Themed Read January 2022: Nuns, Teachers and Governesses

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Themed Read January 2022: Nuns, Teachers and Governesses

1BeyondEdenRock
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 4, 2022, 10:01 am

Welcome to our January 2022 Themed Read.

This thread is going up a little early to give everyone who wants to join in the chance to have their books lined up and ready to read.

Our theme this month is NUNS, TEACHERS AND GOVERNESSES.

We ran them together because there is a certain overlap and because we weren’t sure there were quite enough books in each category, though when we looked we found that there were more than we thought.

This month’s possibilities include the very first VMC and the book that the most members of this group have in their libraries – though not all of us may realise that it is a VMC.

Here are the books you might read from the Virago list.

Nuns

Frost in May by Antonia White (#1)
The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien (#15)
Women in the Wall by Julia O’Faolain (#170)
The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner (#299)
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden (#566)
Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden (#576)
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (#579)

Teachers

Pointed Roofs by Dorothy Richardson (#18) (Pilgrimage Volume 1 Book 1)
Backwater by Dorothy Richardson (#18) (Pilgrimage Volume 1 Book 2)
Spinster by Sylvia Ashton Warner (#40)
I’m Not Complaining by Ruth Adam (#124)
South Riding by Winifred Holtby (#273)
The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell (#667)

And from the pupils’ perspective:

The Lost Traveller by Antonia White (#13)
The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson (#48)
I Will Not Serve by Evelyn Mahyère (#142)
Olivia by Olivia (Dorothy Strachey) {#268)

Governesses

Honeycomb by Dorothy Richardson (#18) (Pilgrimage Volume 1 Book 3)
Mary Lavelle by Kate O’Brien (#139)
Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor (#184)
No More Than Human by Maura Laverty (#210)
Fenny by Lettice Cooper (#264)
Villette by Charlotte Bronte (#357)
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (#359)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (#364)

Our emphasis is on Virago Modern Classics but you are welcome to read any other book in keeping with the theme and the Virago ethos this month.

What will you be reading?

2kaggsy
joulukuu 25, 2021, 2:34 am

Thank you Jane - a wonderfully helpful list and lots of choices! 😊😊😊

3lippincote
joulukuu 25, 2021, 11:08 am

I've read nearly all of these except the Richardson's, which at this stage of my life I am not even attempting. So I will read the Gail Godwin (VMC author) book on nuns I found in my library. Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

4lauralkeet
joulukuu 25, 2021, 3:22 pm

Wow, what an excellent list of recommendations! I'm planning to read The Getting of Wisdom, which was first suggested on the original thread when I was in a bit of a panic about finding a suitable book.

5japaul22
joulukuu 25, 2021, 4:20 pm

I'm going to read Frost in May - the first virago and one I've somehow not yet read.

6Soupdragon
joulukuu 25, 2021, 4:30 pm

Great list of suggestions, thank you. I think I'll aim to finally get to The House of Brede.

7wandering_star
joulukuu 26, 2021, 5:35 pm

I will read The Abbess of Crewe - not a Virago, but I spotted it mentioned on the other thread and have been wanting to read it.

8CDVicarage
joulukuu 26, 2021, 5:37 pm

I think I will read Black Narcissus; it's one of the few Rumer Godden novels that I haven't read, although I have seen the film and the recent TV adaptation so I know the story.

9LyzzyBee
joulukuu 27, 2021, 6:07 am

I'm doing Black Narcissus too, some nuns in a sea of Nordic reading for another challenge I'm doing (well, there might be Nordic nuns in the other books ...)

10LizzieD
joulukuu 30, 2021, 12:11 am

OH!!! I will read either *Corner* or *Wisdom* or *Fenny*! I can't say how happy I am (a LOT!) that the themed read is reinvigorated, and I am excited to make my choices over the next few days.

11LizzieD
joulukuu 30, 2021, 1:46 pm

It's Fenny for me! When I read on the first page that her eyes sucked up the landscape, writer-detection radar amped up. Would I like it? Then I read, a bit farther down the page, that her face was typical of girls who look like their fathers. An observer who thinks about what she notices! I'm in!

12Heaven-Ali
tammikuu 1, 2022, 6:45 pm

Hi everyone, I have a few things that might fit so, I am going to try and join in some time this month. Thanks for coming up with this excellent reading event Jane.

13SassyLassy
tammikuu 2, 2022, 11:20 am

I'm going for a reread of Villette and who knows what else might appear?

14Heaven-Ali
tammikuu 2, 2022, 6:13 pm

Well inspired by this thread that I only read last night, I am getting started straight away. Just settled down in bed tonight to start reading I Will Not Serve by Eveline Mahyere.

15Sakerfalcon
tammikuu 3, 2022, 10:16 am

I've just started Women in the wall, and have Spinster lined up too.

>1 BeyondEdenRock: I would add The land of spices to the list of "nun" books, and perhaps also teachers/pupils.

16elkiedee
tammikuu 4, 2022, 9:20 am

Lots of books I'm really interested in picking out from my TBRs here, but I don't know if I will get to any this month. I love South Riding and I'm Not Complaining.

I have just read Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These, set in 1980s Ireland - it's inspired by the Magdalene Laundries scandal and not a very positive take on nuns, really. And I'm just starting the first in a historical girls' school series, Murder Most Unladylike.

17BeyondEdenRock
tammikuu 4, 2022, 10:03 am

>15 Sakerfalcon: Yes! I love Kate O'Brien and the book was in my head but for some reason didn't make it onto the list. I have added it now.

18BeyondEdenRock
tammikuu 4, 2022, 10:05 am

I am reading The Corner That Held Them and loving the experience. It feels rather like walking around a well curated exhibition of detailed painting on a theme.

19Sakerfalcon
tammikuu 4, 2022, 10:55 am

Women in the wall is a bit racier than I expected, for a book about a convent! It's good though.

20kayclifton
tammikuu 4, 2022, 3:39 pm

I have the Corner That Held Them on my TBR list.

21Soupdragon
tammikuu 5, 2022, 12:42 pm

Frustratingly I can't find my copy of In this House of Brede . I expected it to be sat alongside my other Virago Goddens but no. I have a feeling I put it aside somewhere the last time I intended to read it...
I might start Fenny instead.

22lauralkeet
tammikuu 5, 2022, 12:45 pm

>21 Soupdragon: I was looking around for my copy of that book recently, and then realized I had a kindle edition not a VMC. And yet I could totally picture the cover!

I started The Getting of Wisdom last night and it's off to a good start.

23Soupdragon
tammikuu 5, 2022, 1:29 pm

>22 lauralkeet: 😁 You've got me doubting the existence of my own copy now!

24CDVicarage
tammikuu 5, 2022, 4:26 pm

>22 lauralkeet: My kindle copy has the same cover as my Virago edition!

25lauralkeet
tammikuu 5, 2022, 5:46 pm

>23 Soupdragon: tee hee, you never know, Claire.
>24 CDVicarage: I have a Paperwhite so the covers are not even in color! But in my mind's eye I still picture it as a print edition in full color because I've seen it that way.

26NinieB
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 8, 2022, 7:04 pm

I read In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden and I loved it. It's set in the Abbey of Brede, in rural England, where at the beginning of the story in about 1953 Philippa Talbot arrives as a postulant. She has an unusual background to become a nun, being a widowed 42-year-old. Over the following years, ending in about 1967, we come to know many of the nuns at Brede. It's really a lovely novel.

27CDVicarage
tammikuu 9, 2022, 4:14 am

>26 NinieB: I think In This House of Brede (or perhaps China Court) is my favourite Rumer Godden novel and I have read it many times. The first time was when I was a teenager, so that's now over a period of nearly fifty years.

28lippincote
tammikuu 9, 2022, 10:06 am

Me too. My 80-something great aunt turned me on to Rumer Godden when I was in my early 20s. The first I read was The Battle of the Villa Fiorita. I didn't read In This House of Brede until I was in my early 30s, but I've read it at least 5 times since then over a 40-year period.

