An update and some new VMCs!

It's been exactly a month since I last posted on this blog, I haven't been managing to keep up with much reading at all, let alone VMCs. I have actually been doing some rereading - I have gone back to Rosamund Lehmann (and have Dusty Answer in my bag for work for tomorrow), and I reread My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier last week whilst on my holidays (not sure that a gothic novel is the best choice for a sunny beach holiday, but I did enjoy the reread nonethless.

I was excited to return home from my holidays yesterday to a parcel of new VMCs - three of which I have read before, and two which I haven't. I'm very excited that Virago have decided to reprint Sylvia Townsend Warner, with The corner that held them and Lolly Willowes out at the start of March. I wrote about them a while ago on the blog, and I rather like these whimsical new covers. There is also going to be an e-book release of The dolls house and other stories, which is four short stories which have been recently discovered in the New York Public Library archive. Introductions to the two physical books are by Philip Hensher and Sarah Waters - it's always great to see eminent contemporary writers championing the Virago Modern Classics. I didn't actually own any SWT books so I am excited to have these as part of the collection.

Released on the 8th March is a new paperback edition of Daphne Du Maurier's Vanishing Cornwall. This is one of my very favourite books which I was very happy that Virago brought out in a beautiful hardback about 6 years ago, and now it appears as a glossy paperback with all of the original pictures. This book was described by The Times as "an eloquent elegy on the past of a county she loved so much" and I do recommend it to anybody with an interest in Cornwall or DDM.

Finally, amid these goodies is the second volume of Vera Brittain's autobiography which tells the story of Winifred Holtby. I don't think that I've ever read this book and I am looking forward to learning more about Holtby and the relationship of the two women. If it's as good as Testament of Youth then it'll definitely be worth reading.


(I've just spotted the the STW novels are under embargo until the 1st, so I shall set this post to post then!)

Charms for the easy life (Kaye Gibbons)

Charms for the easy life is the fourth Kaye Gibbons novel that I've read for this challenge and she's an author that I have enjoyed reading who I probably would not have picked up otherwise - the front of this novel compares her to a later Eudora Welty (another author I've read as a result of VVV) and I think that this is true through the way that she writes about women's lives in rural America.

Charms for the easy life follows the story of three generations of women, told by the grandaughter Margaret. It is a story without a strong male presence, neither Charlie Kate her grandmother or her mother Sophia is married any longer, although they have various romantic entanglements, and it is interesting to see a world depicted where women can very much try to make it on their own even though it is the 1930s and there are many obstacles in the way.

Charlie Kate is a "healing woman", with considerable skill, she is the person often summoned when neighbours and other people in the town suffer ill health much to the chagrin of the local doctor who does almost everything he can to impede her work even though it is almost immediately obvious to the reader that she does things better.

What is so striking about this book is the way that the women depend on each other and can cope without depending on men, which makes it an interesting companion read to some of my most recent VMC reading such as Gissing's The odd women.

It's been published just the once by Virago with a green spine but very ungreen cover!

Two Mary Webb VMCs

So last week I decided to tackle two more Mary Webb books which had been languishing in the TBR pile. Not overly enamoured by the ones that I've read so far (is it really only three, it feels like many more), but at least there is only one more to go after these two, the first and last books that she wrote.

The golden arrow was Webb's first novel, apparently penned in just under three weeks. Set in a poor farming community in Shropshire and strongly infused with Christian morals, it tells the story of Stephen and Deb who are searching for a "golden arrow" which is said to bind couples together if it is found on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, an old Shropshire legend. He was originally a preacher, but came to reject religion and convinces Deb to live with him out of wedlock which is the start of their downfall. Although they later get married, Stephen feels tied down and finds it difficult to love Deb in the same way.

The armour wherein he trusted was Webb's last novel and was in fact unfinished. It certainly feels quite "bitty" compared to her earlier works, and it is published here with 10 short (in some cases only two pages) stories. The main story is supposedly a medieval romance, set in the 11th century where an abbot named Sir Gilbert recalls his early life as a knight and his spiritual struggles to follow Christ. It seems to be very much a didactic book about trying to achieve heavenly ideals rather than earthly ones.

I enjoyed the short stories rather more, especially a little one about a woman who yearns to recieve a bouquet of flowers. Quite an extravagance, and really she is lucky enough to have money to put in the gas and to buy tea. However, she gives in to the desire and decides to treat herself to some flowers for her birthday. The day before, she goes to the market, chooses the ones she wants in her bouquet, tells the market seller that they are for a dear friend, and goes home for a sleepless night filled with anticipation of the next day. She waits, and waits and waits. Where are the flowers? Of course her landlady thought that they couldn't possibly be for her. It's like a kick in the stomach after the anticipation of seeing her get the flowers.

Both of these have just been published once by Virago with the original green covers.

