As for Me and My House

Plot summary

Mrs. Bentley, a Protestant minister's wife, writes journal (or diary) entries on a regular basis; the time span is just over a year (from 8 April 1939 to 12 May 1940, if the weekday noted with each entry is assumed to be correct). The couple has just moved to yet another small town, "Horizon." Mrs. Bentley, whose first name we never learn, despairs of Philip (her husband), who is becoming ever more remote. As she records her feelings, it is clear she, as she suspects of her husband, has nothing but contempt for her husband's flock. Mrs. Bentley sees herself and Philip as frustrated artists; she has a passion for music and, in her youth, entertained dreams of success as a pianist, and he spends much of his time sketching and painting.

Her journal tells mostly of her efforts to win her husband's affections, yet he appears to withstand her efforts, which are conflicted and subtly evasive. She strikes up a friendship with Paul, a local schoolteacher and philologist, while Philip engages the affections of Judith. They attempt to adopt a Catholic child, Steve, who seems to fulfil Philip's desire for a child that Mrs. Bentley cannot apparently deliver, but this arrangement falls apart. Eventually, putatively under pressure from an increasingly hostile congregation, they prepare to move to a city. However, it is plain that the congregation and town are nothing like as philistine as Mrs. Bentley insists—neighbourhood boys admiringly lurk outside the manse listening to her practise the piano and the audience for her recital in the church hall is vastly appreciative—but Mrs. Bentley is unmoved in her contempt for them and scornful of their applause for her bravura piano performance. Assuming that they are moving to a mid-sized prairie city in the middle of the Great Depression, Mrs. Bentley's dream of establishing a second-hand bookstore there as a means of escape from their unappealing life in a small town is patently absurd. Judith, who mysteriously has become pregnant, dies shortly after giving birth and the Bentleys adopt her child.

Characters

Mrs. Bentley - a Protestant minister's wife Rev. Philip Bentley - her husband, the reserved minister Steve - the Catholic child temporarily adopted by the Bentleys Mr. Kulanich, his hard-working immigrant father, probably from Romania Paul Kirby - the local schoolteacher and philologist Judith West - a young woman who befriends the Bentleys Not named "Philip" - Judith West and Philip Bentley's illegitimate child Mrs. Finley - a leader among the women in Horizon George and Stanley - Mrs. Finley's brutal sons Mrs. Wenderby - a prominent member of the community Mrs. Ellingson - a friendly neighbour of Norwegian origin Josephine Bird - the wife of the local doctor Stanley Kirby - Paul's brother, at whose ranch the Bentleys stay for a short vacation Laura Kirby - Stanley's rancher wife Annie - Metis maid at ranch Joe Lawson - farmer in nearby village

The town of Horizon is populated by an Anglo majority, and minority groups from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Its community betrays a social stratification along ethnic lines typical of the region. At the top stratum of society there are well-off middle-class families of British origin and Protestant belief that operate their own businesses in town. At the bottom there is the immigrant underclass of unskilled railway labourers including Steve Kulanich's father. In between there are foreign-born settlers like Mr. and Mrs. Sven Ellingson, the Norwegian neighbours of the Bentleys, or country-bred people like Paul Kirby and Judith West, who have come to town for work.

Literary significance and reception

Claims have been made about its significance, including M&S's own claim in 1957 that this book was a "classic." Although the novel experienced poor initial sales in 1941, its courted ambiguity and classically unreliable narrator make it an object for boundless speculation and argument.

Despite the fact that there is nothing in the novel that definitively states that either the setting or the characters are Canadian, Paul Denham's 1980 summary of the novel states:

There are some very good reasons why the novel has come to be so important to the Canadian tradition. It is a study of the failed artistic imagination, and of an eroding puritanism; it is also ... a good example of Frye's concept of the garrison mentality, in its exploration of the peculiarities of the Canadian experience of nature and its relation to civilization. It is, then, a powerfully mythical novel in which many of the characteristic themes and attitudes of Canadian literature are sharply focused. Also, the patterns of imagery through which much of the novel's meaning is conveyed are densely and carefully worked... If we approach the novel as a poem, through its imagery, or as a model for the Canadian identity, we are likely to find it a very important work indeed.

Publication details

1941, US, Reynal & Hitchcock, Pub date 1941, hardback (First edition)

1957, Canada, McClelland & Stewart, Pub date 1957, paperback; reprinted since, by M&S, U of Nebraska