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The Diary of a Provincial Lady

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Includes translations of the phrases in French plus many illustrations! (Timeless Wisdom Collection Book 1160) It is obvious to me that Delafield had seen most of these scenarios play out in her own life or the lives of those close enough to observe up close. It no doubt accounts for the popularity of the books when published, since most upper-middle class women probably felt as if they were looking into a mirror, but could get away with saying, “isn’t that just like the Vicar’s wife? Or Auntie June? Or the neighbor down the street?” For what it’s worth, I see Vile Bodies on the list–I am not a fan, though I enjoy Waugh. I don’t think it stood the test of time as well as many people feel it does.

If you’re interested in my thoughts on other books from 1930, you can find the relevant posts via the following links: The Diary of a Provincial Lady inspired several sequels: The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America and The Provincial Lady in Wartime which were similarly autobiographical. I read the Penguin Modern Classics edition of The Diary of a Provincial Lady which contains these three sequels. I have not read them yet, although I am now inspired to read them. This review is just about The Diary of a Provincial Lady. No One Now Will Know (1941) - a decidedly bleak book in which Fred and Lucian (Lucy) both love Rosalie. The title is a quotation from the Irish poem 'The Glens of Antrim': "No one now will know, which of them loved her the most". Spend exhausting day …chasing mythical parlour-maids. Meet Lady B., who says the servant difficulty, in reality, is non-existent. She has no trouble. It is a question of knowing how to treat them. Firmness, she says, but at the same time one must be human. Am I human, she asks. Do I understand that they want occasional diversion, just as I do myself? I lose my head and reply No, that it is my custom to keep my servants chained up in the cellar when their work is done. This flight of satire rather spoilt by Lady B, laughing heartily, and saying that I am always so amusing.”I have always liked books written in journal form. I would think that it would lend itself well to this kind of story.

Query: Is it possible to cultivate the art of conversation when living in the country all the year round?)" Diary of a Provincial Lady, was written between the wars, and is a charming and witty book, telling us of a typical country woman's life. (Of her class, anyway). Here is an example of her drollness (her maid upped and left her, so she is looking for a new maid): It was a nice quiet read. Sometimes I just need that. Sometimes I don’t want to read a novel in which I am warned ahead of time that one or more godawful things will happen. Nothing godawful happened in this novel…well there were a couple of minor things that I questioned the political correctness of, but I can overlook them… 😉 A fictional diary from the 1920s, almost entirely taking place in the Devonshire countryside, is lively, amusing and most enjoyable. It might have been boring, but most certainly isn't and although life is very different today, some of the problems encountered chime with our own.The Heel of Achilles (1920) - the story of a lower middle-class girl marrying into the gentry, whose daughter Jane rebels against her. A Reversion to Type (1923) - a bad hat from a country family marries Rose, a girl he meets on a voyage to Ceylon. After he dies of drink, she makes her life in his family house, finally managing to escape her guilt over her degenerate son. Book 4, in Wartime, was as tedious to read as it was to live. This is set in the lead up to the war, when everyone was called on to volunteer but there was nothing for them to do. Everyone is asking everyone else ‘do you have some work for me’. Our Provincial Lady ended up working part time in a canteen for ambulance drivers, etc until something more suited to her talents came along.

January 22nd.—Customary painful situation between Bank and myself necessitates expedient, also customary, of pawning great-aunt's diamond ring, which I do, under usual conditions, and am greeted as old friend by Plymouth pawnbroker, who says facetiously, And what name will it be this time?"2. The details of everyday life of the author's upper-class English country household are really minor, and few and far between (I know I only found this aspect interesting because I am currently reading a rather dry book on Women's Institutes, and she writes about these). I liked the way she presents the Cook, and the French teacher May 16th.—Interesting to note that although by this time all Cook's jellies take away at sight what appetite measles have left me, am more wholly revolted by emerald green variety than by yellow or red. Should like to work out possible Freudian significance of this, but find myself unable to concentrate. Interestingly, the Provincial Lady has some literary ambitions of her own, a point that is brought out here and then developed further in the subsequent books in the PL series.I loved the way the diary seemed to capture her thoughts almost as she thought them, almost as she might have reported events on her own head. And I loved that it was witty and funny in the friendliest of ways. I never doubted that the Provincial Lady understood, that she cared, and that she poked fun at herself just as much as she did at others. Otherwise dear Rose entirely unchanged and offers to put me up in her West-End flat as often as I like to come to London. Accept gratefully. (N.B. How very different to old school-friend Cissie Crabbe, with bed-sitting-room and gas-ring in Norwich! But should not like to think myself in any way a snob.) The characters are well drawn, from the infuriating Lady B, The vicar and his wife who seems to spend her whole time gossiping. Diary of a Provincial Lady is a classic of its time, revealing the thoughts and concerns of a Lady embedded in family life and the mores of comfortable country life. She has a husband 'raised to the peerage', two children and servants; she is burdened by the superior Lady Boxe, the tiresome vicar's wife and the constant temptation to live beyond her monthly household allowance. But she soldiers on, recording her days with acute observation, wit, self-deprecation and colour. Book 3, In America as a successful author, was interesting enough but didn’t have the humourous details of the earlier two.

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