A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair (copyright 1957)
My second favourite novel of all time is Something Light by Margery Sharp. I was checking out the adorable new cover the novel has lately been given on Amazon and the suggestion box at the bottom suggested A Winter Away. It’s about a young lady who goes to work for an extremely cranky estate owner who wants her to help him catalog his library. I am a trifle ecstatic when it comes to the idea of cataloging a library the old fashioned way. I’m going to do that for my own collection of books someday. Sadly, there is not much adventure in the library in the novel.
The book has such understated romance in it, I honestly thought it was going to end without Maud having selected a romantic partner from the two young men presented. I felt that would have been very modern for the time, but alas, she does choose one of them in the last chapter. Though, I honestly have no idea why she bothered. She spends the entire book complaining about one and then the other. And I do suppose it’s good to smash the idea that one can only love perfection in one’s partner… it was also good to have a hard boiled egg roll across the floor and have everyone stop what they’re doing to stare at it.
However, I would like to take this opportunity to insert what I would write about a girl cataloging a library, which I think is utter perfection. However, it will be obvious why I never write a book about my fantasy very quickly.
Lilian sat down at the desk. She changed the height of her chair twice before she got to the height she found most satisfactory. Reaching across the desk, she chose a pen with a long feather on the end of it. It was not a ridiculous pen. It was a safe ball-point pen even though the feather attached to the end of it was decorative.
She scanned the stack of books to her left and without prejudice selected the book on top. It was a book about bathrooms. It gave tips on how to design a beautiful bathroom, and later how to clean your bathroom of choice with as little fuss as possible. It was a cherished book.
Lilian flipped open the front cover and removed the paper cover attached. Then, without a moment’s delay she threw the paper cover immediately into the recycling bin without looking at it for another second. Now, the book would always be held comfortably without the villainous, flimsy paper cover biting into another reader’s hand.
What was left was a book with a white cover with gold lettering on the spine and on the front cover. It had become, with that simple step, a thing of beauty.
With her spidery handwriting, Lilian prepared the envelope and card for the back cover. She wrote the name of the book and the name of the author. After the ink was dry, she peeled the wax paper from the adhesive on the back of the envelope and carefully centered it on the inside of the back cover. It went down perfectly without a bubble or a ripple.
She nodded her head in delight and set the finished book aside.
The second book on the stack was a paperback. She’d have to construct a hardcover for it! Adventures in the library never ceased!
I hope you all enjoyed that. There was nothing like it in that book.
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