Miss Grief and Other Stories (38 page)

256
  
Tupper and
Sandford and Merton
: Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–1889) was a poet and author of the
Proverbial Philosophy
(1838), a collection of moralizing sayings that was read widely throughout the century.
The History of Sandford and Merton
(1783–1789) was a popular children's book by the British author Thomas Day (1748–1789).

260
  
Highgate
: Highgate Cemetery in north London, the resting place of the author George Eliot, pseudonym of Marian Evans (1819–1880), and many other public figures. Eliot's novels were a great influence on Woolson.

263
  
“
Never talk to an author about his books”
: The quote is Woolson's.

264
  
Sloane Street
: In 1884, Woolson lived at 116 Sloane Street,
South Kensington, a fashionable residential area, across from Cadogan Place Gardens.

267
  
Cavalleria
:
Cavalleria Rusticana
(1890), an opera by Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945), had its first British performance in London on October 19, 1891. Set in rural Sicily, it is a passionate story of love, betrayal, adultery, and ultimately murder.

267
  
Vapour
: There is no such novel with that title. Woolson is suggesting that the novel is insubstantial.

268
  
drawing of Du Maurier's
: The French-born cartoonist and writer George Du Maurier (1834–1896) was a popular illustrator for
Punch, Harper's
, and other magazines.

270
  
water-cure
: The water cure, or hydropathy, was a popular form of treatment in the nineteenth century, believed to cure many ailments. It could take the form of showers, sitz baths (in which a person sits in water up to the hips), drinking mineral waters, enemas, douches, and extended stays at spas that catered to the wealthy.

270
  “
Vegetubble baths and the
mind
-cure”
: Vegetable baths were infused with aromatic herbs, seaweed, or extracts of leaves. The mind-cure, also known as the New Thought, was a forerunner to Christian Science and preached the ability of positive thinking to cure the body.

271
  
Lemaitre
: French critic Jules Lemaître (1853–1914) collected his literary criticism in
Les Contemporains
(1887–1899) and his theater criticism in
Les Impressions de Théâtre
(1888–1898).

271
  
Bashkirtseff
: The Ukrainian artist and diarist Marie Bashkirtseff (1858–1884) grew up in France and was a moderately successful artist. She kept a diary from the age of thirteen, which documents her extraordinary drive to achieve fame. It was published after her death in France in 1887 and in English translation in London in 1890.

272
  
Life of Louisa Alcott
: Ednah Cheney's
Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals
was published in Boston and London in 1889. Alcott had died in 1888.

273
  
“Ever be hap-pee …”
: “The Pirate's Chorus” from the opera
The Enchantress
(1845) by the Irish composer Michael W. Balfe (1808–1870).

274
  
Norteeng Hill
: Notting Hill, an upper-middle-class district in Kensington.

276
  
lambrequins
: Decorative drapery for the top of a window or a mantel.

276
  
Harvard Annex
: Founded in 1879 to provide a rigorous college education for women, who were not allowed to attend Harvard College. Renamed the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in 1882, it became Radcliffe College in 1894.

276
  
syndicate people
: Newspaper syndicates sold an author's works for concurrent publication in dailies and weeklies across the United States. Many popular authors, including Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Sarah Orne Jewett, wrote for the syndicates. Woolson was approached by many but declined to break her exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers to write for them, despite the much higher rates of pay they offered.

277
  
Gray Tucker
: A name of Woolson's invention.

279
  
St. James Gazette
:
St. James's Gazette
(the correct title, which Woolson uses elsewhere in the story), was a London evening newspaper known for its Tory, or conservative, politics and highbrow literary content.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM W. W. NORTON

Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist
by Anne Boyd Rioux

Copyright © 2016 by Anne Boyd Rioux
Foreword copyright © 2016 by Heather Blazing, Ltd.

All rights reserved

FIRST EDITION

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as
follows:

Names: Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 1840–1894. | Rioux,
Anne Boyd, editor. |
Tóibín, Colm, 1955–writer of foreword.

Title: Miss Grief and other stories / Constance Fenimore Woolson ;
edited by Anne Boyd Rioux ; foreword by Colm Tóibín.

Other titles: Miss Grief. Description: First edition. | New York :
W. W. Norton & Company, 2016. |

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015043304 | ISBN 9780393352009 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Americans—England—Fiction. |
Americans—Italy—Fiction. | Middle West—Fiction. | Southern
States — Fiction.

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