I Met a Gypsy

by Norah Lofts

A chronicle of generations of gypsies spanning 400 years: through King's harlots, innkeepers, noviciaries and adventures, travelling from Britain to the Arctic, India and China, this is a blend of history and Romany life.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Norah Ethel Robinson Lofts Jorisch (27 August 1904–10 September 1983) was a 20th century best-selling British author. She wrote over fifty books specialising in historical fiction, but she also wrote non-fiction and short stories. Many of her novels, including her Suffolk Trilogy, follow the history of a specific house and the residents that lived in it.

Lofts was born in Shipdham, Norfolk in England. She also published using the pseudonyms Juliet Astley and Peter Curtis. Norah Lofts chose to release her murder-mystery novels under the pen name Peter Curtis because she did not want the readers of her historic fiction to pick up a murder-mystery novel and expect classic Norah Lofts historical fiction. However, the murders still show characteristic Norah Lofts elements. Most of her historical novels fall into two general categories: biographical novels about queens, among them Anne Boleyn, Isabella of Castile, and Catherine of Aragon; and novels set in East Anglia centered around the fictitious town of Baildon (patterned largely on Bury St. Edmunds). Her creation of this fictitious area of England is reminiscent of Thomas Hardy's creation of "Wessex"; and her use of recurring characters such that the protagonist of one novel appears as a secondary character in others is even more reminiscent of William Faulkner's work set in "Yoknapatawpha County," Mississippi. Norah Lofts' work set in East Anglia in the 1930s and 1940s shows great concern with the very poor in society and their inability to change their conditions. Her approach suggests an interest in the social reformism that became a feature of British post-war society.

Several of her novels were turned into films. Jassy was filmed as Jassy (1947) starring Margaret Lockwood and Dennis Price. You're Best Alone was filmed as Guilt is My Shadow (1950). The Devil's Own (also known as The Little Wax Doll and Catch As Catch Can) was filmed as The Witches (1966). The film 7 Women was directed by John Ford and based on the story Chinese Finale by Norah Lofts.

Reviews

[Tammy Buchli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a novel so much as a series of interconnected short stories following the history of a family beginning in Henry VIII’s time and ending in China in the 1930s. It was Norah Loft’s first book, written in 1935 and already displaying Lofts’ unique gift for truly timeless historical fiction. Each story is written, not from the perspective of that generation’s protagonist, but from the perspective of a bystander from their time. There is a good deal of the type of casual racism that it’s almost impossible to avoid in books written in the 1930s, some of it startlingly offensive to a modern reader. But Lofts’ portrayal of the women in the stories (all but two of the protagonists are women) is unusually modern. The motif of the central family is that they are “free” or “free-spirited,” but these are no manic pixie dream girls. They are strong, brave women who live their lives on their own terms and, because we view them through the eyes of witnesses from their own times, we are able to recognize exactly how unusual they all are. From the half-Romani (and possibly half-royal) runaway nun, to the Jacobite prostitute stuck on a whaling station thousands of miles from her home, to the physician who agrees to become a concubine to a Chinese bandit in order to save the English missionaries she is traveling with, these women are all intelligent, fascinating and, for lack of a better term, badass. I first read this when I was in my early teens and have reread it many times since. It is one of my all time favorite books.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Norah Lofts is one of my favorite historical fiction writers. An Englishwoman who wrote in the mid-20th century, much of her work is dated in terms of style and sensibility. Her strengths lie in evoking time and place with skillful authenticity, and investing her fictional characters with vivid, complicated, utterly believable and memorable humanity. Lofts forbears to moralize or pass overt judgment on her creations, as so many other historical fiction writers fall into the trap of doing, instead letting their actions, in the context of rigid social stratification, speak for themselves.

This book is an oddity: not a novel, rather a series of tales purporting to portray a family's wanderlust across five hundred years of English history. The conceit of the book established in the first, weakest chapter - that "Gypsy"/Romani blood reveals itself in unconventionality and transience, as well as exotic-seeming physical traits - seems naively racist and stereotypical to the contemporary reader. But despite the fact that Lofts viewed ethnicity through the prism of her own time and place, for the most part her focus is on resourceful, determined characters attempting - and often succeeding - in transcending the rigid limits posed by gender and life station.

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had forgotten how depressing these stories are for the most part. No wonder it is out of print.

[Krissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Norah Lofts. She always weaves an interesting story.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an unexpected treat! I found a "First American Printing" copy of this book in my new local library of Santa Maria, CA. It comes complete with original library bookplate and stamps. It was a joy just to hold it my hands and read something that is 83 years old! (printed in 1936; copyright, 1935.)
Beyond that, it is a book by my one of my all-time favorite writers, Norah Lofts, which has eluded me until now. It is very indicative of her later work in that it takes vignettes of one family's descendants and strings them together into a whole, interlocking story. She continued to use this framework in many, if not most, of her subsequent family-saga novels.
In this particular work, the beginning vignette along with the concluding one, form poignant bookends to the novel which lies between them. The book has a longer, stronger story line at the end which uses the background of the Chinese Civil War (Part I, 1927-1937.) This is an episode in history which has been all-but-erased by the impact of WWII and largely forgotten by my generation and nearly unknown by all generations after mine. However, to the author, Norah Lofts, this was a contemporary issue causing upheaval and fear in her world. She has chosen to compare two eras of change and chaos, the first set during the time of the Dissolution of The Monasteries in England as ordered by Henry VIII, and the second as mentioned, during the war in China. Against these diverse backgrounds, she has placed a strong woman of her times who does not fit in with the accepted role of the other women, one environment a convent, the other, a Christian Mission outpost. The two scenarios are balanced well, without being forced to align perfectly. To me, what they really show, is how little we have advanced in the areas of human cruelty and cupidity. As is common with her books, this one ends on a somewhat despairing note, but we at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the heroine's better nature has prevailed.
The other vignettes, laid in different centuries and showcasing different crises, bring their own views of the same message of humanity against itself throughout the ages.
Ultimately, a thought-provoking read with a lot of emotional satisfaction as well as an edge of grief.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four hundred years in one bloodline, but written more like a series of short stories. Very, very sad all the way through.
(Copyright 1935. Paperback copy 1975 had honest-to-goodness bookworms)

[Elizabeth Hesseltine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a short story fan, but this book was fun to read. Each story flowed nicely into the next.

[Melodie Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speedy summary: An intercommected series of short stories following a unique family.
Thoughts: I have always enjoyed stories that show a family tree over the generations. Something that makes this book unique is that the stories are not told from the perspective of the family, but from an outside person that just happens to cross paths with an individual from this 'gypsy' family, so you spend the beginning of each story trying to discern who is the person in the family. It's a fun, easy read!

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[Wynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of connecting short stories. The last story was a movie with Anne Bancroft.