29NinieB
tammikuu 9, 2022, 12:56 pm

>27 CDVicarage: >28 lippincote: I can see how rereading would be a pleasure! The Greengage Summer was one of the best books I read last year.

30lippincote
tammikuu 9, 2022, 2:37 pm

Finished Gail Godwin’s Unfinished Desires today. Godwin is a VMC author, but this book is not one from their list.

The novel is set among a teaching order in a 1950s Catholic girls’ school, in the days before nuns ‘were flying out the doors to become social workers and wear pantsuits and live together in apartments.' Some ‘sapphic hints’, lots of ambition, envy, unkindness and guilt. Staff and students all screwing up their lives in one form or another, some of them soldiering on doing their best, some falling by the wayside.

An excellent book I might not have found if it was not for this thread. Thank you!

31kayclifton
tammikuu 9, 2022, 2:50 pm

>27 CDVicarage: I just finished reading China Court and greatly enjoyed it.

32bleuroses
tammikuu 11, 2022, 8:43 pm

Hi everyone!

I was thinking of reading Godden's In This House of Brede or Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy but then got involved in the year-long read on twitter of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage (#pilgrimagetogether) and have started Pointed Roofs. This read-along has sparked interest from Kate MacDonald( Handheld Press) and Brad Bigelow (Neglected Books Page) who have taken the helm with an Introductory zoom meeting with subsequent zooms for each book each month.

Whew.

I'm not a big reader of 'modernist' or 'stream-of-consciousness' fiction so I'm not sure how I'll get on with it, but I'll give it a go!

On a side note, thank you, Karen (kaggsy) for completing my Pilgrimage set in our 2019 VSS! 😘

33kaggsy
tammikuu 12, 2022, 3:13 am

>32 bleuroses: Happy to have filled that gap on your VMC shelves!!! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

34Sakerfalcon
tammikuu 12, 2022, 6:40 am

>32 bleuroses: I hope you enjoy the Pilgrimage, Cate! I read it as part of the group read (hosted by lauralkeet) here a few years ago, and while some volumes were less interesting than others, overall I really enjoyed it.

35lauralkeet
tammikuu 12, 2022, 8:04 am

>34 Sakerfalcon: I felt the same way about Pilgrimage, Claire. It was worthwhile, and tackling it in a group read was the way to go for me.

For this month's theme, I read The Getting of Wisdom, thanks to a very generous interpretation of the theme. It is told from a student's perspective, and the teachers are rather one-dimensional. But as a coming of age boarding school novel told from a feminine perspective, it was quite enjoyable.

36japaul22
tammikuu 12, 2022, 8:28 am

>32 bleuroses: I also read Pilgrimage with a group read in 2019. I'm glad to see it getting so much traction in the past years. While there were parts that were challenging to get through, I think it deserves to be much more widely read.

I'm almost done with my read for this month, Frost in May. I'm sad I put it off so long - who knew I'd love a book about a convent schoolgirl so much!

37BeyondEdenRock
tammikuu 12, 2022, 11:09 am

>32 bleuroses: I'm not a big reader of 'modernist' or 'stream-of-consciousness' fiction either, but I am very glad that I read Pilgrimage and I think that treating it as reading it book by book (rather than volume by volume) over a year is definitely the best way to approach it.

I still wonder from time to time, years after reading, how different it would have been and how much more ground it might have covered if Dorothy Richardson had had a 'room of her own'.

38bleuroses
tammikuu 12, 2022, 4:18 pm

>34 Sakerfalcon:, >35 lauralkeet:, >36 japaul22: and >37 BeyondEdenRock: Thanks for the encouragement! A structured group read seems the way to go. Now how did I miss the group read that Laura hosted!!?

39CDVicarage
tammikuu 12, 2022, 4:47 pm

I've finished Black Narcissus and liked it very much after a doubtful start. I wondered if it was because I knew what happened, having seen the film and TV adaptation, but decided not as I like to re-read books and prefer to know what will happen! The film and TV versions probably over-dramatised the story, possibly to make up for the more subtle nuances that can be conveyed in print that don't show on the screen and once I settled into the rhythm of the writing I found it more enjoyable. I still don't think it will be one of my favourite Rumer Godden novels but I don't rule out a re-read.

I think I might treat myself to a re-read of In This House of Brede as a second book for this month.

40japaul22
tammikuu 13, 2022, 9:41 am

I just finished Frost in May and I'm so glad I finally read it! I'm sure you've all read it, but here is my review.

Frost in May is about a young girl whose father has recently converted to Catholicism. He sends her to a conservative Catholic boarding school. There, 9 year old Nanda whole-heartedly discovers the Catholic faith, makes friends, and begins to know herself. She is immersed in the closed world of the convent, where self-control, discipline, and humility are demanded of these young children. The glimmers of non-conformity come from a few of her friends at the convent who have more worldly families and from Nanda's mother, who during brief visits, obviously shows that she does not buy in to the system. Though internally Nanda embraces the lifestyle, some of her actions don't fit with the convent rules and the book does not end happily from Nanda's point of view.

I found this book delightful. There is a subtle and slightly subversive humor throughout from the author, but at the same time she perfectly captures the rigidity of a child's mind as it opens up through the teen years.

I would love to know more about the politics/cultural ramifications of converting to Catholicism in England in the early 1900s. I'm curious if there was a deeper cultural statement being made in the book that I didn't have the background to comprehend.

Original publication date: 1933, Virago publication date 1978 (#1)
Author’s nationality: British
Original language: English
Length: 221 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: given to me by Barbara/romain from the Virago group
Why I read this: virago monthly challenge

41kayclifton
tammikuu 13, 2022, 2:41 pm

I am intermittently reading the Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Is anyone else reading it? I have also been reading and just finished Storm in the Village by Miss Read one of many in her series of books about her experiences as a teacher in Fairacre. I was a school teacher and so her books resonate with me especially her descriptions of her interactions with her pupils.

42LyzzyBee
tammikuu 15, 2022, 7:41 am

I read Pilgrimage in 2015-2016 and promptly gave it all away - to Dee, I think! Ha! I am glad I read it but it was a struggle at times!

43Heaven-Ali
tammikuu 16, 2022, 5:19 am

>41 kayclifton: I read The Corner that held them years ago. It was my first book by her and started me off on a love for Sylvia Townsend Warner. I admit to not really being a Miss Read fan. I read one or two many years ago, and found them irritating. Perhaps I was too young.

44Heaven-Ali
tammikuu 16, 2022, 5:37 am

I am just settling down to start Spinster by Sylvia Ashton Warner.

45kayclifton
tammikuu 16, 2022, 1:51 pm

I have just begun reading Spring Magic by D E Stevenson and enjoying it so far. I have also discovered Margery Allingham the mystery writer and am reading the third book of her works Mystery Mile. I had never read mysteries until a few years ago and now enjoy them.

46Sakerfalcon
tammikuu 17, 2022, 9:31 am

I finished Women in the wall at the weekend. It was an excellent read. The characters are very human, yet not quite relatable as the mindset in the C6th was so different to ours. But they came to life with all their hopes and flaws. The events in the novel are based on history from surviving Chronicles; the author provides a short foreword in which she notes where she diverged from historical fact.

Now, like Ali, I will be reading Spinster.

47BeyondEdenRock
tammikuu 17, 2022, 10:05 am

I have finished my slow read of The Corner That Held Them and I loved it. The world-building and the writing were marvellous, and though I felt that I was watching from a distance I was really drawn into the life of the convent.

Next up is Olivia.

48CDVicarage
tammikuu 17, 2022, 10:21 am

I finished my re-read of In this House of Brede and read in the introduction that Rumer Godden blushed for Black Narcissus when she was discussing a possible novel with Dame Felicitas Corrigan! The two books were published thirty years apart.

49LyzzyBee
tammikuu 18, 2022, 7:56 am

I've just read (this morning - having a day off, what bliss to just sit and read a whole novel!) Black Narcissus so #48 above is interesting to me - did she say why? My review on my blog here https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2022/01/18/book-review-rumer-godden-black-na...

