August 18, 2012: "Constance, Lady Willet"; "Full Circle" / Denton Welch

Because Welch's novel Maiden Voyage has so long been a personal favorite, I approached The Stories of Denton Welch (1985, University of Texas Press) with trepidation and fear of disappointment. A wandering style, heavy on description and aesthetic minutiae, can be less successful in shorter formats demanding more immediate impact. Welch's collection was a happy surprise, loaded with tales direct and forceful. "Constance, Lady Willet" is a touching portrait of an aged, down on her luck "gentlewoman" facing her demons in the local pub. Far from devastating, the character's more gentle/genteel roll downhill seems to be summarized in the title, suggestive of a titled, aristocratic past now grown secondary. The use of her first name may reflect Welch's unfortunate personal snobbery; those who have plummeted in social standing can be further reduced by the overly familiar (and mocking) addressing of/by their Christian names.

"Full Circle" is an altogether different tale, part ghost story, part moral fable and again, judgmental in Welch's notorious way. (Though a brilliant writer capable of flawless evocations of bittersweet childhood and nostalgic musings, he lived his short life of 37 years often expressing bitter, classist views on his economic "inferiors"). Still, again there is real pathos here as a narrator relives in one night of troubled sleep the horrors of an unknown servant's decades of tribulation. I didn't appreciate the obvious "explanation" closing the story but enjoyed enormously as a darker, more Anglican version of the Rip Van Winkle legend.