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The Mortgaged Heart
Written mostly before she was nineteen, these pieces provide invaluable insight into Carson McCullers's life and her gifts and growth as a writer. The collection also contains the working outline of "The Mute," which became her best-selling novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
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First published November 30, 1970
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About the author
Carson McCullers
194 books3,249 followersCarson McCullers was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the Southern United States. Her other novels have similar themes. Most are set in the Deep South.
McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her Southern roots. Critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stage adaptation of her novel The Member of the Wedding (1946), which captures a young girl's feelings at her brother's wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950–51.
McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her Southern roots. Critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope. Her stories have been adapted to stage and film. A stage adaptation of her novel The Member of the Wedding (1946), which captures a young girl's feelings at her brother's wedding, made a successful Broadway run in 1950–51.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
August 4, 2024
Memorable quotes:
“If a person admires you a lot you despise him and don’t care—and it is the person who doesn’t notice you that you are apt to admire”
“Writing is a wandering, dreaming occupation”
“How can you create a character without love and the struggle that goes with love?”
It has taken me thirteen years to read this masterwork of short stories, essays, poetry and outlines by one of the 20th century’s most gifted writers.
Reading each short story was an intimate and bittersweet experience, where McCullers wrote straight from a big, broken heart that was always trying to mend itself. She writes with so much love and aching for love that her language can be that affecting, and achingly moving.
Note: Some of the stories here are also found in Collected Stories of Carson McCullers.
“If a person admires you a lot you despise him and don’t care—and it is the person who doesn’t notice you that you are apt to admire”
“Writing is a wandering, dreaming occupation”
“How can you create a character without love and the struggle that goes with love?”
It has taken me thirteen years to read this masterwork of short stories, essays, poetry and outlines by one of the 20th century’s most gifted writers.
Reading each short story was an intimate and bittersweet experience, where McCullers wrote straight from a big, broken heart that was always trying to mend itself. She writes with so much love and aching for love that her language can be that affecting, and achingly moving.
Note: Some of the stories here are also found in Collected Stories of Carson McCullers.
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September 4, 2018The Mortgaged Heart
The dead demand a double vision. A furthered zone,
Ghostly decision of appointment. For the dead can claim
The lover's senses, the mortgaged heart.
Watch twice the orchard blossoms in grey rain
And to the cold rose skies bring twin surprise.
Endure each summons once, and once again;
Experience multiplied by two - the duty recognized.
Instruct the quivering spirit, instant nerve
To schizophrenic master serve,
Or like a homeless Doppelgänger
Blind love might wander.
The mortgage of the dead is known.
Prepare the cherished wreath, the garland door.
But the secluded ash, the humble bone -
Do the dead know?
1952
The dead demand a double vision. A furthered zone,
Ghostly decision of appointment. For the dead can claim
The lover's senses, the mortgaged heart.
Watch twice the orchard blossoms in grey rain
And to the cold rose skies bring twin surprise.
Endure each summons once, and once again;
Experience multiplied by two - the duty recognized.
Instruct the quivering spirit, instant nerve
To schizophrenic master serve,
Or like a homeless Doppelgänger
Blind love might wander.
The mortgage of the dead is known.
Prepare the cherished wreath, the garland door.
But the secluded ash, the humble bone -
Do the dead know?
1952
June 4, 2013
This collection is collated and introduced by Carson's sister and is mostly short stories. However, it also includes articles, poems, brief notes about writing and a detailed outline of her most famous novel, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...).
A few pieces are more relevant if you are familiar with her subject (THiaLH, Dostoyevsky, Isak Dinesen), but most are accessible to all and the short stories are a good introduction to her distinctive, lyrical style. I also learned that Anne Frank's father asked Carson to write a play of Anne's diary, but Carson found the book too upsetting to do so.
She very quickly captures the mood and essence of characters and their situation and her musical training and her empathy with people isolated by difference and at turning points in their lives shine through. (She won a place at the Julliard, to study piano, but lost her fees on the subway, so enrolled on a creative writing course instead!)
The topics include people struggling with drink, failure, loss, poor health, changing relationships, uncertainty etc.
* In Wunderkind (also included in Ballad of the Sad Café), the trials of adolescence seem to ruin musicality
* In Like That, a tomboy resists growing up and becoming more feminine
* Court in the West Eighties is surely an inspiration for Rear Window.
* The stand out story for me is The Haunted Boy, which is about a boy's overwhelming fear that something bad has happened to his mother. It takes a lot to make me cry, but it was so believable and the unspoken (and eventually, spoken) fear so awful, that this story did.
