What do you think?
Rate this book
William's Wife
When Jane marries the elderly grocer William Chirp, she thinks she has moved up into the comfort of middle class. Instead, she discovers that William exerts a control over her life that forces her to live like a prisoner. His tight-fistedness and suspicions so affect Jane that even after his death, she finds herself trapped in a penny-pinching paranoia and resorts to scavenging for food out of garbage bins and taking her silverware with her everywhere in a shopping bag.
Utterly forgotten for over 80 years, neither the book nor its author are mentioned in any history of 20th century English literature. Yet Trevelyan is arguably the finest novelist of the generation to follow Virginia Woolf and William’s Wife is one of the most powerful psychological portraits in all fiction.
As a story about a woman at the mercy of a domineering and abusive husband, William’s Wife is a novel still resonant and relevant in today’s world. Even more, it’s one of the most effective accounts of the onset and experience of mental illness, of a paranoia and miserliness that gradually takes over Jane Chirp’s life and leads her to move to ever-more-cramped and dingy flats where she surrounds herself with her belongings like a besieged hermit.
Utterly forgotten for over 80 years, neither the book nor its author are mentioned in any history of 20th century English literature. Yet Trevelyan is arguably the finest novelist of the generation to follow Virginia Woolf and William’s Wife is one of the most powerful psychological portraits in all fiction.
As a story about a woman at the mercy of a domineering and abusive husband, William’s Wife is a novel still resonant and relevant in today’s world. Even more, it’s one of the most effective accounts of the onset and experience of mental illness, of a paranoia and miserliness that gradually takes over Jane Chirp’s life and leads her to move to ever-more-cramped and dingy flats where she surrounds herself with her belongings like a besieged hermit.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1938
2 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
G.E. Trevelyan
8 books10 followersGertrude Eileen Trevelyan was an English novelist. She was born on 17 October 1903 in Bath, Somerset, England. She attended Princess Helena College, then located in Ealing, and was confirmed at St Peter's Church, Ealing in 1920. She attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1923 to 1927, graduating with a second-class degree.
While at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, she won - as the first female winner - the Newdigate Prize for Poetry with her 250-line poem in blank verse titled, Julia, Daughter of Claudius. After leaving Oxford, she moved to London, where she first lived in a women's residence hotel in Bermondsey. She later lived as a lodger in several locations in Kensington.
Trevelyan wrote eight groundbreaking novels between 1932 and 1941, but her writing career was tragically cut short when her flat was hit by a German bomb during the Blitz. She died shortly afterward because of her injuries.
Trevelyan was largely forgotten after her death and for many years her work was out of print. However, in 2020, her debut novel Appius and Virginia was republished by Eye & Lightning Books, seeking to restore the Trevelyan to her rightful place in British literature.
While at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, she won - as the first female winner - the Newdigate Prize for Poetry with her 250-line poem in blank verse titled, Julia, Daughter of Claudius. After leaving Oxford, she moved to London, where she first lived in a women's residence hotel in Bermondsey. She later lived as a lodger in several locations in Kensington.
Trevelyan wrote eight groundbreaking novels between 1932 and 1941, but her writing career was tragically cut short when her flat was hit by a German bomb during the Blitz. She died shortly afterward because of her injuries.
Trevelyan was largely forgotten after her death and for many years her work was out of print. However, in 2020, her debut novel Appius and Virginia was republished by Eye & Lightning Books, seeking to restore the Trevelyan to her rightful place in British literature.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 27, 2023
An absolute masterpiece. Reminded me of Beckett towards the end (Rockaby?) which is just extraordinary for its time. A page-turner too, despite the subject matter. Something about the building tension, and the mental falling apart just pulls you along. Not happy reading (coercive control, depression, paranoia, mental decline, aging...) but never depressing. The narrative voice is just exquisitely judged. I read it in a state of breathless admiration.
God bless Boiler House Books and particularly Brad Bigelow and long running unburying work.
Because you are unlikely to have heard of this unjustly neglected author:
" Gertrude Eileen Trevelyan was born in Bath in 1903. She came to fame as the first woman to win the Newdigate Prize for best undergraduate poem at Oxford in 1927. Starting with Appius and Virginia in 1932, she published eight novels, her last being Trance by Appointment in 1939. She was injured when a German bomb struck her flat in October 1940 and she died at her parents' home in Bath in March 1941."
God bless Boiler House Books and particularly Brad Bigelow and long running unburying work.
Because you are unlikely to have heard of this unjustly neglected author:
" Gertrude Eileen Trevelyan was born in Bath in 1903. She came to fame as the first woman to win the Newdigate Prize for best undergraduate poem at Oxford in 1927. Starting with Appius and Virginia in 1932, she published eight novels, her last being Trance by Appointment in 1939. She was injured when a German bomb struck her flat in October 1940 and she died at her parents' home in Bath in March 1941."
February 17, 2025
There was something rather compelling about this incredibly small slice of life and marriage in the early twentieth century. This is a marriage born of Victorian repressive conservatism.
