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In Exile and Other Stories
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
- GenresShort Stories
130 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1894
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 12, 2016
A collection of six short stories by the woman who became the character named Susan in Wallace Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Angle of Repose.
Mary Hallock Foote was an author and illustrator, very popular in the late 1800's. She had married a mining engineer, and accompanied him on the travels for his work, which is how she became familiar with places such as Colorado, Idaho, and California. She wrote about what she saw in the mining camps, and I believe she wrote what she felt as well. Her stories, at least the ones in this collection, are layered with meanings on topics as diverse as romance, ecology, "progress", class division within the society of the day, and the fates and fortunes of women.
The title story, In Exile, tells of an Eastern school teacher adjusting to her life in California, and the Eastern engineer she meets. This was a fairly dark story, not so much a romance as an illustration of the events that might possibly bring two lonely people together. Will their future be as lonely as their present?
Friend Barton's "Concern" introduces us to the Barton family, Quakers struggling to make their farm successful. What happens when the father leaves to preach, feeling a call from God? How does his oldest daughter Dorothy deal with her brothers, her sickly Mother, all the chores, the worst rain in years, and that handsome non-Quaker neighbor?
In The Story Of The Alcazar Captain John is telling a summer visitor the facts and the legends of a shipwreck. Where did the ship come from, what was its cargo, and why did Captain Green become so obsessed with the ship he had found drifting and abandoned?
A Cloud On The Mountain involves Ruth Mary and the changes that come into her life when she meets Kirkwood, who is working with the engineers in the railroad camp not far from the family ranch. There is a tunnel to be built through the mountain, but what happens when a huge storm sends floodwaters raging downstream? Will the camp be safe? will Ruth Mary get to them in time with her warning?
The Rapture Of Hetty was my favorite in this collection. All of the others were dramatic and somewhat somber, even though written poetically, but this one made me smile. Hetty is going to the Christmas dance, but the young man she is most interested in has been banned from going for certain reasons. Will he obey society's rule and stay away? What would happen if he goes anyway? What would Hetty do?
Finally The Watchman tells of the big plans to tame a river by building a ditch, which has to be constantly scanned for weak spots until it settles into itself. But why is it that there are so many breaks along a certain stretch of the ditch? Will Travis, the latest watchman, solve the dilemma? And what about Nancy, the girl he's heard about so much? What does she have to do with what is happening?
Although I was a little surprised at the overall serious tone of these stories (perhaps influenced by her own life?), I enjoyed them all and want very much to read other titles by Foote. She has a lovely way with words, as in this passage from The Watchman:
Long after the rider had passed on, the tread of his horse’s hoofs was heard, diminishing on the hard-tramped bank; a loosened stone rattled down and splashed into the water; the wind rustled in the tule-beds; then all surface sounds ceased, and the only talker was the ditch, chuckling and dawdling like an idle child on its errand, which it could not be persuaded to take seriously, to the desert lands.
Mary Hallock Foote was an author and illustrator, very popular in the late 1800's. She had married a mining engineer, and accompanied him on the travels for his work, which is how she became familiar with places such as Colorado, Idaho, and California. She wrote about what she saw in the mining camps, and I believe she wrote what she felt as well. Her stories, at least the ones in this collection, are layered with meanings on topics as diverse as romance, ecology, "progress", class division within the society of the day, and the fates and fortunes of women.
The title story, In Exile, tells of an Eastern school teacher adjusting to her life in California, and the Eastern engineer she meets. This was a fairly dark story, not so much a romance as an illustration of the events that might possibly bring two lonely people together. Will their future be as lonely as their present?
Friend Barton's "Concern" introduces us to the Barton family, Quakers struggling to make their farm successful. What happens when the father leaves to preach, feeling a call from God? How does his oldest daughter Dorothy deal with her brothers, her sickly Mother, all the chores, the worst rain in years, and that handsome non-Quaker neighbor?
In The Story Of The Alcazar Captain John is telling a summer visitor the facts and the legends of a shipwreck. Where did the ship come from, what was its cargo, and why did Captain Green become so obsessed with the ship he had found drifting and abandoned?
A Cloud On The Mountain involves Ruth Mary and the changes that come into her life when she meets Kirkwood, who is working with the engineers in the railroad camp not far from the family ranch. There is a tunnel to be built through the mountain, but what happens when a huge storm sends floodwaters raging downstream? Will the camp be safe? will Ruth Mary get to them in time with her warning?
The Rapture Of Hetty was my favorite in this collection. All of the others were dramatic and somewhat somber, even though written poetically, but this one made me smile. Hetty is going to the Christmas dance, but the young man she is most interested in has been banned from going for certain reasons. Will he obey society's rule and stay away? What would happen if he goes anyway? What would Hetty do?
Finally The Watchman tells of the big plans to tame a river by building a ditch, which has to be constantly scanned for weak spots until it settles into itself. But why is it that there are so many breaks along a certain stretch of the ditch? Will Travis, the latest watchman, solve the dilemma? And what about Nancy, the girl he's heard about so much? What does she have to do with what is happening?
Although I was a little surprised at the overall serious tone of these stories (perhaps influenced by her own life?), I enjoyed them all and want very much to read other titles by Foote. She has a lovely way with words, as in this passage from The Watchman:
Long after the rider had passed on, the tread of his horse’s hoofs was heard, diminishing on the hard-tramped bank; a loosened stone rattled down and splashed into the water; the wind rustled in the tule-beds; then all surface sounds ceased, and the only talker was the ditch, chuckling and dawdling like an idle child on its errand, which it could not be persuaded to take seriously, to the desert lands.
January 29, 2016
Laconic farmers, flinty miners, engineers and high-spirited daughters who dalliance amongst a backdrop of dusty canyons and slave-labour Chinamen in these authentic tales of how the west was won, from a true frontierswoman who was there when the railway tracks were first being laid and when cowboys were still called 'cow-boys'.
All the stories are beautifully written in a spare, understated style that leaves most of the emotion unstated. They are all of a romantic piece apart from a slave ship story that should really have belonged to a different collection.
'In Exile':
A young schoolmistress and engineer at a recently established mining community in California share a few fleeting moments of friendship as they struggle to become 'acclimated' to their new surroundings and the loneliness of being so far away from their the east coast homes.
'Friend Barton':
A Quaker farmer receives the 'sure sign that the Spirit was with him' when he begins to involuntarily speak the word of the Lord. He leaves his loving wife, proud and resourceful daughter and three young sons to work the farm while he attends to his calling. While away the daughter's 'unawakened girlhood' is irrevocably stirred by a neighboring farmer.
'The Story Of The Alcázar':
The fateful history of an abandoned slave ship.
'A Cloud On The Mountain':
In the hills of Idaho a young woman betrothed to her father's business partner falls for a passing stranger. When the partner returns from a spell away where he lost an eye in an accident, the would be bride agonizes about delivering 'the crushing blow that perfect truth demanded'.
'The Rapture Of Hetty':
Reckless romance at a country dance.
'The Watchman':
When the water company moves in to irrigate land that was once managed by individual pioneers, a watchman and a frontiersman's daughter come into conflict.
All the stories are beautifully written in a spare, understated style that leaves most of the emotion unstated. They are all of a romantic piece apart from a slave ship story that should really have belonged to a different collection.
'In Exile':
A young schoolmistress and engineer at a recently established mining community in California share a few fleeting moments of friendship as they struggle to become 'acclimated' to their new surroundings and the loneliness of being so far away from their the east coast homes.
'Friend Barton':
A Quaker farmer receives the 'sure sign that the Spirit was with him' when he begins to involuntarily speak the word of the Lord. He leaves his loving wife, proud and resourceful daughter and three young sons to work the farm while he attends to his calling. While away the daughter's 'unawakened girlhood' is irrevocably stirred by a neighboring farmer.
'The Story Of The Alcázar':
The fateful history of an abandoned slave ship.
'A Cloud On The Mountain':
In the hills of Idaho a young woman betrothed to her father's business partner falls for a passing stranger. When the partner returns from a spell away where he lost an eye in an accident, the would be bride agonizes about delivering 'the crushing blow that perfect truth demanded'.
'The Rapture Of Hetty':
Reckless romance at a country dance.
'The Watchman':
When the water company moves in to irrigate land that was once managed by individual pioneers, a watchman and a frontiersman's daughter come into conflict.
January 17, 2024
The very best thing about Hallock Foote's writing is the way it absolutely resonates with authenticity. Details, colloquialisms, landscapes, scenes of action: all come vividly to mind in her lively descriptions and artist's eye.
Otherwise, one mostly finds silly, snobby, spoiled heroines replete with every stuffy Victorian sensibility being desperately pined after by really interesting Western men who make themselves ridiculous by falling for them.
Otherwise, one mostly finds silly, snobby, spoiled heroines replete with every stuffy Victorian sensibility being desperately pined after by really interesting Western men who make themselves ridiculous by falling for them.
February 21, 2012
A frighteningly sparse set, vast in it's potential... much like the West. Haunting.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews