The Catherine Wheel (novel)
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 First edition | |
| Author | Jean Stafford |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Harcourt & Brace |
Publication date | 1952 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 281 |
The Catherine Wheel is a novel by Jean Stafford published in 1952 by Harcourt & Brace.[1]
- I On the First Day of Summer
- II My True Love Took from Me
- III The Sea’s Souvenirs
- IV The Late Wedding Ring
- V The Dream of a Dove
- VI The Child in the House
- VII The Leaves of the Fig Trees
- VIII On the Final Night of Summer
Plot
Reception
Writing in The Kenyon Review, novelist and literary critic Irving Howe registered dissatisfaction with The Catherine Wheel.[3] Howe's complaint centers on Stafford's bravura performance as a literary stylist, but which her “dazzling” prose tends to overwhelm the narrative elements.[4]
Unfortunately the problem reappears in The Catherine Wheel: her sensibility is so voracious that it consumes the story...[F]or all her ingenuity, the main theme is only set up, seldom developed.[5]
Retrospective appraisal
“Miss Stafford's prose is so fine and frequently so winning that it finally becomes a source of fascination in itself, undermining the matter it is supposed to reveal. The author, in brief, is too much in the way, dazzling us with her splendid prose and dazzling her characters into a bashful withdrawl.”—Novelist Irving Howe from The Kenyon Review, Spring 1952 on The Catherine Wheel.[6]
Reviewer Scott Bradfield in the Los Angeles Times praises The Catherine Wheel as “the last of her excellent novels,” and “reminiscent of Henry James.”[7]
Biographer Mary Ann Wilson considers The Catherine Wheel Stafford's “most complex novel” of her three novels.[8]
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