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For the Major: A Novelette
EDGERLEY the first lay on the eastern flank of Chillawassee Mountain; Edgerley the second six hundred feet above. The first Edgerley, being nearer the high civilization of the state capital, claimed the name, and held it; while the second Edgerley was obliged to content itself with an added "far." Far Edgerley did not object to its adjective so long as it was not considered as applying especially to the distance between it and the lower town.
92 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1882
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About the author
Constance Fenimore Woolson
198 books37 followersConstance Fenimore Woolson (March 5, 1840 – January 24, 1894) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. She was a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, and is best known for fictions about the Great Lakes region, the American South, and American expatriates in Europe.
Woolson was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, but her family soon moved to Cleveland, Ohio, after the deaths of three of her sisters from scarlet fever. Woolson was educated at the Cleveland Female Seminary and a boarding school in New York. She traveled extensively through the midwest and northeastern regions of the U.S. during her childhood and young adulthood.
Woolson’s father died in 1869. The following year she began to publish fiction and essays in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine. Her first full-length publication was a children’s book, The Old Stone House (1873). In 1875 she published her first volume of short stories, Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, based on her experiences in the Great Lakes region, especially Mackinac Island.
From 1873 to 1879 Woolson spent winters with her mother in St. Augustine, Florida. During these visits she traveled widely in the South which gave her material for her next collection of short stories, Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches (1880). After her mother’s death in 1879, Woolson went to Europe, staying at a succession of hotels in England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
Woolson published her first novel Anne in 1880, followed by three others: East Angels (1886), Jupiter Lights (1889) and Horace Chase (1894). In 1883 she published the novella For the Major, a story of the postwar South that has become one of her most respected fictions. In the winter of 1889–1890 she traveled to Egypt and Greece, which resulted in a collection of travel sketches, Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (published posthumously in 1896).
In 1893 Woolson rented an elegant apartment on the Grand Canal of Venice. Suffering from influenza and depression, she either jumped or fell to her death from a window in the apartment in January 1894. Two volumes of her short stories appeared after her death: The Front Yard and Other Italian Stories (1895) and Dorothy and Other Italian Stories (1896). She is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, and is memorialized by Anne's Tablet on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
Woolson’s short stories have long been regarded as pioneering examples of local color or regionalism. Today, Woolson's novels, short stories, poetry, and travelogues are studied and taught from a range of scholarly and critical perspectives, including feminist, psychoanalytic, gender studies, postcolonial, and new historicism.
(from Wikipedia)
Woolson was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, but her family soon moved to Cleveland, Ohio, after the deaths of three of her sisters from scarlet fever. Woolson was educated at the Cleveland Female Seminary and a boarding school in New York. She traveled extensively through the midwest and northeastern regions of the U.S. during her childhood and young adulthood.
Woolson’s father died in 1869. The following year she began to publish fiction and essays in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Magazine. Her first full-length publication was a children’s book, The Old Stone House (1873). In 1875 she published her first volume of short stories, Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, based on her experiences in the Great Lakes region, especially Mackinac Island.
From 1873 to 1879 Woolson spent winters with her mother in St. Augustine, Florida. During these visits she traveled widely in the South which gave her material for her next collection of short stories, Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches (1880). After her mother’s death in 1879, Woolson went to Europe, staying at a succession of hotels in England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
Woolson published her first novel Anne in 1880, followed by three others: East Angels (1886), Jupiter Lights (1889) and Horace Chase (1894). In 1883 she published the novella For the Major, a story of the postwar South that has become one of her most respected fictions. In the winter of 1889–1890 she traveled to Egypt and Greece, which resulted in a collection of travel sketches, Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (published posthumously in 1896).
In 1893 Woolson rented an elegant apartment on the Grand Canal of Venice. Suffering from influenza and depression, she either jumped or fell to her death from a window in the apartment in January 1894. Two volumes of her short stories appeared after her death: The Front Yard and Other Italian Stories (1895) and Dorothy and Other Italian Stories (1896). She is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, and is memorialized by Anne's Tablet on Mackinac Island, Michigan.
Woolson’s short stories have long been regarded as pioneering examples of local color or regionalism. Today, Woolson's novels, short stories, poetry, and travelogues are studied and taught from a range of scholarly and critical perspectives, including feminist, psychoanalytic, gender studies, postcolonial, and new historicism.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 16, 2016
This 19th-century novella plays upon the expectations of genteel Southern womanhood and then subverts them in ways I didn't expect. I thought of one thing; nothing came of it: it was another thing entirely. After having read Miss Grief and Other Stories, this is the first 'longer' piece I've read by Woolson. It too contains what I'm discovering is her trademark empathy, humor and some very fine prose.
November 1, 2021
110/2021 Para el club de lectura de autoras del siglo XIX que organiza @cl_autorasxix , al que voy menos de lo que me gustaría, hemos leído este libro, que durante el primer tercio no tenía nada claro dónde me iba a llevar o de qué iba a ir la historia y que de repente arranca y me empezó a interesar todo más.
La vida en un pueblo pequeño, los secretos, las apariencias y todo lo que una mujer y una hija están dispuestas a hacer por su marido enfermo. La enfermedad del comandante es la excusa para hablar del universo que a veces construimos entre nosotras.
Me ha gustado, sin entusiasmos, pero es una lectura agradable.
La vida en un pueblo pequeño, los secretos, las apariencias y todo lo que una mujer y una hija están dispuestas a hacer por su marido enfermo. La enfermedad del comandante es la excusa para hablar del universo que a veces construimos entre nosotras.
Me ha gustado, sin entusiasmos, pero es una lectura agradable.
August 14, 2020
Constance Fenimore Woolson fu scrittrice di frontiera; stimata da Henry James, i romanzi della scrittrice statunitense difficilmente potevano essere accettati dai suoi contemporanei, anche perché scritti da una donna. Difatti, molte furono le censure che la Woolson subì in vita. Per il Maggiore, pubblicato a puntate dal 1882, è ambientato in uno stato del Sud subito dopo la fine della guerra civile americana e vi si narrano le vicende della famiglia del maggiore Carroll, anziano militare in congedo. Il romanzo può essere visto come un' opera di denuncia, in quanto dipinge il ruolo della donna nella società americana, ruolo affatto subalterno all' uomo. Ma ciò sarebbe del tutto restrittivo. In primo luogo perché, a ben guardare, è proprio madame Carroll, a dispetto del suo fare sottomesso, a tenere silenziosamente in mano il bandolo della matassa. Inoltre, considerandolo un semplice romanzo di denuncia, si trascurerebbe la grande capacità descrittiva della scrittrice, quel delineare immensi paesaggi e magiche atmosfere con eleganza e abilità.
April 28, 2016
Muy tierna toda la historia de la mujer que crea una ilusión para que el hombre que la sacó de la miseria viva sus últimos años con todas las comodidades materiales y sentimentales. Ambiente muuuuy provinciano, caracteres esquemáticos pero simpáticos al servicio de la protagonista. Bien, tiene la extensión justa para no hacerse pesado y no se va por las ramas.
April 7, 2016
My impressions here...
http://carmenyamigos.blogspot.com.es/...
http://carmenyamigos.blogspot.com.es/...
June 2, 2021
Una historia tranquila que muestra la fuerza de la figura masculina en la vida de las mujeres, y su influencia incluso sobre el entorno que las rodea.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews