The Ponder Heart
by Eudora Welty
List Price:
Our Price: $0.17
You Save: $11.83 (99%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Eudora WeltyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1967-10-18
ISBN: 0156729156
Number of pages: 168
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of The Ponder Heart
Book Review: "Divinity travels perfectly, if you ever need to know"
Summary: 3 Stars
That's one of the many parenthetical bits of wisdom tossed off by the narrator of The Ponder Heart, Miz Edna Earle Ponder, the youngest daughter of ponderous plantation wealth destined to remain a spinster and care for her batty Uncle Daniel, himself the youngest and last male of a clan that everyone in Clay County, Mississippi reveres and envies. Uncle Daniel has a habit of giving things away out of the innocence of his Ponder Heart, perhaps not a heart of gold but at least a heart of divinity. In case you're city-bred, you should know that divinity isn't a synonym here for Godhood but rather a confection of egg white and corn syrup. You'll find a recipe for it in Joy of Cooking but not in Julia Child.
Honestly, I never liked divinity much as a kid. It's sweet and sticky and full of air, like coagulated cotton candy. And it's a perfect metaphor for this novella, written in the early 1950s when Jim Crow still held court and when the enduring verities of Southern backwardness and isolation were regarded as quaint to the edge of endearing. The skin pigment melanin was equated with sloth and foolishness in Welty's Clay County, while strangers - a euphemism for yankees - were utterly clueless and presumably up to no good. The Ponder Heart is essentially a 150-page shaggy dog story, an elaborate joke that takes its time reaching the punch line. One could choose to read it more seriously, as a depiction of the death throes of the chivalrous 'old order' of Southern society... if one were a literary poobah on the faculty of a state university somewhere... or one could just read it for the laughs. I'd recommend the latter choice.
I must have read something more profound by Eudora Welty way back in my youth, since I've harbored the notion that she was one of the major stars in the firmament of Southern literature. I wish I could remember what. This novella is "no great shakes" even as humor. It's sentimental and affected, and the joke runs thin before it's half told. It seems to me now that Welty is no more than a slick local-colorist, the equivalent in prose of a Norman Rockwell magazine cover. This book at least belongs on the shelf of regional genre writing, alongside Bret Harte, Hamlin Garland, and Garrison Keillor. Even in that category, it isn't a stand-out.
But then, as I said, I'm not partial to sticky sweetness.
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.86
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.06
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Unvanquished: The Corrected Textby William Faulkner
Vintage; Published: 1991-10-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.67
Price in other shops:
One Writer's Beginnings (William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization)by Eudora Welty
Harvard University Press; Published: 1998-07-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.25
Price in other shops:
A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)by Ernest J. Gaines
Vintage; Published: 1994-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
The Last Gentleman: A Novelby Walker Percy
Spring Arbor/Ingram; Picador; Published: 1999-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
Absalom, Absalom! The Corrected Textby William Faulkner
Vintage; Published: 1990-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.24
Price in other shops:
The Collected Stories of Eudora Weltyby Eudora Welty
Harcourt Brace; Published: 1982-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.90
Price in other shops:
Stories of the Modern South: Revised Editionby Various
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1995-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
Delta Wedding (Harvest/ HBJ Book)by Eudora Welty
Mariner Books; Published: 1979-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.18
Price in other shops:
Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters (Library of America)by Flannery O'Connor
Library of America; Published: 1988-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
The Optimist's Daughterby Eudora Welty
Vintage; Published: 1990-08-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.96
Price in other shops: