The Golden Rose, the final story in Tea with Mr. Rochester, is about Emily’s Aunt Essie. Emily is quite fond of her aunt, but ever since the arrival of Julia, Emily’s stepmother, Essie has been hardly invited to the Manor. Julia “a parrot-tulip, an elegant but gaudy creature with a variety of selves” don’t think […]

Lucinda, the shortest story in the collection, is another tale with a supernatural vibe. In fact, Lucinda is the family phantom at Paigles where the Quarles lives. Now Mrs. Quarles, mother of Venetia, Theodora, Clare, Duncan, and Lewis is not very happy about her children’s fascination with Lucinda. She thinks her children are “possessed” by […]

This is going to be a short review. 😀 In Strings in Hollow Shells Sandra is a city girl living in London. Now to mend her broken heart, she’s vacationing at Mrs. Prideaux’s country house which has “an atmosphere of tranquility,” and where no one has died of a broken heart, been betrayed or forsaken. […]

Another charming story in this collection. In The Rose in the Picture, the protagonist Ursula is interested in Henry Potter, the son of the village vicar. Henry is only a few years older than Ursula. They had known each other since they were children, however, they are not friends. Ursula remembers the Christmas parties and […]

In Don Juan and the Lilly Elsa, our protagonist is a nineteen-year-old working girl because her mother felt that “her daughters’ lack of allure necessitated them having careers.” At work, Elsa’s responsibilities are mostly clerical, and one morning after she mistakenly files a crucial document in a wrong file, Mr. Pelham, her boss chides Elsa […]

It has been some time since I last posted here. We came to Sri Lanka for a short break and then hopped on a plane again to visit Singapore. 😀 So I haven’t spent much time reading. But now I plan on getting back to my regular rhythm, and hopefully read few books from the […]

Next up in Frances Towers’s collection is the title story. When I picked the book, I was wondering if Tea with Mr. Rochester would have anything to do with Jane Eyre and as it turns out it does! Prissy, the story’s protagonist is an orphaned little girl brought up by her aunts. While in boarding […]

Now that I’m done reading Love Stories I figured it’s time I read another Persephone short story collection. The anthology I picked is Tea with Mr. Rochester, the only book Frances Towers ever published. Last year I came across one of her stories in The Persephone Book of Short Stories. Spade Man from Over the […]