The opening story, =E2=80=9CThe Piano Teacher=E2=80=99s Pupil=E2=80=9D, =is a typical example of Trevor=E2=80=99s reticent protagonists. The pupil i=s a very gifted player but he is also a kleptomaniac. Though the boy steals= something on each occasion, Miss Nightingale does not comment on it but it= makes her wonder whether maybe she has misinterpreted everybody in her lif=e: =E2=80=9CIf a lonely father had been a calculating man it mattered less =now=E2=80=A6 She had been the victim, too, of the boy who had shown off to =her =E2=80=A6 She had been the victim of herself, of her careless credulity=, her wanting to believe what seemed to be=E2=80=9D (9). In the third story= it is Anita=E2=80=99s inertia and lack of empathy which causes the sad end=: her anger with her friend Claire, who became one of Anita=E2=80=99s husba=nd=E2=80=99s lovers, does not allow her to accept Claire=E2=80=99s offer of= friendship after Gervaise=E2=80=99s death. In the next story again a lack =of empathy is compounded by inertia. On the one hand there is Mr Ravenswood=, a customer in the bank where Rosanne works, who invites her to dinner. La=ter he confesses to her that his wife died because of his reckless driving,= but Rosanne is so overwhelmed by the riches in his house that she does not= pay attention to the man=E2=80=99s needs for unburdening his conscience. O=n the other hand, Rosanne=E2=80=99s partner Keith pushes her to get money o=ff him, and she cannot extract herself from him. =E2=80=9CMrs Crasthorpe=E2==80=9D is Trevor=E2=80=99s version of Joyce=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9CA Painful Ca=se=E2=80=9D, as Etheridge does not give Mrs Crasthorpe much attention, thou=gh he is somewhat intrigued by her. Yet Trevor=E2=80=99s character has her =own drama, as she is split between her desire for a cultivated life and her= penchant to love a =E2=80=9Cpersistent offender=E2=80=9D. The sixth story,= =E2=80=9CThe Unknown Girl=E2=80=9D I find the most subtle. Here, Trevor wh=irls oppositions and parallels into a tight little drama, in which the thre=e main actors represent degrees of empathy. Mrs Harriet Balfour, widowed bu=t consoled by the company of her son and the objects in the beautiful house= which keep the happy memories of her husband alive, is a smooth, cautious =and socially committed being. She is informed by a soul-searching cleric th=at =E2=80=9Cthe unkown girl=E2=80=9D, her former cleaner, died in what seem=ed a case of suicide. In the following months the discrepancy between the h=umble cleric who is tormented about not having been able to help the girl a=nd Harriet=E2=80=99s son, Stephen, who turns out to be a =E2=80=98clinical==E2=80=99 paediatrician who refused help, brings the revelation that the co=coon she offered her son was maybe not the right way of life. The next stor=y, =E2=80=9CMaking Conversation=E2=80=9D, stands out a bit oddly, hinging o=n a protagonist whose actions are dictated by a strange combination of pity= and revenge. In her youth, Olivia had felt slighted by a man who, pitying =her, had =E2=80=9Cmade conversation=E2=80=9D with her. Now Mrs Vinnicombe c=omes to claim her husband back from Olivia, but she merely makes conversati=on with the woman. Like Claire in =E2=80=9CThe Caff=C3=A8 Daria=E2=80=9D, M=rs Vinnicombe is much more generous in her emotions than the protagonist.The remaining three stories are all built on a chiasmus. The painter of ==E2=80=9CGiotto=E2=80=99s angels=E2=80=9D meets a =E2=80=9Cwoman with a bro=och=E2=80=9D who gives the protagonist work and a workplace while Denise, a= poor prostitute, steals all his money from him, but then thinks of going b=ack and starting a life of companionship with him. Likewise, =E2=80=9CAn Id=yll in Winter=E2=80=9D shows a chiastic development of the main characters.= First Anthony, Mary Bella=E2=80=99s private tutor, teaches her to use her =imagination. Later, when he leaves his family to come and live with her, it= is Mary Bella=E2=80=99s imaginative sympathy with the deserted family whic=h will reverse the situation. The final story, =E2=80=9CThe Women=E2=80=9D,= doubles the sets of complementary characters: on the one hand there are Mi=ss Cotell and Miss Keble; the first has known love but has given her child =in adoption, the second hasn=E2=80=99t had a deep relationship but =E2=80==9Cknew that it was she, in the end, who ordered their lives and wielded po=wer=E2=80=9D (198). On the other hand, there is the rich Mr Normanton and h=is daughter Cecilia who starts surmising that she is adopted; but the more =he opens up, the more she retreats into her inner self, so that the situati=on finally remains undisclosed.
Ls-Natural Angels Set 101-188 14
The writing is vintage Trevor, as I will briefly illustrate in this volu=me=E2=80=99s themes and style. The overarching theme is the family; but, li=ke in Trevor=E2=80=99s other collections, religion is mentioned too. Usuall=y Trevor=E2=80=99s stories either criticize the institution (=E2=80=9COf th=e Cloth=E2=80=9D in The Hill Bachelors (2000), =E2=80=9CJustina=E2==80=99s Priest=E2=80=9D in A Bit on the Side (2004), =E2=80=9CMen =of Ireland=E2=80=9D in Cheating at Canasta (2007)) or they focus o=n a more mystic personal attitude (as in =E2==80=9CThe Virgin=E2=80=99s Gift=E2=80=9D (The Hill Bachelors) or =E2=80=9CThe Dressmaker=E2=80=99s Child=E2=80==9D (Cheating at Canasta). In Last Stories, =E2=80=9CGiot=to=E2=80=99s Gift=E2=80=9D combines the two strands, as the amnesiac painte=r of saintly topics is considered a potential paedophile, while he is not i=n the least interested in sex or money, only in his painting of angels.
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