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I Pose
Stella Benson’s debut was one of the most acclaimed of her generation:
“One of the brightest, most original, and best written books that have come my way for a long time,” wrote Sir Henry Lucy.
“As the mature work of an experienced author it would have been a remarkable achievement: being ‘the first book of a new writer’ it is an astonishing performance,’ hailed the reviewer from The Daily Graphic.
In this incredibly original satirical novel we are introduced to the two main characters as The Gardener and The Suffragette, and so they remain throughout. Inhabiting a huge first chapter of 302 pages and then only a tiny second one of 8 pages, these two are wildly comic and disturbingly real at one and the same time. Benson’s cheekiness in commenting directly to the reader on the progress of the story, the saltiness of her slightly cynical view of the world and its ways, and the strange newness of the tale she was telling meant that, on first publication in 1915, the literary world’s curiosity was most certainly piqued.
We begin by following The Gardener in a shambolic and romantic walking journey, as his inexperience leads him a merry dance through youth’s many poses, away from his shabby boarding house in London, toward the coast. Along the way, he falls for The Suffragette, but she rejects him. The problem is, she likes him, despite herself. But is she capable of traditional love? And so we also follow her, led through not only her political convictions, but also all the less certain parts of her personality, about which she is blindingly honest. Can she fit love for The Gardener into her busy passion for women’s rights? Does she really want to? She thinks probably not. And yet…
Both of them are the beautifully mixed, endearingly crazy creations of Benson’s unusual talent, which spins its fizzing wit on a sixpence, creating absurd comedy and wise satire out of thin air. Delivering, in its fools’ progress, one of the significant debuts of its era and one of the funniest novels of the suffragette movement in one package, I Pose was hailed immediately as a classic of a new kind, establishing Stella Benson as a fresh genius of the human spirit, in all its poses.
STELLA BENSON was born at Lutwyche Hall on Wenlock Edge in Shropshire in 1892. Having escaped restrictive family life, she worked in London in the suffrage movement and in social work in the poorest areas. She married Shaemas O’Gorman Anderson in 1921, and travelled the world with him to his many diplomatic posts, mainly in China. She wrote eight witty, highly individual, acclaimed novels, as well as stories, travel essays and poetry. Consumptive for most of her life, she died in Hongay in French Indochina in 1933, at the age of 41. On her death, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary “A curious feeling: when a writer like Stella Benson dies, that one’s response is diminished; Here and Now won’t be lit up by her: it’s life lessened.”
“One of the brightest, most original, and best written books that have come my way for a long time,” wrote Sir Henry Lucy.
“As the mature work of an experienced author it would have been a remarkable achievement: being ‘the first book of a new writer’ it is an astonishing performance,’ hailed the reviewer from The Daily Graphic.
In this incredibly original satirical novel we are introduced to the two main characters as The Gardener and The Suffragette, and so they remain throughout. Inhabiting a huge first chapter of 302 pages and then only a tiny second one of 8 pages, these two are wildly comic and disturbingly real at one and the same time. Benson’s cheekiness in commenting directly to the reader on the progress of the story, the saltiness of her slightly cynical view of the world and its ways, and the strange newness of the tale she was telling meant that, on first publication in 1915, the literary world’s curiosity was most certainly piqued.
We begin by following The Gardener in a shambolic and romantic walking journey, as his inexperience leads him a merry dance through youth’s many poses, away from his shabby boarding house in London, toward the coast. Along the way, he falls for The Suffragette, but she rejects him. The problem is, she likes him, despite herself. But is she capable of traditional love? And so we also follow her, led through not only her political convictions, but also all the less certain parts of her personality, about which she is blindingly honest. Can she fit love for The Gardener into her busy passion for women’s rights? Does she really want to? She thinks probably not. And yet…
Both of them are the beautifully mixed, endearingly crazy creations of Benson’s unusual talent, which spins its fizzing wit on a sixpence, creating absurd comedy and wise satire out of thin air. Delivering, in its fools’ progress, one of the significant debuts of its era and one of the funniest novels of the suffragette movement in one package, I Pose was hailed immediately as a classic of a new kind, establishing Stella Benson as a fresh genius of the human spirit, in all its poses.
