32 Greenacres - Dorothy Whipple
There was a thread on GN sometime ago about favourite authors from the past, I think, which threw up the name of the above, I'd never heard of her, but those who'd read her seemed to really like her books, so when I found a couple of her works in the library, I thought I'd give her a try. With the exception of Agatha Christie and Enid Blyton, I'm not sure I've read any authors from early to mid century (20th) this book was published in the early 30s. I really enjoyed it, I think in many ways she must have been quite a feminist for her time. The story centres around a comfortably off middle class family, living somewhere in a suburban town in the North of England, there are mentions of long journeys by train to London for business and shopping trips. The lead character is sympathetic matriarch, Louisa Ashton, mother of 6 grown up children, married to a philanderer, who is to die half way through in the company of another woman. The story is set a few years before the 1st World War through to its aftermath and into the 1920s. It's told mainly from Louisa's perspective and that of her much loved and favourite granddaughter Rachel who over the course of the book grows from a small child to a young woman. A reoccurring theme is that of women controlled and constrained by men. When Rachel wins a state scholarship to go to Oxford, she is thwarted by her father Ambrose who is of the opinion that education is not for women, she would lose her charm and become a blue stocking, not an appealing prospect in his opinion. Ambrose is a bully of a man who controls, his wife Letty, Rachel's mother, who intermittently suffers from depression and would like a life beyond that of her housewifely duties. He takes it upon himself to take over Louisa's investments upon his father-in-law's demise and in doing so loses her money in the process. During the course of the book, there are two characters who bear children out of wedlock, one being Laura, another daughter of Louisa who marries a man she doesn't love for money and status and subsequently leaves him for her first love. Her husband digs his heels in and refuses her a divorce when a baby is on the way, although eventually he is to do so, but not before Laura has scandalised polite society. The other, Kate, who comes to work for Louisa as a companion having been cast off by the father of her child and cut off from any money by her own father for having a baby out of wedlock.
A very good read I thought.