Our protagonist Jane (who tells the story) leaves service to marry William, a man twenty five years her senior, a grocer, business owner with a desirable home and status. There any desirability ends. He is a closed book. He shares nothing, he takes Victorian thriftiness to an extreme. He accounts for every penny, will permit no money to be spent on repairs, clothing, holidays and watches his wife like a hawk whilst maintaining the image of upstanding member of the community.
Jane rails against these strictures and yet is mean spirited and mistrustful herself and both of these characters sink deeper into their natures as years and years of married life pass by and respectability leads them by the nose.
This is a downward spiral of control, parsimony and paranoia as Jane "defends" her choices, outlook and way of life. The whole novel is a car-crash waiting to happen. I hated these people, this marriage, these soul destroying values and hated the tedium of the repetitive vocabulary. Yet somehow all these components make this a riveting read. It struck a chord within me, a ring of truth about coercive marriages past and present and how the author inhabits her work.
Our protagonist Jane (who tells the story) leaves service to marry William, a man twenty five years her senior, a grocer, business owner with a desirable home and status. There any desirability ends. He is a closed book. He shares nothing, he takes Victorian thriftiness to an extreme. He accounts for every penny, will permit no money to be spent on repairs, clothing, holidays and watches his wife like a hawk whilst maintaining the image of upstanding member of the community.
Jane rails against these strictures and yet is mean spirited and mistrustful herself and both of these characters sink deeper into their natures as years and years of married life pass by and respectability leads them by the nose.
This is a downward spiral of control, parsimony and paranoia as Jane "defends" her choices, outlook and way of life. The whole novel is a car-crash waiting to happen. I hated these people, this marriage, these soul destroying values and hated the tedium of the repetitive vocabulary. Yet somehow all these components make this a riveting read. It struck a chord within me, a ring of truth about coercive marriages past and present and how the author inhabits her work.
November 28, 2025
This is an outstanding work that chronicles the gradual disintegration of Jane Atkins over three decades. To discuss this book properly, my review will include information about the plot and situations ("spoilers").
G.E. Trevelyan writes a naturalist novel in modernist style. Most of the text is taken up with Jane's internal monologue, a patter that reveals how the forces around her and her drives shape the (downward) course of her life. As Alice Jolly points out in the forward, unlike the stream of consciousness technique used by Virginia Woolf which has "flow, rhythm, a touch of poetry," Jane's language is ugly and petty but with a "unique and relentless power" that immerses the reader in her life and concerns.
Like all great literature, William's Wife can be read on many levels. One is the woman's place in society in early 20th-century England. As soon as she marries William, Jane loses self-determination. "Her" money now belongs to him, and her function is to manage William's household and serve his needs. She is given a budget for household expenses, and William ceremoniously reads the receipts for each purchase. When there is an unexpected expense, Jane must practically beg for money, and there is no question of buying things for herself. When she leaves on an errand, it must be at her usual time, and when she returns, she finds William waiting at the door with his watch in his hand, timing her arrival to the minute. William often chooses to ignore her comments or requests, usually responding with a monosyllable or dismissing her suggestions. He makes decisions such as selling his business and retiring without consulting Jane.
Intertwined with Jane's specific relationship to William is the power of societal expectations. As the wife of a successful businessman, Jane must keep up appearances. She must never question her husband's judgment publicly, and she must preserve the "respect" accorded to her status. To do this, she must be dismissive of the low and yet "know her place" among the high. She must keep her clothing presentable in spite of enforced economy (how many of her reflections have to do with whether others will "notice" this or that!) and even employ a "girl" to avoid neighborhood gossip. The main reason that she wants the sitting room remodeled is for the weekly visit of the local priest, who might judge them for its shabbiness.
The book is also a psychological history of Jane as she responds to the forces around her. As she is dressing for her wedding ceremony, Jane regrets that she can't wear "the smart slippers she'd bought, with the beads sewn all over the toes" because they might be spoiled, but she comforts herself that she will "Have them nice and new for afterwards." Jane's sensibility and tendency to delay her gratification at first appears a positive attribute, and repeatedly she denies herself, often because of her oppressive home situation. However, during the course of the novel the impulse becomes perverted into a grasping miserliness that has her picking up discarded produce from the market gutters.
Along with her miserliness, Jane is suspicious and mistrustful. She constantly suspects the servant of stealing, gossiping, and immoral behavior. She believes that Emily, William's daughter by his first wife, is plotting to get her property. She is obsessed with locks, bags, and concealment, and she ends by carrying all of her belongings about with her. She believes that robbers and murderers are following her home and that every person she meets wants to steal from her. Over the course of the novel, she sheds all acquaintances until she lives alone in a mildewy half-basement flat.
The course of Jane's life is determined both by these seeds of mental illness and a society that promotes corruption. Trevelyan shows these influences when she has Jane internalize William's own grasping and suspicious ways. He dissuades his daughter and son-in-law from visiting him both because he believes that they have mercenary intentions and to save the price of extra coal. While at first she encourages a visit, very soon Jane suspects them as well, and she moves from place to place during the second half to avoid Emily. During the first years of her marriage, Jane complains about the cumbersome, threadbare, and out-of-fashion horsehair furniture, and yet she brings it along with her to clutter up her rooms on every move after William's death. After he has died, Jane looks back fondly on William's close-fistedness as something very reasonable.
