This post is the first of two where I review novels written by British women authors who are largely - but not entirely - forgotten today.
All the books are published by the Furrowed Middlebrow via Dial Press and are available as ebooks and trade paperbacks. I came across them by the Furrowed Middlebrow Blog that was listed on yet another blog, and I was curious enough to investigate their catalog of books - some 72 of them - and go on to read some sample pages on Amazon. They publish a good number of D. E. Stevenson books, an author who I have read and reviewed already on this blog. However it was Molly Clavering who I happened to sample first because her stories were set in Scotland, and liking what I read, I actually purchased one to read. Having enjoyed that title, I've gone on to purchase seven more titles of hers plus two other authors so far. I've sampled several more titles, but they did not quite intrigue me enough to get me to hit buy button, however I will likely be returning to this collection at some point in the future to see what else I can find, since for some strange reason, I very much enjoy this type of story.
My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.
Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.
As I you have sees in my statement above, I like small stories with pleasant characters, and for some reason these little stories of everyday life in Scotland and England in the first half of the last century appeal to me.
In this first installment, I'm going to review books by Molly Clavering, the first two written under her early pen name of B. Mollett from 1936 & 1939.
Susan Settles Down by Molly Clavering B+ (Written as B. Mollett)
Written in 1936, it is the story of Oliver, an ex-Royal Navy officer with a leg smashed in a car crash, inherits a rundown manor in the Scottish Border lands, and of his mid-30’s single sister, Susan who keeps house for him, which in the case of many of these books, means overseeing the cook and maids who do the actual housekeeping. In the course of the story we meet the local residences, get a glimpse of the tide of life in that age in rural Scotland, and watch several tentative romances weave their way through the narrative. In short a light little novel, the type of story I like – a quiet, relatively realistic understated romance set in a lushly, and lovingly, described countryside. Miss Clavering was a neighbor and good friend of D E Stevenson, whose books, as I mentioned, I’ve read decades ago. I actually paid money for the digital copy of this book after reading the free sample of another book which I will be reviewing shortly.
Touch Not the Nettle by Molly Clavering C + (Written as B. Mollett)
This story is a return to the locales and characters in Susan Settled Down written several years later in 1939. It introduces several new characters, the local Heriots, brother Larry and sister Ruth, two rather unpleasant people, and Amanda Carmichael, the possibly widowed shirttail relative of Susan’s husband Jed, who they take in help her to escape her domineering mother while she awaits word about the fate of her husband, an aviator whose plane disappeared, and is thought to have crashed in the Brazilian jungle. We learn the state of Amanda’s marriage, and the reasons behind the unpleasantness of the Heriots. I did not like this one quite as much as the first book, perhaps because it had some unpleasant characters.
The next four Clavering books I read were written between 1953 and 1956, and they are much more mellow books, with older protagonists. These early books I think are still slice of life stories, but have some mildly melodramatic elements, and more conflicts. Though there are two more of the "B. Mollett" books from this era that are available, their blurbs don’t appeal to me, so I think I’ll pass on them for now.
Near Neighbors by Molly Clavering B+
I can’t for the live of me say why I find these little domestic slice of life stories so delightful, as a character in these stories might exclaim. But I do. And always have. Decades ago I read all of the Miss Read books I could find in the library, as well as most of D E Stevenson’s books, plus a number of similar but more contemporary stories set in the America. Moreover, as I mentioned in the intro, I have always been fascinated by life in England in the first half of the 20th century, be it the Fu Manchu stories of Sax Rohmer, the London books of H V Morton, the comic stories of P G Wodehouse, and the adventure stories of John Buchan. And in similar vein, the Cape Code stories of Joseph Lincoln. I just find them more engaging than sprawling epics with world shattering stakes, just as I would much rather read a history book entitled “Every Day Life In…” than a book that focused on kings and queens, princes and knaves, generals, wars, and politics. Go figure.
This story is set in Edinburgh post WW2. The main character, Dorothea is a 68 year old spinster whose domineering elder sister has just died. Over the years she has watched the comings and goings of the neighbor family, a widowed mother, four daughters, (one married with the youngest 16) and a son. After the funeral, one of the daughters sees Dorothea in the window and decides to pay her a call of condolences, something she wouldn’t done when the elder sister was alive. This visit is the beginning of a friendship between Dorothea and the Lenox family and the affairs, love and otherwise of the Lenox family, as well as the emergence of Dorothea as her own person.
