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Princes in the Land
Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan is about a woman bringing up a family who is left at the end, when the children are on the verge of adulthood, asking herself not only what it was all for but what was her own life for? Yet the questions are asked subtly and readably.
Having shown us how everything is made bearable for Patricia if her children can be at the centre of her life and, more important (because she is not a selfish woman) if they grow up to fulfil her ideals, Joanna Cannan proceeds to show us her happiness being slowly destroyed. In Princes in the Land the tragedy of the book is that not only do none of the three children live up to their mother’s expectations, she has to watch as each of them takes a path that is anathema to her. Yet of course, she can do nothing about it; nor, sensibly, does she try.
Joanna Cannan began writing early, and her first novel was published when she was 26. From 1922 onwards she published a book a year for nearly forty years – novels; detective novels, including the very successful Death at The Dog; and the first ‘pony’ book (first in the sense that the focus was on a pony-mad girl rather than a horse or pony), a genre that her daughters Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson were to make very much their own. Princes in the Land is about an interesting and rarely-discussed theme; it is also evocative about Oxford.
Having shown us how everything is made bearable for Patricia if her children can be at the centre of her life and, more important (because she is not a selfish woman) if they grow up to fulfil her ideals, Joanna Cannan proceeds to show us her happiness being slowly destroyed. In Princes in the Land the tragedy of the book is that not only do none of the three children live up to their mother’s expectations, she has to watch as each of them takes a path that is anathema to her. Yet of course, she can do nothing about it; nor, sensibly, does she try.
Joanna Cannan began writing early, and her first novel was published when she was 26. From 1922 onwards she published a book a year for nearly forty years – novels; detective novels, including the very successful Death at The Dog; and the first ‘pony’ book (first in the sense that the focus was on a pony-mad girl rather than a horse or pony), a genre that her daughters Josephine, Diana and Christine Pullein-Thompson were to make very much their own. Princes in the Land is about an interesting and rarely-discussed theme; it is also evocative about Oxford.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
About the author
Joanna Cannan
48 books11 followersBorn in 1898, Joanna Cannan was the youngest daughter of Oxford don Charles Cannan, and his wife Mary Wedderburn. Part of a family of authors, Joanna Cannan was cousin to novelist and playwright Gilbert Cannan, sister to poet May Wedderburn Cannan, mother to fellow pony-book authors Josephine Pullein-Thompson, Diana Pullein-Thompson and Christine Pullein-Thompson, as well as to screenwriter and playwright Denis Cannan, and grandmother to cookbook author Charlotte Popescu.
Cannan worked as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse during WWI, meeting her her future husband, Captain Harold J. "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, in Oxford, during the course of that work. They were married in 1918, and Cannan (who never published under her married name) became the primary breadwinner for the family, after he was severely injured during the war, publishing approximately one book per year. Most of her pony books for children were written before and during WWII, at which point she began turning to detective novels for adults. Cannan suffered from ill health in the 1950s, and eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in 1961.
Cannan worked as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse during WWI, meeting her her future husband, Captain Harold J. "Cappy" Pullein-Thompson, in Oxford, during the course of that work. They were married in 1918, and Cannan (who never published under her married name) became the primary breadwinner for the family, after he was severely injured during the war, publishing approximately one book per year. Most of her pony books for children were written before and during WWII, at which point she began turning to detective novels for adults. Cannan suffered from ill health in the 1950s, and eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in 1961.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
August 12, 2024
Mixed feelings about this Persephone book. I thought the message was sad and important-- especially at the time the novel was written --but I didn't enjoy the overall execution of the story. All characters except Patricia felt flat.
Princes in the Land is, essentially, about a spirited young woman (described as a "hoyden") being tamed by marriage, motherhood and life. Where Patricia once loved riding horses and running wild, she now trades all that in for a life of domesticity. Her subscription to Horse and Hound becomes a subscription to Woman & Home. She dedicates herself fully to her children and husband.
But, despite all the sacrifices and everything Patricia puts into the raising of her children, each one ultimately chooses a path that disappoints her.
It comes in at just over two hundred pages, but covers several decades of a woman's life. Maybe that's the problem. I don't think Cannan spent enough time making us care about August, Giles and Nicola. The development of Patricia's character as a boisterous child was good, but then we spent many years being given what felt like an overview of events. We float above their lives as the author covers more than a decade in just a couple of chapters.
The strength of the book comes from Patricia's growing realisation that she has sacrificed her true self... and for what?
The idea of a woman's spirit being tamed by domestic life still strikes a chord today, and it was especially important in the 1930s when this book was first published. It's not often I say a book should have been longer, but I think some more character development might have made the later chapters more impactful.
Princes in the Land is, essentially, about a spirited young woman (described as a "hoyden") being tamed by marriage, motherhood and life. Where Patricia once loved riding horses and running wild, she now trades all that in for a life of domesticity. Her subscription to Horse and Hound becomes a subscription to Woman & Home. She dedicates herself fully to her children and husband.
But, despite all the sacrifices and everything Patricia puts into the raising of her children, each one ultimately chooses a path that disappoints her.
It comes in at just over two hundred pages, but covers several decades of a woman's life. Maybe that's the problem. I don't think Cannan spent enough time making us care about August, Giles and Nicola. The development of Patricia's character as a boisterous child was good, but then we spent many years being given what felt like an overview of events. We float above their lives as the author covers more than a decade in just a couple of chapters.
The strength of the book comes from Patricia's growing realisation that she has sacrificed her true self... and for what?
The idea of a woman's spirit being tamed by domestic life still strikes a chord today, and it was especially important in the 1930s when this book was first published. It's not often I say a book should have been longer, but I think some more character development might have made the later chapters more impactful.
December 7, 2024
4.5 stars.
“ …You shall have children, whom you shall make princes in the land.”
When we meet Patricia for the first time, we learn she is a spirited child. She grows into a lively young woman, who appreciates the outdoors, horses and dogs. Into her life comes Hugh Lindsay, a scholarly man, who after marriage, decides she must change. They have 3 children together. Patricia has devoted her life to her husband and children and in so doing has lost her inner spirit, until one day….
This book is an interesting reflection on families and motherhood. We, as mothers, do so much for our children- but we can’t expect them to follow “our” path- they must follow “theirs”, even if their’s might be the wrong one. That can be a tough one, as Patricia discovers. As well, do our kids really know us? They don’t know what we were like when we were younger and our hearts were full of dreams and desires..
This book gave me much to reflect on in my own life and my own relationships over the years. Hopefully, I still retain some of my youthful pleasures and can still say I am “me” and not just someone’s wife or mother.
This would be a great book to discuss!
Persephone books never let me down!
Published: 1938
“ …You shall have children, whom you shall make princes in the land.”
When we meet Patricia for the first time, we learn she is a spirited child. She grows into a lively young woman, who appreciates the outdoors, horses and dogs. Into her life comes Hugh Lindsay, a scholarly man, who after marriage, decides she must change. They have 3 children together. Patricia has devoted her life to her husband and children and in so doing has lost her inner spirit, until one day….
This book is an interesting reflection on families and motherhood. We, as mothers, do so much for our children- but we can’t expect them to follow “our” path- they must follow “theirs”, even if their’s might be the wrong one. That can be a tough one, as Patricia discovers. As well, do our kids really know us? They don’t know what we were like when we were younger and our hearts were full of dreams and desires..
This book gave me much to reflect on in my own life and my own relationships over the years. Hopefully, I still retain some of my youthful pleasures and can still say I am “me” and not just someone’s wife or mother.
This would be a great book to discuss!
Persephone books never let me down!
Published: 1938
May 2, 2019
Well, that was depressing. I've read quite a few of Joanna Cannan's books now, and was particularly looking forward to this one; I thought since it was the one Persephone chose to reissue, it must be the best of her novels for grown-ups. However it was my least favorite of all that I've read, inclusive of the mysteries and pony books. Sure, marriage and child rearing have their disillusionments, but the unrelenting dreariness was just too much. Similar themes are handled in the two earlier novels by her that I've read, but with what seems in retrospect to be a lighter touch.
May 15, 2023
PRINCES IN THE LAND (1938), is an interesting story about marriage, motherhood and, last but not least, class.
Patricia's father was killed in the Boer War when she was a child. Both she and her sister Angela were taken by their mother to live with their grandfather, Lord Waveney, at his mansion in the countryside. Lord Waveney took a special liking to the red-haired, freckled Patricia, who shared his love of horses and nature. He spoilt her a lot.
Years pass and Patricia marries Hugh, a hard working, promising student from a poor background (who will later become an academic). Her snobbish mother is dismayed because she wanted Patricia to marry someone of her own class. She marries him anyway. So Patricia must move from a happy, privileged childhood to the life of a housewife perpetually short of money and the hard work of parenting with very little help from her husband.
Patricia and Hugh have three children, and she dearly loves them. They are her only solace. She is a doting mother, fully dedicated to her offspring. She doesn't care about economic hardship or getting old or her husband's indifference: all her dreams for the future are deposited in her children, her "Princes in the Land".
As the children grow older they do not turn out as Patricia had dreamed. They end up disappointing Patricia as much as she had disappointed her own mother many years ago. Patricia will have to learn how to live her life after the children leave their home, and go their own ways, so different from what she had dreamed for them. PRINCES OF THE LAND is a nicely written novel which tackles interesting subjects related to motherhood and child/parent relationships.
3.5 🌟
Patricia's father was killed in the Boer War when she was a child. Both she and her sister Angela were taken by their mother to live with their grandfather, Lord Waveney, at his mansion in the countryside. Lord Waveney took a special liking to the red-haired, freckled Patricia, who shared his love of horses and nature. He spoilt her a lot.
Years pass and Patricia marries Hugh, a hard working, promising student from a poor background (who will later become an academic). Her snobbish mother is dismayed because she wanted Patricia to marry someone of her own class. She marries him anyway. So Patricia must move from a happy, privileged childhood to the life of a housewife perpetually short of money and the hard work of parenting with very little help from her husband.
Patricia and Hugh have three children, and she dearly loves them. They are her only solace. She is a doting mother, fully dedicated to her offspring. She doesn't care about economic hardship or getting old or her husband's indifference: all her dreams for the future are deposited in her children, her "Princes in the Land".
As the children grow older they do not turn out as Patricia had dreamed. They end up disappointing Patricia as much as she had disappointed her own mother many years ago. Patricia will have to learn how to live her life after the children leave their home, and go their own ways, so different from what she had dreamed for them. PRINCES OF THE LAND is a nicely written novel which tackles interesting subjects related to motherhood and child/parent relationships.
3.5 🌟
November 26, 2020
I feel it a had rather a bleak outlook, but it was very well written.
Patricia starts out as pretty fiesty young girl. A good horsewoman with a mind of her own; so much so that she turns down and eligible suitor and instead decides to marry a young scholar, her grandfather is behind the match, despite her mother's protest, and plans to make her a handsome allowance, but here fate intervenes. She marries Hugh anyway but has to adapt herself to a very different way of life, learning to do the necessary housework, mending and so on, which she does very well and uncomplainingly.
Together they do pretty well for themselves and manage to bring up their 3 children on a farmhouse outside of Oxford, the one time she put her foot down and got what she wanted, Hugh wanted a house in the city centre close to the university. As the children grow up, it becomes clear to her that they have not become what she wanted for them. She has lost sight of herself and for what?
Patricia starts out as pretty fiesty young girl. A good horsewoman with a mind of her own; so much so that she turns down and eligible suitor and instead decides to marry a young scholar, her grandfather is behind the match, despite her mother's protest, and plans to make her a handsome allowance, but here fate intervenes. She marries Hugh anyway but has to adapt herself to a very different way of life, learning to do the necessary housework, mending and so on, which she does very well and uncomplainingly.
Together they do pretty well for themselves and manage to bring up their 3 children on a farmhouse outside of Oxford, the one time she put her foot down and got what she wanted, Hugh wanted a house in the city centre close to the university. As the children grow up, it becomes clear to her that they have not become what she wanted for them. She has lost sight of herself and for what?
