Contrary Mary
July 14, 2011

Contrary Mary, by Temple Bailey Copyright 1914

Available at Project Gutenberg

3 out of 5 stars

Mary Ballard, a young woman in Washington DC, circa 1913, is part of a family that has seen better days. There are three Ballards, two sisters and a brother. Their parents have died, leaving them with very little money. And saddling Mary with a huge mansion to support. (Their father figured Constance, the other daughter, was marying well and didn't need a legacy, and Barry, the son, got his inheritance in the form of his education.)

As the book opens, Constaqnce is getting married and going away, leaving "Contrary Mary", as she is often known, to keep house for herself and Barry. In order to pull this off and make ends meet, Mary has placed an ad for a boarder to let Constance's old "tower rooms"--the most spectacular suite in the house. Her ad, for rooms complete with a "gentleman's library", draw Roger Poole, who is obviously a Gentleman, despite his haggard looks, and modest position as a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office.

The story progresses with Mary continuing to display contrary ways, chiefly by refusing to marry a red-headed rich guy named Porter who she's known forever, and who pretty much assumes he owns her. She also learns stenography and takes a job in a government office, swears she will never marry anyone, and by befriending her (HA! omg I just realized this!) Roger the Lodger.

Roger is a tragic hero, of course, and Mary gets his secrets out of him, eventually makes a new man of him, and--of course she falls in love with him, although she is apallingly slow to realize it.

I kept feeling annoyed when I read this one. Although I fell in love with the setting of the tower rooms, and with the titular character...something kept elbowing my feminist sensibilities in the ribs.

ALL the guys in this book are kind of douche-y. Barry the brother is a binge drinker who doesn't take responsibility for his problem--he just throws up his hands and whines that he can't help it--it's hereditary!

Porter the would-be beau and Gordon the brother-in-law are both the possessive, "take command" type; the kind that try to smother the women they fancy into submission. There is a sort of "artist-in-residence", Colin, who I rather liked, but he was awfully good at ordering a woman around, too.

And Roger, the love interest? I quote:

He had heard her flaming words to Barry, "If I were a man--I'd make the world move----" and he had been for the moment repelled. He had no sympathy with modern feminine rebellions. Women were women. Men were men. The things which they had in common were love, and that which followed, the home, the family. Beyond these things their lives were divided, necessarily, properly.