Persephone Reading Update

 

Hmm.  I'm not sure I have much to update you with to be honest.  I will make this short so I can go do a little of this myself tonight.  Although I have the Persephone Classics edition of Good Evening, Mrs. Craven, the endpapers to the dove grey edition look like the illustration above.  I'm always interested to know where textile came from/what the inspiration was for each book.  In this case the textile is called 'coupons' from 1941.  It "shows women's clothes against a repeat of '66', the number of clothes coupons allowed a year during the war, with the number needed per item."  Very fitting for this collection of stories.  I guess the fancier the clothes the more coupons needed.  Imagine wantingsomething that costed a year's worth of coupons!   

In case you're not taking part in this challenge but you'd like to learn more about the various Persephone titles that are being read and discussed, do check out Paperback Reader and B Files for updates and links to reviews.  Both ladies were kind enough to organize this weeklong challenge and surely have spent lots of time rounding up the links and keeping up on their own reading.  However, beware--like me you might start contemplating buying even more Persephones.  I always think I've carefully and thoroughly perused the catalog and surely have those books that are of most interest to me.  Apparently there are more I had not considered and now feel the need to do so.  Order them, that is.  I've been very bad with book ordering this week, however, so I have to try and keep my mind on my own 'not yet read' stack!

While some readers (and not just Simon--there are others as well) have been reading their books at a nice respectable clip, I'm moving along at what you might term a more sedate pace.  That's okay, though.  As Paperback Reader notes, some books are meant to be savored slowly.  Actually the stories in the Panter-Downes collection could easily be read in a week (and a more ambitious reader could easily tackle them in a day).  They are short, compelling and carefully constructed stories about the daily lives of men and women(mostly women) 'keeping the home fires burning' so to speak.  I could easily read them one after another like devouring a bag of m&m candies.  It really is hard to stop at one, but I like to contemplate what I've read and I'm afraid in the case of stories they will all simply run together if I don't give myself time to properly 'digest' them.     

One theme that often runs through Persephone novels is that of disappointment, disaffectation and disillusion with life, or maybe more specifically a woman's place in the world--due to both external forces and internal reasons.  It's something I felt when reading Princes in the Land.  I find women's lives, particularly of this era so fascinating.  In many ways things have changed vastly for women, but in others not so much.  One of my favorite stories in the collection so far is called "As the Fruitful Vine", which was dated 31 August 1940.  

"Lucy Grant had to admit that none of the big moments of her life had really come up to expectations.  Something had always missed the fire somewhere.  When she thought back to all the memorable occasions of her twenty-five years, they greeted her with the identical damp, depressing fizzle of squibs which hadn't performed quite according to schedule.  Her childhood was littered with these disappointments, her adolescence offered example after example of the budding and wilting bright hopes."

(A few spoilers here).  It doesn't help that Lucy is is often overshadowed by her older and more successful sister.  At every turn she seems faced with bitter disappointment rather than the expectation of happiness or esteem.  Even at what might be considered the happiest moment of a married woman's life--the announcement of the birth of a first child.  Rather than accepting congratulations she finds she's the object of some reproach even amongst her family.  It's bad enough to marry when there's a war on but worse to choose to have a child in such a time of uncertainty.  Lucy comes to the realization, however, that there might be more at work in the criticisms she's received--at least from her sister.  Married longer, Valerie puts her childlessness down to planning and not simple bad luck.  While Lucy literally blooms, Valerie becomes all angles, lean and thin.  Lucy has this wonderful epiphany that turns into contentment for her situation at last.

All the stories in this collection relate some aspect of life during war, most  are simply about the daily business of living, but living with evacuees or with the sound of gunfire over the channel or the drone of German bombers overhead and explosions in the distance.  So, maybe not exactly business as usual.  The stories are poignant without being syrupy sweet, they don't ask for the reader's sympathy simply tell their own story.

So much for a short post.  I shall save House-Bound for another day.          

Comments

[claire]

I have only just read my first two Persephones for Claire and verity's event, and loved them so much that now I find it so hard to keep my hands off the catalogue. Which ones did you recently order? How many Persephones have you read? Which ones? :)

[Paperback_Reader]

Wonderful, Danielle; I plan to read these short stories today as my final Persephone of the week (my to-be-read and to-buy lists, however, have grown exponentially this week! Thank you so much for participating and for fueling my Persephone passion along the way; before I blogged, I read you blog for a long time, the first post being this one:

http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/2007/11/miss-h.html

I came across it early last year when googling the birthday editions of Virago and I immediately ordered Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. You were really the one who ignited the spark that grew into a flame. Thank you!

