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The theme of "The Crowded Street" is one that is familiar from
other Persephone novels: it was then assumed that young women would
stay at home while looking for a husband. Muriel, who believes that
'men do as they like' whereas women 'wait to see what they will
do', lives in a town in Yorkshire waiting - for what? She tries to
conform to the values of her snobbish, socially ambitious mother;
she tries to be 'attractive' to men; and, eventually she is
rescued, by her friend Delia, a young woman who is in some ways a
portrait of Vera Brittain. Throughout the description of life in
small-town 'Marshington', Winifred Holtby expressed her conviction
that young women should be allowed to live away from home, to work,
to develop as personalities away from their families, to shake off
the ties that many mothers seemed to think it was their prerogative
to impose on their daughters.There are other themes, too, which
make the novel fascinating: parts of it are set during the First
World War (in 1918 Winifred had left Oxford to serve with the WAACs
in France) and it was with first-hand knowledge of war that she
spent much of her short life writing and lecturing about pacifism.
Then there are the pre-Cold Comfort Farm scenes: Muriel's sister's
marries a farmer's son and lives in circumstances that would,
perhaps, contribute to Stella Gibbons' satirical gaze a few years
hence. Although Muriel goes away to school, most of the novel
describes her life waiting for life to begin, waiting for a
husband."The Crowded Street" is thus about the need to withstand
the tyranny of sex success. Turn and twist how you will, it comes
to that in the end. This book's conclusion is that 'the thing that
matters is to take your life into your own hands and live it,
accepting responsibility for failure or success. The really fatal
thing to do is to let other people make your choices for you, and
then to blame them if your schemes should fail and they despise you
for the failure'.
Mary Robson is a young Yorkshire woman, married to her solid,
unromantic cousin, John. Together they battle to preserve Mary's
neglected inheritance, her beloved farm, Anderby Wold. This labour
of love - and the benevolent tyranny of traditional Yorkshire ways
- have made Mary old before her time. Then into her purposeful life
comes David Rossitur, red-haired, charming, eloquent: how can she
help but love him? But David is a young man from a different
England, radical and committed to social change. As their
confrontation and its consequences inevitably unfold, Mary's life
and that of the calm village of Anderby are changed forever.
When Sarah Burton returns to her hometown as headmistress she is
full of ambition, determined to create a great school and to
inspire her girls to take all they can from life. But in the
aftermath of the First World War, the country is in depression and
ideals are hard won. Lydia Holly, the scholarship girl from the
shacks, is the most brilliant student Sarah has ever taught, but
when her mother's health fails, her education must be sacrificed -
there is nobody else to care for the children. Robert Carne of
Maythorpe Hall stands for everything Sarah despises: his family has
farmed the South Riding for generations, their position
uncontested. Yet Sarah cannot help being drawn to this proud,
haunted - and almost ruined - man. South Riding is a rich,
panoramic novel, bringing vividly to life a rural community on the
brink of change.
The third novel by the author of "South Riding" Joanna Burton was
born in South Africa but sent by her missionary father to be raised
in Yorkshire. There she dreams of the far-off lands she will visit
and adventures to come. At 18, tall and flaxen-haired, she meets
Teddy Leigh, a young man on his way to the trenches of World War I.
Joanna has been in love before--with Sir Walter Raleigh, with the
Scarlet Pimpernel, with Coriolanus--but this is different. Teddy
tells her he's been given the world to wear as a golden ball.
Joanna believes him and marries him, but the fabled shores recede
into the distance when, after the war, Teddy returns in ill health.
The magic land turns out to be the harsh reality of motherhood and
life on a Yorkshire farm, yet still she dares to dream.
This is the story of Muriel Hammond, at twenty living within the
suffocating confines of Edwardian middle-class society in
Marshington, a Yorkshire village. A career is forbidden to her.
Pretty, but not pretty enough, she fails to achieve the one thing
required of her - to find a suitable husband. Then comes the First
World War, a watershed which tragically revolutionises the lives of
her generation. But for Muriel it offers work, friendship, freedom,
and one last chance to find a special kind of happiness...
Mandoa is a small African state. At its head a virgin princess
conceives (immaculately) further princesses. The old traditions are
undisturbed until the Lord High Chamberlain visits Addis and
discovers baths and cocktail shakers, motor cars and telephones.
This is 1931.
Caroline Denton-Smyth is an eccentric, dressed in trailing feathers
and jangling beads, peering out from behind her lorgnette. Sitting
alone in her West Kensington bedsitter, she dreams of the Christian
Cinema Company - her vehicle for reform. For Caroline sees herself
as a pioneer, one who must risk everything for the 'Cause of the
Right'. Her Board of Directors is a motley crew including Basil St
Denis, upper crust but impecunious; Joseph Isenbaum, aspiring to
Society and Eton for his son; Eleanor de la Roux, Caroline's
independent cousin from South Africa; Hugh Macafee, a curt Scottish
film technician; young Father Mortimer, scarred from the First
World War; and Clifton Johnson, a seedy American scenario writer on
the make. Winifred Holtby affectionately observes the foibles of
human nature in this sparkling satire, first published in 1931.
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