelist, and memoirist.

Review:

The life story of The Magnificent Spinsier, Jane Reid, is told by Cam, a seventy-year-old retired historian and Jane's friend for fifty years. Born before World War I and raised on an island off the Maine coast, Jane grows up with her extended family - her parents, five sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, close family friends - in a world of rustic white-anglo-saxon-protestant elegance. The children's main excitements center around "escaping the grown-ups," especially their nanny, Snooker: "Jane's world was running off with her sister Alix to pick blueberries, lying for hours in the soft warm grass, filling their baskets, or simply sneaking off to explore, if possible get lost, and frighten themselves with imaginary dangers, and frighten Snooker by being late for lunch." As Jane becomes an adult, her gentle persistence and intelligent strength steer her clear of conventional expectations. She remains single, becomes a well-loved teacher, does what she can for the war-wounded world, and moves easily into the role of family mentor as the elders pass on. Written in lovely and compelling prose, this is a long and spacious novel about a kind of life and love rarely acknowledged. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 039302220X
• ISBN 13: 9780393022209
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384