Sleep IT Off Lady - Stories in The Collection

Stories in The Collection

(a synopsis follows each title)

• "Pioneers, Oh, Pioneers": At the turn of the twentieth century, a doctor experiences the final hours of an ill-fated estate house bought only days before by his rival.
• "Goodbye Marcus, Goodbye Rose": A captain and his wife pay a visit to Dominica while vacationing in Jamaica for the winter.
• "The Bishop's Feast": A home-born returnee is invited by an old nun to witness the enthronement of a new Bishop in Roseau, before spending a week on Dominica's leeward coast.
• "Heat": The effects of the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Dominica.
• "Fishy Waters": Racial tensions between a British carpenter and local folk erupt into a scandal that eventually finds its way into Roseau's courtroom.
• "Overture and Beginners Please": In this first of four consecutive stories about a pre-World War I Caribbean immigrant named Elsa, the young girl starts at Perse School then becomes a stage star in the midst of an unwanted life.
• "Before the Deluge": Elsa meets a stage girl—a policeman's daughter from Manchester—whose beauty never succeeds while entertaining her audience.
• "On Not Shooting Sitting Birds": An English gentleman rejects Elsa for good after hearing of her past exploits during hunting trips in her homeland.
• "Kikimora": At a first-class hotel, Elsa discovers how perceptive the title character, a black cat, can be, as compared to a husband.
• "Night Out 1925": The experiences of two lovers, Suzy and Gilbert, in the streets of Paris.
• "The Chevalier of the Place Blanche": In the English-language version of a work by the author's first husband, Jean Lenglet (written under his nom-de-plume of Edouard de Nève), the title character shares his desire with a British lady in a 1920s Paris restaurant.
• "The Insect World": An old lady shows a young child the disturbing connections between London underground dwellers and a tropical insect parasite whose name they share in slang.
• "Rapunzel, Rapunzel": A hospital patient makes a temporary stay at a convalescent home in London, with a long-haired Australian as her neighbour.
• "Who Knows What's Up in the Attic?": A vacationer in south-east England comes face-to-face with a clothing salesman.
• "Sleep It Off Lady": In this story from which the collection takes its name, another old lady faces a rat problem while taking care of her cottage.
• "I Used to Live Here Once": In this final story, the author returns to her native land.