Memoirs of a Midget

Walter de la Mare

May 2013 · Saqi

About this ebook

Miss M., a pretty and diminutive young woman with a passion for shells, fossils, flints, butterflies and stuffed animals, struggles to deal with her isolation from the rest of society due to her size. She tells of her early life and her tempestuous twentieth year in which she witnesses death, infatuation, suicide and madness. An elegiac, misanthropic, sometimes perverse study of isolation, de la Mare's prize-winning classic is a dark and teasing riddle that seduces by its gentle charm and elegant prose.' One of the strangest and most enchanting works of fiction ever written.' Alison Lurie 'A great book.' New York Times 'For centuries to come this book will inspire imaginative people.' Rebecca West '... a triumphant work of fiction: a portrait of a complex heroine who the reader will ultimately find quite as compelling as Jane [Eyre] or Cathy'. You will be 'charmed and amazed by this odd, creepy tale.' Observer It sticks like a splinter in the mind..' Angela Carter

About the author

Born in a Kent village, Walter de la Mare was born on April 25, 1873. He was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children and for his poem "The Listeners". His 1921 novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books. De la Mare's first book, Songs of Childhood, was published under the name Walter Ramal. He worked in the statistics department of the London office of Standard Oil for eighteen years to support his family, but nevertheless found time to write. De la Mare suffered from a coronary thrombosis in 1947 and died of another in 1956. His ashes are buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, where he had once been a choirboy.