Notwithstanding

by Mary Cholmondeley

The book starts with Annette Georges choosing between two fates: suicide and running away with a disreputable stranger. She is rescued by a kind woman who looks after her until she can go to live with her maiden aunts in a village in the English countryside. There she meets and makes friends with various people and, almost coincidentally, the facts of her past come back to play a crucial part in the story.

390 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Mary Cholmondeley was an English novelist.

The daughter of the vicar at St Luke's Church in the village of Hodnet, Market Drayton, Shropshire, England, where she was born, Cholmondeley spent much of the first thirty years of her life taking care of her sickly mother.

Selected writings
* The Danvers Jewels (1886)
* Sir Charles Danvers (1889)
* Let Loose (1890)
* Diana Tempest (1893)
* Devotee: An Episode in the Life of a Butterfly (1897)
* Red Pottage (1899)
* Prisoners (1906)
* The Lowest Rung (1908)
* Moth and Rust (1912)
* After All (1913)
* Notwithstanding (1913)
* Under One Roof (1917)

Reviews

[sabagrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

post-Victorian, yet oh so Victorian in its themes: landownership and inheritance, morality and reputation. The themes are - of course - developed around a love story, but somehow the author is not overly interested in the lovers' characters and the development of the relationship.

Some nice secondary characters and a village playing its role - a nod to Cranford; but the village's role as the main character is disputed by conventional story-telling.

The novel does not change my ranking of Cholmondeley's work, with Diana Tempest first and Red Pottage second.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of this was definitely the character writing, with the aunts being some of the most entertaining with their complete lack of self awareness.

[Patrizia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sì, lo confermo: amo questa autrice, e questo romanzo (che, dopo un drammatico inizio a Parigi, si svolge in un piccolo villaggio della campagna inglese) la vede al top, in uno stretto 'testa a testa' con la Elizabeth Gaskell di Cranford. In più, un minore impegno religioso porta spesso Mary Cholmondeley a mettere in discussione (come in questo caso) la rigidità di talune visioni morali del tempo, giustificando le fragilità umane e offrendo loro il suo sguardo comprensivo.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

As there isn't a synopsis above: the story starts with Annette Georges choosing between two evil fates. She is rescued by a kind woman, who looks after her until she can go to live with her aunts in a village in "little England" complete with vicar and afternoon tea. There she meets and makes friends with various people, and her Past appears to have some relevance to the lives of those she makes closest friends with.

I think that's vague enough to not give the game away! It's a comedy of manners with more grave overtones than much of Jane Austen.

Excellent. Some sad moments, and you really care about the characters, but also some hilarious descriptions and occasionally a very acid and funny description. And, thank goodness, a miraculous ending that was highly necessary to save everyone from their own nobility.

[Judith Brennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problems at the heart of the plot of Notwithstanding, written in 1913 and dealing with events several years earlier, can seem very remote, centring as they do on the preservation of a woman's reputation following a brief escapade with a disreputable young man. The abuse she suffers before meeting him is seen shockingly only in terms of her 'honour'. The plot is clumsy, and the central relationship unconvincing, but she depicts village life perceptively, and her descriptions of the natural environment of rural Suffolk before the First World War are accurate, detailed and poignant.