Henrietta
was third daughter and fifth child of Mr and Mrs Symons, so that
enthusiasm for babies had declined in both parents by the time she
arrived. Still, in her first few months she was bound to be important
and take up a great deal of time. When she was two another boy was
born, and she lost the honourable position of youngest. At five her
life attained its zenith.... When she was eight her zenith was past,
and her plain stage began. Her charm departed never to return, and
she slipped back into insignificance.
These
opening lines of Flora MacDonald Mayor's The Third Miss Symons
gave me high hopes for this novel, and I liked that rather ironic,
detached tone, and the exploration of relations within a family. But
overall I was disappointed and I found it hard to like Henrietta –
or Etta, as she is known to her family - and it's a somewhat bleak
tale.
Henrietta
reminded me of Alex, in EM Delafield's 'Cosequences'
(http://chriscross-thebooktrunk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/consequences-beware-of-spoilers.html
).
They are set in a similar period, and although Mr and Mrs Symons are
middle class their attitude towards their offspring is very much like
that of Alex's aristocratic parents. Mrs Symons is not fond of
children (so it's unfortunate really that she has so many of them),
while her solcitor husband finds it difficult to provide for his
ever-increasing family.
Like
Alex, Henrietta is desperate for attention, and wants to be loved –
but she doesn't know how to make herself lovable. She' never seems to
fit in, and is regarded as 'difficult', so by the age of thirteen she
has 'settled down to bad temper as a habit'. she had settled down to
bad temper as a habit'. She hopes that when the 'magic season of
young ladyhood arrived, a Prince charming would come and fall in
love with her'. But it never happens.
The
only person Henrietta gets along with is her youngest sister, Evelyn,
who she adores, but when she causes a rift between them she becomes
even more lonely and bitter, convinced that people despise her, and
that nothing ever goes right in her life.
I
could see how her experiences soured her and sapped her confidence
and, just as with Alex, I felt sorry for an unloved child who grew
into an unloved woman - but she was so disagreeable it was difficult
to feel any sympathy. And once again I found myself wondering about
the way Victorian and Edwardian women were treated, and how that
treatment affected their attitude and relationships with their
children.
I have read this and admired it without loving it to bits. But Mayor's masterpiece is The Rector's Daughter, a brilliant novel -- do read it!
ReplyDelete'Admired it without loving it' sums it up very neatly. I think that's why it was disappointing - I wanted to like it, but didn't quite manage it,
DeleteI 'admired it without loving it too.' Compassion and how much of Etta's nature came from within and how much came from her situation sustained me through a short book, but I would have struggled had this one been any longer.
ReplyDeleteJust found this in my spam box! Can't understand why it was there. I guess Etta's situation is back to the nature v nurture argument, but my pity for her didn't last.
DeleteThis was a terribly miserable book, but I thought a good read nevertheless. As you say, she was too disagreeable to like as heroine - so much so, it was hard even to pity her situation.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good read, and I liked the way it was written, and the characters were very believable - but it was so bleak I don't think I could read it again.
Delete