Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger

Published by
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
Post Office Box 2225, Chapel Hill, north Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
WORKMAN PUBLISHING
225 varick Street, new York, new York 10014

© 2010 by Lee Smith.
First paperback edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, May 2011.
Originally published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2010.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the magazines where these stories were first published: to American Way for an early version of “Folk Art” (originally titled “Art Is My Life”); to Appalachian Heritage for the opening section of “Big Girl”; to The Atlantic Monthly for “Happy Memories Club”; to Blackbird for “Fried Chicken”; to Carolina Quarterly for “Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger” (originally titled “Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger at the Beach”) and “Between the Lines”; to Mud Puppy Press for “Bob, a Dog”; to Oxford American for “The Southern Cross” (originally titled “native Daughter”); to Narrative for “Toastmaster”; to Shenandoah for “House Tour”; to The Southern Review for “Ultima Thule”; and to Special Report: Fiction 1991 for “Intensive Care.”

Grateful acknowledgment is made to G.P. Putnam’s Sons for permission to reprint the stories “Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger” (originally published as “Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger at the Beach”) and “Between the Lines,” from Cakewalk,© 1970 by Lee Smith; “Bob, a Dog,” “Intensive Care,” and “Tongues of Fire,” from Me and My Baby View the Eclipse,© 1990 by Lee Smith; “The Happy Memories Club” and “Southern Cross,” from News of the Spirit,© 1997 by Lee Smith. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

The red-hat ladies of “House Tour” are inspired by Jenny Joseph’s poem “Warning” (“When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple”).

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. no reference to any real person is intended or should be inferred.

LIBRARY OF COnGRESS CATALOGInG-In-PUBLICATIOn DATA
   Smith, Lee, 1944–
      Mrs. Darcy and the blue-eyed stranger : new and selected stories / by Lee Smith. — 1st ed.
         p. cm.
      ISBN 978-1-56512-915-3 (HC)
      I. Title.
      PS3569.M5376M77 2010
      813’.54 — dc22                  2009027915
   ISBN 978-1-61620-049-7 (PB)

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First Paperback Edition