Enjoyable short vignettes by BC artist and writer Emily Carr. Yet this is not the equal of some of her other books - notably Klee Wyck, Growing Pains, and the The Book of Small. These stories concern her years running a boarding house and raising dogs as her main income. While all her memoirs are insightful and compelling, her anecdotes here centre on often inconsiderate, sometimes dishonest and occasionally pitiful renters, illustrating how unpleasant those years were for Carr. Her boarding house brought her into close contact with unfamiliar people and relationships, interactions and chores, and she reacted by categorising them and writing rather resentfully about her tenants' behaviours as payback. This broad disdain for people, coupled with Carr's love of (and evident preference for) animals evident in this writing, particularly in the appended stories about raising dogs, leaves a parting impression of a rather sour and disillusioned person. Fortunately her other memoirs - also written in late life - provide a more fully rounded view of her personality and humanness. ( )

"THE HOUSE OF All Sorts could not have been quite itself in any other spot in the world than just where it stood, here, in Victoria, across James' Bay and right next to Beacon Hill Park."

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that while I knew about Canadian painter Emily Carr's paintings, I wasn't even aware that she was also known for her writings as a early chronicler of life in British Columbia. I used to walk past the Emily Carr House, a national and provincial historic site, every day when I worked in James Bay, so, when I discovered this book with stories of her time as a landlady renting out sections of her studio home as an apartment dwelling to help pay the mortgage and taxes on her house on Simcoe Street, as well as to sustain her, I picked it up out of curiosity more than anything else.

I am not a huge fan of Emily Carr's paintings - they are just not my style - but I was quite taken with her writing style and the stories she told in this autobiography of sorts. The writing style has a beautiful, even flow to it. It also provided a very candid portrait of her thoughts and feelings of the closed world of the Victorian art society (they had turned their backs on her for 'experimenting' with her artwork), the trials and tribulations of being a landlady to the "All Sorts" that trooped through her door over the years, and her menagerie of animals (the Bobtails in her kennel, her Persian cat and her monkey Woo) she loved so dearly.

Originally published in the later half of 1944, the last full year of Carr's life, the volume was a combination of two groups of short stories: The House of All Sorts comprises 41 short stories or vignettes of Carr's landlady apartment house days, and Bobtails with 25 vignettes related to the kennel Carr keep to breed and sell Old English Bobtail sheepdogs. I found the stories to be fresh, vibrant with description and feeling and short enough that they could easily be read in a postal line-up, on the bus or anywhere else where a reader can grab a quick five minutes to read a story. Myself, I devoured all of the stories in less than 24 hours and came away from reading this one as if I had found a kindred spirit. I have already managed to locate more of Carr's literary works and look forward to reading them as an interesting view into the artist and the British Columbia she lived in. ( )

In an introduction to the book Susan Musgrave has provided a brief biographical snapshot of Emily Carr. The house was intended to provide income as a boarding house thus allowing the artist to work on her painting. It was situated on Simcoe Street where it now joins Government Street in the James Bay area of Victoria, B.C. on what was her share of family land. It was originally called Hill House, named for the nearby Beacon Hill Park. Later it was to become known as the House of All Sorts. It still exists as a historic tourist attraction and heritage site.

The boarding house was trying right from the beginning when her dealings with the builder were fraught with trouble. Tenants proved to be even more difficult: the work, which she handled alone, was grueling; and as she was often swindled out of rents, the profit was almost non-existent. Carr's living space and studio were eventually reduced to a minimum of space in the attic. The House of All Sorts is a collection of short stories partly about her experience as a landlady and is somewhat of an emotional release from the "filthy tenants". Although she lost many battles with renters, she certainly had the last merciless word. Let's hope some of the renters recognized themselves.

The second part of the book contains stories about Carr’s alternative business breeding her beloved Old English Bobtail sheep dogs. Considering the amount of work required earning the mortgage payment it is surprising that she found time to paint.

This is the last book Emily Carr wrote. I can recommend it. Her straightforward style has withstood the test of time without becoming dated.

On a personal note: When I lived in Victoria in the 1990s my friend lived in a little pink house next door to The House of All Sorts. ( )