SOURCE: “Pastoral Restraint: An Essay on John Metcalf's The Lady Who Sold Furniture,” in Malahat Review, Vol. 70, March, 1985, pp. 131–45.

In the following essay, Rook offers a close reading of The Lady Who Sold Furniture, focusing on pastoral elements of the novella.

One of the most delicious features of The Lady Who Sold Furniture is its title. Nothing illicit or odd is conveyed by the title itself, and no practitioner of that trade is introduced, and so the reader conveniently forgets the title. Metcalf bides his time. He gets on with the creation of a world in which Jeanne, the fascinating housekeeper, is our focal point; and he makes this world through Peter's eyes, using in a third-person narration the perspective of the man who loves her. Only when we have been thoroughly charmed does Metcalf unleash his title, establishing its legitimacy—Jeanne is, after all, the title character...