The glimpses of the moon (Wharton)

My colleague handed me The glimpses of the moon by Edith Wharton after the Christmas break. She, like regular readers, knows that I have struggled with Wharton books on this challenge finding them difficult to relate to, so she didn't mind too much when I wasn't terribly effusive. Let me be clear however, I was still grateful to have a VMC that I had not yet read put into my hands, and actually, I have to admit to getting more out of it than I was expecting.

Although, like the other Wharton books I have read, this focuses on "society", it had a strong plot line from the start which interested me enough to want to keep reading. Penniless Nick and Susy have just got married and are on honeymoon; we discover that it has been a pragmatic marriage where they think that marriage will benefit them financially and within society. They intend to live off their wedding present cheques and the hospitality of their friends and acquaintances and believe that these will last for about a year before running out. They make an agreement that should one of them have the opportunity to marry someone wealthy, they will break the marriage. However, when a misunderstanding results in them going off with other people, it seems that the time spent together has not just had a pragmatic effect, they have actually fallen in love.

I realised whilst I was reading the book that the reason I think I struggle with Wharton's books is because the emphasis on society life seems to make the characters predominantly interested in superficial things such as money and social hierarchies. Although this was certainly a strong theme in this book, I sensed from early on that perhaps this wasn't the most important thing.

Maybe I should try The house of mirth next which has been waiting for me for quite a while...

This has just been published once by Virago with an italicised green cover. Thanks again to Alison for passing it to me. Bizarrely it has the same number as No place on earth by Christa Wolf.

Story of an African farm (Schreiner)

After two very plot driven VMCs, I struggled a little bit with A story of an African farm. It was recommended to me many years ago by a very dear friend but I had never got around to reading it before now. Although it follows the narrative of two women growing up, it is much more essay and description than actual story.

A story of an African farm follows Lyndall and Em, who live on a sheep farm in the Boer in South Africa. Published at the end of the nineteenth century, the book illustrates that the options available to women in South Africa were as limited as those in England (as illustrated in the last two VMCs that I read, Red Pottage and The odd women). The book describes Em’s willingness to accept her limited options and Lyndall’s refusal, leading her to leave home to attend boarding school and find a relationship, although having witnessed unsuccessful marriages she refuses to consider this for herself.

You can read a more extensive review of the book here .

Although it's been published many times, it's just been published once by Virago Modern Classics with the original green cover.

Red Pottage (Cholmondery)

I purchased Red Pottage after reading Simon’s review about it – it seemed to have been yet another VMC that had passed me by thus far. It joined the TBR but flushed with the success of enjoying The odd women last week I thought it only right to attempt this book too – partly because it had been recommended by a fellow blogger, but mainly because it was published in the same year.

What makes this book so gripping is the way it starts with a suicide pact between two men associated with the Lady Newhaven – her husband and her lover – they draw straws and the one with the shortest straw must die within 5 months. Lady Newhaven overhears the drawing of the straws but has to wait for five months to find out who it is.

Around this suicide pact we follow the story of Rachel West and Hester Gresley, childhood friends who have ended up in quite different circumstances in adulthood. Rachel is a heiress following years of povert y whilst Hester is forced to live with her vicar brother who has quite a different way of life to the one which she would choose. He conforms to all of the social expectations, but she is writing a novel which is anything but.

Bits of the book are intensely humourous such as when the man who has drawn the short straw is nearly drowned (unintentionally) and ends up being rescued by the other man.

Although this book, along with The odd women, did some more to dispel my distrust of Victorian VMCs, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much – I wonder perhaps because I read it so close to a book that I had loved. I didn’t find its commentary on women went as far – it was much more a book about friendship between women than the lot of women. On the other hand, it went a lot further into the issue of class which plagued society, satirising it.

Do look at Simon’s review as it goes into it a lot further than me!

Confessions of a failed Southern lady

Although this book reads exactly like a novel, and there is nothing on the blurb to indicate that it is anything but, Confessions of a failed Southern lady is actually the memoir of the author, Florence King. I picked it up as I needed something very different after Gissing and this book certainly fitted those criteria.

The author starts by stating that although "there are ladies everywhere...they enjoy generic recognition only in the South. There is a New England old maid but not a New England lady. There is a Midwestern farm wife, but not a Midwestern lady. There is most assuredly a Californian girl, but if anyone spoke of a California lady, even Phil Donahue and Alan Alda would laugh".

This book is devoted to Florence's grandmother's attempts to get turn her grandaughter into a Southern lady, having failed dismally with her mother. To escape these pressures, Florence goes to a college far away from home where she ends up falling in love with a female professor - pretty much contrary to what her grandmother would have wished for. However in the process of standing up for herself, Florence does eventually come to understand what her grandmother wanted for her and achieves some sort of compromise/

This is quite an entertaining book, more so I think once one realises that it is a memoir!

It's just been published once by Virago with this modern cover and an introduction by Sandi Toksvig.