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Joyce Carol Oates
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A Fair Maiden Kindle Edition

by Joyce Carol Oates (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 399 ratings
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"For 40 years, Joyce Carol Oates has maintained a creative dialogue with the roiling cauldron of contemporary American culture, writing unflinchingly about the oddities that bubble up into the headlines." -Washington Post Book World

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.

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  1. Print length
    178 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Ecco
  5. Publication date
    January 16, 2010
  6. File size
    2916 KB
  7. Page Flip
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  8. Word Wise
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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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CLH2NDR2
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ecco (January 16, 2010)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 16, 2010
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2916 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 178 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 399 ratings

About the author

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Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates

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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

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
399 global ratings
An ancient premise with no light relief
2 Stars
An ancient premise with no light relief
This book is an irritating mystery. Why an author with 70 books to her name could not have done better - or at least ended it well - puzzles any reader who reaches the last page. The mystery is how the suspense is sustained. The writing is not excellent. The characters are not fascinating, and the story is based on an ancient premise which most readers would guess a third of the way into the novella.The whole book lacks depth, but mostly it lacks humour. To succeed with such a grim and abrupt ending a bit of acerbic humour - or even light relief - is very necessary. It never comes.If the question were posed about what keeps the reader going, the answer would be 'mildly disgusted curiosity'. This curiosity leans toward how the author would resolve it all, not whether the characters would reach some resolution - and there's a difference. One cares little about either the maiden or the old man. But one is curious how this author could take the Renaissance motif of "Death and the maiden" and use it in such a dissatisfying way; a way which offends the reader's expectations.Expectations are based on previous reading, life experience, personal culture, individual tastes, and a number of subtle threads that constitute a reader. Few of these are satisfied, fulfilled, or even mildly pleased by this tale. In fact, if readers are not aware of the Death and the Maiden motif, they are likely to be less satisfied, not more.Are there any saving graces here? It's a stretch to find one. Descriptions of the old man's clothes, perhaps.[Image:Adolf Hering, Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden), 1900]
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Top reviews from the United States

Catalina Cuellar
5.0 out of 5 stars A very compelling book
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2021
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I had read some reviews comparing this book to Lolita, so I wasn’t very excited about a retread of that kind of story, but the fact that this one is told from Katya’s point of view makes it feel completely new, and in a way, more sinister, because at some points it seems like she’s aware of how she’s being used by the old man, but she still wants to believe in him. This book is a roller coaster, I didn’t see the ending coming and while it’s not the ending I wanted for the book, it was very well crafted and added to the kind of eerie feel of the whole story.
2 people found this helpful
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The Writer Mo Ibrahim
4.0 out of 5 stars Katya Spivak was 16 and Marcus Kidder was 68...
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2014
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A Fair Maiden by Joyce Carol Oates opens with "INNOCENTLY IT BEGAN. When Katya Spivak was sixteen years old and Marcus Kidder was sixty-eight."

Katy is described as being five feet five, tanned, and slender with streaked-blond hair and "steely gray eyes". Since the sixth grade she had begun hearing words about her "Tits, boobs, [and] ass ..." She was thirteen when she noticed how men, not boys, looked at her. And she was fourteen when she lost her virginity to her older cousin.

Kidder is described as being gentlemanly, six feet two, with icy blue eyes that were "crinkled at the corners from decades of smiling" and with striking white-hair." (I wrote in  The Allure of Nymphets  that according to R. Don Steele in How to Date Young Women for Men Over 35 and Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan, girls are very attracted to grey hair.)

They met while Katya was working as a nanny for the Englehardts on Ocean Avenue in exclusive Bayhead Harbor, New Jersey and continued to meet after Kidder invited Katya to visit him at his mansion (He had a pied-à-terre "... on Fifth Avenue, overlooking Central Park," as well.). The ocean front mansion had "floor-to-ceiling bookshelves...an easel...stacks of unframed canvases. On the walls were works of art - paintings, pastel drawings - portraits of women, girls, and young children.".

