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Margaret Laurence
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The Stone Angel (Phoenix Fiction) Paperback – June 15, 1993

by Margaret Laurence (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 377 ratings
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The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and A Bird in the House are three of the five books in Margaret Laurence's renowned "Manawaka series," named for the small Canadian prairie town in which they take place. Each of these books is narrated by a strong woman growing up in the town and struggling with physical and emotional isolation.

In The Stone Angel, Hagar Shipley, age ninety, tells the story of her life, and in doing so tries to come to terms with how the very qualities which sustained her have deprived her of joy. Mingling past and present, she maintains pride in the face of senility, while recalling the life she led as a rebellious young bride, and later as a grieving mother. Laurence gives us in Hagar a woman who is funny, infuriating, and heartbreakingly poignant.

"This is a revelation, not impersonation. The effect of such skilled use of language is to lead the reader towards the self-recognition that Hagar misses."—Robertson Davies, New York Times

"It is [Laurence's] admirable achievement to strike, with an equally sure touch, the peculiar note and the universal; she gives us a portrait of a remarkable character and at the same time the picture of old age itself, with the pain, the weariness, the terror, the impotent angers and physical mishaps, the realization that others are waiting and wishing for an end."—Honor Tracy, The New Republic

"Miss Laurence is the best fiction writer in the Dominion and one of the best in the hemisphere."—Atlantic

"[Laurence] demonstrates in The Stone Angel that she has a true novelist's gift for catching a character in mid-passion and life at full flood. . . . As [Hagar Shipley] daydreams and chatters and lurches through the novel, she traces one of the most convincing—and the most touching—portraits of an unregenerate sinner declining into senility since Sara Monday went to her reward in Joyce Cary's The Horse's Mouth."—Time

"Laurence's triumph is in her evocation of Hagar at ninety. . . . We sympathize with her in her resistance to being moved to a nursing home, in her preposterous flight, in her impatience in the hospital. Battered, depleted, suffering, she rages with her last breath against the dying of the light. The Stone Angel is a fine novel, admirably written and sustained by unfailing insight."—Granville Hicks, Saturday Review

"The Stone Angel is a good book because Mrs. Laurence avoids sentimentality and condescension; Hagar Shipley is still passionately involved in the puzzle of her own nature. . . . Laurence's imaginative tact is strikingly at work, for surely this is what it feels like to be old."—Paul Pickrel, Harper's
Previous page
  1. Print length
    318 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Chicago Press
  4. Publication date
    June 15, 1993
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0226469360
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0226469362
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The Stone Angel is a compelling journey seen through the eyes of a woman nearing the end of her life. At ninety, Hagar Shipley speaks movingly of the perils of growing old and reflects with bitterness, humor, and a painful awareness of her own frailties on the life she has led. From her childhood as the daughter of a respected merchant, to her rebellious marriage, Hagar has fought a long and sometimes misguided battle for independence and respect. In the course of examining and trying to understand the shape her life has taken, her divided feelings about her husband, her passionate attachment to one son and her neglect of another, she is sometimes regretful, but rarely penitent. Asking forgiveness from neither God nor those around her, she must still wrestle with her own nature: "Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear." She has been afraid of being unrespectable, afraid of needing too much, afraid of giving too much, and her pride is both disturbing and inspiring. The Stone Angel is an excellent example of the realism and compassion present in all of Margaret Laurence's writing. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Sonja Larsen

From the Back Cover

With her life nearly behind her, the witty, irascible, and fiercely proud Hagar Shipley escapes from her nursing home and sets out in search of a way to reconcile herself to her tumultuous past. Through her reflections, we come to know the rebellious young bride in a remote prairie town, her love for her two sons, the freedom she claimed, and the joys she denied herself. In this bold, final step toward freedom and independence, Hagar gains a deeper understanding of the meaning of acceptance. Her thoughts evoke not only the rich pattern of her past experience but also the meaning of what it is to grow old and to come to terms with mortality.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (June 15, 1993)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 318 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226469360
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226469362
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 377 ratings

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Margaret Laurence

Margaret Laurence

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
377 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Engaging
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2023
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The mental meanderings and memories of a self-focused, sad, rebellious, angry old woman who doesn't seem able to mature, learn, or forgive herself through her life's experiences. Realistic depiction which captivated me even though Hagar, the main character, is not likable. Helped me see why some people seem
to get more set in their ways or become bitter as they age. I would recommend to any reader over 50. Hopefully, this is an invitation to all of us to be more gracious and accepting as we age.
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robin friedman
4.0 out of 5 stars Hagar Shipley
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2009
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The character of Hagar ("stranger") from the Book of Genesis has retained a fascination for many readers over the millenia. In the Biblical story, Hagar is the servant of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Hagar becomes pregnant with Abraham's child, Ishmael, after Sarah herself is unable to conceive. Twice, before the birth of Ishmael and thereafter, Abraham sends Hagar, at Sarah's insistence into the desert to wander and die. Genesis 17 and 21. On both occasions, God rescues Hagar and promises that Ishmael will be the father of a great nation of warriors. Throughout the Biblical account, there is an enmity between Ishmael and his descendants and Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, and his descendants. African Americans frequently describe themselves as Hagar's children, for her character as a lonely outcast. For example, a famous early blues by W.C. Handy is titled "All Aunt Hagar's Children, in a recording here by Louis Armstrong.  Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy  An extraordinary story by Edward P. Jones takes Handy's title and adds new dimensions to the Biblical tale, stressing themes of common humanity.  All Aunt Hagar's Children