November 16, 2010
This book is well written. I even liked the main character. But I just didn't love the book, probably because my marriage is too happy. I think the main point the author was trying to get at was that whether you marry your "soulmate" or whether you marry from convenience or because you have to, you probably won't end up happy. Oh, and also that you can give your kids everything that you have—you can give up your entire self for them, and they won't care and they'll just go on to disappoint you. Anyway, I'm not a fan of cynical bitter books. Granted, it did end up with the protagonist going back to be herself (as opposed to the wife/mother figure she had become). But her family, including her husband, didn't understand, and the author didn't leave much hope that they ever would. While I know that motherhood changes you, I guess I'm still naive enough to believe that you can still be yourself and that it can change you in good ways.
May 13, 2016
How husband and children can disappoint one, even when one starts out with love, and the best intentions.
July 3, 2016
My first #20booksofsummer review (though currently reading my fourth) Princes in the Land is a Persephone book that for some reason I had overlooked through years of perusing the Persephone catalogue. I asked for it recently for my birthday, and I am so glad that I did. Princes in the Land will certainly turn out to be one of my favourite Persephone novels, it is subtle, and in the depictions of the disappointments of parenthood I think it quite masterly.
The novel is about family life and motherhood; Patricia Lindsay is a woman who in middle age as her children begin to make lives for themselves is left wondering what her life has been for. Patricia made sacrifices for her children, adapted her expectations of life, but what in the end, was it all for.
princesinthe landWe first meet Patricia as a child in a railway carriage. Patricia is very travel sick, and her mother unaccustomed to such domestic difficulties and with no servant to help is frankly unamused. Patricia and her pretty sister, are travelling to live with their dead father’s family at their Hulver estate in Norfolk. Their mother Blanche is not much liked by her father-in-law – finds herself tolerated, Patricia – to her cold mother’s great surprise is soon her grandfather’s great favourite. Blanche is only a minor character – though superbly drawn, she is determined to make the best of life with her husband’s family. Blanche is unhappy at the need to rely on her husband’s Almeric’s father who she thinks of as bad old Lord Waveney. Blanche favours her older, prettier daughter Angela – who in time will marry a title.
Full review https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
The novel is about family life and motherhood; Patricia Lindsay is a woman who in middle age as her children begin to make lives for themselves is left wondering what her life has been for. Patricia made sacrifices for her children, adapted her expectations of life, but what in the end, was it all for.
princesinthe landWe first meet Patricia as a child in a railway carriage. Patricia is very travel sick, and her mother unaccustomed to such domestic difficulties and with no servant to help is frankly unamused. Patricia and her pretty sister, are travelling to live with their dead father’s family at their Hulver estate in Norfolk. Their mother Blanche is not much liked by her father-in-law – finds herself tolerated, Patricia – to her cold mother’s great surprise is soon her grandfather’s great favourite. Blanche is only a minor character – though superbly drawn, she is determined to make the best of life with her husband’s family. Blanche is unhappy at the need to rely on her husband’s Almeric’s father who she thinks of as bad old Lord Waveney. Blanche favours her older, prettier daughter Angela – who in time will marry a title.
Full review https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
December 7, 2011
I found this book in the Persephone book shop in London. They publish women authors whose books are out of print. It's always a pleasure to discover an author and Joanna Cannan is a treasure. According to the book jacket, she published a book a year! "Princes In The Land" is an excellent entry into her work. The story centers on the wife of an Oxford Don and her three children - all of whom grow to disappoint her. The whimsical, light style of writing belies the important theme: a life of adapting to others isn't always the path to self-fulfillment.
August 21, 2022
The story of Patricia, a young girl who finds herself with her sister living with their paternal grandfather at his country estate. Patricia, unlike her attractively perfect sister, is a wild red head who rides the grandfather's most difficult horses and becomes the favourite of the old man.
Fate however means that Patricia does not benefit from this relationship and when a nervous Scottish academic bumps into her in a train carriage she finds herself in a marriage in which her own vitality is subsumed to the needs of her husband and later self obsessed children.
