The Romantic

by May Sinclair

May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1862-1946), a popular British writer. She was known for two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. She was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose; the term stream of consciousness, in its literary sense, is attributed to her. From 1896 she wrote professionally, to support herself and her mother, who died in 1901. She treated a number of themes relating to the position of women, and marriage. She also wrote nonfiction based on studies of philosophy, particularly German idealism. Her works sold well in the United States. Among her most famous works The Divine Fire (1904), Superseded (1906), The Helpmate (1907), The Judgment of Eve (1907), The Belfry (1916), The Romantic (1920), Mr. Waddington of Wyck (1921), Anne Severn and the Fieldings (1922) and Life and Death of Harriett Frean (1922).

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1920

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

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A free download is available at Librivox: https://librivox.org/the-romantic-by-...

Does the Lost Generation or the writers of this period interest you? If so, this book is for you. Coined by Gertrude Stein, the term the Lost Generation is applied to the years after the First World War and the group of writers, poets, and musicians living typically in Paris or in Bloomsbury, London, during the 1920s. The authors focused upon particular themes—disillusionment, uncertainty about the future, the need to re-examine one’s identity and question the mores and social standards of the times. War and patriotism, sexual relationships, women’s role in society and new psychological teachings are additional themes that play into this short, compact story. This book epitomizes the Lost Generation.

The setting is first England and then Belgium at the start of the First World War. Charlotte Redhead and John Conway, in a rush of romantic excitement and dreams of glory, set up a volunteer ambulance corps. After training they are sent to Ostend. There they are out on the fields helping the the dying and wounded. Soon the true character of the individuals come to the surface; we observe different personality traits. Some help from their hearts, paying little or no attention to their own safety. Others are out for fame and glory. Some prove to be cowards. Two ambulance corps compete rather than working together for the common good of the soldiers. It is on this stage the themes of the Lost Generation play out.

I was attracted to the prose right from the start, even before I understood where the plot was headed or what the message conveyed might be. The writing is descriptive; I easily saw what was being drawn. Some words are very English. Most are not hard to interpret from the context. The verb funk means to avoid an action because of fear. It is a word good to know before you start. Thoughts are perceptively expressed. The story is engaging. The plot gains momentum, and the reader is drawn in. How will it end? Psychological interpretations are viewed through the eyes of different characters.

Expatriate reads the story at Librovox. His words are clear, but the tone is flat, unnuanced. Three stars for the narration.

This short novel is well written, and it gives readers a good sense of how those of the Lost Generation viewed the events of their time. I definitely recommend it, and I will definitely be reading more by this author. Thank you, Sandy, for recommending this to me.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was a very big surprise for me! What would the title conjure up in your mind? Little did I expect a story about ambulance workers in Belgium in the early days of World War One!

The book could very well have been subtitled A Portrait of a Coward. This is a most unique and unusual war-time novel which combines the author's brief experience serving in Belgium with an ambulance corps with her understanding of Freudian psychology and her interest in Spiritualism. Without saying too much and spoiling the story, let me just say that I discovered after the fact that two words are essential to an understanding of the novel.

romantic (adjective) - marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized (definition from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary)

funk (verb)(British usage) - to avoid out of fear (definition from Lexico.com)

This novel is short. It's captivating. It is well worth your time.

The Tysons: Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson (15/12/14) ★★★★
The Three Sisters (07/08/16) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Romantic (12/10/19) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Life and Death of Harriett Frean (11/05/19) ★ ★ ★
The Flaw in the Crystal (20/03/20) ★ ★ ★
Anne Severn and the Fieldings (12/08/21) ★ ★ ★ ★
Far End (22/01/22) ★ ★
Audrey Craven (25/03/22) ★ ★ ★ ★
Mr. Waddington of Wyck (14/11/22) ★ ★
The Tree of Heaven (02/09/23) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Rector of Wyck (31/05/24) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another choice for my thesis, and another fantastic May Sinclair novel. The Romantic feels modern; in it, our protagonist, Charlotte Redhead, has a sexual affair with her boss. In a way, this affair gives her a sense of power; she feels suddenly like herself. Largely set during the First World War, The Romantic is immediately engaging. Charlotte goes to work in an ambulance corps in Belgium to help the war effort; in this way, the novel is highly autobiographical, as Sinclair herself worked in Flanders for several weeks in the same way. Charlotte is brave and realistic. A truly fantastic, and unfairly neglected, novel.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in one sitting, in a Gutenberg version from the library, as this book is long out of print. I will say that Sinclair is obviously a good writer, but as the plot developed, I liked it less and less.

It's 1914. Charlotte is a young woman who has made some poor decisions in her life, including an affair with her older boss. As an antidote, she decides she wants to work on a farm, which she loves, and there she meets a young man, John. She also begins to blossom as a person of strength and integrity, although she's still too inexperienced to recognize trouble when she meets it. I had some reservations about John from the beginning. Full of himself, ranting on about his high ideals and dreams, not too interested in Charlotte's inner world except as a reflection of his own. He reminded me of my first husband, who was the same kind of self-inflated integrity vampire.

They end up taking two of his father's ambulances (he's an automotive magnate) and form a small rescue corps to go the front in Belgium. John is full of the "romance" of war, the thrill of it the danger and heroism, which rubs off on Charlotte. So far, so good.

*******Below here are spoilers, as I can't explain my rating without them.********

Once in Belgium, John is a disaster, fleeing scenes repeatedly, leaving wounded soldiers and Charlotte behind, then lying about it and gas-lighting Charlotte as to what was happening. He becomes more and more horrible as the book goes on.

I enjoyed Sinclair's depiction of being an ambulance driver on the WWI front in Belgium (which was based on her own experience), and her very detailed and accurate depiction of gas-lighting.

I was frustrated though by Charlotte's ongoing inability to face the fact that John is a complete asshole. I mean, yes, women in abusive relationships often have this issue, but she is living with more than a dozen other people who see him for what he is and try to warn her. She's not isolated with him. And she sees him being cruel and uncaring to wounded soldiers, which deeply upsets her, but she makes no effort to ensure he doesn't have the opportunity to do that, by covering up for him at every turn. Absolutely maddening.

But the worst thing about the book was the hokey 1920's pop psychology analysis near the end, blaming what seems to me to be John's narcissism at best or psychopathy at worst, on "degeneracy," which clearly refers to homosexuality. I know this is in keeping with the time period in which it was written, but it was still shocking to read it.

Result: I am wary of reading her other books.

[Logan Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, from what I can tell, a mostly forgotten book. But it's absolutely phenomenal.

When I read Dracula, the thing that stood out the most to me about the titular villain was not just his cruelty, but his cowardice, which is directly tied into his origin story (and often overlooked by the many many screen adaptations). The Romantic is perhaps one of the most striking stories about the connection between cruelty and cowardice. A textbook case of gaslighting, as well.

But that paints this as "good for you" homework, which it's not. In its own way, it's a story about growing up. Charlotte is a young woman making extremely poor choices in the beginning of the book. But over a short 100 pages, you see her morph into a true adult, not because she had a sexual experience or anything like that, but because she learned to step outside of herself, and to care about something bigger than herself. That's a "coming of age" story in the truest sense.

"Yes. I want. But I know my wanting doesn't matter. I don't matter."

This book deserves to be rediscovered. Go read it! It was free on Kindle.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading Agatha Christie's autobiography and she mentioned this author, so I looked her up. This book was the only ebook my library had and I was up late with a sick kid so I read it in one night. I'm very impressed. Written in 1920, the psychotherapy at the end seemed a bit... off... but the gaslighting (both done to someone and that the main character does to herself) was spot on. Really fascinating.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the others of hers I have read. Partly because I found the war stuff hard to handle, though it was really well done, but also because I wasn't convinced by the psychology at the end. Are we meant to assume that John was homosexual? Impotent? Suffering from syphilis? He was a complete monster whichever way, and Charlotte was a bit stupid for a Sinclair heroine.