Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide
July 1998
The House by the Sea
by May Sarton
- What is the actual time span, in months, covered by this journal? When you have written down these dates, think about them in terms of your response to the book. Does the time span surprise you? Why/why not?
- For those of you who have read this book before: Was the reading experience different this time, or the same? If it was different, why?
- Of all Sarton's memoirs, this one focuses most explicitly on the setting in which she lives, and some of the nature writing is beautifully evocative. Among these entries, what are your favorites? What most appeals to you about her descriptions?
- While Sarton is keeping this journal, she is also writing another book, A World of Light, a collection of prose portraits about people she had known. How does that book intersect with the journal? What kind of material does it bring into the journal?
- In the Prologue (p. 14) Sarton writes:
"Solitude has replaced the single intense relationship, the passionate love that even at Nelson focused all the rest...Growing into solitude is one way of growing to the end."
Yet the time covered by this journal is hectic and full of people. How does Sarton manage this dichotomy?
- Describe the picture of herself that Sarton paints in this journal. What kind of woman does she want you to see here? Find some passages that seem to you to present these images most clearly. What do you find attractive about these images? What does Sarton hope to gain by offering this portrait of herself to the reader?
- When Sarton's biography was published in 1997, the author, Margot Peters, wrote:
"No public figure levels completely with an audience, and Sarton was a performer above all. As I would discover to my dismay, her real life, as opposed to the myth she created, was turbulent, guilt-ridden, full of pain and disappointment -- and just plain messy. I am tempted to post a warning: THIS BIOGRAPHY STRONG MEDICINE, NOT TO BE TAKEN INTERNALLY BY SARTON FANS. Yet perhaps the real May Sarton will be more lasting inspiration than the myth, a phoenix risen from the ashes of fires hotter than anyone guessed."
If this statement is true -- that the "real May Sarton" may be more lasting than the myth -- what has Sarton lost by offering an idealized picture of herself in place of the reality?
- Enclosed are pages (309-318) from Peters biography covering the period in which The House by the Sea was written. Please read them after you have read the journal. What new light does it shed on Sarton's memoir? How does it change the way you feel about the book?
- In a televised discussion of memoir-writing , Kathryn Harrison (author of The Kiss) said this:
"I find myself going back to the myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with an image of himself, the very beautufil image of himself that was on the surface of the water, and that prevented him from seeing the dark water below. I think the best writing, whether novel or memoir, is writing whose purpose is to destroy that image, the comforting image, the beautiful image on top and explore the dark water beneath. I know that is what I want as a reader and what I expect of myself as a writer..."
Do you think that Harrision's measure of "the best writing" is a useful measure? If we use her statement as a basis for judgement, what might we say about May Sarton's published journals?