This is a fascinating historic piece about how women in the first half of the twentieth century have to sacrifice their identity and personality to the needs of family and they disappear. A really well told story that I really enjoyed
Fate however means that Patricia does not benefit from this relationship and when a nervous Scottish academic bumps into her in a train carriage she finds herself in a marriage in which her own vitality is subsumed to the needs of her husband and later self obsessed children.
This is a fascinating historic piece about how women in the first half of the twentieth century have to sacrifice their identity and personality to the needs of family and they disappear. A really well told story that I really enjoyed
August 22, 2010
Impossible to not zoom through this highly readable take on the disappointments of marriage and motherhood. Cannan's view is a cynical one, but not completely without hope. I can imagine some mothers would be offended by, while others would commiserate with, Patricia's experiences. Either way, it's a worthy reminder to not live through your children.
Bought at Persephone Books in London, May, 2009.
Bought at Persephone Books in London, May, 2009.
December 11, 2022
This is a not much talked about subject, how does a mother feel if her children are disappointments and she does not like them or the Middle Aged life she has created. I think now we have a word for this “ empty nest syndrome” but there wasn’t in 1938. It’s a good piece of social history with the changing lives of the three generations and it’s engaging to read.
February 25, 2017
Beautiful, forgotten novel that so accurately and poignantly describes the seemingly inevitable disconnects & regrets one has as a parent. Not just for Anglophiles this book should have a wider readership.
November 1, 2009
We all change when we love - and Cannan describes that delicious dance of being who we are and being who our relationships dictate or require with frankness and humour.
November 2, 2022
**4.5 Stars**
#PersephoneClub on Litsy - August 2022
#PersephoneClub on Litsy - August 2022
June 16, 2026
I got this at Persephone Books in Bath as part of my quest to read as many Oxford novels as I can this year. This was so wonderful and now I need to go back to PB and buy a million more books. Cannan really captures something I’m interested in— the disillusionment of motherhood, especially during the 20th century. The way that marriage slowly creeps into routine and monotony. I loved all the little Oxford references, to picture where the characters lived in the city and where they walked. Will come back to my copy to add some of my favorite passages…
April 2, 2019
The central character of this novella is Patricia Lindsay, nee Crispin. Her mother Blanche had been born wealthy but her husband Almeric lost all her money and then died in WWI leaving her penniless with two girls Patricia and Angela born in 1914 and 1916 to raise. Their paternal grandfather Lord Waverley, a wealthy landowner who has now lost all his three sons in the war, takes them in and because he takes a liking to tomboyish Patricia has them educated at home. The girls lack for nothing except friends of their own age to develop social skills. Despite many opportunities Patricia rejects all wealthy and appropriate suitors falling instead for Hugh Lindsay a junior and low-paid academic who is raising himself out of the working class.
It would not have been a surprise to middle class readers when this book was first published in 1938 that class differences play a large role in the conflicts of this novella. Having carried himself off well in the war, Lindsay now faces the task of supporting his family on a low salary. This only fuels his resentment of his wife’s upper-class origins even though she quickly stops talking nostalgically about her previous life and works hard to manage the home without the help she was formerly used to. “It didn’t occur to him to wonder whether it was at all painful, this adapting process.”
Once Hugh has won an Oxford Professorship he rests on his laurels and no longer demonstrates the intellectual curiosity that drew her to him. But Patricia Lindsay still soldiers on trying to raise the three children to move up the next level of the social ladder. Her model of self-sublimation only means that the children hide their true selves from her and head off in directions that shock and confound their parents. August is trapped into marriage with a working-class girl who pretty much bullies Patricia Lindsay with her strident declarations of `modern’ domestic ability. Giles joins the Oxford Group, later called the Moral Majority, and goes to America to evangelize. Daughter Nicola is really the first to be open about her desires, to be a mechanic not a member of the pony club.
This book predated Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique” but is actually a brilliant illustration of “the problem that has no name.” In submerging her true self Patricia Lindsay, for all her efforts directed at producing “Princes in the Land”, rears three children who cannot express their true needs and desires even to her, the parent who cares. “Mrs. Lindsay had walked the earth a wraith contented because that was right but never gloriously happy. She had been liked, because we all like kind, quiet people, loved because you always love your mother.”