50kaggsy
tammikuu 18, 2022, 9:45 am

I have failed to get to I'm Not Complaining but I *am* in the middle of No Word from Winifred which is a bit convoluted and took a while to get going. However, I'm enjoying it now and hoping to get to end inbetween dentist visits later today....😬😬😬

51CDVicarage
tammikuu 18, 2022, 4:24 pm

>49 LyzzyBee:

‘I wish,’ said Dame Felicitas Corrigan, ‘that someone would write a book about nuns as they really are, not as the author wants them to be.’

I thought of my novel Black Narcissus and blushed.


This is the quote from the preface. She goes on to explain her link with Stanbrook Abbey (the real life model for Brede) but doesn't enlarge on her embarrassment. I assumed that it was because Black Narcissus was rather melodramatic and not true to the real life of nuns. The order in Black Narcissus is not Roman Catholic, which the Benedictines of Brede are, and Rumer Godden had converted to Catholicism by the time she wrote about Brede. Although the order in India is active not comtemplative I think it unlikely that they would, in real life, behave in the undisciplined way that they did!

52kac522
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 19, 2022, 1:46 pm

I finished Miss Mole by E. H. Young, and like Hannah Mole herself--"an accomplished inventor of fibs"--I stretched the truth a bit to fit her in this category. Miss Mole has spent her life as a governess and lady's companion, and at the opening of this book at age 40, she is about to be sacked once again. But a cousin finds Hannah employment as a housekeeper for a widowed minister and his 2 daughters. Slowly, with forward and backward steps, we learn Miss Mole's history, but she does keep us guessing until the end. A most enjoyable read.

53LyzzyBee
tammikuu 20, 2022, 1:08 am

>51 CDVicarage: Ah, thank you! And thank you for reminding me they weren't Catholics as that helps with a comment on my review! Also: yes!

54elkiedee
tammikuu 21, 2022, 8:19 am

Woman's Hour this morning included a story about nuns and girls' education, about a 19th century woman called Mary Ward, but it featured some more contemporary Catholic nuns. I'm not sure how much of BBC Sounds content is available beyond the UK but it was really interesting.

55brenzi
tammikuu 22, 2022, 8:44 pm

I am so happy the Virago Group is doing these monthly reads again. I read Antonia White's Frost in May.

Set in the early 1900s, Nanda is nine years old when her father enrolls her in the convent school outside of London called Convent of the Five Wounds. She quickly learns, in this closed society, that she has to please only God. And, of course, the stodgy, cruel nuns that run the place. (I can say that, as a lapsed Catholic who has had my fill of nuns.) There was a little too much of the holy affairs in the early part of the book but then as Nanda grew up to be a teenager there was a sense of dread that somehow her attention to the rules was slipping and the nuns were going to catch her doing something they didn't allow which was just about anything really. The author was great at character development and creating this sense of doom. 4 stars

I followed it up by listening to the Backlisted podcast about the book and it was absolutely wonderful and revealed that the book was very autobiographical and played parts of an interview with the author from the 60s. If you like to read old books (and who of us doesn't) I highly recommend Backlisted. You can go through their old episodes and see that they've discussed several Viragos as well as lots of other old books.

56kaggsy
tammikuu 26, 2022, 3:56 am

Well, I finished my read for the month, No Word from Winifred by Amanda Cross and while it was enjoyable in places, I did stuggle with some elements. I'm starting to think that Cross was not really committed to writing proper crime books in that she seems to shy away from actual murder and the mystery story is simply something she can hang her novel of ideals on. I don't have a problem with that, and enjoyed the first one I read, but this particular book didn't really hang together and was, I felt, far too stuffed with too many elements. I wrote a full review on my blog here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2022/01/26/this-isnt-a-puzzle-in-w...

I have one more of her books so I may well choose this for next month's North American prompt and see how I find it - if I don't warm to it any more than this one, I'll probably call it quits with Kate Fansler!!!

57lauralkeet
tammikuu 26, 2022, 7:47 am

>56 kaggsy: Your mention of Amanda Cross struck a faint chord in my memory, and after checking my library I now remember reading her novel, Sweet Death, Kind Death on a friend's recommendation. I gave it a mere 2 stars back in 2011. These days anything less than 3 stars is more likely to become a DNF.