A few pieces are more relevant if you are familiar with her subject (THiaLH, Dostoyevsky, Isak Dinesen), but most are accessible to all and the short stories are a good introduction to her distinctive, lyrical style. I also learned that Anne Frank's father asked Carson to write a play of Anne's diary, but Carson found the book too upsetting to do so.
She very quickly captures the mood and essence of characters and their situation and her musical training and her empathy with people isolated by difference and at turning points in their lives shine through. (She won a place at the Julliard, to study piano, but lost her fees on the subway, so enrolled on a creative writing course instead!)
The topics include people struggling with drink, failure, loss, poor health, changing relationships, uncertainty etc.
* In Wunderkind (also included in Ballad of the Sad Café), the trials of adolescence seem to ruin musicality
* In Like That, a tomboy resists growing up and becoming more feminine
* Court in the West Eighties is surely an inspiration for Rear Window.
* The stand out story for me is The Haunted Boy, which is about a boy's overwhelming fear that something bad has happened to his mother. It takes a lot to make me cry, but it was so believable and the unspoken (and eventually, spoken) fear so awful, that this story did.
October 9, 2022
I love Carson. Truly.
I have now read every book by Carson McCullers except her unfinished autobiography.
This book is only going to be read by Carson McCuller's biggest fans, and so it's rating is going to be disproportionately high, although my defense is that she stays true to who she is as an author more than most authors do, and there is an affirmation in her writing goals that I've seen in her wider body of work. This feels complete. It shows she is who she implies to be with her other writing.
I have now read every book by Carson McCullers except her unfinished autobiography.
This book is only going to be read by Carson McCuller's biggest fans, and so it's rating is going to be disproportionately high, although my defense is that she stays true to who she is as an author more than most authors do, and there is an affirmation in her writing goals that I've seen in her wider body of work. This feels complete. It shows she is who she implies to be with her other writing.
November 29, 2009
I enjoyed the short stories, but found the essays and poetry a bit heavy handed and difficult to read. For those who enjoyed The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Member of the Wedding, I'd recommend the fiction portion of this collection.
September 7, 2023
So so. Lots of filler, a few good short stories
February 19, 2023
Favourites
Fiction: Like That, Wunderkind, The Aliens, The Haunted Boy, Who Has Seen the Wind,
Nonfiction- Authors outline of the mute, Look Homeward Americans, The Russian Realists and Southern Literature, Isak Dinesen In Praise of Radiance
Fiction: Like That, Wunderkind, The Aliens, The Haunted Boy, Who Has Seen the Wind,
Nonfiction- Authors outline of the mute, Look Homeward Americans, The Russian Realists and Southern Literature, Isak Dinesen In Praise of Radiance
May 15, 2021
Author’s Outline of ‘The Mute’ was great because The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is my favourite Carson book. Getting more insight into McCuller’s life was nice too.
May 31, 2011
I am a big fan McCullers' writing so I looked forward to finishing this text to have better picture of her development as a writer. Each story is accompanied with a letter from the publisher giving some insight in the editorial comments McCullers' received.
Of her early stories I the following list stuck with me: "Court in the West Eighties," "Poldi" and "Instant of the Hour After."
I liked all the stories. "Art and Mr. Mahoney," is lightweight, and not to criticize, it also trivial. "Who Has Seen the Wind" is very developed but the characters are less mythical than those in A Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Of her early stories I the following list stuck with me: "Court in the West Eighties," "Poldi" and "Instant of the Hour After."
I liked all the stories. "Art and Mr. Mahoney," is lightweight, and not to criticize, it also trivial. "Who Has Seen the Wind" is very developed but the characters are less mythical than those in A Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
December 14, 2020
I've admired Carson McCullers ever since I read my first book of hers, The Ballad of the Sad Café (and other stories), four years ago in 2016. The romantic and innocent sadness, ugliness and loneliness of the characters in her work had an immediate impact on me from the very first page, and they keep being one of the main things I love in McCullers' work - the way she portrays the obsessions, fears and hopes of her characters, and the strong emotions they feel. Their constant search for themselves, for someone to love or to be loved by, for a cure to their loneliness and detachedness. Even if I don't understand the feeling McCullers is working with, I understand its immediate need in her characters.
The Mortgaged Heart was the perfect final stop of my journey through Carson McCullers' work. As I have already read all of her other published works, this book was the perfect conclusion of my progress through her writing. This collection of short stories, essays, articles and poems gives a perfect overview of McCullers' growth and development as a writer. The short stories, added in chronological order, perfectly show the change in her style - from the fresh and uncertain new voice in Sucker, to the already established and confident heartbreaker that is The Haunted Boy (my favourite from this collection), this book maps out McCuller's growth as a writer. I can only imagine how many more great pieces she could have completed... The accompanying notes and comments from her teacher in Creative Writing are an incredible bonus, which allow for that extra bit of appreciation of the stories that have them.
Another invaluable piece includes here was McCuller's outline of her most famous novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - I enjoyed this piece of inside knowledge so much that I sincerely started hoping that such outlines would be published with each and every book!
While I also loved her autobiographical pieces on her experience during World War II and her childhood memories of Christmas, I was probably a bit underwhelmed by her literary criticism pieces and her poetry, though I blame this on the fact that I rushed my way through this final part of the book and read too much all at once, which is something I would recommend not doing to future readers of this collection.
The Mortgaged Heart was the perfect final stop of my journey through Carson McCullers' work. As I have already read all of her other published works, this book was the perfect conclusion of my progress through her writing. This collection of short stories, essays, articles and poems gives a perfect overview of McCullers' growth and development as a writer. The short stories, added in chronological order, perfectly show the change in her style - from the fresh and uncertain new voice in Sucker, to the already established and confident heartbreaker that is The Haunted Boy (my favourite from this collection), this book maps out McCuller's growth as a writer. I can only imagine how many more great pieces she could have completed... The accompanying notes and comments from her teacher in Creative Writing are an incredible bonus, which allow for that extra bit of appreciation of the stories that have them.
Another invaluable piece includes here was McCuller's outline of her most famous novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - I enjoyed this piece of inside knowledge so much that I sincerely started hoping that such outlines would be published with each and every book!
While I also loved her autobiographical pieces on her experience during World War II and her childhood memories of Christmas, I was probably a bit underwhelmed by her literary criticism pieces and her poetry, though I blame this on the fact that I rushed my way through this final part of the book and read too much all at once, which is something I would recommend not doing to future readers of this collection.
October 6, 2014
One of America's finest writers
August 15, 2018
I really love McCullers. Hell, I wrote my thesis on her and Faulkner, but getting through the last bit of this book was a struggle. I just love her fiction more than her nonfiction.
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December 1, 2019Not as good as "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", but, then again, what is?
February 16, 2019
I really enjoy fleshing out my understanding of a writer's style and body of work. I much preferred Carson McCullers' stories to her "other writings" which were kind of rambling essays, and much of them were actually pretty saccharine, Norman-Rockwell-type musings on the home-front during World War II and Christmastime in the South. (That's why I only gave it three stars.) It was also so strange and disorienting to read about a woman who is identified with the South writing about her time in Brooklyn. She wrote about it though like it was a little hamlet to Manhattan, with some similarities to her own upbringing in Columbus, Georgia. Huh.
Her stories were the real knockouts. I underlined a ton of really beautiful and poignant passages. She is an absolute master at conveying loneliness and confusion of children on the cusp of adulthood. She has a lot of motifs that she comes back to, both in her short stories and in her novels: the teenager who begrudgingly shares a bed with a younger sibling who idolizes him/her, black characters with a little bit of agency in the background, the righteous indignation of childhood like in the epistolary story with the one-sided letter writing, and especially sexual experiences long before the characters are ready (see: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.) The title of that novel and of this collection by the way, are so quintessentially and beautifully Carson McCullers.
Here are some great quotes, to highlight just how lonely and desperate kids can be:
"We fuss a lot less than most sisters do," I said, "And when we do, it's all over quick isn't it?"
"I wanted to know but I was scared to ask. I just sat there with the grown people. I never have been so lonesome as I was that night. If I ever think about being sad, I just think about how it was then--sitting there looking at the long bluish shadows across the lawn and feeling like I was the only child left in the family and that Sis and Dan were dead and gone for good."
"You do like me as much as if I was your own brother, don't you Pete?...You have liked me all the time like I was your own brother, haven't you?" "Sure," I said...Sucker hung on to my back. He felt little and warm and I could feel his warm breathing on my shoulder. "No matter what you did I always knew you liked me."
(Sob!!)
Her stories were the real knockouts. I underlined a ton of really beautiful and poignant passages. She is an absolute master at conveying loneliness and confusion of children on the cusp of adulthood. She has a lot of motifs that she comes back to, both in her short stories and in her novels: the teenager who begrudgingly shares a bed with a younger sibling who idolizes him/her, black characters with a little bit of agency in the background, the righteous indignation of childhood like in the epistolary story with the one-sided letter writing, and especially sexual experiences long before the characters are ready (see: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.) The title of that novel and of this collection by the way, are so quintessentially and beautifully Carson McCullers.
