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The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews

eudora welty

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Much like her highly acclaimed One Writer's Beginnings, The Eye of the Story offers Eudora Welty's invaluable meditations on the art of writing. In addition to seven essays on craft, this collection brings together her penetrating and instructive commentaries on a wide variety of individual writers, including Jane Austen, E. M. Forster, Willa Cather, Anton Chekhov, William Faulkner, and Virginia Woolf.

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1978
Literary awards
national book critics circle award, 

This edition

Format
368 pages, Paperback
Published
August 29, 1990 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN
9780679730040
ASIN
0679730044
Language
English

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About the author

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eudora welty

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Eudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.

Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.

During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.

Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.

Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 19 votes)
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19 reviews All reviews
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ofthedawn13
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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3 3/4 stars

This rating indicates that the subject under review is very good, but not quite perfect. It has many positive aspects that make it stand out, yet there are still a few areas where it could be improved.

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Whether it's a book, a movie, a restaurant, or any other product or service, a 3 3/4-star rating is a testament to its quality and worth.
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GrimAnimeManga
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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I bought this collection of essays, reviews and personal pieces during my very first visit to Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, a few years ago.

The bookstore, quite understandably, lays claim to Eudora Welty as its own. With each purchase, they provide a sturdy, flawless bookmark dedicated to Welty.

A beautiful photograph of a younger, introspective and thoughtful Welty adorns the front of the bookmark. All the reading I have done of Welty, including this volume, strengthens the trustworthiness and honesty that I perceive in that portrait.

I firmly believe that she was incapable of writing a single dishonest word, let alone an entire sentence. And although I have sometimes pondered what it truly means when an author is described as "moral", with Welty, I feel that I have discovered my answer.

Below the photograph on the bookmark is a cut-out circle with the words "Experienced Reality" both above and below it. I interpret this circle as emphasizing "the eye of the story".

It serves as a reminder that Welty's works are deeply rooted in the reality she has experienced, and that her unique perspective allows us to see the world through her eyes.

Her writing is a testament to her keen观察力 and her ability to capture the essence of human nature and the human experience.

Each word she writes is a reflection of her own truth, and it is this authenticity that makes her works so captivating and enduring.

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melodyvonshewk
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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Amazing. Incredible. These two words truly capture the essence of what I witnessed today.

I was walking through the park when I saw a group of children playing. They were full of energy and joy, running around and laughing. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

As I continued my walk, I came across a street performer. He was playing the guitar and singing, and his music was so powerful that it moved me to tears.

Later, I went to a local coffee shop and met a group of strangers. We started talking and before I knew it, we were sharing our life stories and becoming friends.

Today was a day full of amazing and incredible moments. It reminded me that there is so much beauty and wonder in the world if we just take the time to look for it.

I feel so grateful to have experienced these things and I can't wait to see what other amazing and incredible moments life has in store for me.
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cyborgtheory
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July 15,2025
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The original article is not provided. Please share the article that needs to be rewritten and expanded so that I can assist you further.
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DSoraMonkey
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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This work is not intended for the average erotica enthusiast.

It is a niche offering that caters to a specific audience.

However, if you have a penchant for philosophy and find works like Venus in Furs and those of Marquis de Sade captivating,

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It delves into the darker and more complex aspects of human nature and desire,

challenging your preconceptions and taking you on a journey that is both intellectually stimulating and sexually charged.

But be warned, it is not for the faint of heart or those who are easily offended.

It requires an open mind and a willingness to explore the uncharted territories of the human psyche.

So, if you think you have what it takes, give it a try and see where it takes you.
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jacks1017
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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College students often have a heavy workload and a lot of reading materials to cover.

Some students may adopt a strategy of only reading the chapters or sections that are relevant to their studies.

This approach allows them to focus on the most important information and save time.

However, it may also lead to a lack of comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

DNF, or "did not finish," is a common abbreviation used by students to indicate that they did not complete a particular reading assignment.

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Therefore, it is recommended that students try to read as much as possible and only skip the parts that are truly not relevant to their studies.

This way, they can ensure a more comprehensive understanding of the subject and better prepare for exams and assignments.
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Chill_Porcupine
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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I love having Eudora Welty in my life, and thus The Eye of the Story was a pure delight to delve into over the span of many weeks.

