A Fair Maiden [Hardcover]

Joyce Carol Oates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2010

Sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak is out for a walk on the gracious streets of Bayhead Harbor with her two summer babysitting charges when she’s approached by silver-haired, elegant Marcus Kidder. At first his interest in her seems harmless, even pleasant; like his name, a sort of gentle joke. His beautiful home, the children’s books he’s written, his classical music, the marvelous art in his study, his lavish presents to her — Mr. Kidder’s life couldn’t be more different from Katya’s drab working-class existence back home in South Jersey, or more enticing. But by degrees, almost imperceptibly, something changes, and posing for Mr. Kidder’s new painting isn’t the lighthearted endeavor it once was. What does he really want from her? And how far will he go to get it?

In the tradition of Oates’s classic story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" A Fair Maiden is an unsettling, ambiguous tale of desire and control.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak and elderly Marcus Kidder share a bizarre romance in Oates's derivative and unpolished new novel. In bland Bayhead Harbor, N.J., Katya serves as a nanny to the Engelhardts' two young children. Attractive Katya—unappreciated by her alcoholic mother, mistreated by the tyrannical Engelhardts—is intrigued by the attentions of wealthy Mr. Kidder, a former children's book author and amateur painter. The courting is slow at first, but after Katya accepts Mr. Kidder's money to help her mother pay off a debt, things accelerate. Soon Katya is posing for Mr. Kidder in lingerie and receiving payment upon each visit. She begins to feel used, but is thankful for the attention—until one evening when Mr. Kidder possibly drugs her, at which point something equally bizarre and predictable happens. Katya and Mr. Kidder's final meeting reveals Mr. Kidder's true intention for Katya, but the revelation isn't worth the buildup. This is certainly one of Oates's lesser works. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

Sixteen-year-old Katya is spending the summer working as a nanny in a wealthy Jersey Shore community when she meets Marcus Kidder, an elderly yet dashing artist to whom libraries and pavilions are dedicated all over town. He catches her eyeing display-case lingerie and offers to buy it for her; she refuses. Later, when she visits his mansion, he tries to gift her the same lingerie; again, she refuses. But despite each rebuff, she keeps returning to  Kidder and soon is posing for his paintings, some of which require the shedding of clothes. What sounds like a story of older-man-seduces-waif becomes, in Oates’ hands, something far thornier—a treatise on the faceted push-and-pull of female aspiration. There is a subtle mystery at the center of this unsettling short novel: Kidder insists that he has a “mission” for Katya that will be revealed in time. The mission, when it comes, is a dark one, involving not just transactions of subservience and control but of life and death, and readers’ takes on character motivations will govern their reactions. Fans of Oates’ gothic stylings will not be disappointed, however, and Katya’s belligerent exuberance (“He wants me! Me, me!”) gives the prose plenty of punch. --Daniel Kraus

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (January 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151015163
• ISBN-13: 978-0151015160
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of more than 70 books, including novels, short story collections, poetry volumes, plays, essays, and criticism, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde. Among her many honors are the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the National Book Award. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The aged king was bred to dignity, vanity and pride.", January 13, 2010

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Fair Maiden (Hardcover)

Oates inspires my ambivalence in this strange tale of a young nanny at an exclusive enclave at the New Jersey shore and an elderly artist and author of children's books. Approached on the street with her two small charges, sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak is both flattered and confused by the attention of elderly gentleman Marcus Kidder, silver-haired and silver-tongued. The Spivak family background hardly leaves Katya in a position to make wise judgments as Mr. Kidder entices and cajoles the girl to visit him at his home. Impressed with Kidder's wealth and luxury the unsophisticated teen is torn between common sense and curiosity. Kidder smoothly transitions from friendly older gentleman to subtly insistent pursuer. The girl is far outmatched in the game of seduction, handicapped by a desperation "to be liked, even... by people she resented". Taking her cue from an errant mother, the teen has also learned the folly of contradicting a man when he wants something. The result is a game of push and pull, Kidder insistent, Katya reluctantly pliable as an inner voice entertains bouts of ugly realism.

"The curious thrill of trespass kept her captive." Oates keeps me captive as well in this collision of two worlds, one of privilege, the other of want, Kidder's estate filled with gorgeous objects, glass flowers that mimic real ones but will never die, a grand piano, walls and walls of books, the ambience of wealth, children's books written by a gentle elderly man. It is easy to lose one's way in this fantastical world, a child numbed by excess and attention, flattered and half in love, though such a thing is absurd. Certainly, Oates' vision of Katya's inevitable seduction is masterful, an economy of emotion with bursts of rage, a conundrum of pursuer, prey and desperation. Ultimately, Katya is the pawn of an old man's vanity and fear, once more used by those she trusts and left to sort through the tangled remnants of her bruised feelings. The abuse of innocence is never pretty, material goods a pale reward for the battering of the soul. Luan Gaines/2010.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Enjoyable, March 16, 2010

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D_shrink "dshrink" (SC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Fair Maiden (Hardcover)

This is a short novella of 165pp, which can easily be read in an evening or two. It is a mystery full of twists in which the author does not reveal its intended secret plot line until near the end. Although not a normal reader of fiction, I enjoyed this book so much that I ordered two additional copies to give to friends. As a practitioner in the mental health field, I thought the psychological ramifications regarding class differences to be quite accurate. I found it engrossing and made me want to read another book by the same author.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not her best work, July 1, 2010

By 

PureLake - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Fair Maiden (Hardcover)

I have loved Joyce Carol Oates since high school when I picked up Black Water and couldn't put it down, so I was naturally inclined to pick this up as soon as I saw it. The story starts off slow. Neither main character, Katya or Marcus are particularly likeable. Even once you know their motivations it doesn't make them much more sympathetic. Maybe Katya's story is a little sadder since she has been so abandoned and neglected her whole life; she doesn't even have a chance.

For a short novel, this moves very slowly until the very end where there is a quick acceleration. What happens is predictable so I only kept reading to see how it would unfold. The final revelation isn't shocking or worth the build up. When I finished I really felt cheated. If this book didn't have Oates name on it, it never would have been published. The story just isn't very good or very interesting. 6.30.10