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Women Against Men
In these three novels, published together in England for the first time, Storm Jameson looks at three women, their relationships to men, and to other women. Beautiful Victoria Form, seen through the eyes of her childhood friend Fanny, is a famous novelist and relentless her favourite pastime is to ensnare men – and betray women. Emily Lambton is the daughter of Sir John, owner of a shipping line. She makes a brilliant marriage to Lord Holt but falls in love with a socialist clerk, Evan – a love that is to consume her life. Lastly we meet a nameless middle-aged one of the so many who have lived off men all their lives. Alone now in a shabby bedsitter, her looks gone, she reaps the bitter rewards allotted in that ancient battle between the sexes.
293 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
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About the author
Storm Jameson
78 books23 followersMargaret Storm Jameson was an English writer, known for her 45 novels, and criticism.
Jameson studied at the University of Leeds, later moving to London, where in 1914 she earned an MA from King's College London. She was a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. She married writer Guy Chapman, but continued to publish as Storm Jameson.
From 1939, Jameson was a prominent president of the British branch of the International PEN association, and active in helping refugee writers. She wrote three volumes of autobiography.
A well-received biography, by Jennifer Birkett, Professor of French Studies at Birmingham University, was published by the Oxford University Press in March 2009.
Jameson studied at the University of Leeds, later moving to London, where in 1914 she earned an MA from King's College London. She was a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. She married writer Guy Chapman, but continued to publish as Storm Jameson.
From 1939, Jameson was a prominent president of the British branch of the International PEN association, and active in helping refugee writers. She wrote three volumes of autobiography.
A well-received biography, by Jennifer Birkett, Professor of French Studies at Birmingham University, was published by the Oxford University Press in March 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 20, 2022
One of the many good things about this site is that I learn about books I would never have heard of elsewhere and also some GoodReads reviewers will comment on reviews that I post on here....and I learn some things in both cases. When I reviewed this set of novellas I did not rate them initially because I disliked the first one a great deal, and stopped about halfway through the second novella and decided to do a DNF. Canadian Reader said that the last novella, ‘A Day Off’, the one novella I did not read, was quite good. So....I decided to read it and liked it a lot. Very good writing. I would give that novella 3.5 stars which rounds up to 4 stars...a very good read! Thanks Canadian Reader! 🙂 🙃
I’m glad I liked it a lot because I ordered three more books by the same author...a trilogy: ‘Company Parade’ (1934), ‘Love in Winter’ (1935), and ‘None Turn Back’ (1936). I’d rather go into reading them with a mindset that I very well might like the books as opposed to having only a bad experience with the author. Now my palate is cleansed so to speak.
The novella is about an unnamed middle-aged unattractive and dowdy woman who lives in a bed-sitter apartment...not a very charming place. It was a realistic novel...pretty depressing when I come to think of it. But good.
The 4 stars is for the last novella, ‘A Day Off’. I’m not going to factor in my ratings of the other two novellas.
I’m glad I liked it a lot because I ordered three more books by the same author...a trilogy: ‘Company Parade’ (1934), ‘Love in Winter’ (1935), and ‘None Turn Back’ (1936). I’d rather go into reading them with a mindset that I very well might like the books as opposed to having only a bad experience with the author. Now my palate is cleansed so to speak.
The novella is about an unnamed middle-aged unattractive and dowdy woman who lives in a bed-sitter apartment...not a very charming place. It was a realistic novel...pretty depressing when I come to think of it. But good.
The 4 stars is for the last novella, ‘A Day Off’. I’m not going to factor in my ratings of the other two novellas.
January 19, 2015
I am somewhat unsure what to make of these three novellas; there's certainly nothing wrong with them, but at the same time, they did not engage me as much as some other work from the period.
Of the three, I think the most successful (and also the most depressing, though all three were certainly depressing) was the third: A Day Out. I think partly this is because of how it is structured: a single day with flashbacks and backstory as necessary, as well as as a means to enter into the mind of the nameless woman as we see her desperate, unkind, dishonest, panicked. The two others followed a more straightforward chronological narrative, and I sometimes found myself feeling that they were complete lives for the sake of being complete, whereas the third shows a sense of choice about what to include and when.