(Mr. Englehardt was attracted to Katya, his 16-year-old Nanny, as well. "... he gazed at her with a faint fond smile, and when his wife wasn't close by, he'd openly flirted with her. When Katya came to breakfast with a "... swollen and discolored right eye," Mrs. Englehardt was very "anxious" and suspected that Katya was impregnated by Mr. Englehardt.)

(That fact that Kidder was an artist, author and composer, reminded me of a quote from Nabokov in Lolita. He wrote "You have to be an artist and a madman ..." to spot a willing nymphet out of a crowd.)

On Katya's first visit to the mansion, they drank lemonade from a "heavy cut-glass pitcher" and ate strawberries and sherbet out of "shallow low cut-glass bowls" before Kidder asked Katya to pose for him. "Pose? Like for a .... portrait?" she asked.

But it wasn't until on a subsequent visit did she realize "He wants me, this old man. Desire and yearning in Mr. Kidder's startled blue eyes were like nothing Katya saw in the eyes of other, younger men ...Exhilarated, she thought, He wants me! Me, me!"

Eventually, they began to kiss after he paid her for "modeling" and before she left the mansion. "... kissing Katya's mouth so warmly, gently, as Katya had never been kissed before, and how strange and wonderful it was ..."

Katya was confused about their relationship. "He is the only one who loves me. And I love him. He's a dirty old man, a pervert. You must know. Marcus Kidder! Not Ever."

But she was really confused after she suspected that Kidder drugged her and took advantage of her. He denied it, but their relationship took a dramatic turn after that dispute.
12 people found this helpful
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T. Schwartz
3.0 out of 5 stars A haunting tale
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2015
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Pages delivers a tale with overt sexual overtones and haunting tug at common sense. Masterfully written. True to life characters.
2 people found this helpful
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Angela@Florida
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible and Awful
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2013
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Reading this book is like being on a runaway cable car in San Francisco, teetering on the edge of a dangerous and steep hill, knowing that you will hurtle over the edge and speed with horror to the inevitable bottom. This is the first Joyce Carol Oates book I have ever read, but from reading other reviews I have realized that her story writing is dark and somewhat laced with doom. (Fear not, it has a satisfactory, if unsettling conclusion). So beautiful and descriptive is the writing that you will find yourself feeling every emotion and seeing vividly each scene. It is amazing that not one other reviewer has revealed (to date) any Spoilers to the plot of this story, and neither will I. Read this book. You will not be sorry.
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, Elegant and Too Short
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2013
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More short story than novel, A Fair Maiden shifts back and forth from brutal socioeconomic reality to a sort of queasy, dangerous fairy tale we know cannot end well. Except that it does, sort of. Oates famously explores literary genres in her work, and this one seems to be an experimental mixing of archetypal "girl" tales with harsh contemporary realism, the disparate themes loosely woven with familiar psychological threads.
We have - 16-year-old girl from low-class home incl. absent father and worthless mother, employed as summer nanny for unpleasant nouveau-riche family. Add elegant, snowy-haired and immeasurably wealthy/cultured/seductive author/artist/pianist AND the girl's violent, predatory, criminal cousin-who-isn't-really-her-cousin, and wait for the reaction.
In a chemist's beaker these elements would separate, recoil from each other, refuse to interact. In fiction they may be induced to interact, but the process requires skill, and time. Oates' skill is beyond question, but the tale feels rushed and the ending unended.
Perhaps this was a long-ago first draft pulled from a file and hurried to production, or a short story uncomfortably fattened for length. At most, it's probably least among this author's work.
8 people found this helpful
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MelissaW.M.
2.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2019
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This book was a weird disturbing read! It also did not have a satisfying ending. After investing so much time with these two people I would like to know how Katya was rewarded in the end. Did she inherit Mr. Killer's house and money? Was she taken care of?
4 people found this helpful
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J. LEE
5.0 out of 5 stars A disturbingly beautiful story
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2020
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A disturbingly beautiful story of those who have power and those who are powerless. A tale of a sixteen-year-old girl from a struggling family life who crosses paths with a wealthy sixty-eight-year-old man.