This may sound like a depressing novella and it often did make me feel angry and frustrated on her behalf, but at the same time it is a reminder, intensely well drawn, of why we must raise not only our daughters, but also our sons as feminists.
It would not have been a surprise to middle class readers when this book was first published in 1938 that class differences play a large role in the conflicts of this novella. Having carried himself off well in the war, Lindsay now faces the task of supporting his family on a low salary. This only fuels his resentment of his wife’s upper-class origins even though she quickly stops talking nostalgically about her previous life and works hard to manage the home without the help she was formerly used to. “It didn’t occur to him to wonder whether it was at all painful, this adapting process.”
Once Hugh has won an Oxford Professorship he rests on his laurels and no longer demonstrates the intellectual curiosity that drew her to him. But Patricia Lindsay still soldiers on trying to raise the three children to move up the next level of the social ladder. Her model of self-sublimation only means that the children hide their true selves from her and head off in directions that shock and confound their parents. August is trapped into marriage with a working-class girl who pretty much bullies Patricia Lindsay with her strident declarations of `modern’ domestic ability. Giles joins the Oxford Group, later called the Moral Majority, and goes to America to evangelize. Daughter Nicola is really the first to be open about her desires, to be a mechanic not a member of the pony club.
This book predated Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique” but is actually a brilliant illustration of “the problem that has no name.” In submerging her true self Patricia Lindsay, for all her efforts directed at producing “Princes in the Land”, rears three children who cannot express their true needs and desires even to her, the parent who cares. “Mrs. Lindsay had walked the earth a wraith contented because that was right but never gloriously happy. She had been liked, because we all like kind, quiet people, loved because you always love your mother.”
This may sound like a depressing novella and it often did make me feel angry and frustrated on her behalf, but at the same time it is a reminder, intensely well drawn, of why we must raise not only our daughters, but also our sons as feminists.
November 3, 2021
I can't fault the writing on this one but, God, was it depressing.
Patricia Crispin is the granddaughter of a lord who grows up in comfort, preferring the company of her prize horses and spending every waking moment out of doors. She has a very clear idea of the kind of person she wants to be and what she wants from life. She grows into a spirited young woman who defies the expectation placed upon her by her social class when she decides to marry a poor young scholar.
What follows is half a life-time of sacrifice and dreams left by the wayside for the benefit of others. Patricia's home life and relationship with Mr Lindsay becomes a shadow of what it once was as she tries to meet his expectations, and all the plans she has for her children similarly fall apart as they make their own choices. This book demonstrates how important knowing the difference between sacrifice and compromise is and the pitfalls of allowing others to dictate the path of our life just to please them. The character of Patricia is an example of how failure to do so results in someone eventually looking back on their life and realising that they have wholly lost the person they used to be. The story isn't completely without hope, I think, but getting to that revelation certainly feels hard-won.
Patricia Crispin is the granddaughter of a lord who grows up in comfort, preferring the company of her prize horses and spending every waking moment out of doors. She has a very clear idea of the kind of person she wants to be and what she wants from life. She grows into a spirited young woman who defies the expectation placed upon her by her social class when she decides to marry a poor young scholar.
What follows is half a life-time of sacrifice and dreams left by the wayside for the benefit of others. Patricia's home life and relationship with Mr Lindsay becomes a shadow of what it once was as she tries to meet his expectations, and all the plans she has for her children similarly fall apart as they make their own choices. This book demonstrates how important knowing the difference between sacrifice and compromise is and the pitfalls of allowing others to dictate the path of our life just to please them. The character of Patricia is an example of how failure to do so results in someone eventually looking back on their life and realising that they have wholly lost the person they used to be. The story isn't completely without hope, I think, but getting to that revelation certainly feels hard-won.
October 6, 2024
PRINCES IN THE LAND is sadder than it has any right to be. It's a dreary book (and I mean that as a compliment!)
Pat is an outgoing tomboy who marries her one true love. It SHOULD end Happily Ever After, shouldn't it?
But life isn't like that.
Marriage in the early Twentieth century, even if it's a love match, even if the man is intelligent and reasonable, is still a trap. Motherhood is a trap.
