Humbug: A Study in Education

by E.M. Delafield

This is another delightful novel by the author of the Provincial Lady series.

In this novel,the heroine, Lily, is raised from childhood to doubt herself.

Her upper-class parents do not allow self-expression, calling a sin everything she thinks, challenges, or imagines. She is loved and ignored at the same time. Through the novel, her vivid, sensitive, independent character must be molded and conform at all costs.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture (9 June 1890 – 2 December 1943), commonly known as E. M. Delafield, was a prolific English author who is best-known for her largely autobiographical Diary of a Provincial Lady, which took the form of a journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s, and its sequels in which the Provincial Lady buys a flat in London and travels to America. Other sequels of note are her experiences looking for war-work during the Phoney War in 1939, and her experiences as a tourist in the Soviet Union.

Daughter of the novelist Mrs. Henry De La Pasture.

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a Delafield fan, I knew what to expect in terms of style - dated, of course, to modern eyes but with an underlying message that was ahead of its time. Just don't expect any fireworks from this understated novel!

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's not one of the most depressing Delafields, but it's not exactly a cheerful read, and the ending is sort-of somewhat positive. However, it's definitely Delafield precurses Philip Larkin on what parents do...