This weekend I read a short story by Elizabeth Taylor--my first, but definitely not my last. Taylor has a keen eye for detailing the lives of her middle class characters--bland lives of domesticity, yet never boring lives. Twice now I've seen Taylor referred to as a "miniaturist". According to the introduction to Devastating Boys, the collection where "Miss A and Miss M" appears, "the art of the miniaturist, English variety, is displayed at its best" in terms of this story. The story which recently appeared in The Atlantic describes Taylor:
"She was, as the Times Literary Supplement declared in 1972, 'among the four or five most distinguished living practitioners of the art of the short story in the English-speaking world'."
Quite impressive words. Although I've not yet read other examples of her stories, I expect the TLS was probably correct. The Atlantic also called "Miss A and Miss M" her most technically accomplished story.
The story is narrated by a middle age woman nostalgically looking back on her holidays as a girl spent in the countryside with her mother.
"St. Margaret's was the name of the guest-house, which was run by two elderly ladies who had come down in the world, bringing with them quantities of heavily riveted Crown Derby, and silver plate. Miss Louie and Miss Beatrice."
The guests were "mild, bookish people" who wanted a cheap holiday. Many of them would return year after year. Although there were often no other children, the narrator didn't mind as she had Miss Alliot and Miss Martin (always to be referred to in this order), two schoolmistresses from London. As a girl the narrator had a bit of a schoolgirl crush on Miss A.
"Miss Alliot was heaven-sent, it seemed to me. She was a holiday goddess, Miss Martin was just a friend. She tried to guide me in my reading, as an elder sister might. This was a new relationship to me. I had no elder sister, and I had sometimes thought that to have had one would have altered my life entirely, and whether for better or for worse I have never been able to decide."
Miss A and Miss M, who lived together in London, would vacation together as well. They were friends, but whereas Miss M was thoughtful and reliable, Miss A had it in her to be cruel--to Miss M as well occasionally to the other guests. And the narrator was only too happy to be a part of the "punishing" of Miss M. One of the ways Miss A would punish Miss M was with the Townsend family. Each year she would spend time at their grand country house returning with photographs and stories of the great family--rarely hinting at who the family was or what she did there. Miss A seems intelligent and witty, but always in a very caustic manner. At one point in the summer while Miss A is away visiting the Townsends:
"Miss Martin and I painted away, and we talked of Miss Alliot and how wonderful she was. It was like a little separate holiday for me, a rest. I did not try to adjust myself to Miss Martin or strive, or rehearse. In a way, I think she was having a well-earned rest herself; but then I believed she was jealous of Northumberland and would have liked some Townsends of her own to retaliate with. Now I know she only wanted Miss Alliot."
I'd like to think that Miss A was just oblivious to Miss M's feelings, but I think she was cruel, and simply didn't care. Miss M would feed Miss A's vanity and took whatever Miss M had to offer. When Miss A announces her engagement to Ralph Townsend things will end sadly. I wonder at what point the narrator realizes just what Miss A and Miss M's relationship really meant.
I've not read a lot by Taylor, but everything I have read has indeed been very accomplished, and this story no less so. I borrowed a library copy of this short story collection, but I will be looking for a used copy for my own, so I can read the rest of the stories. If a miniaturist is someone whose "specialty is small, discrete works", Taylor does give us a brief, but vivid look into the lives of these people. If a short story is a small canvas, she is amazing with the execution of detail!