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Dear May, Life and Death of Harriett Frean (1922) traces the eponymous character’s downfall from a promising child to a nonentity. Our protagonist, Harriett, the only child…… Read more “Being good felt delicious”
Tag: Modern Classics
She was shuddering in a body long ago dead
Dear Marghanita, The Victorian Chaise Longue (1953) follows Melanie Langdon, a young married woman who is recovering from tuberculosis. When the novel opens, we are somewhere in the…… Read more “She was shuddering in a body long ago dead”
How good we all are at talking without ever saying what we think
Dear Ivy, I guess I will never be completely at ease at being cast among those whom Barbara Pym would describe as ‘the sort of people who…… Read more “How good we all are at talking without ever saying what we think”
Only the skin chairs are true
Dear Barbara, As The Skins Chairs (1962) starts, ten-year-old Frances has been sent to stay with the Lawrences, her mother’s rich relatives. In one of her strolls…… Read more “Only the skin chairs are true”
Both had come from an incommunicable experience
Dear Rosemary, The Chinese Garden (1962) centres on Rachel Curgenven, a bookish sixteen-year-old student at Bampfield, a British girls’ boarding school whose “ideal was designed to turn…… Read more “Both had come from an incommunicable experience”
Childhood is dark and it’s always moaning
Dear Tove, In Childhood (2019, tr. Tiina Nunnally. Original: Barndom, 1967), your portrait of the artist as a working-class girl is no rosy picture. Born in an…… Read more “Childhood is dark and it’s always moaning”
What fun she would have as a ghost
Dear Elspeth, Who can resist an awkward, introverted misfit with a wild imagination and a tragic fate? Janet, your protagonist in O Caledonia (1991), is a girl…… Read more “What fun she would have as a ghost”
And the flower is still up on the hillside
Dear Marita, As The Purple Flower (1928) opens, we are told that we are in “The Middle-of-Things-as-They-are”, in an unusual setting: “Might be here, there or anywhere—or…… Read more “And the flower is still up on the hillside”
I felt that laughter could be the dawn of a word
Dear Sara, The short stories and vignettes in your Land of Smoke (2018, tr. Jessica Sequeira. Original: El país del humo, 1977) walk us through the mist…… Read more “I felt that laughter could be the dawn of a word”
At least we learned that war is madness
Dear Fumiko, Everyone is drifting in your Floating Clouds (2006, tr. Lane Dunlop. Original: 浮雲, 1951). When the novel opens, WWII has ended and Yukiko is returning…… Read more “At least we learned that war is madness”
My mother never held my hand
Dear Violette, At one point in Asphyxia (2020, tr. Derek Coltman. Original: L’Asphyxie, 1946), the unnamed narrator is standing on the sidewalk, peeking through a window at…… Read more “My mother never held my hand”
A trail of books: on Carolina Nabuco’s A Sucessora (‘The Sucessor’, 1934) and the plagiarism charges against Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938)
The other Rebecca A Sucessora (1934, ‘The Successor’) opens with a couple returning from their honeymoon trip. The first chapter unravels through an extended scene that feels…… Read more “A trail of books: on Carolina Nabuco’s A Sucessora (‘The Sucessor’, 1934) and the plagiarism charges against Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938)”
Her heart is this red apple
Dear Irina, When Isolde (2019, tr. Bryan Karetnyk and Irina Steinberg. Original: Изольда, 1929) opens, it’s summer, sometime in the wild 1920’s, and we are in Biarritz.…… Read more “Her heart is this red apple”
The music of life and living
Dear Dorothy, We are forever exiles of our childhoods, but sometimes the smallest details can bring us back to our neverland. It takes one song, a slant…… Read more “The music of life and living”
A kind of door in oneself through which it was necessary to pass
Dear Mary, The Friendly Young Ladies (1944. Published in the USA as The Middle Mist, 1945) is at its best when walking the tight rope of double…… Read more “A kind of door in oneself through which it was necessary to pass”
A small jewel that has always been hopelessly flawed
Dear Isobel, Every Eye (1956) is a novella that plays with the ideas of perspective and sight, narrated by a character who is trapped in her blind…… Read more “A small jewel that has always been hopelessly flawed”
Fauna smiles upon the love of intertwined women
Dear Renée, For the past couple of days, I’ve been trapped inside a stuffy Victorian room heavily decorated with rich furnishings, intricate pieces of furniture, some middle…… Read more “Fauna smiles upon the love of intertwined women”
Careering along like drunken drivers
Dear Shelagh, A Taste of Honey (1958) centres on teenage Jo and her mother, Helen. They are always falling behind on rent, and, as the story starts,…… Read more “Careering along like drunken drivers”
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