The Three Endings of Alice Munro’s story “Corrie”

Like all good short-story writers, Alice Munro often makes revisions to her stories between the time they first appear in a journal or magazine and when they appear later in an anthology or in a collection under her own name.  She has twice made changes to the ending of her short story “Corrie,” which first appeared in the Oct. 11, 2010 issue of The New Yorker—first in The PEN/O. Henry Awards anthology and second in her latest collection, Dear Life.  She also changed the name of one of the characters in the Dear Life version of the story from Sadie to Lillian.

 The story focuses on Corrie’s affair with a married man named Howard Ritchie.  Howard tells Corrie that he and his wife have gone to a dinner party and saw the woman Sadie Wolfe (Lillian Wolfe in Dear Life), who once worked for Corrie. He says he later received a letter from this woman, threatening to tell his wife about his affair with Corrie.

Later in the story when Sadie/Lillian dies, Corrie goes to a reception following the funeral and meets a woman who Sadie/Lillian also worked for.  All who knew Sadie/Lillian agree that she was blessed, a rare person. Later that night, Corrie thinks about all this and realizes that Sadie/Lillian was not the kind of person to blackmail anyone.  (Maybe Munro changes her name from “Sadie” to “Lillian” because whereas a woman named Sadie might be a blackmailer, a woman named Lillian might not.)

One of the ambiguities of the story results from the point of view Munro uses when Howard tells Corrie about the blackmail threat. The dinner party encounter is described primarily not as if Howard is telling Corrie about it, but rather as if it actually happened, although all Corrie and the reader know about the blackmail threat comes from Ritchie’s account. Munro makes a minor change in the Dear Life version to remind us that Ritchie’s story is the only account we have:

New Yorker version:  “Howard did not tell Corrie about the dinner party right away, because he hoped it would become unimportant.”

Dear Life version: “Howard said that he had not told Corrie about the dinner party right away, because he hoped it would become unimportant.”

One clue in all three versions that Ritchie has invented the letter from Sadie/Lillian is Howard’s quote from the letter: “I would hate to have to break the heart of such a nice lady with a big silver-fox collar on her coat.”  To this, Corrie responds, “How would Sadie know a silver-fox collar from a hole in the ground…? Are you sure that’s what she said.”  When Ritchie replies, “I’m sure,” Corrie says, “She’s learned things then.”  A bit later, Corrie says that Sadie/Lillian was not this smart before. However, when Corrie goes to the funeral reception and hears what others have said about Sadie/Lillian before she died, she knows that Sadie/Lillian has not learned to be scheming. 

Now, let’s look at the changes Munro makes in the ending of the story:

The New Yorker Oct 11, 2010 version:

           She gets up and quickly dresses and walks through every room in the house, introducing the walls and the furniture to this new idea.  A cavity everywhere, most notably in her chest.  She makes coffee and doesn’t drink it.  She ends up in her bedroom once more, and finds that the introduction to the current reality has to be done all over again.
            But then there is a surprise.  She is capable, still of shaping up another possibility.
            If he doesn’t known that Sadie is dead he will just expect things to go on as usual.  And how would he know, unless he is told? And who would he be told by, unless by Corrie herself?
            She could say something that would destroy them, but she does not have to.
            What a time it has taken her, to figure this out.
            And after all, if what they had—what they have—demands payment, she is the one who can afford to pay.
            When she goes down to the kitchen again she goes gingerly, making everything fit into its proper place.

The Pen/O.Henry Awards version, published April 2012:

          She gets up and quickly dresses and walks through every room in the house, introducing the walls and the furniture to this new idea.  A cavity everywhere, most notably in her chest.  She makes coffee and doesn’t drink it.  She ends up in her bedroom once more, and finds that the introduction to the current reality has to be done all over again.
            But then there is a surprise.  She is capable, still of shaping up another possibility.
            If he doesn’t known that Sadie is dead he will just expect things to go on as usual.  And how would he know, unless he is told? And who would he be told by, unless by Corrie herself?
            She could say something that would destroy them, but she does not have to.
            What a time it has taken her, to figure this out.
             She could say right now, what does it matter? Whatever goes on will go on.  Someday, she supposes, there will have to be an end to it.  But in the meantime, if what they had—what they have—demands payment, she is the one who can afford to pay.
            When she goes down to the kitchen again she goes as if gingerly, making everything fit into a proper place.
            She has calmed down mightily. All right.            But in the middle of her toast and jam she thinks, No.            Fly away, why don’t you, right now? Fly away.            What rot.            Yes. Do it.

Dear Life version, published by Knopf, November 15, 2012.

(The Canadian version was published by Douglas Gibson Books on Oct. 13, 2012)

         She gets up and quickly dresses and walks through every room in the house, introducing the walls and the furniture to this new idea.  A cavity everywhere, most notably in her chest.  She makes coffee and doesn’t drink it.  She ends up in her bedroom once more, and finds that the introduction to the current reality has to be done all over again.
         The briefest note, the letter tossed.        ‘Lillian is dead, buried yesterday.’        She sends it to his office, it does not matter.  Special delivery, who cares?       She turns off the phone, so as not to suffer waiting.  The silence.  She may simply never hear again.        But soon a letter, hardly more to it than there was to hers.       ‘All well now, be glad. Soon.’       So that’s the way they’re going to leave it.  Too late to do another thing.  When there could have been worse, much worse.

The issue, of course, is whether Corrie will tell Ritchie that Sadie/Lillian is dead, and whether she will also tell him that she knows about his lie and his taking her money all these years. However, if she tells him she knows, she will have to end the relationship, and she does not want to do that.

In The New Yorker version, Corrie has not decided whither to tell him that Sadie/Lillian is dead, therefore allowing him to continue to take her money.

The PEN/O.Henry version emphasizes her vacillation between telling him what she knows and not telling him anything.

In the Dear Life version, Corrie has decided to tell Ritchie about Lillian’s death, but she has decided not to tell him that she knows of his lie and his money scheme. 

By telling Ritchie that Lillian is dead, Corrie effectively ends his taking more money from her, for now that she knows the money goes to Ritchie directly, she would feel as if she were paying for his company. The fact that Ritchie replies, “All well now, be glad.  Soon” means that the relationship can continue, for Corrie believes that Ritchie is not staying with her just for the money.

As far as I can determine, Munro has not made public why she made these changes to the ending of “Corrie.”  The Dear Life version may placate some readers who had no sympathy for Corrie’s reluctance in The New Yorker version to tell Ritchie about Sadie’s death.  But readers still may fault Corrie for not telling Ritchie that she knows about his secret. But how can she fault Ritchie for his secret about the money when she wants him to continue to maintain his secret about their relationship? 

I would be interested in hearing what my readers have to say about these three different endings to “Corrie.”