A special note on the audio edition:
Angela Goethals is simply wonderful! I couldn't imagine anyone else reading and performing this story. I also have the Kindle version because I love to read and see the actual words. If you purchased the Kindle or paper version, I would highly suggest getting the audio version. You'll love it!
6 people found this helpful
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TwoFlashes
4.0 out of 5 stars More than a little disturbing, but stuck with it.
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2021
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Very uncomfortable theme, but yes, there are many odd people in this world, predators, victims, the oppressors and the vulnerable, the trusting and those whose conscience is cold. The broken, dark side of this world envelopes many a joyful young spirit.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Arrakis
4.0 out of 5 stars Intense mais inégal
Reviewed in France on August 13, 2015
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Ce court récit se construit autour de deux parties d'inégales intensités qui laissent un petit goût d'inachevé à ce bon roman de Joyce Carol Oates. La première partie est très réussie et très prenante. Elle joue avec brio sur l'ambiguïté des personnages principaux, Katya et Kidden, entremêlant leurs actes, leurs envies, leurs interprétations, leurs bribes de mémoire personnelle, ou d'histoire sociale et familiale. Pour Oates, tout est ambigüe, nos actions ne sont pas le simple reflet de nos émotions ou de nos pensées, et elle creuse avec finesse sur cet écart pour maintenir un suspens incroyable. La deuxième moitié ne parvient pas à conserver cette force narrative et la fin du roman n'est qu'à moitié convaincante. A lire tout de même car Oates est vraiment une excellente romancière contemporaine.
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emma chamberlain
5.0 out of 5 stars A disturbing but interesting novella
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2013
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A disturbing but interesting novella. Easy to read, once started I flew through it and was not disappointed. Joyce Carol Oates is a good author.
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Suzie
3.0 out of 5 stars Clever, descriptive, ever so slightly menacing, shocking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2010
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Joyce Carol Oates is one of a handful of highly rated American authors whose work I usually enjoy, but after finding her `Middle Age: A Romance' somewhat tedious I was unsure whether to bother with this book.

Katya, a fifteen-year-old from a poor area of New Jersey and working as a live-in nanny for wealthy parents during the summer holidays, meets Marcus Kidder, an elegant, ageing artist with a spacious house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. His attentions both attract and repulse her.

The novel starts in a gentle, almost deceptively harmless way, but there is always the hint of possible menace. I'd hardly describe it, though, as a `novel of dark suspense' - the description on the front cover. Even so, as the end approaches, it's obvious something must be about to happen, but what that something is came as a surprise (at least it did to me, although looking back, there were intimations whose significance I had failed to register). Not quite a twist, a little shocking perhaps, and morally topical.

The viewpoint is Katya's and, even though the book is quite short, her character is well developed. The novel covers only a few weeks, but the author slowly feeds aspects of Katya's background into the story, so that she builds into a more rounded person, someone you feel you could get to know and understand even if you can't always like her. The style is fluent and easy, and descriptive without being fussy or flowery.

It's not the best book I've ever read but it's worth a read, unless you're looking for a fast-paced thriller in which case you'll be disappointed. I'd probably give it 7 out of 10 if that were a choice, so I've erred on the mean side and given it 3 stars. I still find the ending disturbing, a little repulsive even. Just trying to imagine myself in the place of that young girl renders the old gent, Marcus Kidder, even more creepy. It just wasn't a 4-star read for me. Read it and see what you think.
32 people found this helpful
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Doreen Ann
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2014
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This story took a while to get into, and continued with quite a few unexpected twist and turns, but I still enjoyed it.
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Ms. L. Harber
2.0 out of 5 stars Glad I only paid 99p!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2012
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I only purchased this book as it was one of the Kindle Book of the Day Deals. I have to say that this is the first book by this author that I have read and I won't be rushing to buy another. Really didn't enjoy it and found it very predictable.
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