[Dorothy W.]

You know, I haven't actually read that many Persephones, which doesn't seem right. It's just that I never come across them in used bookshops and library sales, while I come across Viragos all the time, and I'm not one to order many new books these days -- I buy new books in stores, but I haven't ordered anything online in a while. I will have to go a bit out of my way to get some Persephones at some point, I suppose.

[catharina]

The beginning of this post made me go and look on my shelves for a (dutch)book published in 1890. The beginning and endpapers look very much like a William Morris wallpaper design. Must find out more about it now that you've raised my curiousity.

[iliana]

I've not read that many Persephone books but I do know it's always taken me a while to get through the books. Not that they are difficult or anything, but there is something about the stories that you just want to sink into them and savor them. So I enjoy taking my time with them. I'm so bummed out I missed out on the Persephone reading week but maybe there'll be another one coming up?

[Tiina]

Hmm, these Persephone books are becoming more and more tempting to me!:)

By the way, I've now finished reading the Frank Tallis book. My review is here http://abookblogofonesown.blogspot.com/2009/08/chapter-15-review-mortal-mischief.html, if you want to take a look.

Greetings,
Tiina

[Darlene]

LOL! I clicked on your link and saw myself. I, on the other hand, have been doing too much of that since Monday and need to clean my house. Deacon's whimpering also tells me that I've been shirking my dog-play a bit too often. S'pose I really shouldn't be on the computer then should I? Have a great weekend!

[Danielle]

All right...I just spent a good ten minutes responding to all your comments and then Typepad went and ate them up. Bad Typepad!!! Now it is too late and I will have to try again tomorrow...

[litlove]

I can't tell you how much I want to buy some more Persephones. I've put it off this long but the fidgets are really getting to me!

[litlove]

Too late! I've done it. I've just ordered Greenery Street, The Far Cry by Emma Smith and The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett. They all looked just so good and irresistible.....

[Simon T]

A lovely post, and thanks for the mention (and, in the comments, a link to Miss H!) This week has made me want to buy so many more Persephones...

[Danielle]

Claire--Here's the lsit of books I own:
http://danitorres.typepad.com/the_lists/2007/01/persephone_book.html
Of those I've read: Mariana, The Victorian Chaise Longue, Miss Pettigrew, Greenery Street, Journal by Katherine Mansfield, Family Roundabout (my favorite so far), Hostages to Fortune, Princes of the Land, and the two I'm working on now. And I have lots more to discover!
Paperback Reader--How cool that you discovered Persephone here (or that I prompted you to read one!). I, too, have added to my wish list. Some books I hadn't thought of buying and now I think I must! :)Thanks for arranging the challenge--it would be fun to do again sometime.
Dorothy--It's too bad that they aren't more readily available in stores here. I had hoped their "classics" would be available at least, but I've yet to see them locally. I've heard of people getting them via bookmooch, but I've never been lucky enough. Viragos were at least published in the US, so there are more copies out there.
Catharina--How cool. I love nicely designed books. You don't see that so much these days. Morris designs are gorgeous!
Iliana--Some books just take me longer than others--I need time to ponder them as I go and I guess that's the case with Persephones. It would be fun to do another challenge like this again!
Tiina--Persephones can be addictive! :) Thanks for the link to your post on Frank Tallis. I'm really enjoying the book as well!
Darlene--That's a great photo. I wouldn't mind a little uninterrupted reading time this weekend myself! Deacon is probably happy to get back to his usual routine though. :)

[Danielle]

Litlove--Once you've bought a couple they become very addictive and you just want more! :) I may have to place a little order myself...You made great choices! I loved Greenery Street. Now next time you're looking for a charming book, this will really be the perfect choice. It's just such a nice story about one young married couple--nothing too taxing (but entertaining of course), and nothing to give you bad dreams. I read The Shuttle as well--my library has an old copy of it--so no nice Persephone for my shelves but I got to read the story--another good story (and I really do need to read more of Frances Hodgson Burnett! I have A Far Cry but that is as yet unread (am enjoying her memoir though).
Simon--Me as well! It amazes me that each time I look through the catalog I think I've found all the books that really interest me, but then someone will write about one of the books I passed on and then I want that one, too!