The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald and The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
are two books, both written long ago (1978, 1820) with similar stories. In both
books, the sympathetic protagonist is thoroughly defeated by an arrogant bully.
Florence Green purchased the Old House to run a bookshop in the small town of
Hardborough. The hapless Ichabod Crane is the country schoolmaster who
organized the church choir in his spare time (instructs psalmody). Both of
these gentle souls acquire the enmity of powerful people, almost by accident.
In both cases these rivals destroy them.
The Bookshop is a story of privilege and power. Once Florence Green purchases
the Old House for her bookshop, Mrs. Violet Gamart decides she wants the
building for an Art Centre. Florence refuses to sell.
Mrs. Gamart’s campaign to put Florence
out of business includes forcing her assistant to fail the 11+ examination. How
serious is this? The girl’s mother explains: “She’s
the first of ours not to get to the Grammar. It‘s what we call a death sentence…she’ll
be pegging out her own washing until the day she dies.”
One source of bookshop income was a
lending library supported by subscriptions. “The
lending library, which after all had been a steady if modest source of income,
was now closed for good. This was because for the first time in [Hardborough’s]
history a Public Library had been established.”
Ultimately, Mrs. Gamart’s nephew pushed
a Private Bill through Parliament that allowed the town council to condemn the
Old House and acquire it for nothing. The stock went to the bank to cover the
mortgage, leaving Florence Green penniless. The story ends with the bully’s
judgment that Florence brought this upon herself. “As
the train drew out of the station, she sat with her head bowed in shame,
because the town in which she lived for nearly ten years had not wanted a
bookshop.”
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a story of a gentle schoolmaster aspiring for the hand of the
most desirable young woman in the area, a Dutch heiress, “the lovely and wealthy Katrina Van Tassel.” His rival is “Brom
Van Brundt, the hero of the country round, which rung with his feats of
strength and hardihood.”
Ultimately Brom frightens Ichabod away. The narrator blames this ending on Ichabod: “That there is no situation but has its
advantages and pleasures, provided we will but take a joke as we find it.” This is the response of contemporary bullies when they ask, “Can’t
you take a joke?” The conclusion is so unpleasant that the tale closes with a
repeat of the “just joking” excuse: “Faith,
sir,” replied the storyteller, “as to that matter, I don’t believe one half of
it myself.”
(Both stories have supernatural
elements.)
Two stories without morals or justice.
If you are good and mind your own business, you can still be attacked and destroyed.
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