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Poor Girl
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1955
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About the author
Elizabeth Taylor
80 books488 followersElizabeth Taylor (née Coles) was a popular English novelist and short story writer. Elizabeth Coles was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1912. She was educated at The Abbey School, Reading, and worked as a governess, as a tutor and as a librarian.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
In 1936, she married John William Kendall Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2005. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie was released in England in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 20, 2025
Quite the opening:
“Miss Chasty's first pupil was a flirtatious little boy. At seven years, he was alarmingly precocious and sometimes she thought that he despised his childhood, regarding it as a waiting time which he used only as a rehearsal for adult life.”
• Is the unusual surname hinting at nominative determinism?
• It certainly contrasts with a “flirtatious” child, a description which rings alarm bells.
• And there’s something odd about “rehearsal” (or maybe I’ve watched too much of Nathan Fielder’s multi-layered comedy show of the same name).
The boy, Hilary, is horribly entitled and patronising, and is uncannily like his father.
“He opened the book, pressed down the pages and lowered his nose to them, breathing the smell of print. 'He is utterly sensuous,' she thought. 'He extracts every pleasure, every sensation, down to the most trivial.'”
Miss Chasty, the young governess, is a green-eyed vicar’s daughter, who says her prayers and reads the Bible.
Mrs Wilson is aware of her husband’s “susceptibilities to women whom his conscience taught him to deplore”.
With those ingredients, and a suffocating dose of suppressed sexuality, it’s clear roughly where this is going, even before an oppressive musky scent permeates the schoolroom, affecting them all:
“She had clearly heard the sound of taffetas and she imagined the drab, shiny alpaca dress concealing frivolity and wantonness.”
Nevertheless, this is almost without definitive fantastical elements. The protagonists might be claiming they were bewitched to justify improper behaviour. On the other hand, where did the cheap necklace of glittering green beads come from? Then, at the end, .
Image: Green glass necklace
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can join the group here.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
“Miss Chasty's first pupil was a flirtatious little boy. At seven years, he was alarmingly precocious and sometimes she thought that he despised his childhood, regarding it as a waiting time which he used only as a rehearsal for adult life.”
• Is the unusual surname hinting at nominative determinism?
• It certainly contrasts with a “flirtatious” child, a description which rings alarm bells.
• And there’s something odd about “rehearsal” (or maybe I’ve watched too much of Nathan Fielder’s multi-layered comedy show of the same name).
The boy, Hilary, is horribly entitled and patronising, and is uncannily like his father.
“He opened the book, pressed down the pages and lowered his nose to them, breathing the smell of print. 'He is utterly sensuous,' she thought. 'He extracts every pleasure, every sensation, down to the most trivial.'”
Miss Chasty, the young governess, is a green-eyed vicar’s daughter, who says her prayers and reads the Bible.
Mrs Wilson is aware of her husband’s “susceptibilities to women whom his conscience taught him to deplore”.
With those ingredients, and a suffocating dose of suppressed sexuality, it’s clear roughly where this is going, even before an oppressive musky scent permeates the schoolroom, affecting them all:
“She had clearly heard the sound of taffetas and she imagined the drab, shiny alpaca dress concealing frivolity and wantonness.”
Nevertheless, this is almost without definitive fantastical elements. The protagonists might be claiming they were bewitched to justify improper behaviour. On the other hand, where did the cheap necklace of glittering green beads come from? Then, at the end, .
Image: Green glass necklace
Short story club
I read this in Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 24 March 2025.
You can join the group here.["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
June 9, 2025
Miss Chasty's first pupil was a flirtatious little boy. At seven years, he was alarmingly precocious and sometimes she thought that he despised his childhood, regarding it as a waiting time which he used only as a rehearsal for adult life. He was already more sophisticated than his young governess and disturbed her with preposterous conversations he led her into, guiding her skillfully away from work, confusing her with bizarre conjectures and irreverent ideas. . .
Florence Chasty is the "poor girl" of the title, a modest governess in a household with her student Hilary, his parents, and the servants. But there are hints that another element may also be sharing the home, and influencing Florence's behavior. She's getting blamed for things beyond her control. It's up to the reader's imagination whether the governess is getting a look into the supernatural of the past or the future.
I read "Poor Girl" with the Short Story Club from the anthology Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic. (It's also in Elizabeth Taylor's collection The Blush.)
Florence Chasty is the "poor girl" of the title, a modest governess in a household with her student Hilary, his parents, and the servants. But there are hints that another element may also be sharing the home, and influencing Florence's behavior. She's getting blamed for things beyond her control. It's up to the reader's imagination whether the governess is getting a look into the supernatural of the past or the future.
I read "Poor Girl" with the Short Story Club from the anthology Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic. (It's also in Elizabeth Taylor's collection The Blush.)
June 12, 2025
“A suppressed wantonness hovered beneath her primness.”
A delicious and mysterious little story. A young governess comes to work for a well-off family. She’s manipulated by her precocious pupil and in time, suspected by his mother.
Taylor held me in thrall, trying to make out what was happening and why. She trusts you to take her well-crafted characters and scenes, and make them into what you may. I've loved her novels, and can’t wait to read more of her short stories.
A delicious and mysterious little story. A young governess comes to work for a well-off family. She’s manipulated by her precocious pupil and in time, suspected by his mother.
Taylor held me in thrall, trying to make out what was happening and why. She trusts you to take her well-crafted characters and scenes, and make them into what you may. I've loved her novels, and can’t wait to read more of her short stories.
June 10, 2025
There's enough ambiguity in the ending to move this story from the straight path to the mysterious . Taylor is an expert storyteller and builds the tension and the intrigue nicely . Manners and protocol are there to be subverted . Loneliness and isolation create confusion as raw emotions deep from every pore .
June 22, 2025
UPDATE 06/22/2025
I just went back and read more of The Short Story Club group's comments and that changed my whole opinion of the story!
Yeah, I'm that person walking out of the movie, talking with my friends, saying, "Ohhhh, it was a fake moustache?"
Another read with The Short Story Club group* from the Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic anthology.
I didn't dig this one, although I think it was well-regarded by the group. Might just be timing for me. I have to give it props for tension and eeriness, though, and I have massive respect for other Elizabeth Taylor's works.
Boiled down, it simply was an unpleasant story for me, an innocent among entitled manipulators.
* https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
I just went back and read more of The Short Story Club group's comments and that changed my whole opinion of the story!
Yeah, I'm that person walking out of the movie, talking with my friends, saying, "Ohhhh, it was a fake moustache?"
Another read with The Short Story Club group* from the Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic anthology.
Boiled down, it simply was an unpleasant story for me, an innocent among entitled manipulators.
* https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
June 15, 2025
now if this had only been as fillin' as a po' boy, then boy oh boy! this story can't decide what haunts for its peculiar spectral spectrum - and that is a problem
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews