Mrs Weaver
The other lending-library regular, and the one Mrs Penn turns her back on: dejected and round-shouldered, looking like a draggled duck, fumbling with a rush basket she upsets, nosing among the shelves without grasping that they are in alphabetical order. She mumbles through untidy lips, behind which are three isolated yellow teeth, and what she wants is a good read of Ethel M. Dell.
Another Ethel M. Dell romance. Her daughter presses Deeping on her and her son-in-law prefers Burroughs, and she turns down both.
The book
At a glance
- A subscriber at the twopenny lending library in Gordon's shop
- A daughter and a son-in-law, each with an author to recommend
- Ethel M. Dell
- The Way of an Eagle, for at least the second time
- Chapter 1, in the same scene as Mrs Penn
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeMrs Weaver is a customer at the cheap lending library kept at the back of the London bookshop where Gordon Comstock works. Gordon Comstock is the main character of Keep the Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell's novel of 1936, a poet who serves behind a counter for two pounds a week. Borrowing a novel from the library costs twopence and no deposit is asked, which is why the customers are the customers they are.
She appears once, on the November afternoon that opens the book, and she is in the shop at the same time as Mrs Penn, a red-cheeked woman who reads John Galsworthy and wants everyone to know it. Orwell puts the two of them side by side deliberately. Mrs Penn comes in announcing her taste; Mrs Weaver comes in wanting another romance by Ethel M. Dell and says so without embarrassment.
Orwell is not gentle about her. He describes her as dejected and round-shouldered, seeping into the shop like a draggled duck nosing among garbage, and calls her too dim-witted to work out that the shelves are in alphabetical order. She is also the only person in the scene who is not pretending to be something else.
How the book draws them
- How she comes into the shopRound-shouldered and dejected, fumbling with a rush basket, in the doorway ahead of Mrs Penn. Orwell writes that she seeped in, and compares her to a draggled duck nosing among garbage. Gordon greets her with the hearty family-doctor manner he keeps for library subscribers.
- The basket she upsetsShe tips over the rush basket and spills a much-thumbed copy of Ethel M. Dell's Silver Wedding on to the floor, in front of the one other customer, who is carrying Galsworthy and notices immediately.
- The shelves defeat herShe noses along eight hundred novels without grasping that they are arranged alphabetically. Orwell's explanation is that she is too dim-witted to grasp it.
- Three yellow teethShe mumbles through untidy lips. When she purses them, Orwell notes what is behind them: three isolated yellow teeth.
- The family's reading advice, all rejected"My daughter she keeps on at me to 'ave a try at Deeping. She's great on Deeping, my daughter is. But my son-in-law, now, 'e's more for Burroughs." Her own view is settled: "You can keep your Deepings and your Burroughses. Give me Dell."
- What she borrowsThe Way of an Eagle, by Ethel M. Dell, which she has read before. "You don't never seem to get tired of The Way of an Eagle, do you, now?" She pays her twopence and goes home happy.