A Woman of Means

by Peter Taylor

Gerald Dudley is an executive at a hardware company in St. Louis, living the quintessential bachelor life with his young son, Quint. He is also a man who aspires beyond his means and class. When Gerald meets the wealthy divorcée Ann Lauterbach and the two marry, life changes irrevocably for Quint. He enters a social world of private schools and debutante balls known to him only through his father's longings. As Quint's attachment to his stepmother and her "means" grows, her marriage to his father begins to crumble in small, subtle ways, which ultimately leads to larger, more devastating consequences.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Historical Fiction, Family, Classics

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer. Considered to be one of the finest American short story writers, Taylor's fictional milieu is the urban South. His characters, usually middle or upper class people, often are living in a time of change and struggle to discover and define their roles in society.
Peter Taylor also wrote three novels, including A Summons to Memphis in 1986, for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and In the Tennessee Country in 1994. His collection The Old Forest and Other Stories (1985) won the PEN/Faulkner Award. Taylor taught literature and writing at Kenyon and the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Matt Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taylor's apprenticeship novel shows, in distilled form, all of the various themes and subjects he'll explore throughout his entire career. In that, it's interesting as a literary artifact. But as a evocation of a time, a place, a class, and the instability of all of those, as a story of growing up and seeing how fragile, frightened, and even petty your parents are, as a meditation on home and what it is and how it's made and how the myths of our own pasts help us to figure out what home is, and who we are--as all of that, this novel is just simply gorgeous.

Like all of Taylor's work, it's not for everybody. Understated, subtle, lacking in "drama" and page-turning-ness, it's a cerebral novel that can be read in a sitting, but that is better suited for savoring, for reflection, and for introspective conversation with yourself about how the novel does, and does not, help to explain your own self. Taylor's not a "cool" writer, and never was; but he is an incredibly human writer, who asks us to think through what constitutes our own humanity.

[Jo Ann Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sad, sensitive novella set in 1950s St. Louis is the story of a young man's coming of age and simultaneous break-up of the marriage of his father and his wealthy step-mother. There are potent reminders that all children, even those who are considered adults, must be loved for themselves and not for what they possess or represent for others.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a 19th century novel and it feels wonderfully current, relevant, and real. Other times you read something published in 1950 and it might as well have taken place on Uranus, its situations and language are so remote from 21st century experience. That was the case with this novella, which came highly recommended by Jonathan Yardley. For me it had small echoes of other works, such as The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (an excellent book), and A Separate Peace, works dealing with adolescents trying to navigate their way through new and sometimes strange worlds, and (with Bowen) trying to figure out where they fit into the adult relationships around them. Atmospherically it reminded me of some of Ward Just's novels featuring young men of the 1940s and 50s.

The narrator is 13-year-old Quint Dudley, who is being raised by his businessman father in the south. His mother died giving birth to him. Father and Quint live in a succession of boarding houses, and he spends summers on his grandmother's farm. But his father wants Quint to be a city boy, to be able to earn a good living. Mr. Dudley marries a very wealthy St. Louis divorcee with two teenage daughters, and Quint gets the mother he never had. It so happens that she has always wanted a son, too. Things go pretty swimmingly in the new household, if you discount the fact that we're on Uranus, until they begin to go a little sour.

Yardley feels Peter Taylor is one of the great, and most sadly neglected, American writers (although Taylor did receive a Pulitzer in 1987 for A Summons to Memphis); he considers The Old Forest "the greatest short story ever written by an American." So feel free to disregard my rating and read this for yourself.

[richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always interesting to me to read stories dealing with class and status in the South. Taylor's narrator is a boy of twelve at the outset of the novella, but clearly narrating as an older man reflecting, and Taylor expertly manages his narrator's story to shift time-frames between his younger self in Tennessee and his older self in St Louis, thereby hanging a complex social architecture around a boy present-day writers would tend to locate in one moment. It also neatly captures the boy's lack of full engagement at any given time, his awareness of his difference, and that makes this one of the more complicated stories of Southern debutantes and wealth I have read.

[Old Man JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story follows a young boy named Quint whose father has married an older wealthy woman who has two grown daughters. Quint becomes very attached to his stepmother and she, even more so, toward him. But the marriage between his father and stepmother begins to have problems and to crumble putting Quint in a very awkward position of where to place his loyalties.

[Denise Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and interesting read. Thought provoking.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early novella by Taylor (1950), better known for his short stories. Set in 1920's St Louis, the climatic event is very 1950's - in fact it is very 19th C in its view of the fragile, "nervous" wealthy female. I love short works, but this could have used some filling out, it felt like some events were just dropped without the further development they could have used. What I like most about the work, and a signature point of Taylor's style, is the leisurely 1st person narrative which only shares what he has seen, and the reader gets to "discover" events and an understanding of them at the narrator's pace.

