Afternoons with Emily
A Novel
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
In mid-19th-century Amherst, Emily Dickinson is famous both for her notable family and for her reclusive ways, and only Miranda Chase, a smart girl with big plans for her own life, is allowed to enter the budding poet's very private world. At first, their Monday afternoon visits involve discussing books over piping hot cups of tea, but when Miranda begins exploring her own yearnings -- for love, for an education, even for a career -- she discovers that being a friend of Emily's is not without its dangers. The very charisma that has inspired her becomes a web of intrigue, and to escape it, Miranda will imperil her reputation, her independence, and even her dreams.
Drawing on letters, poems, and everything that is known about Dickinson's life, Afternoons With Emily is a vivid portrait of America's most famous poet, a coming-of age story that spans the Civil War, and a tale of two brilliant women who each chose to break with convention and live life on their own terms.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An independent young woman comes of age under the influence of Emily Dickinson in this posthumous debut novel. (MacMurray, a public school poetry teacher, died in 1997.) Miranda Chase's childhood is an isolated one: her mother dies when she is nine and her busy scholar father provides his bright, inquisitive only daughter with a private tutor. A year-long sojourn in Barbados sets the stage for their move to Amherst, Mass., where her father teaches at the college. Miranda's unusual upbringing brings the 13-year-old to the attention of Amherst's famous recluse. Despite their 15-year age difference, Miranda becomes one of Emily's few regular visitors and while she values her time with Emily (depicted imaginatively but gratingly; Emily speaks in capitals when she wishes to MAKE HER POINT), the relationship becomes more complicated as Miranda grows older and love, deaths, heartbreak and the Civil War intercede. Miranda begins a career in education and breaks away from Emily; the two clash with dramatic results. MacMurray knows well her "belle of Amherst," and the poet's friendship with a younger kindred spirit which initially sets off gimmicky warning bells becomes charming. This is really Miranda's story, but through it the poet and her poetry in all their inconsistent genius are served well.