I find these stories interesting in their fictionally enhanced view of everyday life in England. The main characters are what I suppose you’d call upper class middle class, i.e. they’re not rich, but well off enough to employ at least a cook, if not a maid as well. And if they have young children nannies and nurses. Though we sometimes get a view of the lower classes as well, they are filtered through the eyes of the upper class middle class writers of these stories.
Mrs Lorimer’s Quiet Summer by Molly Clavering B+
I really like the way Miss Clavering wrote. While there is nothing identifiable Clavering in the writing, as one could say about, say, P G Wodehouse, nor is there nothing startling about the stories she tells, they are stories about the little domestic dramas of upper middle class life in Britain before and after World War Two, nevertheless she writes them with such a deft fluidity that her stories have an understated elegance to them. I couldn’t put my finger right on it, but I’ve read Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett, a novel written for the same market, and it just doesn’t have quite the charm of Miss Clavering’s stories. Review of that book is coming next week.
This novel concerns, as the title suggests, one summer in Mrs. Lorimer’s life, though it is not quite as quiet as the title suggests. The Lorimers, Mrs., a successful author, and Colonel Lorimer, now retired and an avid gardener, have a house in the Scottish Border lands. Mrs Lorimer feels, with some justification, that the house too small for when all four of their children, two sons and two daughters plus their families come for a week long visit. Some of the children have to stay at her best friend’s house, Miss Douglas. Each of them bring with them their own problems, a broken heart, an unhappy marriage, a dreamy, un-domestic wife as well as a long lost lover, for Mrs Lorimer to try to sort out. Once again we are treated to life in Scotland in 1950 seen through (likely) rose colored, upper middle class glasses, which, as I’ve said I find entertaining.
Dear Hugo by Molly Clavering B
A Story set in the early 1950’s Scottish Border lands, in the village of Ravenskirk, likely a fictionalized version of Moffat where Miss Clavering lived for a time. Sara Monteith writes a series of mostly monthly letters to Hugo, the brother of Ivo, her love killed in WW2, who is an officer stationed in Northern Rhodesia. The letter format is just a loose framing device, and it reads pretty much like a first person narration, with just a few asides to the recipient. Sara has moved to Ravenskirk for sentimental reasons; it was the home of Ivo and his brother, she wanted to be closer to his memory. She somewhat reluctantly agrees to look after Arthur, the teenage of a cousin of hers. He is moving to the U.S. with a new wife, and Arthur, having been raised with his grandparents, did not settle in with his father's new wife and family. The story covers several years as Sara and Arthur, who is away during the school year at an Edinburgh boarding school quickly bond. As usual, it tells the story of everyday life, the people and the countryside in rural Scotland as well as the special social events around the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. And, as usual ,there is just a hint of romance.
I should note that Sara in this story is not wealthy enough to employ a full time maid or cook, but does employ a part time maid to keep her small house in shape. She is not employed outside of the home, but lives on some sort of inheritance, plus money she receives from her cousin for the care of his son. I have to wonder if the necessity of employing even part time help to keep house is a reflection of how many time saving devices we enjoy today that allow most people to keep house without help, or a reflection of the social attitude of the time; a gentlewoman does not do housework. I'll report back if I ever get a better insight into this phenomena.
Because of Sam by Molly Clavering B
Another story set in the Scottish Border lands of the early 1950’s, i.e. a contemporary story at the time it was written. This story features the long widowed Millie Maitland who has a rather prickly daughter Amabel who is in her late 20’s and is employed in Edinburgh. Once again, Millie gets some sort of income from inheritance, but has to make ends meet by taking in dogs as boarders for vacationing people. Sam in the title being one of the dogs she looks after for a neighbor's cousin. And once again we’re given a story of everyday life in rural Scotland, its people their social customs and classes, seasons, and setting, with several traces of romance woven through it. However, though all of Miss Clavering’s books, romance is only a minor element. Miss Clavering’s heroines, like the author herself, are independent women whether married or not.
Next week I will review two more books from two different British women authors published by the Furrowed Middlebrow from this time period. But until then, a period cover...
No comments:
Post a Comment