Barren Ground by Ellen Glasgow

Third reading; first read in the 1960s.


A funny thing happened in the 50 or so years since I first read this novel -- its message changed dramatically. Since I am pretty sure that the book itself has not magically altered, I can only conclude that age and experience caused me to perceive it differently.

This is the story of Dorinda, beginning in the 1890s in a defeated and barren South and following her story through to her middle age. Betrayed and left pregnant by her fiance', she rebuilds her life and learns to live "without joy," as the author herself puts it. When I first read this, I thought it a very sad story about learning to live without love. I felt that Dorinda had allowed the loss of her lover to ruin her life; although she became successful as an independent farmer and businesswoman, she never again found passion. Now, these many years later, I see the same story as one of triumph; Dorinda suffered a defeat, but she refused to allow it to destroy her. She determined her own destiny rather than depending upon someone else to determine it for her.

As to her loss of passion, age and experience have taught me that passion (sexual attraction) is not always equivalent to love that endures through good and bad. Toward the end of the book, Dorinda marries a man whom she respects and trusts, and I would venture to say that he improves her life more than her grand passion would ever have. The type of "joy" Dorinda experiences in her young adulthood seems to me to be fleeting under most circumstances, and the challenge to all, both male and female, is to adjust to a more mature viewpoint and recognize that excitement is a transient state, that bad things happen to almost everyone, and that life must go on.

Just a word about the writing: This novel puts most modern writers to shame. It is precise while being non-theatrical, and conveys a place and time and a woman with unflinching accuracy.