Lummox

Bertha is a large Swedish maid whose rough exterior hides a rich, wordless inner life shaped by poverty, immigrant uncertainty, and years of humiliation. Raised in a sailors' lodging house after her mother died in childbirth, she comes to Gramercy Park as the Farleys' cook, laboring in a cold attic while secretly responding to music, fabrics, colors, and the smallest sensory details with near-poetic intensity. Her world changes when she encounters Rollo Farley, a young poet whose lyrical attention to her silence, strength, and whiteness awakens a hunger for beauty and love she can barely name. Their moonlit exchanges, his brief embrace, and his subsequent absence leave her suspended between fulfillment and ache, while his literary success and social charm only sharpen her sense of isolation. The novel then turns to Bertha's uneasy attachment to Willy, a sly, childish houseman whose crude energy both repels and attracts her. Their awkward flirtation leads to a cramped room over a garage, where exhaustion, hunger, and dependence define a makeshift domestic life. As Willy spins stories about a little boy fascinated by fire and accepts Bertha's chocolates, Bertha's protectiveness and tenderness deepen, even as his wasted tinkering, her night labor, and the boy's absence reveal the fragility and loneliness at the heart of their bond. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.