”A Place in the Country”. - A Short Story by Shirley Hazzard first published June 3, 1963 in The New Yorker

Shirley Hazzard on The Reading Life

Shirley Hazzard 

Born 1931 Sidney, Australia 

Notable Books

The Transit of Venus 1980

The Great Fire 2003

Died 2016, New York City

A few weeks ago I had never heard of Shirley Hazzard.  Now I am eager to read as much of her work as I can.  To me she exemplifies literary globalism.

I am starting with the stories in her collection Cliffs of Fall and other stories, 1963. Most of the stories in this book were first published in The New Yorker.  I have already posted on the title story, one of the ten stories in the collection.

The people in Hazzard’s stories read fine literature, in the English tradition.  As “A Place in the Country” opens an obviously affluent English couple are unpacking their books as they settle into their new country home.  I felt truth in this story as I listened in on their conversation about how the books should be organised on the shelves.

““TRY to keep the poetry separate,” said May. “The rest can be arranged later.” She made her way around the boxes of books and china to the doorway, and called up the stairs. “Clem! When you’re finished up there, you could help Nettie with the books.” She had a powerful, almost insistent voice and she evidently assumed that her husband heard her, for she came back into the living room without waiting for his reply and knelt down on the rug beside Nettie. “I can make a start on the china.”  “Is Shakespeare poetry?” asked Nettie, peering into a box. “No, he belongs with the set of Elizabethan dramatists —the old leather ones”

Anyone into a Reading Life will appreciate the importance of organizing your books upon moving into a new place.

The wife will stay in the country place for six months, with her children.  The husband will come from London when he can.  She needs the company of the books.  Their children will stay with her.  A couple they know is coming to visit.  The husband is having an affair with the wife.

Hazzard does a marvellous job with the characters and their relationships.  We see deeply how each person feels about the other and how the man and woman each view the ending of their affair.  It is all very civilised and understated.  

I also just read another of her stories, “The Party”.  How can one not Love a writer who makes a line like this work:

“never look a day older, not a single day. I expect,” she said to Minna, “that he is really very gray—with fair people it doesn’t show. He’ll get old quite suddenly and look like Somerset Maugham.”

Mel u