{"product_id":"her-sons-wife","title":"Her Son's Wife","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/attic-memories-1925..jpg?v=1786978394\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePREFACE BY TRACY CHEVALIER\u003cbr\u003e410pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263457\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this centenary edition of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's riveting 1926 novel, the widowed Mrs Bascomb finds herself mother-in-law to the very last person she would have chosen for her only son: \u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003ea shoe-shop assistant named Lottie. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003eThe theme of \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHer Son's Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is Mrs Bascomb's slow acceptance of her own controlling nature, of her own failure to connect. Acceptance, and love for her grandchild, do lead to change, but of a quietly horrifying nature. As Canfield Fisher wrote to her agent: ‘The story turns on the development and strengthening of a character, i\u003cspan\u003en this case after 45, the age when most people are set for life\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e. A woman of 45 meets calamity and struggles through great sorrow and misery, to an immensely deeper understanding and self-abnegation.’ But her deceit and conniving raise ethical questions which the reader has to wrestle with. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHer Son’s Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is a novel which involves the reader from the first line to the last. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003eThe leitmotif is shoes. Lottie’s father had been nightwatchman in a shoe factory, she met Ralph Bascomb in a shoe shop. However, her fashionable, and eventually painful, shoes become a trap and subtly deprive her of agency: with echoes of \u003cem\u003eJane Eyre\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Yellow Wallpaper\u003c\/em\u003e, the pain they cause confines her to the house. But ‘for heaven’s sakes! If a person isn’t going to be allowed to pick out her own shoes, what next? Somebody’ll be cutting up my food for me, I suppose.’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003eOne contemporary writer commented about \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHer Son's Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, ‘It is her masterpiece and it is also a masterpiece. It is a profound, subtle analysis of human character and human life and a very remarkable book. I predict that it will win the Pulitzer Prize for 1926. It deserves it.’ (Alas, it was won by Sinclair Lewis.) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHer Son's Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is the third novel by Canfield Fisher published by Persephone Books, following PB no. 7 \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/the-home-maker?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=01bbfe4d8\u0026amp;_ss=r\" title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/the-home-maker?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=01bbfe4d8\u0026amp;_ss=r\"\u003eThe Home-Maker\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e(1924) and PB no. 141 \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/the-deepening-stream?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=5dfe7d70e\u0026amp;_ss=r\" title=\"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/the-deepening-stream?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=5dfe7d70e\u0026amp;_ss=r\"\u003eThe Deepening Stream\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e(1930). This is because we believe her to be America’s greatest woman novelist, greater than Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton or Willa Cather or any modern writer. The reason for this, and for her neglect, are one and the same: she was a chronicler of domestic life, of women’s everyday lives, of what Persephone calls ‘domestic feminism’. Her novels are on quiet themes, about quiet ‘ordinary’ people, leading quiet everyday lives in (mostly) small town America. This is not usually the stuff of fiction, which is about the marriage imperative (Jane Austen), the social fabric (George Eliot), the inner life (Proust), ‘only connect’ (Forster) and so on. But it is the stuff of life. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpapers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe endpapers for \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHer Son's Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e are taken from \u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e a 1927 dress fabric called \u003cem\u003eGentlemen Prefer Blondes\u003c\/em\u003e that was designed by Ralph Barton for the Stehli Silks Corporation and printed on silk crêpe de chine. It was part of ‘Americana’, a range of dress fabrics that Stehli Silks commissioned from leading artists following the Paris Exhibition of decorative arts in 1925, which had an enormous impact when it toured the USA the following year, encouraging American designers to move away from floral patterns and towards designs that depicted contemporary American life in a more modern way. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Attic Memories' by Norman Rockwell, 1925.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dorothy Canfield Fisher","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":56818529927554,"sku":"PB 155","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":56818529993090,"sku":"PB 155","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":56818530025858,"sku":"PB 155","price":19.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":56818530058626,"sku":"PB 155","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/155-Her-Sons-Wife-Endpaper_square.png?v=1785750159","url":"https:\/\/persephonebooks.co.uk\/products\/her-sons-wife","provider":"Persephone Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}