Here are some great quotes, to highlight just how lonely and desperate kids can be:
"We fuss a lot less than most sisters do," I said, "And when we do, it's all over quick isn't it?"
"I wanted to know but I was scared to ask. I just sat there with the grown people. I never have been so lonesome as I was that night. If I ever think about being sad, I just think about how it was then--sitting there looking at the long bluish shadows across the lawn and feeling like I was the only child left in the family and that Sis and Dan were dead and gone for good."
"You do like me as much as if I was your own brother, don't you Pete?...You have liked me all the time like I was your own brother, haven't you?" "Sure," I said...Sucker hung on to my back. He felt little and warm and I could feel his warm breathing on my shoulder. "No matter what you did I always knew you liked me."
(Sob!!)
July 13, 2020
A bit of a mixed bag. This is a posthumously collected selection of short stories, essays and poetry. Some of the stories seemed not quite up to standard, while others stood out, such as 'Wunderkind' as being small gems. The essays were very good, especially the two concerning Isak Dinesen. The poetry I generally didn't get on with, except for the last one, 'Saraband'. I have taken my time reading Carson McCullers' books (it's well over 25 years since I first read 'Ballad of The Sad Café'), but I am looking forward to re-reading all her novels at some stage now.
August 31, 2019
I'm a sucker for anything about or by Carson McCullers so was delighted to stumble upon this collection. I really enjoyed seeing the process of writing reflected in the work, especially where editors comments were included. Some of the previously unpublished stories were quite delightful and I feel like I got to know Carson, the person, better, which, in all honesty, was what I really wanted to do.
January 27, 2022
This was a borrow, so couldn't complete the book. I read: Who has Seen the Wind.
Wow, blown away with the beauty of Carson McCuller's writing. I also found the section : On Writers and Writing absolutely fascinating. It gave me a glimpse on her inspirations and influences. The section on the similarities between Russian Realists and Southern Literature was thought-provoking. A truly unique perspective.
Wow, blown away with the beauty of Carson McCuller's writing. I also found the section : On Writers and Writing absolutely fascinating. It gave me a glimpse on her inspirations and influences. The section on the similarities between Russian Realists and Southern Literature was thought-provoking. A truly unique perspective.
August 26, 2022
Ce livre en poche Stock, 1990, rassemble toutes sortes d'inédits de Carson Mc Cullers au-delà de ce qu'il y avait à l'origine dans "The Mortgaged Heart". Il s'agit essentiellement de nouvelles, quelques poésies, quelques esquisses. C'est tout à fait heureux : on y trouve en particulier "Qui a vu le vent?", une nouvelle que j'avais cherchée quelques années plus tôt. Petit livre précieux.
November 6, 2020
The stories are fine, the poetry less than fine, but her essays make up for all. And who else would have placed Isak Dinesen, Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe and Cecil Beaton into the same essay? Brilliant.
December 23, 2025
transnationally minded people want to flush out their understanding of the connection between us south and russia much, much more
aanddd! and! they love carson mccullers. (i love carson mccullers.)
aanddd! and! they love carson mccullers. (i love carson mccullers.)
September 15, 2017
3.5 stars. Interesting to see the development of a writer from her early works as well as to read her essays on the writing process.
September 8, 2018
didn't like some of the essays but who cares.
November 20, 2022
A nice view into her writing process and development.
September 13, 2023
Thank you for this informative and knowledgeful book.
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March 4, 2024
A good posthumous collection of McCullers' early writing, for those interested in the genesis of a very talented Southern author.
February 2, 2025
Recommended this by dad. Great collection of short stories. Really enjoyed Wuderkind, Sucker and the Aliens. Poetry also v enjoyable.
November 9, 2017
Four and one half stars ... this book is a rare collection of McCullers writings beginning with short stories written as a teenager. What insight she possessed at such a young age of the human condition! It’s rather startling given the set and setting. The book also contains essays (I wish to read more) and poetry. What talent!
February 26, 2017
Carson McCullers would have turned 100 a week ago, and the 50th anniversary of her death is coming up in September.
Which means that I’ll never get the chance to send her a letter to thank her for all these wonderfully poignant and smart things she wrote. Sigh.
Which means that I’ll never get the chance to send her a letter to thank her for all these wonderfully poignant and smart things she wrote. Sigh.
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August 4, 2011ahhh ms mccullers, one of the best writers I have ever read, just when think i am tired and can't read anymore, carson keeps me turning the page. The Mortgaged Heart is a collection of short stories essays and a few poems. the language is so simple, yet so effective, her essays on NewYork are amazing, not only do yu feel like you are there, it makes you want to go there and see it for yourself.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews