Book Review: Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico

 Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris. Paul Gallico. International Polygonics (1989) (First published 1958). 157 pages. Genre: Fiction.

First Line: "The small, slender woman with apple-red cheeks, graying hair, and shrewd, almost naughty little eyes sat with her face pressed against the cabin window of the BEA Viscount morning flight from London to Paris."

Summary:  Mrs. Harris, a widowed London charwoman, is on her way to Paris.  It was over two years ago that she first planned this trip.  One day while tidying up the bedroom of one of her clients, she was struck by the beauty of a dress hanging in the wardrobe.  Never had she seen such a dress and never had she imagined having such a dress for herself.  But she was overcome with desire for that kind of dress.  So, for two years she has scrimped and saved so that she can go to Paris, to Christian Dior and buy a dress for herself.  

The path to the dress is fraught with difficulties and in the end she finds much more than a beautiful dress.  

My thoughts:  On my list of favorite reads from 2021 is a book called My Mrs. Brown by William Norwich.  In the course of that novel, Mrs. Brown reads Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris.  Since that time I had been on the lookout for this book.  I was delighted to finally come across it at a library book sale.  

Mrs. Harris is a hardworking woman who finds satisfaction in her work.  

"She came to these rooms to find them pigsties, she left them neat, clean, sparkling and sweet-smelling.  The fact that when she returned the next day they would be pigsties all over again did not bother her."

She works hard during the day and sometimes sees a film or has a cup of tea in the evening with her neighbor and fellow charwoman, Mrs. Butterfield.  So, when she is overcome with desire for a dress that will cost her more money than she could ever save, it is completely out of character.  

"She was well aware that her wanting it made no sense whatsoever, but that did not prevent her one whit from doing so."

She sets out to scrimp and save and somehow come up with the money to buy a Dior dress. Mrs. Butterfield thinks she is crazy, but that doesn't deter Mrs. Harris. It is her determination against all odds, that causes others to admire her. 

I enjoyed tagging along with Mrs. Harris on her journey to the coveted dress.  She meets some wonderful people along the way and has some interesting experiences.  It is a delightful story that I won't soon forget. 

Quotes:

"Drab and colorless as her existence would seem to have been, Mrs. Harris had always felt a craving for beauty and color and which up to this moment had manifested itself in a love for flowers."

"As long as she had flowers Mrs. Harris had no serious complaints concerning the life she led.  They were her escape from the somber stone desert in which she lived."

"Mrs. Harris' Deity had been acquired at Sunday school at an early age, and had never changed in her mind from a Being who combined the characteristics of a nannie, a policeman, a magistrate, and Santa Claus, an Omnipotence of many moods, who was at all times concerned with Mrs. Harris' business."