Not every single essay within it completely blew me away - especially those reviews of books and authors that I haven't read, such as Patrick White, S.J. Perelman, and George R. Stewart. However, Welty is so incredibly thoughtful in both senses - she is both kind and highly intelligent. As a result, I found a great deal to appreciate and deeply ponder.

One of the aspects that I adored the most is the manner in which Welty views reading and writing as imaginative endeavors. Her way of thinking about books and authors is impressionistic, generating insights that enable meaning to flourish rather than attempting to firmly nail it down and over-analyze it to the point of killing its essence. She leaves the mystery intact, while simultaneously holding it up for us to wonder and marvel at. As she so beautifully writes, "The mystery lies in the use of language to express human life. In writing, do we try to solve this mystery? No, I think we take hold of the other end of the stick. In very practical ways, we rediscover the mystery."

Welty's approach serves as the perfect antidote to those dreadful readers' guides offered by publishers, which have such a dampening and deadening impact. For Welty, fiction is "made by the imagination for the imagination... made by art out of, and in order to show, and to be, some human truth." And the key to grasping that truth lies less in the realm of analysis and more through the power of imagination and feeling.

We can clearly see Welty's approach to reading in her reviews. She provides impressions that readers can carry with them as they explore the works of Elizabeth Bowen, Jane Austen, William Faulkner, or Ross Macdonald. Her ideas open our imaginative eyes to the human truths that these writers are delving into.

The Eye of the Story contains more than just reviews and essays on writing. Welty's recollections of her childhood and hometown of Jackson, Mississippi are truly delightful. I initially worried that they might be like the ramblings of an aged aunt, but the anecdotes that Welty tells - such as that of Ida M’Toy, the eccentric and queenly midwife-turned-used-clothing-vendor, or of walking home from the little store via a storm sewer while clutching a loaf of bread that her mother had sent her to buy - give the reader yet another cherished opportunity to see the world from Welty's intelligent and generous perspective.

**Originally published on my website brightwingswellness.com.
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Asfaria
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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I’m a huge fan of Eudora Welty. It’s not that I adore all of her books without exception, but rather, I’m always captivated by her distinct voice. In this particular collection, she deploys that very voice to impart in-depth wisdom regarding writers and the craft of writing.

It is neatly divided into four sections: Writers, Writing, Book Reviews, and a selection of miscellaneous essays.

In the Writers section, she delves deep to unearth precious nuggets about significant authors. Take Chekhov, for instance. I’m truly enamored with this observation of hers: “It was his plainest intention that we never should hear him telling us what we should think or feel or believe. He is not trying to teach us, through his characters; he only asks us to understand them.”

The Writing section, titled “On Writing,” is something I’ve perused before, yet I have the sense that I could read it countless times and still not fully fathom its depth. With focused attention, one can glean a substantial education from it. Here’s an idea that merits some serious contemplation: “Making reality real is art’s responsibility. It is a practical assignment, then, a self-assignment: to achieve, by a cultivated sensitivity for observing life, a capacity for receiving its impressions, a lonely, unremitting, unaided, unaidable vision, and transferring this vision without distortion to it onto the pages of a novel, where, if the reader is so persuaded, it will turn into the reader’s illusion.”

Most of her reviews centered around authors I’m not yet familiar with. However, she did manage to convince me to re-read Charlotte’s Web, and not surprisingly, she had some brilliant insights into Faulkner. I found the quotes she shared about his reasons for writing such long sentences utterly fascinating. Essentially, he believed that the past wasn’t truly past but resided within each individual, and the long sentence was his attempt to bring their past and future into the present moment. How incredibly cool is that?

The essays at the end might not have broad appeal to everyone – an address to the Mississippi Historical Society, for example. But what shone through in all of them was her profound sense of place – that very aspect of her fiction that so many of us hold dear.

“All the years we lived in that house where we children were born, the same people lived in the other houses on our street too. People changed through the arithmetic of birth, marriage and death, but not by going away. So families just accrued stories, which through the fullness of time, in those times, their own lives made. And I grew up in those.”

Those stories that Eudora Welty grew up within shaped her into the unique writer she became. I’ve learned an enormous amount from her, and have thoroughly relished my time spent immersed in this collection.
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