The Edge of Darkness Author:Mary Ellen Chase The story of what happens on the day that a group of Maine fishermen, their wives and their children gather to bury old Sarah Holt, the Matriarch of this remote coastal village is the story of all of life. — Sarah Holt had become the focus of life in this community. As a girl she knew the great days. She had sailed around the Horn. Her life had... more » touched the wider world that was. In her dying she was to play an even more vital role - for suddenly all the men and women who had known her came to see their lives in new ways. Their passions, their pleasures, their defeats, their petty jealousies, their lonliness, and their frustrations take on a new meaning - even those of the very old and of the children whom Miss Chase so understandingly depicts are changed forever.
In The Edge of Darkness Mary Ellen Chase writes in a serene and radiant style; she does not flinch at any truth about human beings. She brings to this book the harvested wisdom of a lifetime, captures the beauty of the shoreline and the glory of the sea. Here is a book of rare insight and compassion, a book full of life and humor - a record of life as it is lived by a community of people whom you will never forget.
One of America's most-loved authors, Mary Ellen Chase has achieved prominence both in education and in literature. For many years she has been Professor of English Literature at Smith College. Her books, which include novels, biography and essays, have won her a very large and devoted public. These readers and many new ones will welcome her return to the scene of Mary Peters, Windswept and Silas Crockett in her new novel The Edge of Darkness.« less