'The Beggar Maid'
Critique • Quotes
Collection, first editionAbout the book
The author
Alice Munro, Canada
First book publication
1978 in Who Do You Think You Are?
Literature form
Story
Genre
Literary
Writing language
English
Length
Approx. 12,000 words
Notable lines
Patrick Blatchford was in love with Rose. This had become a fixed, even furious, idea with him. For her, a continual surprise.
— First lines
For all her doubts about him, she never wanted him to fall out of love with her.
But he seldom joked with her; he didn't think joking was suitable when you were in love.
Sometimes when Rose was talking to someone in front of the television cameras she could sense the desire in them to make a face.
How could anybody hate Rose so much, at the very moment when she was ready to come forward with her good will, her smiling confession of exhaustion, her air of diffident faith in civilized overtures?
Oh, Patrick could. Patrick could.
— Last lines
Critique • Text
