| | 1 | Author: | Davis, Rebecca Harding, 1831-1910 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Middle-Aged Woman  | | | | Published: | 1999 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | CHOOSE any artist that you know — the one with the kindliest
nature and the finest perceptions — and ask him to give you his idea
of the genius of the commonplace, and any word for it, he paints
you a middle-aged woman. The thing, he will say, proves itself.
Here is a creature jogging on leisurely at midday in the sight of all
men along a well-tramped road. The mists of dawn are far behind
her; she has not yet reached the shadows of evening. The softness
and blushes, and shy, sparkling glances of the girl she was, have
long been absorbed into muddy thick skin, sodden outlines, rational
eyes. There are crows' feet at either temple, and yellowish blotches
on the flesh below the soggy under-jaw. Her chestnut-brown hair
used to warm and glitter in the sun, and after a few years it will
make a white crown upon her head, a sacred halo to her children;
but just now it is stiff with a greasy hair dye, and is of an unclean
and indescribable hue. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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