The renowned Canadian author Margaret Laurence's (1926 -- 1987) novel "The Stone Angel" (1964) adds its own layers to the story of Hagar. The story is set in Manawaka, a small fictitious prarie town in Manitoba, Canada and spans roughly the late 19th to mid-20th Century. The main character and narrator is a woman named Hagar Shipley, (born Hagar Currie.). She tells her story when she is a woman, terminally ill, in her 90s. Hagar tells the story of her old age with many flashbacks to and dreams of her long life.

Hagar feels herself an outcast, a loner, and independent, as her Biblical namesake. She is not an entirely likeable person but rather is tough, raw, judgmental, and cantankerous. She has been living for 17 years with her 65 year old son, Marvin and his wife Doris in a small home. At the age of about 80, Hagar took up cigarette smoking. She is demanding and makes life difficult for her son and his wife who themeselves are frail and getting on in years. Marvin and Doris try to persuade Hagar to move to a nursing home, but Hagar refuses and runs away.

Hagar is not an unreliable narrator, but she has blinkers in how she sees herself. Laurence presents her convincingly while also inviting the reader to come to his or her own understanding of Hagar. The story is taut, sharp, and sometimes told with Hagar's withering judgments on herself and others. I find the book secular in outlook although replete with Biblical allusions, including Hagar herself, other Scriptural stories, and the young minister of Marvin and Doris, Mr. Troy, who visits and tries to comfort Hagar at critical moments late in her life.

Hagar was the child of a self-made man, Currie, who owned a successful general store in early Manawaka. She has two brothers and a mother who died when Hagar was very young. We see in the book the deaths of these three men and Hagar's reactions and memories. Hagar's father sent her to the eastern part of Canada to a finishing school even though Hagar felt the money would be better spent by sending her brother to college. When she returns, her father tries to make Hagar a suitable match, but she is uninterested. Instead, she marries Bram Shipley, 14 years her senior. Bram is shunned in Manawaka. Her father refuses to see her after the marriage and cuts her out of his will. She truly becomes an outcast, as was the Biblical Hagar.

Bram's first wife died of natural causes. He lives on a run-down farm but has no interest in working the land. He is taciturn, crude, and vulgar. Hagar with her manners and education, seems swayed by the opinions of others about Bram, but, to her own surprise, she responds deeply to Bram sexually. Hagar ultimately has two children, John, who dies, and Marvin, with whom she lives. She leaves Bram but returns when he dies.

Hagar strives to be independent. She tends to blame others for her misfortunes, but she realizes that when she married Bram she knew much of what he was about. She valued Bram's crudeness, vulgarity, and sexuality. She remained ambivalent, and her pride, particularly, got in the way. She was unable to stand up for what she wanted, but adopted the view of Bram of the higher, more reputable citizens of Manawaka, particularly her father. When Bram dies, he is buried in a plot with Hagar's father and Shipley-Currie is inscribed on the grave. There is some belated reconciliation here, perhaps similar to that which might occur between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac.

When Mr. Troy, late in the book, sings Hagar a hymn about serving God "with mirth" and rejoicing, she has an epiphany of sorts. She says: (p. 292)

"Pride was my wilderness, and the demon that led me there was fear. I was alone, never anything else, and never free for I carried my chains within me, and they spread out and shackled all I touched. O my two, my dead. Dead by your own hands or by mine? Nothing can take away these years."

As with most people, Hagar straddles uneasily between her insight into herself and her ingrained habits and responses.

This is a thoughtful, well-written book about growing old and about the never ending task of coming to terms with oneself and, as Nietszsche might describe it, becoming who one is. The book reminded me of two other recent works I liked a great deal in which an elderly narrator reflects on the course of his or her earlier life. The first is "Veronica" by Mary Gaitskill, in which a middle-aged but terminally ill narrator gains peace with her earlier life of tawdry sex and sexual exploitation.  Veronica  The second novel is "So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell. In this acclaimed novel, a narrator in his 70s revisits and tries to understand haunting events from his youth, including the death of his mother and a sensational adulterous affair and murder-suicide involving a young friend.  So Long, See You Tomorrow  These two books, and Laurence's, offer varying understandings of the relationship between old age and youth.

