Other editions of book Memoirs of a Midget

"For centuries to come, this book will inspire imaginative people. Beyond all doubt, it will be an ingredient of future poetry."—Rebecca West"It may be read with a great deal of simple enjoyment and then it sticks like a splinter in the mind."—Angela Carter"It seems to me a perfect, utterly original novel, and no one but a poet could have written it The book is totally idiosyncratic and yet there isn't a line you couldn't identify yourself with."—Harry MathewsMiss M., the narrator of these fictional memoirs, is a diminutive young woman (though just how diminutive, the author never says) with a "passion for shells, fossils, flints, butterflies, and stuffed animals." Miss M. tells of her early life as a dreamy orphan and, in particular, of her tempestuous twentieth year—in which she falls in love with a beautiful and ambitious full-sized woman and is courted by a male dwarf. Concluding that she must choose either to simply tolerate her difference or grow callous to it, Miss M. resolves to become independent by offering herself up as a spectacle in a circus."One of the strangest and most enchanting works of fiction ever written."—Alison Lurie, from her foreword"De la Mare's masterpiece It acts upon the reader like a ghostly visitation, at once unsettling and revelatory."—Washington Post"Here is a great book."—New York Times Book Review"Sentences, pages, whole chapters cause us to catch our breath."—Atlantic Monthly"After a long period of neglect de la Mare may be beginning to be seen as the remarkable writer that he is."—John Bayley, New York Review of BooksWalter de la Mare (1873–1956) wrote numerous novels, short stories, essays, and poems. He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Memoirs of a Midget. Other major works include the children’s novel, The Three Royal Monkeys, Henry Brocken, and The Return. His book Desert Islands is also available from Paul Dry Books.Alison Lurie is the author of many highly praised novels as well as two collections of essays on children’s literature, Don’t Tell the Grown-Ups and Boys and Girls Forever. She has taught children’s literature and folklore at Cornell University for many years.

“One of the strangest and most enchanting works of fiction ever written.”—Alison LurieMiss M., a pretty young woman with a passion for shells, fossils, flints, butterflies, and stuffed animals, remains isolated from the rest of society due to her diminutive size. Forced to make her own way in the world after the death of her father, she finds herself treated as little more than an entertaining curiosity.Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) was one of the leading poets and novelists of the twentieth century. First published in 1921, Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction.

This volume was published in 1922. Please note that it is a corrected version from the original Kindle edition from 2009.An excerpt from the book:Some few years ago a brief account of me found its way into one or twocountry newspapers. I have been told, that it reappeared, later, in betterproportion, in the Metropolitan Press! Fortunately, or unfortunately, verylittle of this account was true. It related, among other things, that I amaccustomed to wear shoes with leaden soles to them to keep me frombeing blown away like thistledown in the wind, that as a child I hadnarrowly escaped being scalded to death in a soup tureen, that oneof my ancestors came from Poland, that I am an expert painter ofminiatures, that I am a changeling and can speak the fairy tongue. Andson on and so forth.

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