The Pool in the Desert

by Cotes, Everard; Siddall, Gillian H.; Sullivan, Rosemary; Duncan, Sara Jeannette

• ISBN13: 9781551111537
• ISBN10: 1551111535
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Broadview Pr

Summary

In The Pool in the Desert, first published in 1903, Sara Jeannette Duncan explores the impact of isolation on the small British communities of Victorian India. In the four stories collected here-"The Pool in the Desert," "A Mother in India," "An Impossible Ideal," and "The Hesitation of Miss Anderson"-Duncan's women have certain freedoms living amidst the reaches of Empire, but they also must negotiate their way through a landscape dominated by the constraints of small military societies. The stories that result combine a delicacy of manners and movement that recalls Henry James, with a wit and sharp eye for small town foibles that bring Stephen Leacock to mind.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	7	(2)
Abbreviations	9	(2)
Introduction	11	(6)
Rosemary Sullivan
A Brief Chronology	17	(4)
Sara Jeannette Duncan
A Note on the Text	21	(2)
The Pool in the Desert	23	(188)
The Pool in the Desert	23	(30)
A Mother in India	53	(42)
An Impossible Ideal	95	(56)
The Hesitation of Miss Anderson	151	(60)
Appendix A: Excerpts from A Social Departure	211	(16)
Appendix B: Excerpts from The Crow's Nest	227	(8)
Appendix C: ``The Flippancy of Anglo-India''	235	(8)
Appendix D: Contemporary Reviews
1. Times Literary Supplement (October 2, 1903)	238	(1)
2. The Spectator (October 31, 1903)	239	(1)
3. The Critic	239	(1)
4. The Athenaeum (November 7, 1903)	240	(1)
5. New York Times (October 31, 1903)	240	(1)
6. The Academy and Literature (October 3, 1903)	241	(2)
Recommended Reading	243