It also seems I had to work out my feelings by writing a hate-review. It begins:
Here's what I like in a mystery: well-developed characters, suspense, and a complex plot that requires the sleuth to prove their skill or intellect.

What was missing from this mystery: all the above.

And then proceeds to tear the novel apart. Similar to the book you just read, Fansler seemed to hover around the edges of the mystery, not really getting to the heart of actual crime and crime-solving.

Have you considered a North American-authored VMC for February?! 😉

58Sakerfalcon
tammikuu 26, 2022, 8:52 am

>56 kaggsy:, >57 lauralkeet: I enjoyed the Kate Fansler books more for the academic setting than the plot, not being a big mystery reader myself. But the early ones in particular are horribly dated which was off-putting.

59kaggsy
tammikuu 26, 2022, 9:02 am

>57 lauralkeet: Absolutely that, Laura - the mystery is half-hearted which is a shame because I did like the setting. It's undercooked at the end of the day. And having seen Jane's amazing list of options for February I may choose something different.... 🤣🤣😉

60kaggsy
tammikuu 26, 2022, 9:03 am

>58 Sakerfalcon: Same here - I like the idea of the academic setting, but she just shies away from making it a proper mystery. Fair enough if it wasn't marketed as one, but it is. I didn't mind so much the dated elements of the first one I read, because it almost became historical! But this one didn't know what it wanted to be, tbh.

61lippincote
tammikuu 26, 2022, 10:22 am

I read a bunch of her mysteries when they first came out but abandoned her at some point, because they had gone totally off the boil. I had the same problem with the Tony Hillerman books set on a Native American reservation. The killer was never indigenous, always one of the white characters, so the mysteries were easy to solve. Cross also was more interested in social and political themes than the mystery.

62kaggsy
tammikuu 26, 2022, 12:18 pm

>61 lippincote: Yes, she really was and think that's my biggest beef. I have no issue with a book about social and political themes, but then just do it as a novel. Trying to shoehorn it into a crime novel which doesn't work as a crime novel is frustrating for the reader, I feel!

63BeyondEdenRock
tammikuu 26, 2022, 12:54 pm

>62 kaggsy: I wonder if she wanted to write a book with social and political themes but had to add a crime story to make it marketable.

64kaggsy
tammikuu 26, 2022, 4:40 pm

>63 BeyondEdenRock: you may be right Jane. Commercial interests do always seem to be unavoidable!

65kac522
tammikuu 26, 2022, 7:37 pm

66Heaven-Ali
tammikuu 30, 2022, 5:12 am

I have finally reviewed the two books I read for this month's themed read. I Will Not Serve and Spinster - one long post of two reviews, but for anyone interested here's the link.

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2022/01/30/i-will-not-serve-eveline-mahyere-1958...

67AmeliaHogue
tammikuu 30, 2022, 5:56 am

Tämä käyttäjä on poistettu roskaamisen vuoksi.

68Sakerfalcon
tammikuu 31, 2022, 5:10 am

>66 Heaven-Ali: I'm reading Spinster now and am enjoying it. It's very unusual in style, I think. In my head I always get it confused with I'm not complaining but they are totally different in every way apart from the central theme being that of teaching.

69BeyondEdenRock
tammikuu 31, 2022, 8:01 am

I have finished Olivia by Olivia (Dorothy Strachey) and like it very much, though it wasn't the best match for this month's theme. It tells the story of a girl at finishing school who develops strong feelings for one of the two women who ran the school, without understanding what was happening between the adults. The prose was lovely, the first person account rang true, but I felt that much was omitted in the latter pages.

Now I am reading In This House of Brede, and loving it.

70SassyLassy
helmikuu 23, 2022, 10:38 am

Really late here, but in January I decided to read Villette for this theme, and this past week I did it.

When I first read this in my early teens, I was not impressed with Lucy Snowe at all, but reading the novel now, I can see how she is a really complex person. I'm not inclined to like her any better, but it was an excellent portrayal of her.