Circumstance

by Harriet Prescott Spofford

Harriet Prescott Spofford was a regular contributor of short stories to the well known journal, The Atlantic Monthly. Spofford was well known and well liked at the end of the 19th century for her vivid gothic and fantastic tales. 'Circumstance' is the finest example of her work, dealing with themes of reality, religion, sex and fear. This short story was originally published in 1860 and we are here republishing it with a introductory biography of the author.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics

26 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 23, 2015

About the author

Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford (April 3, 1835 – August 14, 1921) was a notable American writer remembered for her novels, poems and detective stories.

Born in Calais, Maine, in 1835 Spofford moved with her parents to Newburyport, Massachusetts, which was ever after her home, though she spent many of her winters in Boston and Washington, D.C. She attended the Putnam Free School in Newburyport, and Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire from 1853 to 1855. At Newburyport her prize essay on Hamlet drew the attention of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who soon became her friend, and gave her counsel and encouragement.

Spofford began writing after her parents became sick, sometimes working fifteen hours a day. She contributed story papers for small pay to Boston. In 1859, she sent a story about Parisian life entitled "In a Cellar" to Atlantic Monthly. The magazine's editor, James Russell Lowell, at first believed the story to be a translation and withheld it from publication. Reassured that it was original, he published it and it established her reputation. She became a welcome contributor to the chief periodicals of the United States, both of prose and poetry.

Spofford's fiction had very little in common with what was regarded as representative of the New England mind. Her gothic romances were set apart by luxuriant descriptions, and an unconventional handling of female stereotypes of the day. Her writing was ideal, intense in feeling. In her descriptions and fancies, she reveled in sensuous delights and every variety of splendor.[citation needed]

In 1865, she married Richard S. Spofford, a Boston lawyer. They lived on Deer Island overlooking the Merrimack River at Amesbury, where she died on August 14, 1921.

When Higginson asked Emily Dickinson whether she had read Spofford's work "Circumstance", Dickinson replied, "I read Miss Prescott's 'Circumstance,' but it followed me in the dark, so I avoided her."

Reviews

[soleil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for my Gothic Fiction class. Tense and riveting !

[Freya Abbas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised by the low ratings lol I thought this was cool. I found that it expressed the Puritan attitude toward nature really well (how they hated and feared it). It connects to the genre of the captivity narrative started by Mary Rowlandson. It's also interesting to examine the underlying racial tensions between the white settlers and the Native Americans, which are vaguely referenced here.

[anem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a classic I want to study (and actually will study) for its link to the author. It is a short story about the sexualization of women and also very funny thing is that she made the man a stay at home dad and the woman the breadwinner when at that time she had to work because her family was poor and couldn't be supported by her dad, she had to start writing and get into journalism as well. Hence, this story can be interpreted as hers, with a bit of her grandmother's memories in it, but it undermines the issues that women faced at that time.

Something worth noting is how people are being so rude and not appreciative of literature rather forgotten and can't actually try to dig a bit deeper in order to understand it better. It isn't quite hard though to understand but she was on another level.

That being said, I loved it very much, reading American Women Writers always make me feel good though!

[Izzati · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, to think that this could be so boring when it was just a story so short! Woe was me, for having to read it to the bitter end, enduring the dramatic plight of the woman, a story that could've been told all in one short paragraph!

You got the gist. There was no twists and turns, nothing exciting or surprising here, just lots of "woe is me!" cries from one damsel in much distress.

It took me so long to finish reading this one short piece. And then it took me days before I could write a review here. It kind of got me back to my reading slump, so thanks a lot for that.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story is thematically interesting, with an interesting surprise ending. It’s odd, though; this story has a woman in sudden, grave danger fighting for her life, yet it has very little action. The story is about coming to terms with the inevitable (death) without giving up all hope (faith). This is a meditation on endurance where the plot is secondary and the characters are tertiary. Thematic exploration and mood come first in this piece.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ran across on online article that mentioned this author, so I decided to try one of her stories. I chose Circumstance. It is somewhat interesting. The vocabulary is quite florid. The basic premise is rather intriguing. It’s an okay read, but I won’t go searching for other works by this author.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not directed towards me. I do like the various analogies which I discovered when I was forced to analyze them at gunpoint during my exam.

[Phoebe Dillard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yea this sucks lol

[Paxton · Rating 2 out of 5]

hard to read and kinda boring cus damn… spoilers kinda? but it’s the whole story…. it definitely sexualized the woman a lot which made me uncomf (hence why it lost stars) and the entire point was to demonize native americans. idk where prescott stood but i didn’t like it