The Charwoman's Daughter by James Stephens
James Stephens (1882-1950) was born in Dublin and became famous in 1912 with the publication of The Charwoman's Daughter and The Crock of Gold. The Charwoman's Daughter tells the story of Mary Makebelieve, who is (you guessed it) the daughter of a charwoman. She lives with her mother in a single room with no running water, at "the top of a big dingy house in a Dublin back street." When we meet her, Mary is a girl; naive, shy, but observant and careful of her appearance. The book describes how she cares for her mother, how they scrape by on the pennies a day that Mrs. Makebelieve earns from scrubbing the floors and washing the clothes and kitchens of well-to-do ladies, how when Mrs. Makebelieve becomes ill they must sell or pawn their few possessions to buy food, how when all has been pawned or sold Mary must go to work in her mother's place.
On days when her mother is working, however, after the single room has been cleaned and tidied, Mary has the day to herself. She walks the streets and parks of Dublin, observing the people and the unattainable finery in the shop windows. In the course of her walks she catches the eye of a policeman who directs traffic at an intersection. He begins to accompany her on her walks, which pleases but puzzles her. One day when Mary is substituting for her mother in the house of Mrs. O'Connor, the policeman, who is the nephew of Mrs. O'Connor, enters and sees her, thus becoming aware of her low social position. He pursues her nevertheless, and finally appears at the room in the big dingy house to ask to marry her. The proposal comes as a surprise to Mary, and to her mother, who at first supposes that Mary has been making secret plans without her knowledge. But Mary refuses the policeman, who departs angry.
The Charwoman's Daughter is a short but beautiful book. It paints, very touchingly, a simple but sensible girl as she moves from girlhood into adolescence and young womanhood. It also paints, again touchingly, the emotions of her mother as she sees her daughter moving from childhood and dependence to adulthood and emancipation from herself, and it makes clear how Mrs. Makebelieve learns to give up one sort of relationship with her daughter and substitute for it another.
The heroine's name--Mary Makebelieve--suggests a fairy tale sort of story, and that element is certainly present, especially at the end. But it is not--or not only and not mainly--a mere Cinderella story. The writing is beautiful--often insightful and at times luminous--and it turns what might be a routine or merely sentimental story into a marvelous experience. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
On days when her mother is working, however, after the single room has been cleaned and tidied, Mary has the day to herself. She walks the streets and parks of Dublin, observing the people and the unattainable finery in the shop windows. In the course of her walks she catches the eye of a policeman who directs traffic at an intersection. He begins to accompany her on her walks, which pleases but puzzles her. One day when Mary is substituting for her mother in the house of Mrs. O'Connor, the policeman, who is the nephew of Mrs. O'Connor, enters and sees her, thus becoming aware of her low social position. He pursues her nevertheless, and finally appears at the room in the big dingy house to ask to marry her. The proposal comes as a surprise to Mary, and to her mother, who at first supposes that Mary has been making secret plans without her knowledge. But Mary refuses the policeman, who departs angry.
The Charwoman's Daughter is a short but beautiful book. It paints, very touchingly, a simple but sensible girl as she moves from girlhood into adolescence and young womanhood. It also paints, again touchingly, the emotions of her mother as she sees her daughter moving from childhood and dependence to adulthood and emancipation from herself, and it makes clear how Mrs. Makebelieve learns to give up one sort of relationship with her daughter and substitute for it another.
The heroine's name--Mary Makebelieve--suggests a fairy tale sort of story, and that element is certainly present, especially at the end. But it is not--or not only and not mainly--a mere Cinderella story. The writing is beautiful--often insightful and at times luminous--and it turns what might be a routine or merely sentimental story into a marvelous experience. I recommend it wholeheartedly.