STELLA BENSON was born at Lutwyche Hall on Wenlock Edge in Shropshire in 1892. Having escaped restrictive family life, she worked in London in the suffrage movement and in social work in the poorest areas. She married Shaemas O’Gorman Anderson in 1921, and travelled the world with him to his many diplomatic posts, mainly in China. She wrote eight witty, highly individual, acclaimed novels, as well as stories, travel essays and poetry. Consumptive for most of her life, she died in Hongay in French Indochina in 1933, at the age of 41. On her death, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary “A curious feeling: when a writer like Stella Benson dies, that one’s response is diminished; Here and Now won’t be lit up by her: it’s life lessened.”
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1915
4 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Stella Benson
49 books34 followersStella Benson (1892-1933) was an English feminist, travel writer and novelist. Stella was often ill during her childhood. By her sixth birthday, she and her family, based in London, had moved frequently. She spent some of her childhood in Germany and Switzerland getting an education. She began writing a diary at the age of ten and kept it up for all of her life. By the time she was writing poetry, around the age of fourteen, her mother left her father; consequently, she saw her father infrequently. When she did see him, he encouraged her to quit writing poetry for the time being, until she was older and more experienced. Instead, Stella increased her writing output, adding novel-writing to her repertoire.
Stella was noted for being compassionate and interested in social issues. Like her older female relatives, she supported women's suffrage. During World War I, she supported the troops by gardening and by helping poor women in London's East End at the Charity Organisation Society. These efforts inspired Benson to write the novels I Pose (1915), This Is the End (1917) and Living Alone (1919). She also published her first volume of poetry, Twenty, in 1918.
Benson's writings kept coming, but none of her works is well known today. Pipers and a Dancer (1924) and Goodbye, Stranger (1926) were followed by another book of travel essays, Worlds Within Worlds, and the story The Man Who Missed the 'Bus in 1928. Her most famous work, the novel The Far-Away Bride, was published in the United States first in 1930 and as Tobit Transplanted in Britain in 1931. It won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize. This was followed by two limited edition collections of short stories, Hope Against Hope (1931) and Christmas Formula (1932).
She died of pneumonia just before her forty-first birthday in December 1933, in the Vietnamese province of Tonkin. Her last unfinished novel Mundos and her personal selection of her best poetry, Poems, were published posthumously in 1935. Her Collected Stories were published in 1936. Anderson's sons from his second marriage were Benedict Anderson and Perry Anderson.
Stella was noted for being compassionate and interested in social issues. Like her older female relatives, she supported women's suffrage. During World War I, she supported the troops by gardening and by helping poor women in London's East End at the Charity Organisation Society. These efforts inspired Benson to write the novels I Pose (1915), This Is the End (1917) and Living Alone (1919). She also published her first volume of poetry, Twenty, in 1918.
Benson's writings kept coming, but none of her works is well known today. Pipers and a Dancer (1924) and Goodbye, Stranger (1926) were followed by another book of travel essays, Worlds Within Worlds, and the story The Man Who Missed the 'Bus in 1928. Her most famous work, the novel The Far-Away Bride, was published in the United States first in 1930 and as Tobit Transplanted in Britain in 1931. It won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize. This was followed by two limited edition collections of short stories, Hope Against Hope (1931) and Christmas Formula (1932).
She died of pneumonia just before her forty-first birthday in December 1933, in the Vietnamese province of Tonkin. Her last unfinished novel Mundos and her personal selection of her best poetry, Poems, were published posthumously in 1935. Her Collected Stories were published in 1936. Anderson's sons from his second marriage were Benedict Anderson and Perry Anderson.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 2, 2015
The Classics Club Spin spun me an intriguing, experimental novel; I can't say that I liked it or that I didn't like it, that you should read it or that you shouldn't read it, but I can say that I was captivated and that even when I put the book down I went on thinking about it.
Stella Benson was born on 6 January 1892 at Lutwyche Hall, an Elizabethan Mansion in South Shropshire, England, and her aunt was novelist Mary Cholmondeley. Her background was privileged but her health was poor. She became a devoted reader and a regular diarist; she inherited a passionate concern for social issues, and in particular women's suffrage, from her mother and her aunts.
Wen the First World War came she worked as a gardener and she supported poor women in the East End of London who had suddenly found themselves having to earn their own living.
