The Magnificient Spinster by May Sarton

I am indebted to the blogger who introduced this author to me and for the life of me I cannot remember who it was. Thank you.


I loved the style of writing of this wonderful story. A memoir of a life but first starting at seventy and then going back to seventh grade and then gradually unraveling a life which was so full of vitality, energy, love and kindness that I felt totally inadequate at the end of the story feeling very much so that I have not done enough with my life!


Cam is our narrator and she does a wonderful job of detailing Jane Reid's life from the time of an idyllic childhood, one of five sisters and two loving parents, a nanny who was a surrogate mother to Jane and then detailing her school life, her holidays, her eventual growing up and rebelling by deciding to join the college of her choice, and not one deemed fit by her parents (at that time considered very unusual). Her final choice of career as a teacher and then joining the Warren School which became a lifetime commitment and her work with the oppressed, black community in Cambridge itself, her work with orphans in France and finally her decision very late in life to go back to Germany to work for people there were all trail blazing. For a young woman who was almost the closest you could get to American aristocracy - Jane Reid was different and you wanted to get to know more and more about this most generous hearted, simple woman.


Brilliantly written,  this is only partly a memoir and part a recollection of a life wonderfully lived and beautifully narrated.


Thanks to Netgalley who sent it to me courtesy of Open Road Integrated Media.