Mrs. Reinhardt and Other Stories

by Edna O'Brien

A collection of stories about physical and emotional comings and goings, and many set in Ireland.

Genres: Short Stories, Irish Literature, Ireland, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 1980

About the author

Edna O’Brien was an award-winning Irish author of novels, plays, and short stories. She has been hailed as one of the greatest chroniclers of the female experience in the twentieth century. She was the 2011 recipient of the Frank O’Connor Prize, awarded for her short story collection Saints and Sinners. She also received, among other honors, the Irish PEN Award for Literature, the Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin, and a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Literary Academy. Her 1960 debut novel, The Country Girls, was banned in her native Ireland for its groundbreaking depictions of female sexuality. Notable works also include August Is a Wicked Month (1965), A Pagan Place (1970), Lantern Slides (1990), and The Light of Evening (2006). O’Brien lived in London until her death.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Bookguide · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many collections of stories, I read one or two, put it down for months, then read several stories in a row. What struck me when I looked back over my notes is how many of the stories seem somehow related to Jane Eyre, with O’Brien hinting at it in the story Ways. First she puts the idea of Jane Eyre into the reader’s head by both Nell and Jane mentioning the book when a mad woman supposedly lives in a nearby house. Then Jane tells about her wedding. “‘I was married in grey,’ Jane says. ‘I simply had a prayer book and spring flowers.’” This is all very Jane Eyre-ish.

Clara is also very spooky and gothic, with strong ‘mad woman in the attic’ vibes, when a man sees a white face at a window and believes Clara is being kept in a mental institution so her brother can sell her land. In another story, a woman hears a woman scream at night and goes out to find her.

In the final story, Mrs Reinhardt is the rejected wife, replaced by a much younger woman, then her husband implies it is she being unreasonable for wanting to hold on to their relationship. Not dismissed to an attic room, but cast adrift, grieving and untethered, to fall prey to an unscrupulous American.

My favourite story was A Woman by the Seaside because it has a real flavour of rural Ireland at the time Edna O’Brien was writing: secret drinking by women and public drinking by men, disapproval when no children are born in wedlock, but ignoring a woman with children from four different men and no husband. Everybody watching everybody else and talking behind their backs. Society and respectability arranged around family, so if you’re unmarried or have no children, you’re left adrift. This reminds me of the first one of her books I’ve read, The Country Girls, which I loved. Incidentally, this was also the first story I read from this collection because I took it with me to the seaside town of Blankenberge in Belgium when I went there with friends in 2023. How time flies!

[Reader Clarence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs Reinhardt and other stories, twelve in all, gives the reader a splendid variety. What I always admire is the creative mind of an author who can produce different themes like this, but what makes the stories in this book interesting and bind them together is that all of them deal with people, their moods, loves, dreams or aspirations: other people and human nature are the basic ingredients for arousing interest, a typical feature in the O’Brien oeuvre.
Furthermore, the ability to say something in an unusual way, like “Everything began to be better for Mrs Reinhardt from the moment she started to sleepwalk,” the opening sentence of the first story, is a remarkable way to get one’s attention from the very beginning. I will suffice with this single example. The book also appropriately ties the stories together with Mrs Reinhardt’s eventual experiences.
A last observation that I found interesting: Of the twelve stories in the book, at least seven of them start with the description of a road, or people either driving or walking in a promenade to their various destinations. To sum up: a fine collection of stories making this book a really good read.

[Hans Moerland · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Mrs Reinhardt and Other Stories” heb ik gelezen in de Nederlandse vertaling van Frédérique van der Velde, in 1980 uitgebracht als “Een roos in het hart” – de titel van een van de wat langere verhalen in de onderhavige bundel. In de Engelse titel valt die eer dus te beurt aan een ander, en wat mij betreft veel beter, verhaal: “Mrs Reinhardt”. Helaas kan ik met betrekking tot het tiental andere verhalen niet anders concluderen dan dat ze me geenszins konden boeien en dat ik me er ook weinig of niks van herinnerde toen ik het boek had uitgelezen.

[Lucy Burman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I found it there in my father's bookshelf, this became my introduction to Edna O'Brien. I knew nothing about her starting this book, I was fascinated by how deeply I was touched as soon as I finished Baby Blue. I feel very honoured that this is one of the first authors I encountered since I've started reading again. Highlights for me were: Baby Blue, Ways, and A Rose In the Heart. First time tearing up while I read, though I haven't read much.

[Ronan Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strikes me as the least compelling of O'Brien's collections I've read, but here's an author whose floor towers above most others' ceilings. As ever with Edna, there are passages here that had me nigh-on dropping the book and sadly sighing the night away; there is to her little moments of epiphany and understanding a depth that deserves the time to linger.

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book here: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2020/...

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many authors I love mention O'brien.

I know her writing is very good, excellent in fact.
But the voice fails to engage me personally.

It's strange because I typically love all the working-class, warts-and-all stuff. Probably this book deserves 4 or 5 stars, but I just don't dig it personally--too formal, in spite of absolute honesty &c.