Those experiences provide the foundations for her first novel, published in 1915; and what she builds on those foundations is odd, unexpected, and gloriously creative.
She.tells the story of two characters - a gardener and a suffragette. They are never named, but that really doesn't matter.
First there is the gardener, a young man with independent means who is proceeding through life by adopting a series of poses that allow him to be exactly who he wants to be and to address those around him in riddles and witticisms.
On the spur of the moment he sets out to try the life of a vagabond.
He has not travelled far when he encounters the suffragette. She too is posing: not when she speaks about suffrage, which she cares about deeply, but when she claims not to care about whether she lives or dies, about whether she is loved or not, about whether she is hurt or harmed.
The gardener was concerned when he found the suffragette intended to blow up a church.
He took action, and that was the first step in an adventure that would take them to the a distant, exotic island group and back again, meeting all kinds of characters, having all kinds of experiences and learning all kinds of lessons.
They would pose as a married couple and they would proceed in opposing directions.
The narrator intervened from time to time, posing just as much as her creations, and that balanced things beautifully.
There was a lovely Scottie dog, there was a recue at sea, there was a lady novelist, there was an earthquake, there was the indomitable Mrs Rust:
The gardener would fall in love with the suffragette; but the suffragette would fall more deeply in love with her cause - or maybe with her pose.
Disillusion was inevitable ....
The Classics Club Spin spun me an intriguing, experimental novelI could write reams about the plot, but the plot really isn't the point.
The writing, the style make the story sing.
At the beginning I felt that Stella Bowen was presenting a puppet show; later I felt that she was staging a production at the theatre, but by the end of the story I had been drawn into a very human story. It was a story that explored the relationship between the poses we present to the world and our real concerns in all of its complexity with wit and with such understanding.
I don't know what Stella Benson did, I don't know how she did it, but she did it quite brilliantly.
I don't want to - I don't need to - pull her book apart to see how it works. I just want to wonder at it, to be impressed that it does!
And now, of course, I want to read everything else that she ever wrote!
Stella Benson was born on 6 January 1892 at Lutwyche Hall, an Elizabethan Mansion in South Shropshire, England, and her aunt was novelist Mary Cholmondeley. Her background was privileged but her health was poor. She became a devoted reader and a regular diarist; she inherited a passionate concern for social issues, and in particular women's suffrage, from her mother and her aunts.
Wen the First World War came she worked as a gardener and she supported poor women in the East End of London who had suddenly found themselves having to earn their own living.
Those experiences provide the foundations for her first novel, published in 1915; and what she builds on those foundations is odd, unexpected, and gloriously creative.
She.tells the story of two characters - a gardener and a suffragette. They are never named, but that really doesn't matter.
First there is the gardener, a young man with independent means who is proceeding through life by adopting a series of poses that allow him to be exactly who he wants to be and to address those around him in riddles and witticisms.
On the spur of the moment he sets out to try the life of a vagabond.
"I have left everything I have as hostages with fate," said the gardener. "When I get tired of Paradise, I'll come back."
He has not travelled far when he encounters the suffragette. She too is posing: not when she speaks about suffrage, which she cares about deeply, but when she claims not to care about whether she lives or dies, about whether she is loved or not, about whether she is hurt or harmed.
The gardener was concerned when he found the suffragette intended to blow up a church.
'The gardener, of course, shared the views of all decent men on this subject. One may virtuously destroy life in a good cause, but to destroy property is a heinous crime, whatever its motive..'
He took action, and that was the first step in an adventure that would take them to the a distant, exotic island group and back again, meeting all kinds of characters, having all kinds of experiences and learning all kinds of lessons.
They would pose as a married couple and they would proceed in opposing directions.
The narrator intervened from time to time, posing just as much as her creations, and that balanced things beautifully.
There was a lovely Scottie dog, there was a recue at sea, there was a lady novelist, there was an earthquake, there was the indomitable Mrs Rust:
'"I don't agree with you at all," said Mrs. Rust, who now made this remark mechanically in any pause in the conversation.'
The gardener would fall in love with the suffragette; but the suffragette would fall more deeply in love with her cause - or maybe with her pose.
Disillusion was inevitable ....
The Classics Club Spin spun me an intriguing, experimental novelI could write reams about the plot, but the plot really isn't the point.
