First, a couple of D. K. Broster fandom things, thanks to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theseatheseatheopensea: Flight of the Heron is now available as a pdf on archive.org; and here is another photograph of Broster herself, in academic dress and accompanied by a little magazine bio that must have been written while she was working on FotH!
According to Gibson by Denis Mackail (1923). A loose series of comic stories which Mackail narrates in character as himself, recording the absurd but entertaining tall tales told to him by Gibson, a mysterious eccentric from his club. The stories themselves feature ghosts, improbable scientific developments, political intrigue and various involved and contradictory backstories for Gibson himself, about whom Mackail's fictional persona eventually discovers a little more of the truth... The stories were good fun—the style and sense of humour are very much reminiscent of P. G. Wodehouse—but nowhere near as good as Greenery Street, which was a bit of a disappointment.
Afoot in England by W. H. Hudson (1909). More lovely nature/travel writing—this one is about Hudson's various adventures travelling around England (by which he, as so often in literature, means the south of England) on foot and by bicycle, staying in remote villages and famous cities, observing both the natural world and the people he meets and writing about it all in beautiful detail. There are various interesting local places, the Roman ruins at Silchester (I recognised the name Calleva from Rosemary Sutcliff!), watching the midsummer sunrise at Stonehenge, more on the avian residents of Salisbury Cathedral and lots more, all illustrated with some absolutely gorgeous descriptive writing and enlivened by Hudson's sometimes slightly odd but usually interesting opinions. (I've just learnt from his Wikipedia page that he was a supporter of Lamarckian evolution—still within the bounds of scientific respectability at this time, but it's still somehow funny to think of it overlapping with the beginnings of the modern conservation movement).
Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane (1917). Well, this is something of a book! It's set at a girls' school and deals with the relationship between two teachers: Clare Hartill, the de facto head of the school who rules with a sort of domineering manipulativeness and is widely adored by the girls, and Alwynne Durand, a new and very young mistress who quickly becomes a favourite with the girls and best friends with Clare. (I shipped it from the omelette onwards, of course). Also important is the relationship between Clare and one of her protégés, the thirteen-year-old and academically brilliant Louise Denny, whom we see struggling with the standard of work in the higher form into which Clare has promoted her alongside a difficult and unhappy home life. It all ends badly. That Clare and Alwynne's relationship is a lesbian one is never stated in so many words, but is almost kind of taken for granted by the book—others characters talk about how Alwynne is acting as though she was in love, how obviously Clare is incompatible with the idea of marriage for Alwynne, and so on. Apparently this book inspired The Well of Loneliness, and I can definitely see the resemblance, in the ideas about what lesbians are and how relationships between women work, and in the shape of the ending. This book has a really, really bad ending. ( A rant about the really, really bad ending ) It was still worth reading! Interesting historically as well as in the intrigue at the school—there are some great moments of characters trying to manipulate each other at cross purposes and totally misunderstanding each other's intentions, very darkly funny. Also, poor Louise. :(
theseatheseatheopensea: Flight of the Heron is now available as a pdf on archive.org; and here is another photograph of Broster herself, in academic dress and accompanied by a little magazine bio that must have been written while she was working on FotH!According to Gibson by Denis Mackail (1923). A loose series of comic stories which Mackail narrates in character as himself, recording the absurd but entertaining tall tales told to him by Gibson, a mysterious eccentric from his club. The stories themselves feature ghosts, improbable scientific developments, political intrigue and various involved and contradictory backstories for Gibson himself, about whom Mackail's fictional persona eventually discovers a little more of the truth... The stories were good fun—the style and sense of humour are very much reminiscent of P. G. Wodehouse—but nowhere near as good as Greenery Street, which was a bit of a disappointment.
Afoot in England by W. H. Hudson (1909). More lovely nature/travel writing—this one is about Hudson's various adventures travelling around England (by which he, as so often in literature, means the south of England) on foot and by bicycle, staying in remote villages and famous cities, observing both the natural world and the people he meets and writing about it all in beautiful detail. There are various interesting local places, the Roman ruins at Silchester (I recognised the name Calleva from Rosemary Sutcliff!), watching the midsummer sunrise at Stonehenge, more on the avian residents of Salisbury Cathedral and lots more, all illustrated with some absolutely gorgeous descriptive writing and enlivened by Hudson's sometimes slightly odd but usually interesting opinions. (I've just learnt from his Wikipedia page that he was a supporter of Lamarckian evolution—still within the bounds of scientific respectability at this time, but it's still somehow funny to think of it overlapping with the beginnings of the modern conservation movement).
Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane (1917). Well, this is something of a book! It's set at a girls' school and deals with the relationship between two teachers: Clare Hartill, the de facto head of the school who rules with a sort of domineering manipulativeness and is widely adored by the girls, and Alwynne Durand, a new and very young mistress who quickly becomes a favourite with the girls and best friends with Clare. (I shipped it from the omelette onwards, of course). Also important is the relationship between Clare and one of her protégés, the thirteen-year-old and academically brilliant Louise Denny, whom we see struggling with the standard of work in the higher form into which Clare has promoted her alongside a difficult and unhappy home life. It all ends badly. That Clare and Alwynne's relationship is a lesbian one is never stated in so many words, but is almost kind of taken for granted by the book—others characters talk about how Alwynne is acting as though she was in love, how obviously Clare is incompatible with the idea of marriage for Alwynne, and so on. Apparently this book inspired The Well of Loneliness, and I can definitely see the resemblance, in the ideas about what lesbians are and how relationships between women work, and in the shape of the ending. This book has a really, really bad ending. ( A rant about the really, really bad ending ) It was still worth reading! Interesting historically as well as in the intrigue at the school—there are some great moments of characters trying to manipulate each other at cross purposes and totally misunderstanding each other's intentions, very darkly funny. Also, poor Louise. :(
