#e. m. delafield

[theblankgarden]

British Library Women Writers | Reading Project

British Library Women Writers | Reading Project

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[ablogwithaview]

Diary of a Provincial Lady IS THE BEST.

[ablogwithaview]

I see you're reading Diary of a Provincial Lady. SUCH good books. There was a BBC radio dramatisation years ago (I mean, about 15-20) that is how I got into them. I have it on cassette but I've never seen them redone digitally, unfortunately, because they are brilliant and I still listen to it regularly. Enjoy the books!

That’s such a pity! Maybe they’ll redo something soon. It’s such a brilliant book. <3

[thefearsarepapertigers]

Does not a misplaced optimism exist, common to all mankind, leading on to false conviction that social engagements, if dated sufficiently far ahead, will never really materialize?

E. M. Delafield

[sometimes-funny]

I rejoice that you have been spared. It is distressing, so ungracious a task, to express disapproval of the scheme of another. To do so unasked is, of course, unthinkable, but how frequently do the tactless force one into the admission of feelings that delicacy and good-breeding would bid one conceal!

E.M. Delafield, Zella Sees Herself

[becca-likes-books]

Book review: Consequences by E. M. Delafield

This novel is a searingly honest insight into a girl's life in Victorian England, where if you fail to find a husband after a season or two you are assigned to the shelf, to live out your years as a 'poor relation' or 'spinster aunt'. Alex Clare is awkward, naive and over-sensitive, and you feel the suffocating burden of her family's expectations, and then the crushing weight of their disappointment as she rejects the only suitor that offers to marry her. It is an excellent feminist exploration of Victorian family life, women's lack of rights, and the opressiveness of religion and morality, as Alex decides the only option left to her is to join a convent. You begin to wonder if she might not have fared better trapped in a marraige with a man she did not love. It is not an uplifting read, but the passion with which Delafield writes must have been explosive when it was first published in 1919, and I believe it remains an important asset to the women's rights movement. An incredibly moving and thought-provoking read.