My Friend Annabel Lee

by Mary MacLane

Published in 1903, this selection of dialogues by Mary MacLane entails a mystery of wondering who she is speaking with. Is it the statue she describes at first? Is it an imaginary friend? Is it the author’s alter-ego? Or perhaps, is it a friend she knows in-the-flesh whom the author wished no one to recognize the identity of? These questions are never truly answered for how could a statue send word by postal mail or know some of the deeper vulnerabilities of the author without her knowing them herself? In these talks between herself and Annabel Lee come glimmerings of another time, discussions in the whimsy of personal stories, happenings in the neighbourhood, and the reflections in the deeper meaning of life as well as the bonds of friendship.

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

Mary MacLane was a controversial Canadian-born American writer whose frank memoirs helped usher in the confessional style of autobiographical writing. MacLane was known as the "Wild Woman of Butte."

MacLane was a very popular author for her time, scandalizing the populace with her shocking bestselling first memoir and to a lesser extent her two following books. She was considered wild and uncontrolled, a reputation she nurtured, and was openly bisexual as well as a vocal feminist. In her writings, she compared herself to another frank young memoirist, Marie Bashkirtseff, who died a few years after MacLane was born, and H. L. Mencken called her "the Butte Bashkirtseff."

Reviews

[Bri Fidelity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annabel Lee is like no one you have known. She is quite unlike them all.

Conversations with, monologues by, and reflections on, the enigmatic Annabel Lee. Reads, in places, almost like an intellectual A.A. Milne:

Forsooth Poe's Annabel Lee was not so enchanting as this Annabel Lee.

I think this as I gaze up at her graceful little figure standing on my shelf; her wonderful expressive little face; her strange white hands; her hair bound and twisted into glittering black ropes and wound tightly round her head.

Were you to see her you would say that Annabel Lee is only a very pretty little black and terra-cotta and white statue of a Japanese woman. And forthwith you would be greatly mistaken.

It is true that she had stood in extremely dusty durance vile, in a Japanese shop in Boylston street, for months before I found her, and that on the payment of a few strange dollars to the shop-keeper, I rescued her to her surroundings and bore her out to where I live by the sea - the sea where these wonderful, wide, green waves are rolling, rolling, rolling always. Annabel Lee hears these waves, and I hear them, at times holding our breath and listening until our eyes are strained with listening and with some haunting terror, and the low rushing sound goes to our two pale souls.

For though my friend Annabel Lee lived dumbly and dustily for months in the shop in Boylston street, as if she were indeed but a porcelain statue, and though she was purchased with a price, still my friend Annabel Lee is exquisitely human.

But it's still 100% vintage MacLane:

'There are moments,' said my friend Annabel Lee, 'when, willy nilly, they must all come out upon the flat surfaces of things.

'They look deep into the green water as the sun goes down, and their mood is heavy. Their heart aches, and they shed no tears. They look out over the brilliant waves as the sun comes up, and their mood is light-hearted and they enjoy the moment. Or else their heart aches at the rising and their mood is light-hearted at the setting. But let it be one or the other, there are bland moments when they see nothing but flat surfaces. If they find all at once, by a little accident, that their best-loved is a traitor friend, and they go at the sun's setting and gaze deep into the green water, and all is dark and dead as only a traitor best-loved can make it, and their mood is very heavy - still there is a bland moment when their stomach tells them they are hungry, and they listen to it. It is the flat surface.

[...]

'And, too, the bland moment is long enough for them to feel restfully, deliciously, but unconsciously, thankful that there are these flat surfaces to things and that they can thus roll at times out upon them.

'They roll upon the flat surfaces much as a horse rolls upon the flat prairie where the wind is.

'And when for the first time they fall in love, if their belt is too tight there will come a bland moment when they will be aware that their belt is thus tight - and they will not be aware of much else. During that bland moment they will loosen their belt.

[...]

'And,' said Annabel Lee, glancing at me as my mind was dimly wistful; 'not only must they come out upon the flat surfaces of things, but also you and I must come, willy-nilly.

'And, since we must come, willy-nilly,' added the lady, 'then why not stay out upon the flat surfaces? Certainly 'twill save the trouble of coming next time. Perhaps, however, it's all in the coming.'

Charming as a charming thing.

