My Heart and My Flesh by Elizabeth Madox Roberts

First published: 1927

Type of plot: Poetic realism

Time of work: The early twentieth century

Locale: Anneville, Kentucky

Principal Characters:

• Theodosia Bell, the protagonist
• Horace Bell, her father
• Anthony Bell, her grandfather, a former teacher and scholar
• Americy Froman, and
• Lethe Ross, Theodosia’s mulatto half sisters
• Stiggins, Theodosia’s mulatto half brother
• Conway Brooke,
• Albert Stiles, and
• Frank Railey, Theodosia’s suitors
• Caleb Burns, a farmer and the eventual husband of Theodosia

The Novel

The novel’s title refers to the cry of the psalmist, “My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” My Heart and My Flesh follows the story of Theodosia Bell in her journey toward self-discovery and fulfillment as she grows from childhood to adulthood in the fictional Kentucky town of Anneville. The trials through which she passes and the tragedies that befall her, leading to her final recovery and spiritual rebirth, form the core of the novel.

The first significant event that Theodosia must endure is the shattering of her complacent notions about her own superiority. Reared in a wealthy, privileged, and respectable family, she is devastated when she learns from her grandfather’s secret papers that two mulatto girls in the town, Americy and Lethe, whom she has always despised, are in fact her half sisters and that Stiggins, the idiot stable boy, is her half brother. As she attempts to come to terms with this knowledge, Theodosia moves haltingly and uncomprehendingly toward a measure of acceptance and love, without ever fully achieving either. Yet when she notices, to her amazement, that Stiggins possesses the elegant “fiddle hand” that she, who prides herself on her ability with the violin, lacks, the absurdity of her former notion of superiority becomes painfully apparent.

Many of the other events which shape Theodosia’s life are deaths. Her handsome and charming suitor Conway Brooke dies in his burning home, and her grief becomes more acute when Minnie Harter, a local girl and former neighbor of Conway, gives birth to a child and claims that Conway is the father. The death of Theodosia’s grandfather Anthony Bell, the only member of her family with whom she has any real affinity, further isolates her, although through his death she learns pity and compassion.

On inheriting the family estate, Theodosia discovers that all the wealth has slipped away and only debts remain. This new and unexpected poverty is another blow to her self-esteem. Little by little, she loses all she has and all her hopes for the future. Her selfish and uncaring father leaves home to join a law firm, never to return. When Lethe brutally murders her unfaithful husband, Ross, goaded on by Theodosia as she half-consciously seeks vicarious revenge for having been jilted by Albert Stiles, Theodosia is so haunted by feelings of guilt that her health breaks down.

Forced to sell the house in which she has lived since she was a child, and in increasing ill health, she moves to the farm of her Aunt Doe, whom she dislikes, for rest and recuperation. This period of eighteen months represents the nadir of her fortunes. Weak and in despair, she hears voices, the discordant impulses of her own mind, as she becomes steadily more violent, incoherent, and guilt-ridden. She resolves to commit suicide, but, on the very brink of her destructive act, some mysterious and inexplicable life force quickens inside her. She suddenly finds herself utterly changed, full of fresh hope and expectation. After months of apathy and despair, she acquires a new sense of purpose. Riding with a traveling peddler the next day, she finds the spontaneity and joy in life that she has been seeking, a “strange happiness going its unknown ways.”

Arriving in the nearby village of Spring Run Valley, she becomes a teacher at the local school, and it is through living among the country people, who remain in touch with nature in their simple manner, that she acquires the wholeness, compassion, and sense of acceptance and peace that she had formerly lacked. When Caleb Burns, a local farmer who seems to embody the wisdom and solidity of the earth itself, declares his love for her, her spiritual rebirth is complete, and the novel closes with images of the quiet, healing presence of a country night.

The Characters

The chief interest of the novel lies in the intense inner life of Theodosia. She is presented from the outset as a girl of extreme sensitivity, aware of subtle currents of feeling which escape her elders. She is also alienated from her environment, both human and natural, and afflicted with melancholy; Roberts, in her notes about the novel, described Theodosia as “a wandering spirit, a lost thing.” Theodosia herself is acutely aware of her malaise: “It seemed to her that she lived with only a part of her being, that only a small edge of her person lifted up into the light of the day.” She is, in consequence, preoccupied with the search for self-knowledge and for the innermost core of existence, refusing to be content with anything less. The sight of a tree fills her with a “passion to know all of this strange thing,” and it is the same with her family: She ponders her half sister Americy “to the roots of her life and her being,” and as her grandfather lies dying she attempts to discover his soul, his irreducible essence, for if she can locate the soul of another being, surely she can also locate her own? In everything, Theodosia searches for ultimate reality and meaning, that which is “perpetually existent, unchanged, beyond delusion,” driven on by a sense of the insufficiency of things as they are.