The writing, the style make the story sing.
At the beginning I felt that Stella Bowen was presenting a puppet show; later I felt that she was staging a production at the theatre, but by the end of the story I had been drawn into a very human story. It was a story that explored the relationship between the poses we present to the world and our real concerns in all of its complexity with wit and with such understanding.
I don't know what Stella Benson did, I don't know how she did it, but she did it quite brilliantly.
I don't want to - I don't need to - pull her book apart to see how it works. I just want to wonder at it, to be impressed that it does!
And now, of course, I want to read everything else that she ever wrote!
January 30, 2017
Having loved what I have read of Stella Benson's thus far, I jumped at the chance of receiving a review copy of her debut novel, I Pose from Michael Walmer. First published in 1915, Walmer has chosen to republish it due to its 'significance in literary history and its humane excellence in all other respects'. The blurb states that 'Benson's cheekiness in commenting directly to the reader on the progress of the story, the saltiness of her slightly cynical view of the world and its ways, and the strange newness of the tale she was telling meant that, on first publication in 1915, the literary world's curiosity was most certainly piqued'.
The novel's protagonists are known as The Gardener and The Suffragette. Both, the blurb says, are 'beautifully mixed, endearingly crazy creations of Benson's unusual talent'. We do not learn their names at any point, which is a very interesting stylistic touch. The structure of the novel, too, is a little deviant from most of the novels which would have served as the contemporaries of I Pose; it is comprised of an initial chapter which runs to over three hundred pages, and a second chapter which is just eight pages long.
The novel's beginning is lovely and witty, and certainly sets the tone for the whole: 'There was once a gardener... Nobody would ever try to introduce him into a real book, for he was in no way suitable. He was not a philosopher. Not an adventurer. Not a gay dog. Not lively: but he lived, and that at least is a great merit'. As one can see from the aforementioned, Benson's character descriptions are somewhat refreshingly original: 'He was not indispensible to any one, but he believed that he was a pillar supporting the world. It sometimes makes one nervous to reflect what very amateur pillars the world seems to employ'.
The Suffragette whom he meets at the beginning of the novel, and whom he converses with throughout, has this to say for herself: '"One is born a woman... A woman in her sphere - which is the home. One starts by thinking of one's dolls, later one thinks about one's looks, and later still about one's clothes. But nobody marries one. And then one finds that one's sphere - which is the home - has been a prison all along. Has it ever struck you that the tragedy of a woman's life is that she has time to think - she can think and organise her sphere at the same time'.
The whole feels incredibly modern at times; the issues which Benson discusses are wholly relevant to the twenty-first century, particularly with the looming threat of right-leaning governments and such things as women's rights, and the meaning of freedom. I Pose is a curiously poignant book, in fact. Benson's sense of humour is rather wicked; she makes swipes at both characters at points, as well as addressing, in the most tongue-in-cheek manner, the things which they stand for: '(You need not be afraid. There is not going to be very much about the cause in this book.)'
There are many serious themes at play within I Pose, but there is a comical edge to the whole; nothing becomes too serious that it feels maudlin to the reader. For instance, 'The Suffragette gave Holloway Gaol as her permanent address'. The storyline is rather exciting, and offers something rather different to the majority of its contemporaries. The Gardener and the Suffragette decide to go along with societal convention in a way, and pose as a married couple. Their reasoning for such a choice, however, is a little out of the ordinary; they do so in order to be able to board a ship and travel to a secluded island community.
I Pose is a nicely balanced work, and another which does not deserve to go unread by the majority. It has so much to say about the world - both that which has passed, and that which we are currently living within. I do think, however, on reflection, that I had been a little spoilt by beginning my foray into Benson's work with This Is The End and Living Alone. Both are immediately engaging, and whilst I was continually intrigued and surprised by I Pose, it didn't quite have the same amount of polish. One can understand why - this is a debut novel after all - but the lack of magical realism, which I have become so fond of in Benson's later work, is felt. I got a little less out of the novel than I thought I would, unfortunately, but it is still one which I would heartily recommend, particularly if you are just starting off with Benson's work.
