Product Description

Born into the back streets of a small Canadian town, Rose battled incessantly with her practical and shrewd step-mother, Flo, who cowed her with tales of her own past and warnings of the dangerous world outside. But Rose was ambitious - she won a scholarship and left for Toronto where she married Patrick. She was his Beggar Maid, 'meek and voluptuous, with her shy white feet', and he was her knight, content to sit and adore her...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96304 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

A. S. Byatt, Sunday Times
The greatest living short story writer

About the Author
Acclaimed author of one novel and several collections of stories, winner of the WH Smith Award, the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award in her native Canada, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Customer Reviews

learning to read
Hard to believe this hasn't been reviewed here before. A set of linked short stories about quiet lives and ordinary enough people. It's the manner of telling which is astonishing: tiny material details (objects and scenes) interlaced with the most subtle movements of the characters' minds and feelings. If you've read William Trevor's stories, you'll know the kind of thing. It's more intricate than Trevor, though, more dense. And fuller than the pared-down style of Chekhov and Joyce, two of the great originals. The Beggar Maid is a slow, very still read, since each paragraph is subtly freighted, and you have to get so close in to the sentences, the effect is almost hallucinatory. When 'events' occur, they register in a shocking way. An amazing experience in reading.