Aspal Lilacs offers a selection of classic and mainly English novels which take us back to gentler times.
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A Well Full of Leaves
by Elizabeth Myers
A Well Full of Leaves begins with the childhood of the heroine Laura and her three siblings in a dysfunctional family somewhere in the North of England in the 1920s. In spite of the dire circumstances in which she is brought up, Laura’s enthusiasm for life enables her to experience the ‘singing and the gold’ not only in nature but in the most mundane of her surroundings.
Mrs Christopher
by Elizabeth Myers
Mrs Christopher focusses on the nature of good and evil and reflects the author’s Christian faith as well as her literary genius. It opens dramatically with a murder which initially seemed to represent salvation for the blackmail victims of the deceased but turns out to be the ultimate test of their morality.
Elizabeth and her German Garden
by Elizabeth von Arnim
In this semi-autobiographical novel Elizabeth recounts the pleasure she takes in her garden at Nassenheide, Pomerania in Germany. She delights in each season and experiences her garden as an escape from domestic life with her husband, whom she describes as the Man of Wrath, and her five children.
Expiation
by Elizabeth von Arnim
The novel opens with the heroine, Millie, discovering that her wealthy and recently deceased husband has written her out of his will on account of her discreet but long-standing adultery during their marriage. As the plot unfolds we watch the husband’s wider family struggle to hide any consequent scandal and maintain their respectability in a south London middle-class suburb. The author paints a vivid picture of the social mores of the time and particularly the subservient role which women of the time were subjected to.
Reuben Sachs
by Amy Levy
The central theme of Reuben Sachs, published in 1888, is the London Jewish Community of the late 19th century and in particular the relationship between Reuben Sachs and Judith Quixano. The novel highlight the differences between the so-called Sephardi Jews (from Spain via Amsterdam) and Ashkenazi Jews (from Poland and Eastern Europe). Reuben Sachs is Ashkenazi while Judith Quixano is a member of the well-established and integrated Sephardi community.
Miss Meredith
by Amy Levy
Elsie Meredith is one of three unmarried daughters of a widowed mother living in London in straightened circumstances. Elsie receives an offer of an engagement as governess with an aristocratic Italian family living in Pisa, the central Italian town with its famous leaning tower. With much trepidation she sets out on an adventure which includes both a romance and an unexpected ending. Much of the novel is focussed on Elsie’s growing appreciation of the beauties of the ancient town while she struggles with her feelings for the eldest son of the family who is visiting from the United States.
The Call
By Edith Ayrton Zangwill
Edith Ayrton Zangwill (1879-1945) was the daughter of William Ayrton a physicist and electrical engineer and Matilda Chaplin Ayrton, a doctor. Matilda died in 1883 Hertha pursued a successful career as a scientist and was the first woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. She was also a strong supporter of the suffragette movement.
Given the examples of both her mother and her stepmother it is not surprising that Edith attended Bedford College (1890-92), became a scientist in her own right and supported the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. In 1903 she married the author Israel Zangwill, famed for his stories of Jewish life and in 1885 William Ayrton married Sarah Marks (1854-1923) the daughter of a Jewish family living in Portsea. Sarah (who later adopted the name of Hertha) was sent to London to be educated and 1876 she went up to Girton College, Cambridge to read mathematics.
The Call, first published in 1924, covers the years 1909-18. The main protagonist in the novel is Ursula, a scientist and also a suffragette, Ursula’s ambitions and ideals undoubtedly reflect Edith’s own experiences in respect of both her professional career and her political views. There is also a romantic theme which adds colour and pace to what might otherwise have been a rather sombre and didactic story.
The Godwits Fly
by Robin Hyde
Robin Hyde was the pen-name of the New Zealand writer, Iris Guiver Wilkinson (1906-1939). She was born in South Africa to an English father and an Australian mother. Before Hyde’s first birthday the family moved to Wellington, New Zealand where she attended Wellington Girls’ College and then, briefly, Victoria University of Wellington. When she was eighteen Hyde suffered a knee injury which caused her to be in pain for the rest of her life. In 1925 she began her first job as a journalist with the Wellington newspaper Dominion Post. She suffered recurring bouts of mental illness and in 1939 she committed suicide while in England.
The Godwits Fly was first published in 1938. Godwits are New Zealand birds who yearn to fly North, just as many New Zealanders yearned for England. It is a lyrical novel, considered to be largely autobiographical and describes growing up in Wellington in the early years of the 20th century. The principal character in the novel is Eliza Hannay, striving to survive as a woman in a stifling and male-dominated colonial society.
William – an Englishman
by Cicely Hamilton
Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) was a multi-talented actress, author and suffragette. Born London and educated in Malvern and Bad Homburg, Germany, she served as an, ambulance driver in a military hospital near Paris during the First World War. William – an Englishman was written in 1918 and draws on the author’s experiences both of the War and in the women’s suffrage movement.
The hero of the novel William Tully, is a young English clerk with socialist ideals who meets a similarly naïve and idealistic young woman, Griselda. They spend their honeymoon in an idyllic cottage in the Ardennes but are overtaken by the beginnings of World War 1 and find themselves on the Belgian front. The stark reality of their experiences of War test their ideals to the limit.
The Diary of a Provincial Lady
by E.M. Delafield
The novel takes the form of a diary kept by a married woman in her middle thirties, living in Devon at the beginning of the 1930s. The family is upper-middle class and suffering from the Great Depression while trying to keep up appearances with inadequate means. The un-named narrator lives in fear of letters from the bank manager and is driven to pawning her great aunt’s diamond ring. But what could be a depressing tale of woe is lightened by comedy and the narrator’s good humour.
The Crowded Street
by Winifred Holtby
The heroine of The Crowded Street is Muriel Hammond, a young woman living in Edwardian times in a Yorkshire village. The story begins with Muriel as a nine-year-old girl looking forward with great excitement to her first formal party. Unfortunately the party turns out to be a great disappointment where Muriel experiences only rejection and social failure. Life seems to take a more positive turn at her school when she is befriended by a new girl, Clare Duquesne who has all the self-confidence and worldly knowledge which Muriel lacks. However, following the mores of the time, Muriel believes that after leaving school her duty is to stay at home and assist her mother until she finds a suitable husband. As for so many women of the time, the First World War brings changes and experiences which cause Muriel to think that a different future might await her.
The Rector’s Daughter
by Flora MacDonald Mayor
Flora MacDonald Mayor (1872-1932), was an English novelist and short story writer. The Rector’s Daughter, sometimes considered to be semi-autobiographical, was published by the Hogarth Press in 1924. The heroine Mary Jocelyn, lives at Dedmayne Rectory. She has spent much of her 35 years looking after her handicapped sister. When the sister dies, Mary is left as a companion to her widowed father, a classical theologian. Although living a very restricted existence, Mary takes pleasure in her reading and the passing of the seasons. However a visit from a local curate with whom she develops a close relationship brings expectation of a fuller and even romantic future.
Brook Evans
by Susan Glaspell
Susan Glaspell (1876 – 1948) was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress.
Born and brought up in Davenport, Iowa, she rebelled against the constraints of contemporary society and its expectations of women by attending Drake University in Des Moines. She graduated in June 1899 and then worked as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. However in 1901 she gave up her job at the newspaper and returned to Davenport with the intention of concentrating on her writing career, having already published a number of short stories. Her status as an author ensured her participation in Davenport social and intellectual life where she met and married George Cram Cook, a twice-divorced father of two. The scandal consequent on Cook’s second divorce caused the couple to leave Davenport and move to Greenwich Village. Brook Evans, which Glaspell published in 1928, is divided into three time periods. The first begins in 1888, then moves forward to 1907 and finally to the 1920’s. The story is one of a tragic youthful love and the compromises which the consequences of that love force upon a young woman brought up in a strictly religious environment. Susan Glaspell portrays the suffering of generations of a family torn between love and duty in an exquisitely crafted and compelling prose.
Fidelity
by Susan Glaspell
Susan Glaspell (1876 -1948) was an American author, born and brought up in Davenport, Iowa. The society in which she was raised did not encourage women to go into further education, but Glaspell was brave enough to risk incurring their wrath by attending Drake University. After graduation she worked for the Des Moines Daily News as a reporter. In 1913 she married George Cam Cook who had been married to someone else when they first met. Fidelity was her third novel and was first published in 1915. It draws on heavily on Glaspell’s personal experience. The heroine of the story is Ruth Holland, a young woman from a Midwestern town called Freeport, Iowa. Like Glaspell, Ruth falls in love with a married man. She defies convention by running away with him. At the heart of the novel is the response of her family when she returns 11 years later on the death of her father.