The novel's protagonists are known as The Gardener and The Suffragette. Both, the blurb says, are 'beautifully mixed, endearingly crazy creations of Benson's unusual talent'. We do not learn their names at any point, which is a very interesting stylistic touch. The structure of the novel, too, is a little deviant from most of the novels which would have served as the contemporaries of I Pose; it is comprised of an initial chapter which runs to over three hundred pages, and a second chapter which is just eight pages long.
The novel's beginning is lovely and witty, and certainly sets the tone for the whole: 'There was once a gardener... Nobody would ever try to introduce him into a real book, for he was in no way suitable. He was not a philosopher. Not an adventurer. Not a gay dog. Not lively: but he lived, and that at least is a great merit'. As one can see from the aforementioned, Benson's character descriptions are somewhat refreshingly original: 'He was not indispensible to any one, but he believed that he was a pillar supporting the world. It sometimes makes one nervous to reflect what very amateur pillars the world seems to employ'.
The Suffragette whom he meets at the beginning of the novel, and whom he converses with throughout, has this to say for herself: '"One is born a woman... A woman in her sphere - which is the home. One starts by thinking of one's dolls, later one thinks about one's looks, and later still about one's clothes. But nobody marries one. And then one finds that one's sphere - which is the home - has been a prison all along. Has it ever struck you that the tragedy of a woman's life is that she has time to think - she can think and organise her sphere at the same time'.
The whole feels incredibly modern at times; the issues which Benson discusses are wholly relevant to the twenty-first century, particularly with the looming threat of right-leaning governments and such things as women's rights, and the meaning of freedom. I Pose is a curiously poignant book, in fact. Benson's sense of humour is rather wicked; she makes swipes at both characters at points, as well as addressing, in the most tongue-in-cheek manner, the things which they stand for: '(You need not be afraid. There is not going to be very much about the cause in this book.)'
There are many serious themes at play within I Pose, but there is a comical edge to the whole; nothing becomes too serious that it feels maudlin to the reader. For instance, 'The Suffragette gave Holloway Gaol as her permanent address'. The storyline is rather exciting, and offers something rather different to the majority of its contemporaries. The Gardener and the Suffragette decide to go along with societal convention in a way, and pose as a married couple. Their reasoning for such a choice, however, is a little out of the ordinary; they do so in order to be able to board a ship and travel to a secluded island community.
I Pose is a nicely balanced work, and another which does not deserve to go unread by the majority. It has so much to say about the world - both that which has passed, and that which we are currently living within. I do think, however, on reflection, that I had been a little spoilt by beginning my foray into Benson's work with This Is The End and Living Alone. Both are immediately engaging, and whilst I was continually intrigued and surprised by I Pose, it didn't quite have the same amount of polish. One can understand why - this is a debut novel after all - but the lack of magical realism, which I have become so fond of in Benson's later work, is felt. I got a little less out of the novel than I thought I would, unfortunately, but it is still one which I would heartily recommend, particularly if you are just starting off with Benson's work.
October 23, 2020
I had high hopes when I began this novel as it has a strong opening. It’s about a highminded young vagabond known only as “the gardener” (because he tells people some claptrap about how the world is his garden) and a woman known only as “the suffragette.” The author explains frankly that these people are poseurs who don’t know how to be their true selves, and they wander the world disapproving of everyone and trying to be avant garde, unable to have authentic relationships with anyone, including themselves. I guess there have always been people like this, and there are certainly still people like that today. The author also promises that even though one of the main characters is a sufragette, it’s not “one of those books,” which made me feel relieved after my bad experience with Delia Blanchflower last year. But she lied! It is one of those books.
I Pose completely falls apart when the characters alight on a Caribbean island that is an English colony. This is the most racist book I have ever encountered—it makes Tarzan of the Apes and Penrod look real good. Reading this novel, I felt unclean. I don’t really want to get into the details, but I will say, I think a lot of times people have this idea that racist English people from a century ago were just old-fashioned but meant no harm; it was all kind of a misunderstanding, god love ‘em. I Pose makes it clear that this rosy assessment is not the case—one hundred years ago, racists hated black people with vicious cruelty and made fun of everything they could think of about them and literally did not care if they lived or died.
There was a kinda interesting part at the end where the suffragette goes into a poor neighborhood in London and tries to get the women to unionize, leave their alcoholic and abusive husbands, etc. but all her schemes backfire. This bit seemed heartfelt and true to life. Now I’m going to go ahead and spoil the ending, since I don’t recommend this book anyway. The gardener and the suffragette decide to get married, but instead, the suffragette shouts, “I hate god!” and runs into the church and blows it up, killing herself. The end. What??