Roberts lavishes so much attention on Theodosia that other characters are indistinctly realized, revealing themselves largely through their interactions with the protagonist. Perhaps the most sympathetic is Theodosia’s grandfather, Anthony Bell. Formerly a teacher and scholar, he has retained his love of great literature. As he reads aloud to his family, “unafraid of any word or saying,” Theodosia sees him as the custodian of eternal truths. He takes immense pride in his granddaughter’s progress with the violin and lives again through her. Theodosia’s affinity with him contrasts with her dislike of her father, Horace Bell. Horace’s infidelity in marriage destroys any respect that Theodosia might have had for him, and his bluff, superficial manner, as well as his selfishness, effectively sets off Theodosia’s introspection and sensitivity. Seen through her eyes, he is merely “a jumble of demands upon affection and forbearance.”

Other characters flicker into life for the reader, but only briefly. Theodosia’s illegitimate kin form a ragged and dispiriting trio. Americy wistfully sings of the Lord while involved in an incestuous relationship with Stiggins, the mentally retarded outcast who lives in the stables with the horses. Their harmlessness, however sordid, stands in sharp contrast to the heavy and menacing presence of Lethe, whose savage and violent hatred eventually leads to her imprisonment for murder.

Finally, there are Theodosia’s suitors. Conway Brooke is gentle, graceful, and easygoing, his relaxed serenity ruffled only when he becomes jealous of his friend Albert Stiles. Albert, a practical man of affairs who is full of plans for the future, seeks Theodosia’s hand with a blunt determination but then deserts her for the beautiful Florence Agnew. The simple good nature of the third suitor, the lawyer Frank Railey, who is uncritical in his admiration of Theodosia, does not interest her: “You could work him out by a formula” she says, and he disappears from her mind as soon as he is out of sight. All three are in marked contrast to the man who finally wins Theodosia’s hand, the farmer Caleb Burns, who is deeply connected to the land in a way that the rootless town dwellers are not. He is known to all the villagers as an odd character—“he seemed always about to speak or to have just spoken, and he talked to everybody as if they knew all he meant”—but Theodosia sees him as a man shaped and matured by all the lights and shades of human experience, one who carries about him a wisdom that is universal in its scope.

Critical Context

My Heart and My Flesh was Roberts’s second novel, published only a year after The Time of Man (1926) had won for her immediate recognition and acclaim. Her reputation continued to grow with the publication of The Great Meadow (1930), but after her last major novel, He Sent Forth a Raven (1935), her popularity and critical standing went into a rapid decline. She has frequently been categorized as a regionalist, but this is a somewhat unfair label, since her novels, although they are all set in Kentucky, are concerned with profound and universal themes. More charitable critics have compared her to William Faulkner, D. H. Lawrence, and Emily Dickinson. It is likely that she will continue to occupy a minor but distinct place in the roll call of twentieth century American novelists.

Although My Heart and My Flesh has never been one of Roberts’s most popular novels, its enduring value lies in the author’s ability to set out a timeless theme with unusual force and conviction. The novel faces the darker aspects of human existence without succumbing to nihilism and despair; it celebrates the virtues of simplicity and endurance, and it affirms the ultimate triumph of life and of the spirit. It is also notable for Roberts’s highly distinctive prose style—she called it “symbolism working through poetic realism”—and there are many passages of rich, poetic prose which the reader may savor many times.

My Heart and My Flesh is not light reading, nor is it enjoyable in the superficial sense of the word, but it is richly satisfying for the reader who enters its spirit and contemplates its themes.

Bibliography

Adams, J. Donald. The Shape of Books to Come. New York: Viking Press, 1934. Adams was an early admirer of Roberts, and he compares her to Willa Cather and Ellen Glasgow. An interesting contemporary view of the novelist.

Auchincloss, Louis. Pioneers and Caretakers: A Study of Nine American Women Novelists. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965. Auchincloss offers a compact overview of the life and work of Roberts, whose best and most popular novel was her first, The Time of Man; she never wrote anything to equal it.

Campbell, Harry M., and Ruel E. Foster. Elizabeth Madox Roberts: American Novelist. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956. Full of information about Roberts’s career, yet poorly organized. Often dull to read, making this book unsuitable for any but the most dedicated students of Roberts.

McDowell, Frederick P. W. Elizabeth Madox Roberts. New York: Twayne, 1963. McDowell gives a useful critical overview of Roberts’s works, including her poetry and short stories. Offers a short biography of her life, which was mostly spent in Springfield, Kentucky.

Rovit, Earl H. Herald to Chaos: The Novels of Elizabeth Madox Roberts. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1960. A wonderful critique of Roberts’s novels, probably the best one available. Rovit describes Roberts’s style in a sensitive and perceptive manner and places her in the context of American, not simply Southern, literature.

Tate, Linda. “Elizabeth Madox Roberts: A Bibliographical Essay.” Resources for American Literary Study 18 (1992): 22-43. A valuable addition to studies of Roberts’s career and the history of her reputation.