All three depict the profound loneliness and dependency that can come to a woman, particularly one who relies on a man for her happiness, her identity, her income. I also found this sense to be a much more successful form of engaged literature than the insertion of various "positions" in some of the narratives (the first about novels and writing, in the second about labour politics, socialism, and relations between people of different classes). I think I liked her better when she was trying less, and letting her characters' stories speak for themselves.
All in all, worth reading, but not a spectucular discovery or hidden treasure.
Of the three, I think the most successful (and also the most depressing, though all three were certainly depressing) was the third: A Day Out. I think partly this is because of how it is structured: a single day with flashbacks and backstory as necessary, as well as as a means to enter into the mind of the nameless woman as we see her desperate, unkind, dishonest, panicked. The two others followed a more straightforward chronological narrative, and I sometimes found myself feeling that they were complete lives for the sake of being complete, whereas the third shows a sense of choice about what to include and when.
All three depict the profound loneliness and dependency that can come to a woman, particularly one who relies on a man for her happiness, her identity, her income. I also found this sense to be a much more successful form of engaged literature than the insertion of various "positions" in some of the narratives (the first about novels and writing, in the second about labour politics, socialism, and relations between people of different classes). I think I liked her better when she was trying less, and letting her characters' stories speak for themselves.
All in all, worth reading, but not a spectucular discovery or hidden treasure.
November 18, 2012
Three novellas. The first is about a friendship between two women who maintain their tie for the comfort of despising each other; the second is about a rich woman who falls in love with an ambitious clerk, and finds her vocation in managing his career; the third is about a kept woman aged almost but not quite past her career.
Despite the title, the women don't appear to act against men in any way I recognize: against other women, yes, often about men, but men reap the benefit, always and often explicitly. The rich woman of the second novella thinks the phrase when trying to talk a man into keeping his adulterous wife--but she's not doing it for the other woman's sake, she's doing it for her own husband's campaign. The women all subsume themselves to men, except for the prostitute of the third story, who has no loyalty to anyone, nor anyone loyal to her.
The women are all in their mid-thirties, which they consider the end of their youth and any real possibility of happiness or fulfillment. I turned thirty-five while reading this and just laughed.
A bit reminiscent of May Sinclair, but not as radical about sexual desire or as ferocious about intellect and independence.
Despite the title, the women don't appear to act against men in any way I recognize: against other women, yes, often about men, but men reap the benefit, always and often explicitly. The rich woman of the second novella thinks the phrase when trying to talk a man into keeping his adulterous wife--but she's not doing it for the other woman's sake, she's doing it for her own husband's campaign. The women all subsume themselves to men, except for the prostitute of the third story, who has no loyalty to anyone, nor anyone loyal to her.
The women are all in their mid-thirties, which they consider the end of their youth and any real possibility of happiness or fulfillment. I turned thirty-five while reading this and just laughed.
A bit reminiscent of May Sinclair, but not as radical about sexual desire or as ferocious about intellect and independence.
November 16, 2024
Three crisply told novellas where it’s more a case of women against women with class, education, war and poverty pulling the strings. The men are often very useful and they get to set the rules, but the women navigate life as best they can. The nameless woman of A Day Off is perhaps the most compelling..
These stories put me in mind of Imogen Cunningham’s powerful 1957 photo “The Unmade Bed.”
https://images.app.goo.gl/8ydgcEzs8Xs...
These stories put me in mind of Imogen Cunningham’s powerful 1957 photo “The Unmade Bed.”
https://images.app.goo.gl/8ydgcEzs8Xs...
July 30, 2019
The rating is for the 1st novella 'Delicate Monster'
Re-listed again with a 2 star rating for the 2nd novella 'The Single Heart'
Re-listed again with a 2 star rating for the 2nd novella 'The Single Heart'
November 25, 2024
Really really spectacular ! Storm Jameson is just so intelligent and lucid and just AMAZING
February 26, 2025
3 stories of early 1900’s women and loser men. What’s not to like?
Kyra you would like but it’s slow at times
Kyra you would like but it’s slow at times
July 18, 2012
Ready for my dissertation.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews