- In the 1920s she wrote a scandalous novel about two women in love. Now, it's 1964 and everyone wants to know, "Who was the muse?"
- In the 1920's Hilary Stevens wrote a scandalous novel about women in love. Forty years later she has written a new book of poetry and become famous again. Everyone wants to dig up her past. Based on the novel, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing, by May Sarton.—Linda Thornburg
- After writing a novel about love between women that shocked the1920s, Hilary Stevens disappeared until 1964-when a volume of her love sonnets strikes a chord with a new generation. Suddenly, Hilary is famous again. In the midst of this new fame she is beset by people clamoring to know, "Who's the muse?"
While waiting for reporters to arrive, Hilary has memories of her scandalous success, her family's response, and her husband, the person who "pulled her back to her senses."
Two young critics arrive expecting a "transparent old woman." Instead, Hilary is a skillful opponent in a game of cat and mouse, answering personal questions with abstractions while becoming distracted by rich flashbacks of her Muse, the women lovers who inspired her work. The interviewers pursue the muse book by book. Hilary evades disappearing into the flashbacks.
There is the first novel, and it's forbidden muse, Phillippa, Hilary's governess.
The first book poems From a hospital Bed was written while she was recovering from her husband's death in a riding accident. The muse was her nurse, Rachel Gillespie.
The second book of poems, were ultra-romantic sonnets. Their muse was British literary critic, Willa MacPherson.
Hilary's next Muse was a 1930s Paris jazz club singer, Madeline HiRose.
When the strong memories make evasion impossible, Hilary tells the interviewers that the Muse is always female and always a lover. When Peter finally asks, Hilary names Madeline HiRose. They are initially shaken, but the interview continues over scotch and cigars.
The flashbacks reveal not only Hilary's lovers but also the changes in fortune of women vis-à-vis shifts in politics from the 1920s to the 1960s: from the political and sexual liberation of the 1920s and early 1930s following the winning of suffrage, through the backlash reflected in the Hollywood "Hays Code," from the social and economic independence of World War II to the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s and the burgeoning changes in consciousness of the early 1960s-the changes that link a new generation to Hilary Stevens.
Hilary leaves the room again, while trying to talk about, the most difficult book and her long time relationship with sociologist Dorothea Miller. Their relationship spanned the late 30s build up to WWII and the reactionary aftermath of the McCarthy era.
In the end, Hilary confesses, "The Muse is Aphrodite and Medusa and when you turn her face around, she is yourself, so hard to learn to love yourself. Your own free and powerful self." The interviewers leave transformed.
At the typewriter, late that night, Hilary writes of the memories of the day, "I am always a lover here, seized and shaken by love."
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By what name was Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing (2004) officially released in Canada in English?
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