Superseded

by May Sinclair

May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair (24 August 1863 - 14 November 1946), a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. She once dressed up as a demure, rebel Jane Austen for a suffrage fundraising event. Sinclair was also a significant critic in the area of modernist poetry and prose, and she is attributed with first using the term 'stream of consciousness' in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915-1967), in The Egoist, April 1918.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.

Reviews

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Sinclair's earliest books, and whilst not her best, it is still worth a read. It's not the most cheerful of novels, even by her standards, but the characterisation and character development have been well thought out, and the whole is engaging.

[Jim Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe that if May Sinclair were a man, she would recognized as one of the best novelists of the early 20th century. Sadly, nearly all her books are out of print and she is largely forgotten. She pioneered a use of psychology in her novels and is credited with inventing “steam of consciousness” in fiction. In any event, I would recommend just about everything she wrote and hope that someday there will be a revival of her work. Superseded is a sad short novel about an older teacher at a women’s college who is used and tossed away as a younger set of ambitious teachers and headmistress take over. She is superseded in her work, just as she is superseded in love. She has a breakdown and a kindly, popular, New Woman teacher takes her under her wing. She falls in love with her doctor who is 15 years her junior. She misinterprets the doctor’s interest in her, which is really a roundabout way of getting close to the young teacher who hired him. Sinclair specializes in portraying in the inner lives of lonely single women (a set to which she belonged) and she penetrates her character’s hearts with precision and sympathy.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the saddest book I have ever read. Beautifully written, depressingly plausible: your heart aches for Juliana, who hasn't the strength to escape her appalling aunt - one of Sinclair's best dreadful people. Athough I've given it five stars, no question, I can't recommend it because it is so painful.

[Ruth Collier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this quite an understated little book, the plot was quite simple but the characters were well defined and entertaining. Some of it was quite amusing, which contrasted with the more serious feminist themes. The ending seemed a little defeatist to me, but considering the time it was written out would be better to view it as a warning.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest I didn't really follow much of this story. It failed to interest me and so, listening to it on audio, I mostly tuned out.

[Cera · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a rather depressing book about the fate of Juliana Quincey, an "old maid" teacher at a school for girls, whose monotonous life is enlivened by her growing affection for the first two people who treat her with respect or interest. But Sinclair is writing to an agenda, as she so often does, and so the point of the book is to show one side of the "Woman Question" -- namely, the side that claims that competition in the labour market will destroy women by denying them the life experience as wives and mothers in which their only true fulfillment lies. I'm pretty sure this was not Sinclair's own viewpoint, given her lengthy literary career and the capable, independent women she often writes.

Interesting, but not exactly recommended.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written (well, it is by May Sinclair) but a real downer even by Sinclair's general standards of uncheeriness. A vignette of the life of a middle-aged and rather incompetent teacher in a girls' school which the headmistress is ambitiously turning into a high-powered educational factory.