The Ponder Heart

novella by Welty

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Article History

The Ponder Heart, comic novella by Eudora Welty, published in 1954. Cast as a monologue, it is rich with colloquial speech and descriptive imagery.

The narrator of the story is Miss Edna Earle Ponder, one of the last living members of a once-prominent family, who manages the Beulah Hotel in Clay, Mississippi. She tells a traveling salesman the history of her family and fellow townsfolk.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.