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1. The House of Desolation

  • Barbara Fisher (author)
Chapter of: Trix: The Other Kipling(pp. 9–32)

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Metadata
Title1. The House of Desolation
ContributorBarbara Fisher (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0377.01
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0377/chapters/10.11647/obp.0377.01
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightBarbara Fisher
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-09-04
Long abstractIn 1871, when Trix was less than three years old and Rudyard was just six, they were left without preparation or explanation to board with strangers in Southern England while their parents returned to Bombay, India. The House of Desolation refers to a time and a place—the six traumatic childhood years Trix and Rudyard spent as “Raj orphans” at Lorne Lodge (the appropriately named home of the cruel care-taking family). Rudyard wrote about this childhood misery in a short story, “Baa, Baa, Blacksheep,” and in his autobiography Something About Myself, and Trix wrote about it as well in a memoir, “Through Judy’s Eyes.” The children’s chief caretaker, called Aunty Rosa, encouraged Trix to sing, act, and recite while punishing and often beating Rudyard for showing off. She allowed her brutish son, Harry to bully Rudyard and to abuse Trix. Rudyard and Trix protected and comforted each other during this lonely childhood, where their only other companions were stories read from books and supplied by their own lively imaginations. Trix was Rudyard’s earliest inspiration and audience.
Page rangepp. 9–32
Print length24 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Barbara Fisher

(author)

Barbara Fisher graduated from Bennington College with a B.A. and received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English Literature from Columbia University. For many years, she taught 18th and 19th Century English Literature, mostly at Eugene Lang College, the undergraduate college of the New School University in New York City. She has also been a book reviewer for major U.S. newspapers including the The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, for which she wrote a book column every other Sunday for fifteen years. This is her first book as an independent scholar. She is currently working on a biography of mid-20th Century cultural and literary critic Lionel Trilling.