#87 Fleet-Footed Gissing- George Hester
Hester is a runner, unbecoming for a proper woman of the
time, but becoming enough to attract the attention of John Raynor. Raynor
himself is a great catch, a foreman making good money and a tall handsome man
to boot.
John demands that she stop running, stop working and become
a grown up wife. Their young burgeoning love is thrown asunder when John learns
that Hester has raced a local man (and lost). Her stubbornness, and his
jealousy split them apart.
Over time the break-up ruins John, his anger and drinking
cause him a series of humiliating demotions, and he has taken to fighting and
sleeping in the streets. It is seen as her fault, as he is still taken with
her.
“He’s awfully fond of you”
“How d’you know?” asked Hester, indifferently.
“’Cos he always says he don’t care for you not a bit.”
Upon hearing that he is leaving, she runs as hard as she can
to catch him before he boards the train. She makes it but barely, and with
nothing but the clothes on her back she is lifted on board by John to start
their new life together.
Trying to get past the dated misogyny of this one is hard
with modern ears, and I’m not sure if this has enough story telling value to
make it worth the effort to try (although the climax is written very well, and
pretty exciting).
A young girl gives up the one thing she loves because her
husband-to-be forbids it, she gives up working to be home but its ok because he
makes more money than her other suitors. He throws her away, becomes drunk,
abusive and indigent. That’s all excused because he really loves her, so she
comes back to him…but not before she runs herself to exhaustion like a broken
horse. Yeah…no thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment