REVIEW: The Baker’s Daughter by D.E. Stevenson
Review
This is – as one ought to say when one is in an art gallery – interesting. But despite the fact that there is a happy ending to the romance, it’s not all that romantic. No, it’s more a character study of a small Scottish village and some of the people in it in 1938 told via vignettes. It may be a small village but it has some drama and secrets. Things are hinted at and clues are provided but Stevenson left the reader to decide on what truth to believe about these secrets.
A stranger came to town and stole her heart Sue Pringle has never met anyone like John Darnay before. A painter who roams the countryside with brush in hand, Darnay is so absorbed in his art that he can barely remember to feed himself—a stark contrast to the practical shopkeepers and shepherds of her tiny village. Working as his housekeeper allows Sue to observe the eccentric Darnay unnoticed as he goes about his work translating the beautiful Scottish countryside onto canvas… and Sue soon realizes that not only has she been transfixed by his arresting artwork, she has fallen in love with Darnay himself. But will he ever look up from his paints long enough to love her back? One of celebrated author D.E. Stevenson’s earliest and most beloved novels, The Baker’s Daughter is a heartwarming story of finding love in unexpected places.
Sue is very practical and when the glamorous Mrs. Darnay – wife to the eccentric painter – asks Sue’s grandfather – owner of a shop with imports all kinds of international foods and beverages – if he knows of a cook who will work at the isolated old mill that has been remade into the Darnay residence, Sue pipes up and offers her services. She’s not happy at her father’s house (and the backstory to the family is told in the first chapter, so just be patient as it is revealed) but is the type of person who enjoys being busy.
After arriving at the converted mill, the sly French maid shows Sue around giving Sue all kinds of sly looks and wolfish grins. The morning shows the truth that Mrs. Darnay and ze maid have decamped back to the joys of London and Society and window shopping. Sue decides to stay because (obviously) Mr. Darnay is so eccentric and caught up in his new style of painting that he honestly wouldn’t eat unless Sue calls him in. She soon has that old mill whipped into shape thus giving her time to watch Darnay at work as well as wander across the Scottish countryside (which Stevenson lovingly describes in the way that only someone who knows it well can do).
There are swirling undercurrents in the village – will Sue’s brother (who can’t seem to stick to any resolutions) continue to drift through his life, will Sue’s taciturn father accept that his daughter won’t come back to his home even after Mrs. Darnay decamps (what will the neighbors think?), will Sue decide to accept the lovelorn young man who is her grandfather’s right hand man at the shop (as it would make everything so much easier), when will oblivious Mr. Darnay realize that he hasn’t received nor paid a bill since his wife left, and is just working for the man she’s realized she loves enough for Sue?
Stevenson carefully but sparingly limns rural Scottish life. There are the siblings making a living chicken farming and beekeeping. There is the snow that coats and silences the fields while the icy temperatures freeze the loch enough for an outdoor curling game (with a marvelous description of a stone actually moving in a way that shows how the sport earned its name). Sue’s grandparents (who have a lovely marriage) famously host a New Year’s Eve party each year with both loved, expected, and kindly invited guests to sit at table with the delicious meal that Mrs. Bulloch enjoys cooking.
Of course Something must happen to propel the plot into the last act and it’s a thing that brings together several threads and sends both Sue and Mr. Darnay away before they (or rather Sue) brings them back together. I wonder how 1938 readers would have reacted to some of the (then no doubt shocking) events but I like that Sue is (finally) proactive in finding her love, Mr. Darnay seizes his moment and that Stevenson gave these two a happy ending in spite of what readers might have thought.
This was a slow, gentle peek back at a world now gone with age old manners and a bit of class differences tossed in. Mainly I was happy to read about Scottish life then. I enjoyed it but wished that Mr. Darnay had not treated Sue, at times, with a touch of condescension (about art) nor been so happily clueless about how much hard work she did to keep that house tidy and his meals on the table. But he’s an artiste you know. Sue will be the one to keep the bills paid from now on, I think. This is, I feel, a bit of a comfort type of read with enough to keep one reading it despite its faults. B-
~Jayne
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I didn’t like the title character of Stevenson’s Miss Buncle’s Book, but this sounds lovely.
My observations indicate that most spouses are clueless about how much hard work goes into keeping a house tidy and the inhabitants fed.
@LML: Well, Mr. Darnay certainly thought that the meals that appeared on his table were done by magic.
I’ve loved some Stevenson books and there have been one or two that left a bad taste in my mouth “Anna and Her Daughters,” I’m looking at you and “The Young Clementina” isn’t far behind.