[M. Sarki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better work than her critics have claimed to the contrary. Still hard to believe such a young woman (or any man) could have been so mature and sophisticated in her thinking. And the fact that it was written more than a hundred years ago. My review was based on my reading of this book within the collection titled Human Days: A Mary MacLane Reader published by Petraca Press and edited by Michael R Brown.

[faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected much better from my girl MacLane… beautiful nature writing, bringing back the “delicate incongruencies” she’s so obsessed with, but ultimately the critics were right with this one

[Garfieldlover4000 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary seems less depressed in this (though she still is sometimes). I was about to say good for her, until I got to chapter 20, which is just full of antisemitic stereotypes, as well as fatphobia. Overall I can understand why this book didn’t cause as much outrage as The Story of Mary MacLane. Instead of having the devil as an imaginary friend, we get to see her talk to Annabel Lee. There’s also not as much raging queerness

[eo]

My friend, Annabel Lee—with your strong, brave little heart and your two strong little hands, you were with me in my weary, bitter day. You were brave enough for two. It is to you from me that a message will go from out of silences and over frozen hills in the years that are coming.

[Bella (Bella's Wonderworld) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meine Meinung

Ich freue mich sehr, dass die Werke der kanadischen Schriftstellerin Mary MacLane eine Renaissance erleben, denn ihre Texte sind unheimlich faszinierend und versprühen einen ganz eigenen Charme. Aufmerksam wurde ich durch die deutsche Publikation ihres skandalträchtigen Erfolgsromans »Ich erwarte die Ankunft des Teufels« aus dem Jahre 1902, mit dem die damals neunzehnjährige schlagartig berühmt wurde.

Nun wurde mit »Meine Freundin Annabel Lee« ein weiteres Werk der talentierten Autorin im Reclam Verlag in deutscher Übersetzung herausgebracht, welches erstmals 1903 veröffentlicht wurde.

In ihrer unvergleichlich lebhaften Erzählkunst präsentiert die damals einundzwanzigjährige Mary MacLane einen mitreißenden Dialog zwischen sich und ihrer Freundin Annabel Lee, bei der es sich je nach Interpretation um das Gespräch mit einem Kunstobjekt, einer tatsächlichen Freundin oder auch nur um ein Selbstgespräch handeln kann. Mary MacLane hat ihrer Gesprächspartnerin den Namen nach einem Gedicht von Edgar Allan Poe ausgesucht, welches im Buch natürlich zur Sprache kommt. Des Weiteren nimmt MacLane auch noch auf weitere Werke aus ihrer Zeit Bezug und setzt sich mit den Unterschieden zwischen ihrem Leben in der ländlich gelegenen Bergbaustadt Butte und ihrer gegenwärtigen Situation in der Großstadt Boston auseinander.

Mary MacLanes Erzählungen zeugen von einem wachen Verstand, einer brillanten Beobachtungsgabe und fangen dabei den Zeitgeist ihres Jahrzehnts in einer Momentaufnahme ein, die gespickt ist mit ihren persönlichen Gedanken. Besonders imponiert haben mir die präzise Auffassung und Wahrnehmung von Schönheit und die sprachliche Illustration der Umgebung sowie die anschaulichen Naturbeschreibungen.

Die einzelnen Kapitel des Buches sind kurz gehalten und lassen sich, obwohl der Text über einhundert Jahre alt ist, flüssig lesen – was sicherlich auch der Übersetzung von Mirko Bonné zu verdanken ist. »Meine Freundin Annabel Lee« bietet ein kurzweiliges Lesevergnügen und lässt in das Leben und die Gedankenwelt einer einundzwanzigjährigen Frau zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts eintauchen.

Fazit

In eloquenter Erzählkunst zeichnet Mary MacLane ein bestechendes Bild ihres Lebens im 20. Jahrhundert.

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© Bellas Wonderworld; Rezension vom 01.05.2021

[Marje V · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't really done a deep-enough Googling to know if the reader is supposed to treat Annabel Lee as as Mary MacLane's imaginary friend who was actually MacLane's alter ego and not a person who actually existed.

[Wolverina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very beautiful. I especially love the last chapter.

Also, my limited knowledge of feminist theory had suggested this kind of writing stream of conscious as a feminist act was 70's onwards so reading a much earlier example was interesting.

[Francesca Verdi · Rating 2 out of 5]

A striking diffuse book, written in the aftermath of MacLane's first fame and completely contrary to what her readers were expecting. Incomplete, wispy, but with great moments.