Pat loves her three children, very much, and gives her life up to them. She even does it happily enough, at first. But they aren't grateful; the accept it as their due. And eventually Pat realises that THIS IS WHAT CHILDREN DO. Even as adults, you aren't a person to them, you're their MOTHER. And she realises that this isn't enough. She's had enough of subsuming herself in her family's life.
This last bit is a very small slice of the book, and might not feel like enough after spending two hundred pages watching Pat get smaller and greyer and more and more faded. Some people might find the story of even a happy(ish) marriage and motherhood to be too depressing with not enough payoff at the end when Pat gets to be happy again. But I was just glad it was there, to be honest.
A very sad look at women's life in the early Twentieth century.
Pat is an outgoing tomboy who marries her one true love. It SHOULD end Happily Ever After, shouldn't it?
But life isn't like that.
Marriage in the early Twentieth century, even if it's a love match, even if the man is intelligent and reasonable, is still a trap. Motherhood is a trap.
Pat loves her three children, very much, and gives her life up to them. She even does it happily enough, at first. But they aren't grateful; the accept it as their due. And eventually Pat realises that THIS IS WHAT CHILDREN DO. Even as adults, you aren't a person to them, you're their MOTHER. And she realises that this isn't enough. She's had enough of subsuming herself in her family's life.
This last bit is a very small slice of the book, and might not feel like enough after spending two hundred pages watching Pat get smaller and greyer and more and more faded. Some people might find the story of even a happy(ish) marriage and motherhood to be too depressing with not enough payoff at the end when Pat gets to be happy again. But I was just glad it was there, to be honest.
A very sad look at women's life in the early Twentieth century.
September 8, 2023
Loved it! Sure it’s a bleak outlook, it’s about how alienating it is to be woman and a wife and a mother, how you change yourself and lose yourself and forget yourself and for what? A husband and children you realize one day don’t know you and you don’t like them all that much, but/and it’s very well written and there is a tiny sliver of hope in there.
March 18, 2008
This is a beautifully written, unsentimental view of regular life: young people falling in love, marrying, having children, how they change and grow up and in many ways grow apart. In many ways very sad, but written in such a beautiful, straightforward way. Just beautiful.
February 22, 2021
Eh, not my fave from Persephone. If you want to be depressed about motherhood or love...this may be the book for you.
April 18, 2021
A very acute depiction of how women lose themselves/become invisible. A other reviewers have commented it's bleak, but not without hope.
December 31, 2024
At the end of Chapter 5 I wrote “this is boring. 2 stars”.
Well, it got better. 4 stars. What else would I expect from a Persephone Book re-issue? 😊
The central protagonist is Patricia, a girl then a young woman then a middle-aged woman in her early 40s. A devoted wife to a husband who thought highly of himself. A devoted mother who gave up a lot and sacrificed for her children.
At times the book was humorous. At times it was bittersweet. Seems to me one message was that if you are going to have children, don’t automatically expect you will remain the most important people in their lives, or that you will be loved in all of your totality.
I have a list of the first 150 re-issues of Persephone and I go on Persephone-book-ordering binges every now and then, but I am selective in what I get. I take a look at what Goodreads reviewers have to say as well as other reviewers have to say...and if I don’t think I would like a Persephone re-issue I don’t order it. For this book I made the notation “sad, but get it”. I’d say after reading the book it comes close to the mark but I wouldn’t exactly call it sad.
Reviews:
• https://thecaptivereader.com/2013/04/...
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2016/...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• https://shereadsnovels.com/2011/08/30...
• https://danitorres.typepad.com/workin...
Well, it got better. 4 stars. What else would I expect from a Persephone Book re-issue? 😊
The central protagonist is Patricia, a girl then a young woman then a middle-aged woman in her early 40s. A devoted wife to a husband who thought highly of himself. A devoted mother who gave up a lot and sacrificed for her children.
At times the book was humorous. At times it was bittersweet. Seems to me one message was that if you are going to have children, don’t automatically expect you will remain the most important people in their lives, or that you will be loved in all of your totality.
I have a list of the first 150 re-issues of Persephone and I go on Persephone-book-ordering binges every now and then, but I am selective in what I get. I take a look at what Goodreads reviewers have to say as well as other reviewers have to say...and if I don’t think I would like a Persephone re-issue I don’t order it. For this book I made the notation “sad, but get it”. I’d say after reading the book it comes close to the mark but I wouldn’t exactly call it sad.
Reviews:
• https://thecaptivereader.com/2013/04/...
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2016/...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2016/...
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• https://shereadsnovels.com/2011/08/30...
• https://danitorres.typepad.com/workin...
December 27, 2025
Lively and entertaining read as with all Persephone books. A work of very domestic fiction featuring an adventurous and independent lead character who learns to accommodate, adjust and adapt to the quirks and needs of others, only to find herself wondering why.
My only problem with Persephone book is that they so accurately catalog the many ways in which society trims, confines, demotes and exhausts women, which can be more than a little depressing to contemplate. There is a glimmer of rebellion in Patricia in the end so she may find the reward she deserves. The larger lesson seems to be don't wait for children to fulfill you - take your pleasures along the way and don't lose yourself in their lives.
I was torn about rating this book - it gets a 4 for entertainment but a 3 for content. There are many ways in which this could have been a richer story - for example, including Hugh's interior life as well or reflecting on how patterns work across generations. Cannan largely sidesteps this, eliminating most of the grandparents and parents from the start and shipping off the sibling.
Another unexplored area is the children themselves. Maybe looking at the children independent of Patricia's desires for them - were her plans ever realistic? And were their choices objectively so bad? And are youthful mistakes deterministic of a wasted life? These questions tell me that the book made a deeper impression than I may have at first thought. And I suspect that, despite its limitations, as a book published in 1938 it created a little frisson of awakening in its readers.
My only problem with Persephone book is that they so accurately catalog the many ways in which society trims, confines, demotes and exhausts women, which can be more than a little depressing to contemplate. There is a glimmer of rebellion in Patricia in the end so she may find the reward she deserves. The larger lesson seems to be don't wait for children to fulfill you - take your pleasures along the way and don't lose yourself in their lives.
I was torn about rating this book - it gets a 4 for entertainment but a 3 for content. There are many ways in which this could have been a richer story - for example, including Hugh's interior life as well or reflecting on how patterns work across generations. Cannan largely sidesteps this, eliminating most of the grandparents and parents from the start and shipping off the sibling.
Another unexplored area is the children themselves. Maybe looking at the children independent of Patricia's desires for them - were her plans ever realistic? And were their choices objectively so bad? And are youthful mistakes deterministic of a wasted life? These questions tell me that the book made a deeper impression than I may have at first thought. And I suspect that, despite its limitations, as a book published in 1938 it created a little frisson of awakening in its readers.
October 29, 2025
A simple story and yet can it be so full of sadness?
Domestic life’s meaning is giving everything up to raise kids and embrace them with all the expectations that will never be fulfilled. This is a story of a mother facing the parental nightmare of seeing their kids not following the path she so dearly imagined for them, and actually witnessing helplessly how poorly they can behave.
Has everything gone wasted?
Another Persephone edition of forgotten books that is worthy picking up from the ashes. Brilliant.
Domestic life’s meaning is giving everything up to raise kids and embrace them with all the expectations that will never be fulfilled. This is a story of a mother facing the parental nightmare of seeing their kids not following the path she so dearly imagined for them, and actually witnessing helplessly how poorly they can behave.
Has everything gone wasted?
Another Persephone edition of forgotten books that is worthy picking up from the ashes. Brilliant.
February 10, 2025
I loved finding Persephone books as a chance to explore and appreciate forgotten or under-appreciated authors.
Princes in the land is a short melancholy book.
I felt that pacing and character development were slight issues but did not significantly affect my enjoyment of the book.
The message of this book was poignant - and to me a reminder of the importance of remember who you are and being true to yourself.
Princes in the land is a short melancholy book.
I felt that pacing and character development were slight issues but did not significantly affect my enjoyment of the book.
The message of this book was poignant - and to me a reminder of the importance of remember who you are and being true to yourself.
April 16, 2022
3.5/5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews