Fennel and Rue William Dean Howells 9781514634325 Books
Download As PDF : Fennel and Rue William Dean Howells 9781514634325 Books
The success of Verrian did not come early, and it did not come easily. He had been trying a long time to get his work into the best magazines, and when he had won the favor of the editors, whose interest he had perhaps had from the beginning, it might be said that they began to accept his work from their consciences, because in its way it was so good that they could not justly refuse it. The particular editor who took Verrian's serial, after it had come back to the author from the editors of the other leading periodicals, was in fact moved mainly by the belief that the story would please the better sort of his readers. These, if they were not so numerous as the worse, he felt had now and then the right to have their pleasure studied.
Fennel and Rue William Dean Howells 9781514634325 Books
This is a short novel, more of a psychological study really, about a young man, his ego, and his mother.Philip Verrian is 37 years old, never married, and lives with his mother. Philip has found his first success as a writer. He's written a serial for a magazine and is getting some positive attention from readers and critics. He receives a letter from a young woman who claims to be dying and asks him to reveal the ending of the serial. (I'll bet George R. R. Martin is getting similar letters.)
Philip takes the letter to his publisher, who thinks the letter would be good publicity but he wants to make sure it isn't a hoax. He investigates and learns that it is indeed a fake. The young woman who wrote the letter apologizes, explaining that it was a youthful prank, but Philip's having none of it -- his ego is wounded. His response is scathing and unforgiving. He feels a little bit guilty about taking it so seriously, then puts it out of his mind.
Most of the rest of the novel takes place in a country house, where Philip has been invited to spend a week by a vapid but wealthy older woman who's trying to make a name for herself in society. On the train to the house, Philip encounters a young woman who intrigues him. It's not a spoiler to reveal that this is the same woman who wrote the letter -- Howells makes this obvious. The rest of the novel details what happened during that week and a brief time after.
So -- there's not much plot. What kept me reading was Howell's observations about Philip and the people he encounters. Philip thinks he knows himself, and that he knows women. He doesn't see how he's been poisoned against women by his mother. She's really quite smart, and mothers who want to keep their sons close could take lessons from her. In addition to watching her machinations, I also enjoyed Howells' digs at this egocentric writer.
The title of the book puzzled me so I looked up "fennel" and "rue". Fennel is a main ingredient in absinthe, often used in literature as a powerful mind-altering drink, and rue has been used to induce abortion. I'm not sure what to make of that, except that fennel might represent Philip's mother's sly control of her son, and rue as representing independence and freedom of women to control their bodies.
The kindle edition has some formatting issues and a few typos, but not enough to really detract. If you like psychological studies, and fiction set in the early 20th century featuring people of a certain class, I think you'd like this very much.
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Fennel and Rue William Dean Howells 9781514634325 Books Reviews
This is a short novel, more of a psychological study really, about a young man, his ego, and his mother.
Philip Verrian is 37 years old, never married, and lives with his mother. Philip has found his first success as a writer. He's written a serial for a magazine and is getting some positive attention from readers and critics. He receives a letter from a young woman who claims to be dying and asks him to reveal the ending of the serial. (I'll bet George R. R. Martin is getting similar letters.)
Philip takes the letter to his publisher, who thinks the letter would be good publicity but he wants to make sure it isn't a hoax. He investigates and learns that it is indeed a fake. The young woman who wrote the letter apologizes, explaining that it was a youthful prank, but Philip's having none of it -- his ego is wounded. His response is scathing and unforgiving. He feels a little bit guilty about taking it so seriously, then puts it out of his mind.
Most of the rest of the novel takes place in a country house, where Philip has been invited to spend a week by a vapid but wealthy older woman who's trying to make a name for herself in society. On the train to the house, Philip encounters a young woman who intrigues him. It's not a spoiler to reveal that this is the same woman who wrote the letter -- Howells makes this obvious. The rest of the novel details what happened during that week and a brief time after.
So -- there's not much plot. What kept me reading was Howell's observations about Philip and the people he encounters. Philip thinks he knows himself, and that he knows women. He doesn't see how he's been poisoned against women by his mother. She's really quite smart, and mothers who want to keep their sons close could take lessons from her. In addition to watching her machinations, I also enjoyed Howells' digs at this egocentric writer.
The title of the book puzzled me so I looked up "fennel" and "rue". Fennel is a main ingredient in absinthe, often used in literature as a powerful mind-altering drink, and rue has been used to induce abortion. I'm not sure what to make of that, except that fennel might represent Philip's mother's sly control of her son, and rue as representing independence and freedom of women to control their bodies.
The kindle edition has some formatting issues and a few typos, but not enough to really detract. If you like psychological studies, and fiction set in the early 20th century featuring people of a certain class, I think you'd like this very much.
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