In this way, Trevelyan also exposes the tendency for self-serving lies to function as excuses for abnormality and imbalance. William says that he refuses to billet a soldier because they are scoundrels and scallywags, but he actually worries that the stipend wouldn't cover expenses. Jane pilfers money from the church donation in order to save up for a new dress, but she never buys the dress. The light from oil lamps is warmer and more pleasant than gas. It is sensible to pick up discarded rubbish to use for lighting the fire at home.
This is one of the best books I read in 2025. I look forward to reading more of this author.
G.E. Trevelyan writes a naturalist novel in modernist style. Most of the text is taken up with Jane's internal monologue, a patter that reveals how the forces around her and her drives shape the (downward) course of her life. As Alice Jolly points out in the forward, unlike the stream of consciousness technique used by Virginia Woolf which has "flow, rhythm, a touch of poetry," Jane's language is ugly and petty but with a "unique and relentless power" that immerses the reader in her life and concerns.
Like all great literature, William's Wife can be read on many levels. One is the woman's place in society in early 20th-century England. As soon as she marries William, Jane loses self-determination. "Her" money now belongs to him, and her function is to manage William's household and serve his needs. She is given a budget for household expenses, and William ceremoniously reads the receipts for each purchase. When there is an unexpected expense, Jane must practically beg for money, and there is no question of buying things for herself. When she leaves on an errand, it must be at her usual time, and when she returns, she finds William waiting at the door with his watch in his hand, timing her arrival to the minute. William often chooses to ignore her comments or requests, usually responding with a monosyllable or dismissing her suggestions. He makes decisions such as selling his business and retiring without consulting Jane.
Intertwined with Jane's specific relationship to William is the power of societal expectations. As the wife of a successful businessman, Jane must keep up appearances. She must never question her husband's judgment publicly, and she must preserve the "respect" accorded to her status. To do this, she must be dismissive of the low and yet "know her place" among the high. She must keep her clothing presentable in spite of enforced economy (how many of her reflections have to do with whether others will "notice" this or that!) and even employ a "girl" to avoid neighborhood gossip. The main reason that she wants the sitting room remodeled is for the weekly visit of the local priest, who might judge them for its shabbiness.
The book is also a psychological history of Jane as she responds to the forces around her. As she is dressing for her wedding ceremony, Jane regrets that she can't wear "the smart slippers she'd bought, with the beads sewn all over the toes" because they might be spoiled, but she comforts herself that she will "Have them nice and new for afterwards." Jane's sensibility and tendency to delay her gratification at first appears a positive attribute, and repeatedly she denies herself, often because of her oppressive home situation. However, during the course of the novel the impulse becomes perverted into a grasping miserliness that has her picking up discarded produce from the market gutters.
Along with her miserliness, Jane is suspicious and mistrustful. She constantly suspects the servant of stealing, gossiping, and immoral behavior. She believes that Emily, William's daughter by his first wife, is plotting to get her property. She is obsessed with locks, bags, and concealment, and she ends by carrying all of her belongings about with her. She believes that robbers and murderers are following her home and that every person she meets wants to steal from her. Over the course of the novel, she sheds all acquaintances until she lives alone in a mildewy half-basement flat.
The course of Jane's life is determined both by these seeds of mental illness and a society that promotes corruption. Trevelyan shows these influences when she has Jane internalize William's own grasping and suspicious ways. He dissuades his daughter and son-in-law from visiting him both because he believes that they have mercenary intentions and to save the price of extra coal. While at first she encourages a visit, very soon Jane suspects them as well, and she moves from place to place during the second half to avoid Emily. During the first years of her marriage, Jane complains about the cumbersome, threadbare, and out-of-fashion horsehair furniture, and yet she brings it along with her to clutter up her rooms on every move after William's death. After he has died, Jane looks back fondly on William's close-fistedness as something very reasonable.
In this way, Trevelyan also exposes the tendency for self-serving lies to function as excuses for abnormality and imbalance. William says that he refuses to billet a soldier because they are scoundrels and scallywags, but he actually worries that the stipend wouldn't cover expenses. Jane pilfers money from the church donation in order to save up for a new dress, but she never buys the dress. The light from oil lamps is warmer and more pleasant than gas. It is sensible to pick up discarded rubbish to use for lighting the fire at home.
This is one of the best books I read in 2025. I look forward to reading more of this author.
April 16, 2025
I picked this book up in an indie bookstore and I’m so glad I did. I find it rare for me when older books are such page turners, but perhaps it’s because the themes central to this story are still so relevant today unfortunately. If you can find a copy I highly highly urge you to read it
March 10, 2024
A masterpiece. Why is this book not better known? I hope its reissue will bring it back into the public eye. This study of a woman’s disintegration is astonishing. Read it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews