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No.6

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Project 24 – #6


Drastically scaling back the number of books I’m allowed to buy in 2010 has meant that the ones I choose are likely to come (and have come so far) in three categories:

They’re out of print books which rarely become available, and the opportunity is too good to missI’ve physically been to a great secondhand bookshop and don’t want to come away empty-handed…They’re books I’ve been wanting to buy for years, but couldn’t really afford.
My sixth book of 2010 falls in category 3 – The Heirs of Jane Austen: Twentieth-Century Writers of the Comedy of Manners by Rachel R. Mather. This book could have been written with me in mind – it looks at EF Benson, EM Delafield, and Angela Thirkell as (unsurprisingly) the heirs of Jane Austen – two of my absolute favourite authors (EMD and JA), and two I like a lot (EFB and AT) all in the same book together? Wonderful. I have actually read this already, a few years ago – lent by a kind Thirkellite – but knew at some point I’d have to have a copy myself. So, there you are – no.6 has been chosen. (Sorry that I could only find a tiny picture of the book – the cover is too shiny to take a good one with my camera, under electric light.)

Which would take me to the end of March. Except, ahem, another is on its way… and I’m going to Paris at the end of March, and will be visiting the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop. Let’s hope April is a lean month…

Stuck-in-a-Book’s Weekend Miscellany

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I’m so pleased that a lot of you enjoyed the review the other day – I’ll keep my eye out for similar things in the future, so watch this space…

And it’s the weekend again, so time for a book, a blog post, and a link.

1.) The book – is one for those with deep pockets. It’s no secret that I love EF Benson’s Mapp and Lucia series, and have quite a few of his books which I’ve yet to read – but what enhances my love for these wonderful six books is (as you’ll see if you follow that link back there) the beautiful Folio edition I have of them. My friend Barbara-in-Ludlow originally lent me her set, and I hankered after them for years… eventually finding the set for only £25 in Blackwell’s Second Hand Department – possibly the only recorded instance of there being a good value book there. It was indeed a frabjous day, and I’m pleased to report that the Folio Society have reprinted this boxset – which you can see here. The colours have changed a bit, but it still looks wonderful. Thanks so much Helen for bringing this to my attention. Here’s the downside… it will set you back £120. Less if you’re a Folio Society member, perhaps, but… well, I was lucky enough to find them at a reasonable price, but they’re scarce enough and give me more pleasure than almost any other books I have. (I should be working on commission!)

2.) The blog post – is a review by Elaine at Random Jottings. This fits in nicely with the previous post, since Elaine has just read The War Workers by E M Delafield. This was one of my favourite books read in 2008, but I didn’t write about it on my blog because it was so difficult to find copies. Now that a POD company is issuing it, it seems fair to point you in its direction! First stop, Elaine’s wonderful review.

3.) The link – is not remotely reverent. But is very funny. Anybody familiar with Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart (or, indeed, anybody who isn’t) will love this literal interpretation of her music video…

E M Delafield

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I was thinking – it only seems fair that I should share with you some of the fruits of my research, which means that you get the fun bits without having to write huge swathes and have your supervisor ask you to re-write them. Basically, you’re getting the fun bit of my doctoral work, without even having to pay university fees.

Don’t worry, I shan’t quote reams of literary criticism or anything like that, but part of my recent work has been looking through old periodicals for reviews of the Provincial Lady books. And I thought you might quite enjoy the review Time and Tide gave to my favourite of the series, The Provincial Lady Goes Further. A bit nepotistic, since PLGF was serialised in Time and Tide, but never mind…

Alongside this review is a picture I came across by accident in another issue of Time and Tide – not sure how flattered EMD would have been by this likeness, but thought I’d share it with you nonetheless.

Let me know if this sort of thing interests you, and I’ll pop some more contemporary reviews in as and when I find them.

Time and Tide, November 12th 1932
Review by Francis Iles
‘Miss Delafield’s last book about her Provincial Lady was the Book Society’s first choice for December, 1930; the present one, though obviously a better book, is not even on their recommended list. As so often before in connection with the Book Society, one wonders and one wonders. Oh, ruddier than the Ike… [Simon’s note: this is a reference to Red Ike, one of the Book Society choices]
Miss Delafield has always seemed to me a writer who has not received quite her due. I have seen it written, and by a responsible critic, that when one has read one of her books one has read them all. The only explanation of such a remark is that the responsible critic himself has not read them all; for, with the exception of the impishly experimental Mr. C. S. Forrester, I know of no other author who has ever produced four consecutive books more different in every respect than A Reversion to Type, Messalina of the Suburbs, Mrs. Harter, and The Chip and the Block.
For the sly humour that arises out of a maliciously penetrating observation of character, with never a word of superfluous explanation or a jog of the reader’s elbow, and still more for economical, mordant delineation of feminine character through dialogue (her men are not always so successful) Miss Delafield has no equal. Her technique is as brilliant as it is self-effacing. She can pack more self-revelation into a couple of ordinary spoken sentences, than any other novelist. I always remember a certain Vicar’s Wife in one of her books, who appears only once and who speaks only five words, but from those five words we at once know everything there is to be known about her; we know what her husband thought about her and what her cook, we know exactly how she would have decorated the parish hall for a Penny Reading, and why she could never cook an omelette. She is watching a set of very inferior country tennis, and one of the players has just muffed a shot; the Vicar’s Wife turns to her neighbour and says brightly: “Just like Wimbledon , isn’t it?” Miss Delafield, in fact, lacks only a rather stronger sense of construction and plot to be one of the most important novelists writing today; for her more serious work, though less intensely individual, will stand comparison with any other writer’s, while in her own particular line of satirical humour she is unsurpassed.
The Provincial Lady Goes Further is, of course, Miss Delafield at her very lightest, and it is one of the wittiest books that has appeared for years. I read it at a sitting; and, though perhaps it would have been better taken in 100-page doses, the book stood it, which its predecessor did not. It is a better book than The Diary of a Provincial Lady because the interest is more diversified. The scene shifts more rapidly, between the country and London and even to a Literary Congress in Belgium , with the result that we meet a better-contrasted set of people. Moreover the Provincial Lady herself is shown as less of a figure of fun than in the earlier book, so that we really can believe that she has written the important novel which has opened the doors of Bloomsbury to her, with such admirable results for the reader. The whole thing is a little masterpiece of sly fun, which one will want to buy and keep because it will bear endless re-reading.’

Alice

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So, tonight I went to see Alice in Wonderland. I’ve just about come to terms with calling it that when I’m talking about the film, as I suppose it’s the proper title, but when we’re discussing the book, make sure you say Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ok? Right. Glad we’ve cleared that up.

Tim Burton – who is the only director who could possibly do Alice – sets his version of the book when Alice is 19, paying a return visit to Wonderland. So all the same characters are there (from Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There as well) but he can throw in a Hollywoody Quest Plot where Alice has to slay the Jabberwocky. In a nice touch, they refer to this foretold event as The Frabjous Day.

Burton never seems to quite decide whether he’s adapting the book or creating a sequel – everything is new to Alice, who has forgotten most of what happened (Tweedledee – or is it Tweedledum? – voiced my thoughts at one point when he said “Surely she should remember all this from the first time?) but that’s a small matter when it comes to his realisation of Wonderland, which is rather wonderful. Very Tim Burton. Even better than the setting are the characters – Helena Bonham Carter is, visually and character-wise, perfect as the Red Queen; Johnny Depp is delightfully mad as the Mad Hatter; Stephen Fry was born to be a Chesire Cat. And so it goes on – some great decisions with make-up and special effects make the characters dazzling. The only dubious member of the cast was Mia Wasikowska as Alice, who wasn’t brilliant… but once she got to Wonderland she didn’t have much to do but look surprised and/or determined, and she managed that with aplomb.

My real problems with the film were mostly about the plot – I know that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland doesn’t have a very linear plot, but it does have a brilliant rhythm and warped internal logic, which could perhaps have been carried across to the film. Instead, the plot led to the inevitable battle scene… why do all big budget films have to have a battle scene now? I blame Lord of the Rings… they’re always so long and dull and nothing happens except we see just how much money they had to throw at CGI axes.

Also – perhaps I should have expected this with Tim Burton – the film was rather more sinister than the book. I’m mostly thinking about the hedgehogs… (what a sentence to write!) who enjoyed being croquet balls in the book, but were terrified in the film. Everyone seems contentedly mad in the book, and rather more scared in the film – but I don’t think Burton will ever make a cheery film.

Still, worth seeing – doesn’t match up to the book, but it is one of my favourites so that comes as no surprise – and I got all excited about it being in 3D (you just know in five years time that our 3D film technology is going to look wildly dated). Let me know if you’re going to see it, and what you think… (and make sure you read the books)

My previous experience with getting videos across from YouTube haven’t always been successful, but hopefully above this post is the 1903 version of Alice which I’ve seen linked to in a few places… look out for some wonderful ‘surprise-acting’ and quite impressive effects for over a hundred years ago.

David Golder

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As I mentioned yesterday, amongst the hmphing, the trip to London gave me the opportunity to read Irene Nemirovsky’s David Golder (1930), her second novel and the one which propelled her to fame in France. More importantly, given that I had about two hours of travel in which to read it, it’s fairly short. Which is always a plus here at Stuck-in-a-Book. I read Suite Francaise (along with most of the country, it seems) about 18 months ago for my book group, and wrote about it here. About the only things that David Golder has in common with that novel are a) the influence of Nemirovsky’s Jewish heritage, and b) her great writing.

As Patrick Marnham points out in his introduction, David Golder is actually vulnerable to accusations of anti-Semitism – at least it would be if it were published now, in its use of something of a stereotypical central figure. David Golder is ‘an enormous man in his late sixties’, obsessed with accruing money. His ruthless lust for money – which drives a former business partner to suicide in the opening pages of the novel – make uncomfortable reading when one bears in mind the sort of anti-Semitic propaganda was shortly to be used. Since Nemirovsky was herself Jewish, it is less awkward – although (again, as the introduction points out), she was keenly pro-assimilation and considered herself French at least as much as she considered herself Jewish.

But Nemirovsky is cleverer than any initial conclusions about David Golder suggest, of course. We soon learn that Golder is in fact the least mercenary of his family once his wife Gloria and grown-up daughter Joyce are introduced. In one of Nemirovsky’s brilliant little passages, Golder ‘pictured his own wife quickly hiding her chequebook whenever he came into the room, as if it were a packet of love letters.’ Both Gloria and Joyce are forever asking Golder for money, buying expensive jewellery, and all the while declaring that he does nothing for them. And, it appears, even believing it. Gloria happily spends 800,000 francs on a necklace, but begrudges the money he gives his daughter; who, in turn, throws a tantrum when he won’t buy her a car.

David Golder sees the protagonist facing several crises. His businesses aren’t doing well; he realises the disrespect and lack of love his wife and daughter show him; he has a heart attack. All of these are devastating to him, and come to a head when he discovers that he has not much time to live – the novel then follows his final months (as he sees them). Will he forgive his family and try and build a life with them? Will he exact revenge upon them and leave them penniless? Will other avenues open up, other priorities?

Nemirovsky’s portrait is – belying the opening feeling I had – subtle and even wise. She has no heavy-handed point to make, but rather a fascinating individual to delineate. Golder and his family feel real, and his actions feel like real actions, motivated by his realisations and emotions rather than plot direction or authorial intervention. In short, David Golder is a very good piece of writing, and encouragement to me to read more widely in Nemirovsky’s work. Perhaps Suite Francaise did so well because of the true story attached to it – Nemirvosky’s death in Auschwitz and the subsequent discovery of the manuscript over fifty years later. But as Nemirovsky’s daughter Denise, and translator Sandra Smith, stressed at the talk I (almost) attended – we can decide to view Irene Nemirovsky either as a victim or a writer. They – quite rightly, and strongly – believe she should be seen as a writer.

Hmph

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I am very annoyed with myself. Today I should have been reporting back on Jewish Book Week for the second time, and specifically a talk entitled Celebrating Irene Nemirovsky. Except… for some reason, I was certain that the talk started at 7.30pm. Just managed to get onto the Tube at about 7.10pm, gave the ticket a quick check… and discovered that it started at 6.30pm. Amusingly, I’d written 7pm in my diary. I’ve probably scribbled down 2.15pm somewhere else, and midnight-under-a-full-moon somewhere else again.

So. Four hour round trip for ten minutes of a talk – which was probably brilliant, I’m afraid I have no idea. It was nice to hear Irene Nemirovsky’s daughter Denise speak (albeit briefly, and in French, ably translated by Sandra Smith who also translates Nemirovsky’s work) and the journey there gave me the opportunity to read Nemirovsky’s David Golder, so I’ll blog about that before too long.

Very frustrated with myself – but, even though I didn’t hear him talk about it, Oliver Phillipponnat was there in his capacity as Nemirovsky’s biographer (with Patrick Lienhart) and I think The Life of Irene Nemirovsky is another to go onto the list…

As well, of course, as a better organisational mind. Tsk.

Stuck-in-a-Book’s Weekend Miscellany

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Happy weekend, everyone! I’ve had one of those not-very-productive weeks, in terms of work and in terms of reading. Not sure quite where it went, to be honest, but still picked up a few bits and pieces for a Weekend Miscellany…

1.) The blog post – is a lovely review of Miss Hargreaves over at Hayley’s blog Desperate Reader – click here to hear how my, er, persuasions have been noted over the years – and how they proved fruitful.

2.) The book – is one I heard about over at Cornflower, who is a fellow Debo fan – Deborah Mitford, or Deborah Devonshire as we should call her (or Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, if you feel so inclined) has succumbed to public pressure and written her autobiography: Wait for Me! You might remember my love of all things Mitford from 2008, and I’m excited about this – there is so much that Debo says that I don’t agree with, but she says it all so charmingly that she’s the most delightful Grumpy Old Woman imaginable. To the extent that none of her opinions really sound grumpy… but instead rather adorable. The book isn’t out til September, so this is very early warning – but I expect some of you will be putting pre-orders in even as I type…

3.) The link – I’ve been very parasitical this week – thank you Cathie from my email group for this fascinating link. It’s an article in The Guardian by AS Byatt about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but also mentions all sorts of other children’s classics, like the Wizard of Oz series, The Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh… and reminds me to point out the link to a beautiful webpage of many different artists’ impressions of Alice et al, that link being down in the left-hand column under ‘Places of Beauty’. Enjoy!

And, finally, I thought I’d let you know that the latest Bloggers Books of the Month are available at the Big Green Bookshop and on its webpage (including my choice, which I love – see all the choices here) – and I’m sure you’ll want to join me in congratulating Simon from the shop on his beautiful new baby boy…

Grammar Day

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Apparently today has been Grammar Day! (Cue awful joke: what about Grandpa Day, huh?) Booking Through Thursday inform he thus, and ask this:

In honour of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books? More importantly, have you read them? How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?
Yes, BTT, yes it does matter to me. I have a few guides dotted around, don’t tend to read them… but I do own a T-shirt with this on it (my T-shirt isn’t yellow, but this is the only good image I could find):


I understand that, in the long run, grammar probably doesn’t matter… but I don’t love grammar-accuracy out of snobbishness or a need to be superior, but just because it feels right. And, even more so, it feels horribly wrong to get it wrong. Perhaps your reaction is the same as my friend who wrote on Facebook the other day: ‘If there’s one thing I hate, it’s pedanticness’ – to which my reply, of course, was ‘I think you mean pedantry.’

Over to you…

JBW: Save the Children

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I’ve had a fun afternoon in London, attending the first of two Jewish Book Week events I’m going to this week (check back on Monday for the second). Today’s was called Save the Children, and was about Jewish evacuation during the Second World War. Both speakers were personable and excellent, and it was a really good session.

Ruth Barnett was four when she was part of Kindertransport in 1939, living in England for the following ten years. During that time she developed a love for the country, and for the countryside, and was horrified when her father used a court order to make her return to Germany – especially, as she said, since she’d been exposed to propaganda in England for ten years, and wrongly believed all Germans (not just Nazis) to be cruel and unspeakable. For the next four years, until she was able to claim British citizenship, she was a Person of No Nationality, the title of the book she has written about the experience. Astonishingly, it wasn’t until she was over fifty that she realised what Kindertransport really was – having previously thought that her experience and her brother’s was exceptional.

The second speaker was Susan Soyinka who, though not an evacuee herself, has written a book about the Jewish Free School moving to Mousehole (pronounced Maows-ull) in Cornwall. She was one of those speakers you just want to go and hug… the topic obviously touched her greatly, and she was a little overcome emotionally – which heightened how good her talk was, rather than the opposite. It was a truly uplifting story, about a small village which generously welcomed strangers from the East End of London – I definitely want to get hold of her book From East End to Land’s End, based on extensive interviews and research. A few of the evacuees were actually in the audience for the talk, as well.

That’s just a taster of the event – I’m keen to track down those books, and was hugely impressed not only with the lucidity and warmth of the speakers, but with the genuine curiosity and selflessness of those in the audience who asked questions. So often Q&A sessions are just taken as opportunities for people to give their own lengthy opinions, whereas the questions at the event were interesting and actually questions, rather than diatribes disguised as questions!

Do have a look here to see what other events are still to come, and try to get along to something if you can. There’s such a variety of interesting topics and speakers, and the programme is rather better than most other literary festivals I’ve seen…