Tea with Mr. Rochester
121. Frances Towers, Tea with Mr. Rochester
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.
N.B. My copy doesn't have the same cover as the one pictured here; I read the Persephone edition, which also contains a review of the book by a contemporary of Frances Towers.