The Black Madonna (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Muriel Sarah Camberg
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1960's
- Setting: Whitney Clay, a fictitious English town
- Principal Characters: Lou Parker, Raymond Parker, Elizabeth, Tina, Oxford St. John, Henry Pierce
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: 1960’s, Children, Religion, Friendship, Class consciousness, Poverty or poor people, Pregnancy, England or English people, Miracles, Catholics or Catholic Church, Jamaica or Jamaicans, Fertility, Prayers
- Locales: England
The Story
A Madonna figure carved from bog oak is placed in the Church of the Sacred Heart. Its black composition and angular lines make it an object of attention as well as worship in the growing English town of Whitney Clay.
Lou Parker and her husband Raymond are an apparently happily married—though childless—couple who live comfortably in their Whitney Clay apartment. They have cultivated their tastes in an aristocratic manner that they feel sets them apart from their middle-class acquaintances. As Roman Catholics, they are troubled about their lack of offspring,...
[The entire page is 1414 words long]
