Elizabeth Strout, Willa Cather, and women’s lives – welcome to episode 152!
In the first half, Rachel and Simon discuss whether we prefer reading novels about women’s professional lives or their home lives. In the second half, we compare two novels about educators – Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House and Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say.
(Apologies for an earlier version of this episode that went out with only the first half. Hopefully this one works!)
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The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart
Jane Urquhart
Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr
When The Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Emma by Jane Austen (!)
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
The Lark by E. Nesbit
Economy Must Be Our Watchword by Joyce Dennys
The L-Shaped Room trilogy by Lynne Reid Banks
A Pin To See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse
The Friend in Need by Elizabeth Coxhead
Fresh From the Country by Miss Read
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Barbara Pym
Muriel Spark
A Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
Helen Ashton
One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens
One Pair of Feet by Monica Dickens
My Turn to Make the Tea by Monica Dickens
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Carol by Patricia Highsmith
Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
Agatha Christie
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather
Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Alan Ayckbourn
When The Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén
Only About Love by Debbi Voisey
Besides the fact that I love the Tom Outland sections of The Professor’s House, I think it’s integral to understanding Godfrey’s life and motivations. He sends his family away for the summer essentially so he can be alone with Outland’s diaries. Outland plays an outsize role in Godfrey’s life either as a lost son, or some would say, as a lost lover. Either way, it’s a relationship those around Godfrey don’t understand.
As for the contents of the diaries, Outland’s experiences echo some of what Godfrey is feeling about his life and career. Reflecting on what is important in life and how true we are to those ideals.
I think I’d have got that understanding more if he had stayed off the page, but I see what you mean.
The length of Middlemarch is intimidating but it’s really worth reading! However, I have to warn you that I found the first 100 pages rather dry — but it’s worth sticking with! It’s been awhile since I read it but I remember it as sort of a cross between Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope, with a bit of the small-town feeling of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Now that I think about it I really should read it again, it’s been too long!
I did once read the first 100pp, as an undergrad, and gave up… so I will bear that in mind and persevere!
Thank you to both, I found this really enjoyable and interesting. Your analyses and reflections on both books were thought provoking. I did enjoy reading The Professor’s House and Things we Never Say. It was a masterful idea to do the two together as the connections were fascinating. I agree with Rachel that TWNS was not as good as the other Elizabeth Strout novels and, although I note your point about empathy aligning with ones political views, in some ways, even that statement suggests that those whose political views differ form the ’empathic one’ are inevitably lacking in compassion. The overt political views did rather detract from my enjoyment as it started to feel it was as much about the political message as the story and character development. .
In some ways, I thought The Professor’s House was a slightly strange book, partly due to the unusual structure with the story in the middle. However, on reflection, I would say I preferred that one of these two and it certainly has encouraged me to seek out more by Cather.
If you liked that Cather, I think you have others you’ll love even more ahead of you! And interesting that it was your and Rachel’s least favourite Strout when it is comfortably my favourite so far – but that may well be because of the audio experience.