The Education of Harriet Hatfield [Paperback]

May SARTON (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Norton (1989)
• ASIN: B001NC8QGO
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,507,598 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 - July 16, 1995), an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Her parents were science historian George Sarton and his wife, the English artist Mabel Eleanor Elwes. In 1915, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. She went to school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and started theatre lessons in her late teens. In 1945 she met her partner for the next thirteen years, Judy Matlack, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They separated in 1956, when Sarton's father died and Sarton moved to Nelson, New Hampshire. Honey in the Hive (1988) is about their relationship. Sarton later moved to York, Maine. She died of breast cancer on July 16, 1995. She is buried in Nelson, New Hampshire.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book about trying to be seen as a person, not a label, May 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Education Of Harriet Hatfield (Paperback)

This is a rather tame book that challenges society's single minded focus on pigeon-holing gays and lesbians. Harriet Hatfield is a sixty-ish woman whose life changes after her female lover of 30 years dies and she decides to use her inheritance to open a woman's bookstore. In so doing she meets people and encounters experiences her sheltered past did not prepare her for, both friends and foes. However she forges on, and ultimately seems to enjoy her newfound open-ness without ever fully reconciling herself to the term "lesbian." The book provides a unique look through the eyes of an older woman who is set apart from the younger gay culture mostly by the generation gap. She is a woman who tries to overcome her own prejudices and discomfort as well as deal with being an object of prejudice herself. Because the character tries to downplay her own sexual orientation and focus being a woman in general, and to sell books that appeal to women of all types this book may be more widely read than just in the lesbian community.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars inspirational, August 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Education Of Harriet Hatfield (Paperback)

This book may not be a portrait of extreme left wing revolutionaries, but it is about real people, fighting the real struggle of day to day life in world which chooses not to understand. Sarton's characters are magnificent. Harriet's determination to succeed and survive is truly an inspiration.

2.0 out of 5 stars The education of Harriet Hatfield, April 14, 2008

By 

F. Dickinson (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Education Of Harriet Hatfield (Paperback)

I found this book very dated. The writing is stiff and the flow is very stilted. It is also a little incredulous. Imagine, if you can, a woman who is a lesbian but doesb;t really know she is, although she is in a sexual relationship with a woman for many, many years. Then this partner dies and she opens a bookstore for women and within days has met an abused wife, two nuns, several lesbian couples, a homosexual couple (one of whom is not monogamous and has contracted AIDS from a casual sexual partner, etc... Oh, she also has a gay brother, a homophobic brother, and an attorney who thinks she is just plain nuts. Come on....It's just all over the top.