First Virago down, four (or maybe more) to go. How to follow up such a wonderful book as Mollie Panter-Downes's One Fine Day? The obvious choice was Elizabeth von Armin's Enchanted April, since I've heard how wonderful it is from more than one person! Besides, it's April and I could use a little escapism. The prose is gorgeous and I have a hard time making myself set it aside every day. It begins:
"It began in a woman's club in London on a February afternoon,--an uncomfortable club, and a miserable afternoon--when Mrs. Wilkins, who had come down from Hampstead to shop and had lunched at her club, took up The Times from the table in the smoking-room, and running her listless eye down the Agony Column saw this:
To Those who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine. Small mediavel Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be Let Furnished for the month of April. Necessary servants remain. Z, Box 100, The Times.
That was its conception; yet, as in the case of many another, the conceiver was unaware of it at the moment."
This is a wonderful novel and I can see why so many readers call it a favorite. With every chapter I like it a little bit more. I can't quite decide whether to pace myself and go slowly or ignore everything else and just read Elizabeth von Arnim!
Although my Virago reading project is quite laid back, it's made me contemplate which books I'd like to work on first (my collection is slowly growing and I think I must have close to 70 of them now). I don't really want to have a set list, since my mood is always changing, but there are certain books I keep thinking about. I think I'd like to draw from these books to begin with.
Molly Keane, The Rising Tide. Molly Keane (or M.J. Farrell as she is also known) seems to have written quite a few novels. She seems like an important author and I'd like to read something by her. I have several of her books. Has anyone read her work? Any favorites? I pulled The Rising Tide aside: "One glorious Gothic mansion--Garonlea--and two rather different ladies who would be Queen. Lady Charlotte French-McGrath has successfully ruled over her family with a rod of iron until the arrival of Cynthia: beautiful, young, talented, selfish--and engaged to her son Desmond. When Cynthia enters the Jazz Age, on the surface her life passes a whirl of hunting, drinking and romance. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from generation to the next."
Margaret Kennedy, The Constant Nymph. This was a bestseller when it was first published. "Tessa is the daughter of a brilliant bohemian composer, Albert Sanger, who with his 'circus' of precocious children, slovenly mistress, and assortment of hangers-on, lives in a rambling chalet high in the Austrian Alps. 'Unbalanced, untaught, and fatally warm-hearted,' the fourteen-year-old Tessa has fallen in love with Lewis Dodd, a gifted composer like her father. Confidently, she awaits maturity (and Lewis). For even his marriage to Tessa's beautiful cousin Florence cannot shatter the loving bond between Lewis and his constant nymph."
Antonia White, Frost in May. This was the first Virago published and I definitely plan on reading it this year. "Nanda Gray, daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when in 1908 she goes to the Convent of the Five Wounds. Quick–witted, resilient, and enthusiastic, she eagerly adapts to this cloistered world, learning rigid conformity and subjection to authority. Passionate friendships are the only deviation from her total obedience. Convent life — the smell of beeswax and incense, the petty cruelty of the nuns, the glamour and eccentricity of Nanda's friends — is perfectly captured by Antonia White."
Joan Wyndham, Love Lessons. "It is August 1939. As a teenage Catholic virgin, Joan Wyndham spent her days trying to remain pure and unsullied and her nights trying to stay alive. Huddled in the air-raid shelter, she wrote secretly and obsessively about the strange yet exhilarating times she was living through, sure that to her, this was 'the happiest time' of her life."
Rosamund Lehmann, Dusty Answer. "Dusty Answer is Judith Earle's story—her solitary childhood spent in the seclusion of her riverside house, her awkward, intense experiences at Cambridge rounded with passion and disillusionment, and her travels abroad with her elegant, socialite mother. Above all, this novel is about Judith's consuming relationship with the Fyfe family, who each fall in love with Judith, transforming her young womanhood."
Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians. "Sebastian and Viola are children of the English aristocracy. Handsome and moody, 19-year-old Sebastian is heir to Chevron, a vast country estate. Tying him to his inheritance is a deep sense of tradition and love of the English countryside, but he loathes the cold, extravagant society of which he is a part. At 16, his sister Viola is more independent: an unfashionable beauty who scorns every part of her inheritance—most particularly that of womanhood. It is July 1905, and Chevron is once again the site of a lavish house party. The guests include the great beauty Lady Rochampton and the explorer Leonard Anquetil. It is Lady Rochampton who will initiate Sebastian in the art of love, but it is Anquetil who opens for both brother and sister the gateway to another world."
Winifred Holtby, Poor Caroline. Winifred Holtby was mentioned often in Singled Out, which I read earlier this year. "Caroline Denton-Smyth is an eccentric, remarkable for her vivid costumes trailing feathers, fancy beads and jingling lorgnettes. Sitting alone in her West Kensington bedsitter, she dreams of the Christina Cinema Company--her vehicle for reform. For Caroline sees herself as a pioneer, one who must risk everything in the 'Cause of Right'."
E. Arnot Robertson, Ordinary Families. This is a coming of age story, which Harriet Devine recently wrote about.
My list could have been much longer. I've left off Elizabeth Taylor, Daphne Du Maurier and Vera Brittain, all of whom I want to read more of this year. And then there are all the lesser known (to me) authors that I own and want to read. Alas, first Elizabeth and Italy and then, who knows where I'll end up next. The thing with Viragos, though, I don't think I can lose out reading any of these authors!