Robin Friedman
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buggles52
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2023
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So much is exquisite about this book: the characterisations, the storytelling, the depth of perception. Someone should have proof-read the scanned copy, however. Such lovely writing and on at least four occasions, "lie" became "he" . "Hermit" became "hennit" and so on. Miss Laurence deserves better.
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charles j mccammon
5.0 out of 5 stars Aging from a 90 year old’s point of view
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021
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Just finished “THE STONE ANGEL” by Margaret Lawrence(Canadian author)
Read some reviews which described it as disturbing(ONLY IF YOU DONT WANT TO THINK ABOUT AGING)

Maybe! But as a geriatrician and hospice/palliative care doctor I found it to be a description of aging. Hagar the main character is 90y old. Her son and daughter-in-law live and care for her in HER house. They are tired of caring for her and begin looking for a skilled nursing facility. Keep in mind this was published in 1964!

It brings up so many issues for the elderly:
who will care for me, is my property my property, regrets over how children were raised, anger over children’s choices of jobs or mates, anger at spouses and ex-spouses, sadness over lost siblings, children, constipation, incontinence, fear of falling, forgetfulness, depression, pain, pain relief, condescending care givers, memory that comes and goes and fails just when needed. So full of things I see everyday in my patients. Hagar’s SNARK is inspirational. Epilogue by Dylan Thomas: Do not go quiet........

Hagar you are an inspiration and a teacher!!! Thank you Margaret Lawrence!
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Diana D
5.0 out of 5 stars Devastating in its realism
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2020
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This was a devastating story, tragic in its focus on a life not truly well lived, mostly because of the obstinate pride and irascible sense of independence that the main character Hagar fought so hard to maintain. Her inability to just let herself be joyful and loved was heartbreaking. I've known people like Hagar - never a moment where she wasn't thinking of how things ought to be, of how others should live in order to live up to her expectations. The sad thing is that there are all too many people like that. Perhaps we ALL know someone like Hagar, someone that we know will find fault in even the smallest gesture of kindness or friendliness. How tiresome that kind of life is - which Hagar actually came to realize, of course when it was too late to do anything about it.

This is a story that will stay with me a long time because of its stark spotlight that uncovers even the darkest little corner of a woman who could not mean in to not or love. A warning perhaps to readers to NOT be like the Stone Angel that stands as a symbol for Hagar's life.
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Jools
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved the spiky protagonist
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2024
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Story and life story of an elderly lady whose children want to put her into a home. Yes she is disagreeable, but we see how her choices in her youth shaped her life and things didn’t turn out as she had hoped. I felt for her, and the story was well written, insightful and amusing. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
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William T
5.0 out of 5 stars And then...
Reviewed in Canada on October 24, 2020
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"And then..." are the two simple, ordinary words Margaret Laurence uses to close her minor masterpiece, The Stone Angel to extinguish the life of Hagar Shipley. Two simple words say it all!

Hagar is in hospital, dying, althogh she doesn't know it until that suddenly gone moment when she spills her glass of water in her hospital bed, then blinks out.
The "almighty terror" - as described by her caretaking son to a nurse - had the apparent misfortune of being born Scottish and so being upset into a world of dreadful self-containment and voluntary depravations.

I read and re-read and read yet again Margaret Laurence's canon of stories...and likely will continue to do so until I drop! "Why?" Upon finishing this, my fifth read of Stone Angel I feel richer again.

"Why," I asked myself upon this read, "must the Scotts carry such a cussed load?" And they truly do, you know. I'm married to one, myself, so I know very well Hagar's incapacity to communicate her innermost feelings to others; her starchy tendency to always judge others critically. Her damned fears about the simple cost of living; her buried tendernesses; her unease about mortality.
Her incessant pettiness.

Laurence....No... I really must actualize her personhood by using her given name, "Margaret" to do the same favour a total stranger but drunken-friend-well-met in a dark, dank seaside hideaway of existential escape for hobos and other lost souls, does for Hagar. He addresses her as "Hagar." Hagar has no one else in her life who speaks her name to her, personally, respecting her.

Margaret uses the 'two-simple-words' trick elsewhere in her novels as opening or closing revelations. She has the power to say practically everything about a novel using them. So Canadian.

I remember the day in 1987 when Margaret's death was announced tenderly by another legendary Canadian wordsmith, CBC Radio personality Peter Gzowski (RIP 2002), on his popular talk show, Morningside. I cried. A dozen heartful novels. "What's going on inside is never the same as what's happening on the outside," she once wrote about people. It's the beautiful dread and awful grace she writes into her characters that she refers to. Her dramatic, troubled and beloved female characters were all so transparently herself. Surely when Margaret took her own life, stricken with cancer, she had not come to the end of her stories. So many stories, so many hearts and minds; so much to say about the human condition.