I gave this 3 stars, but 3.5 would be more like it - I do enjoy Taylor's prose and love to dip into his collections of short stories for an evening. May be a bit too old fashioned for some.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the hell out of this book until about page 107, and would have given it a five if the ending hadn't been such a terrible cop-out. Every detail of the story is perfectly placed, and you feel like you're really going somewhere profound... and then she just goes crazy? Not even in a convincing way: Anna Lauterbach goes from perfectly sane to raving and hallucinating in a matter of minutes, from the reader's perspective, and the reason given-- that she feels betrayed by her husband? I'm not really sure-- isn't at all convincing. I had the feeling that Taylor wasn't sure how to end the book. This is his first novel, he's better known for his short stories, and he won a Pulitzer for A Summons to Memphis, so I'll definitely keep reading him.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Taylor is a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. Lovely story narrated by a boy 12-13 years old. His mother died when he was born and his father always has work but they move many times. Quint lives with his grandmother and cousins and other relatives in the country in Tennessee until his father meets and marries a wealthy woman in St. Louis. Quint is collected from his grandmother and finds his new family to be wonderful, including two older sisters. His stepmother is loving and treats him warmly like the boy she never had and wanted. He basks in her affectionate ways.

Quint's life is transformed and he feels safe but has never quite fit in among peers, who tease him about his long elegant name and his southern accent. And then his family life subtly and slowly unravels. The book is slim, easy to read, and quietly profound between the lines.

[Christian Kiefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended to me by Richard Ford. Taylor's first novel is a masterpiece of compression and character development and reminds me at times of Joyce's Dubliners in its build to a psychologically penetrating climax. So fine.

[Courtney Stirrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lost this for awhile under my bed and did not realize that my cat had taken it hostage! Thus far, the writing is good and the young man in the book lives several blocks away from where I live.

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystifying. This book is so compact and oblique (traits I normally value) that the melodramatic ending took me completely by surprise. Did I miss any clues? The story is told from the point of view of Quintus Cincinnatus Lovell Dudley, a teenager whose mum died giving birth to him. His early life has been spent alternately on his grandmother's farm in the South and in boarding houses with his dad, a hardworking salesman. In circumstances left unaddressed, Gerald meets and marries Ann, a wealthy divorcée with 2 daughters older than Quint. Ann, who always dreamt of having a son, makes a pet of Quint, to the extent that when tensions arise in the marriage, Gerald accuses her of having accepted him to get the boy. Ann, on the other hand, has been plagued throughout her life by the suspicion that people only like her for her money, and starts feeling that way about Gerald. The weird thing is, Gerald remains just as committed to his job after marrying her and shows no sign of turning into a gigolo. Eventually the board of his company makes him take the fall for mistakes or embezzlements committed by his predecessor. Ann shows remarkably little sympathy for his humiliation, and even refuses to believe his account of his difficulties at work. Is this the first sign of her descent into madness? I'm afraid that at this point Mr. Taylor lost me. From one page to the next Ann goes from being a slightly insecure socialite to a screaming lunatic with phantom pregnancy syndrome who has to be carted away to an institution. Half-baked Henry James.

[Camille Maio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was strong on character an simple in plot. It was a good, short read, but didn't compel me to read other works by the author.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb short novel. Entirely traditional, but perfectly made.

[legitphilosophe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good novella to read while travelling.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not at all what I expected but a really wonderful story! The story, told from the view of the stepson, makes you feel as if you live in the house with them and know the characters as well.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ponderings of a child made this story a winner. Otherwise it would have been another frustrating story of adults not being able to understand each other - or even be present enough to do so…

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this would make an excellent stage play, but it just didn’t do it for me in its novella format. It needs actors to really breathe life into these words.

An easy read, enjoyable enough.

[Eric Hollen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between this and “In the Tennessee Country,” Peter Taylor is one of my favorite writers.

[Robert Schwab · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of Peter Taylor's short stories, I was eager to read one of his three novels, and chose this one at random. It was a short, easy read on a plane ride, and I found the writing as good as I have come to expect from Taylor. His characterization and descriptions are vivid and engaging. I was not captivated as much by his story in this book, the tale of a widower and his son, whose lives change dramatically when the man remarries a woman far above his own station. The son, whose mother died giving birth to him, is telling the story, which is filtered through his growing love for the woman who is becoming his mother, as well as his painful alienation from the world he now inhabits. As the marriage becomes increasingly strained, the son's allegiance shifts and his alienation worsens. All in all, it is a well-written novel that is worth the investment of time.

[Vicki Luschek · Rating 2 out of 5]

A small, early book by Taylor. Good writing but story is a bit lame. About a young boy and widower father who marries a divorcee with 2 daughters and the inner action that takes place. Set in the 1930s.

[JoAnn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book just did not interest me. I will try some of his other set-in-the-south books. This was not one of them.

[Heather Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently discovered this author. This is the second book I've enjoyed reading by him. They are short stories about families in the midwest during the early 20th century.

[Angela Gill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Peter Taylor, but wasn't thrilled with this small novel. It was a big disappointmnet after Peter's reputation.

[Thomas Baughman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first-rate little book