Old Mortality (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Katherine Anne Porter
- First Published: 1938
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: 1885 (in retrospect), 1902, 1904, and 1912
- Setting: Western Texas and New Orleans
- Principal Characters: Miranda Gay, Maria, Amy Breaux, Isabel Rhea, Eva Parrington, Gabriel Breaux, Harry Gay, Sally Rhea, Miss Honey, Young Gabriel
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction
- Subjects: Girls, Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Memory, Parents and children, Love or romance, South or Southerners, Twentieth century, Nineteenth century, Leadership, Courage, Marriage, West, U.S., Women’s issues, Seventeenth century, Adultery, New Orleans, Death or dying, Scotland or Scottish people, Suffrage or voting rights, Women’s movement, Tuberculosis, Texas, Horses, Women’s rights, Duels or dueling, Battles, Racing, Nobility
- Locales: New Orleans, LA, Texas
The Story
When Miranda Gay is eight years old, she becomes aware, quite in passing, of a formal photograph showing her dead Aunt Amy. Miranda yearns to be beautiful when she grows up, as her aunt was in her wedding pictures. Her cousin, Isabel Rhea, is told that she rides horses almost as well as Amy did; her sister, Maria, is almost as fine a dancer. During her early years, the presence of the past enters Miranda's conscious mind in a number of other ways. The girls are shown Amy's wedding dress; another cousin, Eva Parrington, a Latin teacher, calls back celebrated events...
[The entire page is 1526 words long]
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