Review:
I'm slowly working my way through all the Maiden's Bookshelf stuff that has been translated into English. This particular story was originally published in 1926 and is focused on a married couple. Their marriage started rough, with the husband having to fight against his wife's parents' objections in order for them to get married in the first place. Then the husband had to deal with issues with his mother-in-law. Now the couple is finally left to themselves, but they still can't fully be happy - the wife is dying (tuberculosis?). Her husband acts as her caretaker, simultaneously resenting the way he feels tethered to her and dreading the day she finally leaves him. She rages at him, accusing him of wanting to be elsewhere, with someone else, only letting up as she becomes more prepared to die.
Well, this was tragic. There's no real plot - it's just a close, painful study of the relationship between a caregiver spouse and an invalid, dying spouse. Grief is hidden by - or mixed with? - anger and resentment. They do love each other, but it's a heavily frayed love.
The illustrations are soft and lovely, with metaphorical elements that seem to indicate that the husband and wife are slowly dying together.
This is definitely something to read only when you're in the proper mood for it, and I imagine it would hit even harder for those who are or have ever been in the same position as either the husband or wife. I think this is probably the strongest of the Maiden's Bookshelf volumes I've read so far, in terms of both the story and the way the illustrations support and add to it, although I wouldn't call it pleasant reading.
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