The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford

THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD

by Jean Stafford

 

Award: Pulitzer Winner 1970

 

Nominations: National Book Finalist 1970, NY Times Finalist 1969

 

Date Read: January 26, 2025

 

MAGGIE MERIWETHER’S RICH EXPERIENCE

Maggie Meriwether is on her first trip abroad from Tennessee. She’s alone and her ability to speak French has abandoned her. At a birthday party, at which she was promised everyone would speak English but did not, she finds herself the odd woman out from the other sophisticates present. She encounters wonders she’s never seen such as clothing, food, men walking a tightrope over a swimming pool, a tree house with a nargileh inside. After crying on her way home, she realizes that the experience, when recounted to her friends, actually makes her sound sophisticated and world-wise.

 

THE CHILDREN’S GAME

At a casino in Belgium, the widow Abby is questioning her life abroad. She moved to Europe upon the death of her husband but now finds herself missing her life in New York. She books passage home for two weeks hence and occupies her time in the interim with a trip to the country with her companion Hugh. There, she questions her desire to go back home and tries to immerse herself in the pleasures of gambling. But when the dealers leave and the lights come up, Abby realizes there’s nothing for her there and knows she is making the right choice.

 

THE ECHO & THE NEMESIS

Sue and Ramona, as students in Germany, have become somewhat friends purely due to circumstance rather than kindred spirits. Sue learns that Ramona is most likely obese due to the loss of her twin and that prior to Ramona’s twin’s death, Ramona was lovely. For a brief period, Sue assumes the role of Ramona’s discipliner over food, reminding her of her goals and essentially knocking food out of her hand. Sue quickly realizes that Ramona is chronically cheating and lying about it but also, in a fit of psychosis, grabs Sue and blames her for all of Ramona’s own faults. Sue also realizes, after accompanying Ramona back to her flat, that there is no twin Martha. Ramona is Martha and is just going by her middle name. Ramona throws Sue out, much to her relief and proclaims them no longer friends. Ramona is just batshit crazy.

 

THE MAIDEN

In post-war but still occupied Germany, American Mrs. Andreas hosts a dinner party where one couple catches everyone’s eye. Dr. and Mrs. Reinmuth, a German couple, seem very much in love and appear at the beginning of their romance. An American journalist, Evan Leckie’s wife has just left him and he looks upon this couple with admiration and possibly jealousy. He is to learn they have been together for over twenty years. Dr. Reinmuth regales the attendees with a story of his first execution by guillotine which resulted in him asking his wife to marry him as soon as it was over. They are still very much in love. I can relate.

 

A MODEST PROPOSAL

This short story is a cynical social satire about the complexities of human interaction. The racism in this one, particularly the anecdote about serving up a black toddler as a roast, completely lost me because of its depravity. I was already derailed from the derogatory slang that it just didn’t hold my attention, until at least, the story of the man who wanted to eat a black toddler. I feel queasy. 

 

CAVEAT EMPTOR

Two young recent Masters’ graduates find themselves broke and reluctantly teaching at an all-girls school that turns “… out the young wives and mothers of tomorrow.” As Malcolm and Victoria get to know each other better, although they both have fiancés back home, they slowly fall in love with each other. When the small, snoopy town finds Victoria clandestinely meeting Malcolm at a bus stop for a weekend away in Georges Duval’s Mill, another teacher follows them the following weekend. They spin a yarn that they are conducting an intersectional study of this quaint town for publication. Once all the other academics at their school get their fingers in the pie, they find the customs backward, folklore and culture absent and breeding incestuous. Everyone but Malcolm and Victoria drop the study and they are able to continue their restful weekends in privacy.

 

LIFE IS NO ABYSS

Isobel Carpenter is living in a poorhouse to spite her cousin, who lost her entire fortune. Although other family members have begged her to come live with them, she refuses to turn the knife. But her refusal to leave, also serves to alienate the other tenants because while Isobel has options, they have none are trapped there. Life is no abyss – only for the privileged few.

 

THE HOPE CHEST

Miss Rhoda Bellamy is an old, unmarried woman of 82. She is cared for in her home by Bella, a servant who Rhoda treats terribly. She had come out in Boston society was it was an epic disaster but no details are given. Yet it was so much a disaster that they moved from Boston to Maine. Ultimately, this recluse invites a young boy in who is selling a wreath. After torturing the poor lad, she buys the wreath and hangs it in her bedroom. She tortures Bella, her maid, with it asking why she had hung it, knowing the entire time Rhoda did it herself. She’s your basic elderly bitch.

 

POLITE CONVERSATION

At a tea party in New England, Mrs. Wainwright-Lowe who is a widow of a bishop, invites her new neighbors, the Heaths, to tea. Mr. Heath is a writer and has declined in lieu of work as a writer. The only other attendees are a daughter of Mrs. Wainwright-Lowe and a nun. Mrs. Heath is desperate to get away but Mrs. Wainwright-Lowe insists that Mr. Heath must come to tea the very next day and won’t accept no as an answer. People like this are exhausting.

 

A COUNTRY LOVE STORY

Daniel and May seem like newlyweds and they have purchased a country house, hoping it will further heal Daniel’s bout of sickness (mental?). The house has a sled in the yard which they plan to immediately remove but it being difficult, it remains season after season. Their life is mostly happy until Daniel retreats into himself and his work, leaving May completely isolated and despairing. Daniel begins to question May’s sanity. As Daniel rails against May, picking at her and questioning her sanity, May retreats into herself and her dream world. She begins to realize she has lost the love of her life permanently.

 

THE BLEEDING HEART

Rose Fabrizio is a Mexican girl working at a girls’ boarding school as a secretary and living in a poor house. She eyes Mr. Benson who always seems to be nearby: at the library, at the dining halls she frequents and in the neighborhood she lives. Rose fantasizes that this older gentleman could adopt her and save her from her woes. When she finally has enough courage to go to his home and introduce herself, she quickly realizes that he is down at the mouth and has all sorts of personality quirks that she loathes. But Rose has seemed to have opened Pandora’s box. Mr. Benson seeks out Rose and won’t leave her alone. The ending is somewhat ominous. Did he harm her?

 

THE LIPPIA LAWN

This is a somewhat bizarre and ethereal story about a young woman who spends time with a horticulturist and some plants. “The woman reminisces and the flowers, shrubs, or trees that affect the thought, color every memory. There’s a picnic and her ruining some arbutus when she tries to dig it up. Sort of bizarre and pointless, IMHO.

 

THE INTERIOR CASTLE

Pansy Vanneman was injured in a car accident and is in a hospital ward. In the nighttime, the noises and bustle of the hospital keep her awake. Pansy is scheduled for a nose job to remove fragments left when her nose shattered, apparently a procedure Stafford underwent herself also after a car accident. But Pansy, after the accident and possibly in the throes of depression, lives in her own head and rarely engages with the staff and other patients. She sees majestic landscapes, imagines conversations and silently endures the residual pain from her accident. The others think she is a snob and pity her for her lack of family.

 

THE HEALTHIEST GIRL IN TOWN

A little girl, in competition with her neighbors who seem to have every illness ever conceived, is made to feel embarrassed that she has such good health. The Butler girls, who most likely have tuberculosis, talk about their ailments incessantly. The little girl’s mother is also employed by the Butler family, causing the little girl to spend time with the sisters nearly every day. In one conversation, the Butler girls ask the little girl what her father died of and in a fit of pique, she answers leprosy. Both girls freak out as if she is carrying the disease herself. The little girl immediately regrets it as the Butler sisters have come up with a cure for her leprosy that is likely to kill her. When she comes clean and says she lied, she realizes this disease is something she can slough off, whereas the Butler sisters cannot, and she is grateful for her good health after all.

 

THE TEA TIME OF STOUTHEARTED LADIES

During the Depression, Mrs. Winstanley runs a boardinghouse for college students. Her daughter, Kitty, works at Caribou Ranch in the Rocky Mountains, where she toils from sunup to sundown. Kitty overhears her mother speaking to a neighbor about how her job is a virtual vacation because she can ride horses and attend socials. As brutal as the work actually is, she can’t wait to get back there from her mother’s boardinghouse. At home, when she waits on tables in the dining room, she is subject to her peers’ requests – to borrow notes from class, bring more soup, or deliver their laundry. At Caribou Ranch, where the proprietors are heavy drinkers, Kitty helps bring in booze during Prohibition where she earns her greatest tips ever.

 

THE MOUNTAIN DAY

An unnamed young woman has fallen in love with and gotten engaged to Rod Stephensson, who is to become a doctor. The day after their engagement seemed idyllic with a picnic, swimming and cat naps afterwards. When they head back to her grandmother’s house, they realize their grandmother’s tea is unprepared and the housemaids are nowhere to be seen. A search immediately begins and they are able to find evidence of the maids having had a picnic, but when they realize the canoe is missing, everyone panics because they know the maids can’t swim. When the young woman looks at her fiancé with horror on his face, who had helped find the bodies, she realizes that real love is wanting your beloved to be happy.

 

THE DARKENING MOON

Ella is only eleven years old and alone at night. She has often made this several mile trip in the dark to babysit a neighbor’s children but tonight she extra afraid: her horse bucks her when it gets near a bluff and she’s carrying several pounds of poached elk meat from her brother. While she has been focused on the journey, she is able to focus her attention to getting her horse past the bluff that terrifies it.

 

BAD CHARACTERS

Emily is an 11 year old girl who believes she has a bad character. She only has about one friend at a time until she would grow tired of her friend and move on. Lottie dropped into Emily’s lap one day when Emily caught Lottie trying to steal a cake. Lottie ended up stealing the cake and a rare perfume flask before convincing Emily she should go with her to the 5 and Dime to shoplift. Nothing in particular. Emily decides to go and in a sudden fit of needing to be alone, fingers Lottie as a shoplifter. In the end, Lottie is seen as a poor, unfortunate girl and Emily is punished severely.

 

IN THE ZOO

Two middle-aged sisters are visiting a zoo where the animals remind them of people they’ve known. The polar bear, in particular, reminds them of a Mr. Murphy who was a sweet man who had a menagerie of animals. Mr. Murphy had given the sisters a dog when they were little girls but their foster mother took over the training of the dog and turned it into a ferocious animals that ended up killing Mr. Murphy’s monkey, crushing his soul. Mr. Murphy then poisoned the dog, killing it. Afterwards, the girls never went to visit him again.

 

THE LIBERATION

Polly Bay is engaged and a teacher at Nevilles College. She lives with her Uncle Francis and Aunt Jane, a brother and sister. The problem is she needs to tell them she will be leaving, moving to Boston and getting married. Her aunt and uncle do everything in their power to convince her to stay, including giving them a house, but Polly knows she needs to leave now or never. Out of the blue, her sister calls and tells her Ray, her fiancé, has died of a heart attack. The first thing Polly does is pack her bags and heads out the door. She is still aware that leaving, for anywhere, is her best recourse.

 

A READING PROBLEM

Emily Vanderpool is 10 years old and cannot find a quiet place to read, her favorite pastime. She tries locations all over her house and town, finally settling on the waiting room in the town jail. One day, the sheriff asks her to leave because he has some moonshiners in the jail and she wanders into the woods, dangling her feet in a brook and leaning against a tree. She looks up at one point, and to her surprise, is met with Evangelist Gerlash and his daughter Opal. They preach the word of God to her, and finding her reading the Bible, are already enthralled with her. They attempt to sell her a book of prophecies and then coerce her into buying them groceries. When they head into town, the sheriff identifies them as bootleggers of “medicine” and are run out of town. Emily, instead of feeling foolish, feels like a hero.

 

A SUMMER DAY

An 8 year old orphan boy is collected from Missouri and taken to an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. From the moment the boy is picked up, he already plans to run away once he gets there. When he gets there, an epidemic has taken hold in the reservation and many kids are sick. His plans for running away are put on hold until tomorrow because he’s so sleepy.

 

THE PHILOSOPHY LESSON

Cora is a nude model for a life drawing class and every session, is tortured by the pain of sitting still for so long. She trains herself to focus on other things, such as the clouds and trees visible outside the studio window. She also focuses on philosophy lecture she heard and wants to believe she exists for herself and a superior being and no one else exists unless they are interacting with her. During class, they are alerted that a fraternity brother of one of the students had committed suicide. She also envisions “sightlessness” at least until the bell rings, releasing the class.

 

CHILDREN ARE BORED ON SUNDAY

Emma, bored on a Sunday, wanders into the Met to calm her nerves. She is finding her way out of a depression caused by the rejection of the intellectuals of New York at their brutal cocktail parties. Emma is a newcomer to New York and perceives herself as an outsider to the intellectual elite. And who does she see from afar but Alfred, one of those intellectuals Emma has spent the past year hiding from. Alfred, though, has had his own life turn upside down. For as much as Emma tries to avoid him, they eventually do meet face-to-face and agree to head for a drink together.

 

BEATRICE TRUEBLOOD’S STORY

On the eve of Beatrice Trueblood’s second marriage to Marten ten Brink, a wealthy man who adores Beatrice, she is struck by total deafness. No doctor can seem to diagnose her affliction, finally settling on that she needs psychiatric care. Beatrice breaks off her engagement, not wanting to burden Marten. As it turns out, her hearing is psychosomatic, having disappeared after she learned that Marten enjoyed arguing, much like Beatrice’s first husband. Narrowly avoiding a second marriage much like her first, we learn than Beatrice is yet again engaged to a poor chemist who she loves. After overhearing a conversation, we realize Beatrice succumbed yet again to a marriage that is based in arguing.

 

BETWEEN THE PORCH AND THE ALTAR

A very brief story about a woman who sets out on Ash Wednesday with a quarter and two dimes to light candles for her mother and POWs. She is met by a homeless person who says he is hungry and she wrestles herself whether she should donate the quarter to the alms box or directly to this man. She is then accosted at the church by an old woman who wants to light a candle but doesn’t have the money. Should she give her one of the dimes? Again, the woman wrestles with herself, deeming both candles she wants to light worthy.

 

I LOVE SOMEONE

Jenny Peck is a forty-something single woman whose friend has recently committed suicide. She does not feel love but judges herself and others from her Manhattan apartment. Outside of her apartment, she stumbles on the proclamation “I Love Someone” in chalk on the sidewalk. For a woman who has spent her life avoiding love, this graffiti remains with her. She is awaken by a gang beating happening outside her window down on the street. The juxtaposition of this vicious attack, coupled with the graffiti, she realizes she needs better understanding of herself and others.

 

COPS AND ROBBERS

Hannah, a little girl of 5 (who they refer to as the baby) has a beautiful head of golden curls. At the beginning, we are apprised of a crisis in the household: the father has gone to the barber with his daughter and had both of their hairs cut. The mother never gave her permission and both mother and daughter are devastated because the mother doted on the daughter’s hair, curling it every day. Only later do we realize that the father had the girl’s hair cut to spite the mother from a fight the night before. This is seriously perverse, particularly from the daughter who’s caught in the crossfire and never really consented to having her hair cut. Creepy.

 

THE CAPTAIN’S GIFT

Stafford enjoyed writing about various aspects of older women, including the trope of willful ignorance (or innocence, as the case may be). Mrs. Ramsey refuses to leave her residence, a residence that has become decrepit and is surrounded by slums. In spite of her unwillingness to change or adapt to her times, Mrs. Ramsey is often visited by many acquaintance. Many of her male family members are fighting in Europe, including her grandson Arthur. He sends her the best present he can find, which turns out be a long hang of hair tied off with a pink bow, and begrudgingly says, “There’s a war on, hadn’t you heard?”

 

THE END OF A CAREER

Angelica Early was a beautiful woman singularly obsessed with her beauty. Year after year, she returned to a sanitorium for face lifts to maintain her youthful appearance and rather dull personality. As the years march on, she becomes obsessed with the appearance of age on her hands, an affliction which her doctor tells her he cannot do a thing about. Angelica is so distraught that she retreats to her bed, causing everyone to believe she has cancer. After wallowing this way for quite some time, Angelica dies in bed, her heart having stopped.

 

AN INFLUX OF POETS

Cora’s marriage to poet Theron Maybank devolved after five years during a summer in Maine after the war. Poets flocked to Maine, reading aloud their works but never listening to each other. Cora heads to Boston to determine the source of her headaches but the doctor refers her to a psychologist. When she returns to Maine, Theron is running around with Minnie, a woman newly divorced from another poet. This works for Cora because she wants to be rid of Theron but when they actually do have an affair, it wrecks her. She is tired of his religion (Catholocism), tired of his desire to live in poverty and tired of his desire to live in nature. When Cora’s aunt dies and leaves her an inheritance large enough to buy a house in Maine.