All that!
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Nazim
5.0 out of 5 stars The stone angel
Reviewed in India on May 21, 2019
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Very good in quality.. I like the book much and I love the story that how a woman struggled through her life
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Mark Porton
5.0 out of 5 stars Hagar will stay with me for a long time
Reviewed in Australia on July 27, 2023
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Hagar is the protagonist of The Stone Angel by Canadian writer Margaret Laurence. Hagar was born in 1886 and is now 90 years old, living with her only living son, Marvin, and his wife Doris. This book is essentially Hagar reflecting on her life and recalling pivotal moments and the decisions she has made along the way. This is done via Hagar’s POV, which adds intimacy to this story. By the end, the reader will have no doubts what Hagar is ‘all about’. (Or don’t Canadians say ‘aboot’?).

I’ll try and describe Hagar in a few choice words: Opinionated, grumpy, direct, unhappy, large, unfriendly, judgmental. I think she would have been a handful to be around. Of course, using single words provides only superficial understanding. The author is so good here, as she shoves various nuances our way involving some not so 'black and white' situations, as we embark on a journey of Hagar’s life. But to be honest – I didn’t really like her, not when I first met her anyway.

It's clear Marvin and Doris want to put Hagar into a Nursing Home. As you could well imagine, Hagar is not too pleased. Laurence gives the reader a chance to pause and be sympathetic to Hagar here (first person helps), but we also can be sympathetic towards Marvin and Doris. She’s forgetful and certainly not well. I didn’t like Doris very much, I must say – and I think she often, quite intentionally, put Marvin in difficult situations. She also foisted an annoying clergyman onto Hagar at the most inopportune times, much to the annoyance of the old lady. That would’ve been way too much to bear.

Some of the memories told include Hagar’s childhood – her mother died early, and her father was from Scottish gentry, quite rich when he immigrated to Canada. Unfortunately, he didn’t leave Hagar any money when he died. There are some painful memories involving her brothers as well. Bram is another character we meet – this guy was Hagar’s husband. Here we have another individual we can get our choppers into and dislike with a passion. I didn’t like him one bit, he was stingy with his time, money, and emotions. His marriage to Hagar was miserable.

The question that kept going through my mind was, would Hagar have been happier if she married a better man, someone more generous? Or was her abrasive manner partly, or fully responsible for the miserable life she seemed to have lived? I think a bit of both – but if one really thinks about it – no matter how dislikable Bram was, I wonder if Hagar would have found a more emotionally giving man? I really doubt it – I think Hagar would have presented a dreadful first impression.

We come across other family members, such as her other son John and old school ‘friends’. People she meets in hospital and a couple of strangers who happen to fall into her orbit. Laurence’s spare prose provides very profound understanding of Hagar and her world, particularly on an emotional level.

I felt sorry for Hagar, and this book wrapped me up in abject sadness. I life not lived, or hardly lived. Our choices – this story provided me with some opportunities to reflect on my own decisions, good and disastrous, and the impact these decisions had on my life, but also (and more importantly) on the lives of others – many dear to me.

Only a good book can make one visit corners of one’s mind and heart to places we don’t really want to go.

Hagar did make me laugh sometimes. Her descriptions of others – although always harsh - were often funny (to me). She had an eye for flowers, which made me scurry to Google and see what a particular flower looks like. I am a flower dumbo.

All in all, brilliant.

5 Stars
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D. Legare
5.0 out of 5 stars Vieux démon !
Reviewed in France on December 31, 2009
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Dans ce roman qui m'a beaucoup touchée, Margaret Laurence retrace la vie de Hagar Shipley, une vieille femme. Hagar n'est pas commode, on peut même dire qu'elle a un caractère de cochon et qu'elle en fait voir des vertes et des pas mûres à son fils Marvin et à sa belle-fille Doris chez qui elle vit. Hagar perd un peu,... beaucoup la tête, elle somnole, elle rêve et se souvient. Elle raconte sa vie plutôt rude, sa jeunesse, son mariage pas très heureux, ses enfants, son travail. Tous ces épisodes du passé sont parsemés d'anecdotes, de moments vécus au quotidien, des malheurs du grand âge. Le lecteur la suit dans son univers qui se rétrécit au fur et à mesure que son corps et sa tête ne lui obéissent plus.
Ce magnifique roman est un va et vient perpétuel entre le passé et le présent au fur et à mesure qu'elle glisse dans ses rêveries, somnole ou peste avec véhémence contre les multiples incapacités qui l'accablent. C'est passionant et émouvant. Voilà un bel écrivain qui a su donner de l'intensité à son récit par la forme, et en particulier par la construction de son roman.

Ce roman est le premier d'une série de cinq situé dans la ville fictive de Manawaka (Manitoba). Je viens de commander le second !
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