I looked up Stella Benson on Wikipedia to see what was her deal, anyway, and it turns out she was a feminist and a suffragette (it wasn’t clear from the novel which side she was on) and that she lived all over the world, including China and Vietnam. From her bio I would think oh, I can’t wait to read a book by this neglected woman writer but having read this novel I say, never again, Stella Benson, you deserve to be forgotten.
I Pose completely falls apart when the characters alight on a Caribbean island that is an English colony. This is the most racist book I have ever encountered—it makes Tarzan of the Apes and Penrod look real good. Reading this novel, I felt unclean. I don’t really want to get into the details, but I will say, I think a lot of times people have this idea that racist English people from a century ago were just old-fashioned but meant no harm; it was all kind of a misunderstanding, god love ‘em. I Pose makes it clear that this rosy assessment is not the case—one hundred years ago, racists hated black people with vicious cruelty and made fun of everything they could think of about them and literally did not care if they lived or died.
There was a kinda interesting part at the end where the suffragette goes into a poor neighborhood in London and tries to get the women to unionize, leave their alcoholic and abusive husbands, etc. but all her schemes backfire. This bit seemed heartfelt and true to life. Now I’m going to go ahead and spoil the ending, since I don’t recommend this book anyway. The gardener and the suffragette decide to get married, but instead, the suffragette shouts, “I hate god!” and runs into the church and blows it up, killing herself. The end. What??
I looked up Stella Benson on Wikipedia to see what was her deal, anyway, and it turns out she was a feminist and a suffragette (it wasn’t clear from the novel which side she was on) and that she lived all over the world, including China and Vietnam. From her bio I would think oh, I can’t wait to read a book by this neglected woman writer but having read this novel I say, never again, Stella Benson, you deserve to be forgotten.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
partly-read
January 3, 2021Tremendously popular and widely praised when it came out just over a century ago - and I'm not sure why. It's self-consciously self-conscious, with a highly intrusive narrator who reminds the reader frequently that it's a novel, and judges the poor characters constantly. It's like a postmodern novel before its time - and from me, that isn't praise.
All the characters are small-minded, small-souled, and small-hearted. The author gives the impression that she doesn't believe in the existence of large minds, hearts, or souls; a couple of the characters have large bodies, though, which she mocks.
I stopped a third of the way through, after some passages that, while they might have been considered acceptable a hundred years ago, read as vilely racist today.
Historical interest only.
All the characters are small-minded, small-souled, and small-hearted. The author gives the impression that she doesn't believe in the existence of large minds, hearts, or souls; a couple of the characters have large bodies, though, which she mocks.
I stopped a third of the way through, after some passages that, while they might have been considered acceptable a hundred years ago, read as vilely racist today.
Historical interest only.
July 9, 2019
A four star story? Yes, despite it's blatant racism. Very close to five stars, too, but though this is her first novel, it's the third of hers I've read, and it's just not quite up there with the others.
Without giving too many spoilers, the story can be divided into three parts. First, typical Stella Benson London: magical, characterful and yet very real. Second, on the island: blatantly racist, she uses "nigger" to describe local people and also infers their lack of cultural sophistication, their inability to speak English properly (no mention of the English people's ability to speak the local language though) and their almost animal instinct (to crowd fearfully into a church following a natural disaster).
(To be honest, I'm not sure if this last can be labelled racist; surely it's an example of how any group of people might behave? But imho her portrayal of the local people as primitive compared to English society comes through very strongly, particularly in the comments about church, because she omits to give them many redeeming features from their own culture).
The third part, back in England, is a return to the magic, the fantasy, the delightful characterisation, and is the culmination of the non-love story between the unnamed gardener and the militant suffragette. I can't help but love all the characters in the book, especially the suffragette, the gardener and Mrs Rust. Wonderful creations. The end of the story is both very simply told and harrowing, and I did not expect anything like it.
The question of how racist the story is, is difficult. Benson was a product of her time, of the values that were inculcated into her, of her elitist and privileged education. If she was writing today, she would be offensive, and it jars very much when not only her characters but she as author propose colonialist racism (albeit I think one of a benign nature - it's still racism).
However, this argument has gone on for years. Can you take a book out of its time-frame and expect to read wonderfully now? I don't think so. We are intelligent, are we not? We should be able to accept that attitudes were different back then. Not to accept that renders us stupid. Today's hot romances would no doubt have offended previous times. Lovecraft attitudes are questionable now. Huckleberry Finn was edited so that "nigger" now reads "slave". I'm not sure that worked then, or works now. Is a slave any less of an insult? Any more? In my opinion, no.
But I do believe that a work of art should remain intact and shouldn't be tarnished by having to cowtow to the whims and prejudices of a particular generation(s), however much I agree with those whims (for the record I am - as far as my upbringing allows me (and I'm not using that as a cop-out, it's just a fact, there is probably prejudice I am not aware of even though it exists) - against prejudice in any form.
Suffice to say this book has maintained it's original wording; and with the caveat of prepare to be disturbed by the language and some of the attitudes held therein, I'd recommend this to everyone.
But perhaps read other work first. Then it may come as less of a shock.
Without giving too many spoilers, the story can be divided into three parts. First, typical Stella Benson London: magical, characterful and yet very real. Second, on the island: blatantly racist, she uses "nigger" to describe local people and also infers their lack of cultural sophistication, their inability to speak English properly (no mention of the English people's ability to speak the local language though) and their almost animal instinct (to crowd fearfully into a church following a natural disaster).
(To be honest, I'm not sure if this last can be labelled racist; surely it's an example of how any group of people might behave? But imho her portrayal of the local people as primitive compared to English society comes through very strongly, particularly in the comments about church, because she omits to give them many redeeming features from their own culture).
The third part, back in England, is a return to the magic, the fantasy, the delightful characterisation, and is the culmination of the non-love story between the unnamed gardener and the militant suffragette. I can't help but love all the characters in the book, especially the suffragette, the gardener and Mrs Rust. Wonderful creations. The end of the story is both very simply told and harrowing, and I did not expect anything like it.
The question of how racist the story is, is difficult. Benson was a product of her time, of the values that were inculcated into her, of her elitist and privileged education. If she was writing today, she would be offensive, and it jars very much when not only her characters but she as author propose colonialist racism (albeit I think one of a benign nature - it's still racism).
However, this argument has gone on for years. Can you take a book out of its time-frame and expect to read wonderfully now? I don't think so. We are intelligent, are we not? We should be able to accept that attitudes were different back then. Not to accept that renders us stupid. Today's hot romances would no doubt have offended previous times. Lovecraft attitudes are questionable now. Huckleberry Finn was edited so that "nigger" now reads "slave". I'm not sure that worked then, or works now. Is a slave any less of an insult? Any more? In my opinion, no.
But I do believe that a work of art should remain intact and shouldn't be tarnished by having to cowtow to the whims and prejudices of a particular generation(s), however much I agree with those whims (for the record I am - as far as my upbringing allows me (and I'm not using that as a cop-out, it's just a fact, there is probably prejudice I am not aware of even though it exists) - against prejudice in any form.
Suffice to say this book has maintained it's original wording; and with the caveat of prepare to be disturbed by the language and some of the attitudes held therein, I'd recommend this to everyone.
But perhaps read other work first. Then it may come as less of a shock.
August 20, 2018
(Kindle)
Published in 1915, the books style and format is innovative. At once feeling dated and modern, Stella Benson unravels a story of The Suffragette and The Gardener. Rambling with a cast of several interesting supporting characters, the novel touches on social issues.
There were a couple of quotable lines in the book but mostly it was like floating down a lazy river.
Would probably make a nice read out loud at bed time book. (With a few parental edits if your audience is little ones.)
Recommend
Published in 1915, the books style and format is innovative. At once feeling dated and modern, Stella Benson unravels a story of The Suffragette and The Gardener. Rambling with a cast of several interesting supporting characters, the novel touches on social issues.
There were a couple of quotable lines in the book but mostly it was like floating down a lazy river.
Would probably make a nice read out loud at bed time book. (With a few parental edits if your audience is little ones.)
Recommend
December 2, 2017
Really, really, weird, and some of it jarring period-distasteful attitudes; but also some wonderful passages.
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