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They Knew Mr. Knight
The Blakes are an ordinary family: Celia looks after the house and Thomas works at the family engineering business in Leicester. The book begins when he meets Mr Knight, a financier as crooked as any on the front pages of our newspapers nowadays; and tracks his and his family's swift climb and fall. Part of the cause of the ensuing tragedy is Celia's innocence - blinkered by domesticity, she and her children are the 'victim of the turbulence of the outside world' (Postscript); but finally, through 'quiet tenacity and the refusal to let go of certain precious things, goodness does win out' (Afterword). And the "TLS" wrote: 'The portraits in the book are fired by Mrs Whipple's article of faith - the supreme importance of people.'
484 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
34 people are currently reading
1307 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Whipple
29 books343 followersBorn in 1893, DOROTHY WHIPPLE (nee Stirrup) had an intensely happy childhood in Blackburn as part of the large family of a local architect. Her close friend George Owen having been killed in the first week of the war, for three years she worked as secretary to Henry Whipple, an educational administrator who was a widower twenty-four years her senior and whom she married in 1917. Their life was mostly spent in Nottingham; here she wrote Young Anne (1927), the first of nine extremely successful novels which included Greenbanks (1932) and The Priory (1939). Almost all her books were Book Society Choices or Recommendations and two of them, They Knew Mr Knight (1934) and They were Sisters (1943), were made into films. She also wrote short stories and two volumes of memoirs. Someone at a Distance (1953) was her last novel. Returning in her last years to Blackburn, Dorothy Whipple died there in 1966.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
January 13, 2025
It was the bitter bread of dependence. Women had to eat so much of it.
Well, I've finally read all of Dorothy Whipple's novels. So many great stories, but what a shame there isn't more of them. They Knew Mr. Knight is another story about people; about a family, and their lives, loves and ambitions.
Thomas Blake is frustrated about his lot in life, stuck with a modest salary that will never enable him to buy back his father's business or send his son to university. When the titular Mr. Knight provides him with an opportunity to improve his position and grow his fortune, Thomas can hardly wait to seize it. But at what cost?
As always, Whipple is subtle but has a great deal to say. This book works as both a cautionary tale against greed and as a meditation on the helplessness of dependence. Unlike Thomas, his wife Celia was completely content with the life they had before Mr. Knight came on the scene, yet she is forced to ride the wave of Thomas' decisions.
Now to polish off Whipple's short story collections.
June 27, 2021
This is a pitch-perfect period piece: middle class couple in their mid 40s, living in middle England, mid wars. It could have been hackneyed, or just dull, but it isn't - and it's beautifully written.
It opens with exquisite descriptions of the minor niggles of a slightly dull life; the precise annoyances being different for husband and wife, although the latter generally has a great "capacity for contentment". Each mundane thought and task (even shaving) sheds delicate light on the character involved, setting the scene for what follows.
PLOT
There is a clear arc to the plot - and indeed, the characters in it. Thomas Blake runs what was his family engineering business (sold because of his late father squandered money, mostly on drink). A chance meeting with entrepreneur Laurence Knight gives Thomas the chance to better himself, and thus his family. It cleverly portrays the excitement and expectation felt by characters, even when the reader suspects the future may not always be so rosy. It's poignant, without ever being sentimental.
CHARACTERS
Thomas and Celia have three children, who are teens at the start and young adults by the end: Freda, Ruth and Douglas. Each has a distinct and different character, and the way they are shaped by events has a certain inevitability with hindsight, even though none of the precise details feel predictable.
In addition, Thomas supports his widowed mother, spinster sister and feckless brother (Edward).
The eponymous Laurence Knight is a wealthy man, returned with his wife, to the town he grew up in.
The problem with mixing in these three different levels of society is that it involves a degree of unfamiliarity or even pretence and fear of being found out: "she was always... finding herself in company to which she felt either superior or inferior" - but never comfortably equal.
THEMES
At one level, this is a small family saga with a predictable plot (transformation through rise and fall - not just of the main characters). But that is only true in the most superficial sense. Within that familiar framework, many issues are vividly explored.
There are minor spoilers in this section, so you may prefer to skim the headings and then jump to the quotations at the end.
Role of Women
Celia is a wonderful mother, loving wife, and diligent and competent housewife. However, she is ill-educated in matters of business and finance, and ponders "briefly, how helpless women and children are; their fates are decided for them by men". She is cross when Thomas assumes decision-making power about Douglas' schooling on the basis that he's the man; she makes her points, but doesn't dare be really firm.
In such an environment, it's no wonder that the childless women come across as sad, unfulfilled and, in the case of neighbour Mrs Greene, an unpleasant busy-body, loathed by all.
However, when times are tough, it is Celia (and to some extent, Ruth) who is the strength of the family.
Growing Pains - Parenting Teens
Celia, struggles to understand each of her children and react appropriately to the challenges that arise with each, letting them make their own mark - and mistakes - but hating the hurt that sometimes resulted. Issues about parties, friends, fashion, heartbreak, embarrassing family members etc are just as pertinent now as then. "She was beset with the desire, common to all anxious mothers, to press into service food, sunshine, cushions, distractions, everything she could think of... to make him better."
Freda is a dreamy, self-centred snob: "when involved in any disagreeable situation, Freda's instinct was to escape". When she has a perm, against her mother's wishes, she is "almost frightened by her own behaviour" but ultimately "vanity drove out remorse". Freda blames her mother for everything that is less than perfect in her life, and her mother "didn't know whether Freda was really trivial or merely being perverse".
Ruth is outwardly more practical, but finds it hard to complete things. However, she shares her parents' capacity for love and loyalty, and proves to be a shrewd judge of character, especially with her grumpy grandmother.
Douglas is passionate - mainly about chemistry, which would be fine, were it not for the fact his father runs an engineering business.
Marriage
All the marriages have a delicate dynamic, and several include an imbalance of love or loyalty that is only acknowledge by one partner.
For one couple, the apparently pragmatic reasons for swapping between double and single beds have much deeper resonance and cause "a slight barrier... between them, of which poor [other half] was entirely unaware".
For another, the wife was "ashamed sometimes of clinging where she wasn't wanted... 'He'll be old sometime, and then he'll want me.'".
By contrast, there is a beautiful example of the transformative power of love.
Wealth
Prosperity makes barely-dreamed of luxuries almost commonplace, but it also provides new stresses, whether of fitting in, spreading wings, not having enough to do - or all three.
Thomas thought "Celia ought to be very satisfied... to be so well set up in this house, with these maids. She had nothing to do now but enjoy herself." But the extra staff "kept their places and saw that she kept hers. There was none of the hearty coo-operation of maid and mistress that there had been at The Grove". This, and endless bridge, which she only does "because there seemed to be nothing else to do" lead to depression: "my top life is all right... But my underneath life is all wrong".
Conversely, "the bitter bread of dependence" affects many characters in the book at different times, and each reacts differently: some are strengthened by it, and others are weakened.
Christianity
Thomas and Celia are non-religious (unusual in those days), though they take their children to church because "it was safer. No good taking away when they had nothing to offer in place."
Nevertheless, Whipple was a Christian, and the book is laced with subtle messages about avarice, snobbery and Faustian pacts, bundled with non-preachy lessons about pride, forgiveness and honesty. These are discussed more explicitly in an excellent afterword.
However, towards the end, there is a much more explicit section that feels out of place with the tone of the rest of it. A shame, imo, and the only real weakness in the book.
QUOTATIONS
* Her daughters "had her smooth skin now, her perished bloom. She had flowered, borne fruit, and was now fading". Later "Beauty was fugitive now. It came and went" (she was only 41 at this point!).
* "It was the sort of house where one could speak upstairs and be heard down. Smells, too, travelled easily in it."
* "The tram careered on, without having stopped. It had a reckless air."
* A grand car "arrested his attention by its discreet magnificence".
* "He continued to read the paper as he talked, because he often found it easier to talk to his children that way."
* The spinster aunt came "bringing an atmosphere of martyrdom. 'I was chopping cabbage,' she announced."
* "They had no money and lived in a small, uninteresting way."
* "Edward was fortified by the knowledge that he was the most respected frequenter of The Swan... as comfortable at The Swan as the Blakes were in their own sitting room until he entered it." Ouch: the sting in the final phrase.
* The perils of making something for an ungrateful relative: "The jacket... gave more pleasure to the maker than it would to the recipient... They gave her double gifts... presents and causes for complaint."
* "The murk of the night curling in at the window."
* "She even managed to keep an expression of disapproval during mastication."
* "Man is not constituted to bear suspense. He can bear adversity, suffering, parting, death, but not suspense."
* A mother, with a son-in-law she dislikes, feels "bitter, uneasy, shut out, able only to ask brightly about the husband's health".
(Recommended by Clare P)
It opens with exquisite descriptions of the minor niggles of a slightly dull life; the precise annoyances being different for husband and wife, although the latter generally has a great "capacity for contentment". Each mundane thought and task (even shaving) sheds delicate light on the character involved, setting the scene for what follows.
PLOT
There is a clear arc to the plot - and indeed, the characters in it. Thomas Blake runs what was his family engineering business (sold because of his late father squandered money, mostly on drink). A chance meeting with entrepreneur Laurence Knight gives Thomas the chance to better himself, and thus his family. It cleverly portrays the excitement and expectation felt by characters, even when the reader suspects the future may not always be so rosy. It's poignant, without ever being sentimental.
CHARACTERS
Thomas and Celia have three children, who are teens at the start and young adults by the end: Freda, Ruth and Douglas. Each has a distinct and different character, and the way they are shaped by events has a certain inevitability with hindsight, even though none of the precise details feel predictable.
In addition, Thomas supports his widowed mother, spinster sister and feckless brother (Edward).
The eponymous Laurence Knight is a wealthy man, returned with his wife, to the town he grew up in.
The problem with mixing in these three different levels of society is that it involves a degree of unfamiliarity or even pretence and fear of being found out: "she was always... finding herself in company to which she felt either superior or inferior" - but never comfortably equal.
THEMES
At one level, this is a small family saga with a predictable plot (transformation through rise and fall - not just of the main characters). But that is only true in the most superficial sense. Within that familiar framework, many issues are vividly explored.
There are minor spoilers in this section, so you may prefer to skim the headings and then jump to the quotations at the end.
Role of Women
Celia is a wonderful mother, loving wife, and diligent and competent housewife. However, she is ill-educated in matters of business and finance, and ponders "briefly, how helpless women and children are; their fates are decided for them by men". She is cross when Thomas assumes decision-making power about Douglas' schooling on the basis that he's the man; she makes her points, but doesn't dare be really firm.
In such an environment, it's no wonder that the childless women come across as sad, unfulfilled and, in the case of neighbour Mrs Greene, an unpleasant busy-body, loathed by all.
However, when times are tough, it is Celia (and to some extent, Ruth) who is the strength of the family.
Growing Pains - Parenting Teens
Celia, struggles to understand each of her children and react appropriately to the challenges that arise with each, letting them make their own mark - and mistakes - but hating the hurt that sometimes resulted. Issues about parties, friends, fashion, heartbreak, embarrassing family members etc are just as pertinent now as then. "She was beset with the desire, common to all anxious mothers, to press into service food, sunshine, cushions, distractions, everything she could think of... to make him better."
Freda is a dreamy, self-centred snob: "when involved in any disagreeable situation, Freda's instinct was to escape". When she has a perm, against her mother's wishes, she is "almost frightened by her own behaviour" but ultimately "vanity drove out remorse". Freda blames her mother for everything that is less than perfect in her life, and her mother "didn't know whether Freda was really trivial or merely being perverse".
Ruth is outwardly more practical, but finds it hard to complete things. However, she shares her parents' capacity for love and loyalty, and proves to be a shrewd judge of character, especially with her grumpy grandmother.
Douglas is passionate - mainly about chemistry, which would be fine, were it not for the fact his father runs an engineering business.
Marriage
All the marriages have a delicate dynamic, and several include an imbalance of love or loyalty that is only acknowledge by one partner.
For one couple, the apparently pragmatic reasons for swapping between double and single beds have much deeper resonance and cause "a slight barrier... between them, of which poor [other half] was entirely unaware".
For another, the wife was "ashamed sometimes of clinging where she wasn't wanted... 'He'll be old sometime, and then he'll want me.'".
By contrast, there is a beautiful example of the transformative power of love.
Wealth
Prosperity makes barely-dreamed of luxuries almost commonplace, but it also provides new stresses, whether of fitting in, spreading wings, not having enough to do - or all three.
Thomas thought "Celia ought to be very satisfied... to be so well set up in this house, with these maids. She had nothing to do now but enjoy herself." But the extra staff "kept their places and saw that she kept hers. There was none of the hearty coo-operation of maid and mistress that there had been at The Grove". This, and endless bridge, which she only does "because there seemed to be nothing else to do" lead to depression: "my top life is all right... But my underneath life is all wrong".
Conversely, "the bitter bread of dependence" affects many characters in the book at different times, and each reacts differently: some are strengthened by it, and others are weakened.
Christianity
Thomas and Celia are non-religious (unusual in those days), though they take their children to church because "it was safer. No good taking away when they had nothing to offer in place."
Nevertheless, Whipple was a Christian, and the book is laced with subtle messages about avarice, snobbery and Faustian pacts, bundled with non-preachy lessons about pride, forgiveness and honesty. These are discussed more explicitly in an excellent afterword.
However, towards the end, there is a much more explicit section that feels out of place with the tone of the rest of it. A shame, imo, and the only real weakness in the book.
QUOTATIONS
* Her daughters "had her smooth skin now, her perished bloom. She had flowered, borne fruit, and was now fading". Later "Beauty was fugitive now. It came and went" (she was only 41 at this point!).
* "It was the sort of house where one could speak upstairs and be heard down. Smells, too, travelled easily in it."
* "The tram careered on, without having stopped. It had a reckless air."
* A grand car "arrested his attention by its discreet magnificence".
* "He continued to read the paper as he talked, because he often found it easier to talk to his children that way."
* The spinster aunt came "bringing an atmosphere of martyrdom. 'I was chopping cabbage,' she announced."
* "They had no money and lived in a small, uninteresting way."
* "Edward was fortified by the knowledge that he was the most respected frequenter of The Swan... as comfortable at The Swan as the Blakes were in their own sitting room until he entered it." Ouch: the sting in the final phrase.
* The perils of making something for an ungrateful relative: "The jacket... gave more pleasure to the maker than it would to the recipient... They gave her double gifts... presents and causes for complaint."
* "The murk of the night curling in at the window."
* "She even managed to keep an expression of disapproval during mastication."
* "Man is not constituted to bear suspense. He can bear adversity, suffering, parting, death, but not suspense."
* A mother, with a son-in-law she dislikes, feels "bitter, uneasy, shut out, able only to ask brightly about the husband's health".
(Recommended by Clare P)
September 17, 2021
I'd forgotten just how much I love Dorothy Whipple's writing. She completely sucks you into her stories.
Central to the plot is the Blake family; Thomas Blake works at the engineering firm which used to belong to his family, until his unsuccessful father sold it to Mr Simpson, who is also mismanaging it, Thomas would dearly love to be able to buy it back but with all his financial commitments, to his own family, and to his mothers household which includes a feckless brother and an unmarried sister, he can't hope to ever be able to raise the money to buy the business back, until one day he bumps into Mr Knight, a very successful financier, at the train station and with his help, things start to look up.
Celia, his wife, is not too unhappy with the family's situation, she was used to a better lifestyle but throughout the novel remains very grounded and never warms to Mr Knight and certainly doesn't trust him, but eventually even she gets sucked up in their new lifestyle. Mr Knight doesn't really appear very often but he is always there in the background, driving everything that happens to the family.
Central to the plot is the Blake family; Thomas Blake works at the engineering firm which used to belong to his family, until his unsuccessful father sold it to Mr Simpson, who is also mismanaging it, Thomas would dearly love to be able to buy it back but with all his financial commitments, to his own family, and to his mothers household which includes a feckless brother and an unmarried sister, he can't hope to ever be able to raise the money to buy the business back, until one day he bumps into Mr Knight, a very successful financier, at the train station and with his help, things start to look up.
Celia, his wife, is not too unhappy with the family's situation, she was used to a better lifestyle but throughout the novel remains very grounded and never warms to Mr Knight and certainly doesn't trust him, but eventually even she gets sucked up in their new lifestyle. Mr Knight doesn't really appear very often but he is always there in the background, driving everything that happens to the family.
May 2, 2022
I am in the middle of a Winifred Holtby read fest. I was going to jump into another one of her novels but thought that instead of doing that, that perhaps I should try and read one of two remaining novels I have not read of Dorothy Whipple’s oeuvre.
Ugh. 😕 🙁
One of those novels where I was glad to finish it just so I could move on to something I would hopefully like more.
I have given high marks to all other novels I have read by Dorothy Whipple.... I really enjoyed her writing, and her plot lines [Someone at a Distance (5 stars) | Because of the Lockwoods (5 stars) | Greenbanks (3 stars) | The Priory (4 stars) | Young Anne (4 stars) | High Wages (4 stars) ]. But this 470-pager was, for me, bad throughout.
I didn’t think Mr. Knight, a shrewd businessman, was all that bad or evil. I didn’t really like Celia, who I think the reader was supposed to like (how Whipple portrayed her). I couldn’t stand her oldest daughter Freda. There just were not a whole lot of characters to like in this snooze-fest.
I have one more novel of Whipple’s to read that I have not read yet – They Were Sisters– and then I can go back and occasionally read her other novels that I very much liked. Since I have the long-term memory of a newt, it will be as if I never read them! 🤪
Note:
It was made into a movie in 1946: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Kn..., and it didn’t do too well at the box office.
Reviews of the book (they all liked it)
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2010/...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2008/...
• https://www.ninjabookbox.com/post/boo...
• https://danitorres.typepad.com/workin...
Ugh. 😕 🙁
One of those novels where I was glad to finish it just so I could move on to something I would hopefully like more.
I have given high marks to all other novels I have read by Dorothy Whipple.... I really enjoyed her writing, and her plot lines [Someone at a Distance (5 stars) | Because of the Lockwoods (5 stars) | Greenbanks (3 stars) | The Priory (4 stars) | Young Anne (4 stars) | High Wages (4 stars) ]. But this 470-pager was, for me, bad throughout.
I didn’t think Mr. Knight, a shrewd businessman, was all that bad or evil. I didn’t really like Celia, who I think the reader was supposed to like (how Whipple portrayed her). I couldn’t stand her oldest daughter Freda. There just were not a whole lot of characters to like in this snooze-fest.
I have one more novel of Whipple’s to read that I have not read yet – They Were Sisters– and then I can go back and occasionally read her other novels that I very much liked. Since I have the long-term memory of a newt, it will be as if I never read them! 🤪
Note:
It was made into a movie in 1946: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Kn..., and it didn’t do too well at the box office.
Reviews of the book (they all liked it)
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2010/...
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2008/...
• https://www.ninjabookbox.com/post/boo...
• https://danitorres.typepad.com/workin...
October 7, 2016
The fascinating thing about this book is that you get a strong sense, from the very beginning, how things are going to go wrong for the Blake family - but that suspense, that dark foreshadowing, does not in any way diminish from the pleasure of the storytelling. This is an anti-materialist book with strong Christian (or you could say spiritual) underpinnings. It deals with morality in a way that is old-fashioned these days, and yet there is something so bracing and reassuring about it.
*
Thomas Blake is the head of the family - not just his own, which consists of wife Celia and three children (Freda, Ruth and Douglas), but also his widowed mother and his two middle-aged siblings. Thomas's great desire in life is to buy back the engineering works that he has devoted his life to, and that his own father had imprudently sold. When Thomas meets the famous financier, Mr. Knight, on the train, he is tempted into financial dealings which will finally allow him to reclaim the old family business. But of course it doesn't stop there . . . and Thomas is drawn into a financial world of speculation and living on credit which is bound to end in disaster. The novel is set in the mid to late 1920s, so anyone who knows their history will see the shadow of World War I in the recent past and the shadow of the long 1930s Depression looming in the near future.
*
Celia, Thomas's wife, is the central character of the story - and I think one's emotional involvement in the book derives largely from feeling an affinity with her way of thinking. I definitely did. She is a "just" a middle-class housewife, but Celia has the gift of fine perception, reflection and being able to take pleasure in simple things. Her values and reactions contrast with the materialistic lures of Mr. Knight and his set, and her steadiness of character and search for grace are the counterpart to the sharp arc of Thomas's story.
*
It's difficult to describe the appeal of Whipple's writing, which is clear and straightforward - and yet also utterly absorbing. Highly recommended.
*
Thomas Blake is the head of the family - not just his own, which consists of wife Celia and three children (Freda, Ruth and Douglas), but also his widowed mother and his two middle-aged siblings. Thomas's great desire in life is to buy back the engineering works that he has devoted his life to, and that his own father had imprudently sold. When Thomas meets the famous financier, Mr. Knight, on the train, he is tempted into financial dealings which will finally allow him to reclaim the old family business. But of course it doesn't stop there . . . and Thomas is drawn into a financial world of speculation and living on credit which is bound to end in disaster. The novel is set in the mid to late 1920s, so anyone who knows their history will see the shadow of World War I in the recent past and the shadow of the long 1930s Depression looming in the near future.
*
Celia, Thomas's wife, is the central character of the story - and I think one's emotional involvement in the book derives largely from feeling an affinity with her way of thinking. I definitely did. She is a "just" a middle-class housewife, but Celia has the gift of fine perception, reflection and being able to take pleasure in simple things. Her values and reactions contrast with the materialistic lures of Mr. Knight and his set, and her steadiness of character and search for grace are the counterpart to the sharp arc of Thomas's story.
*
It's difficult to describe the appeal of Whipple's writing, which is clear and straightforward - and yet also utterly absorbing. Highly recommended.
March 30, 2011
Dorothy Whipple is a mid-twentieth century novelist who is currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts as an author reissued by Persephone Books, a London based publishing venture that seems to have found a very comfortable niche breathing new life into forgotten and neglected mid-century fiction. Like many authors on the Persephone list, Whipple wrote mostly domestic fiction. Women are usually central in her books (although her male characters are as just as real and believable as the women) and her themes tend to be of houses and family and financial security. That's no doubt a big part of the reason why she fell into obscurity, that, and the fact that her writing has no modernist tricks, but is just pure straight-forward narration. So far out of favor did she fall that a 1993 reference book, The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers, which one might reasonably expect to include her, doesn't mention her at all.
I myself find her stories compulsively readable, but unfortunately for me, each novel of hers that I've read thus far (this was my fourth) has been progressively less delightful and more depressing than the last!
This one concerns Thomas Blake, a decent hardworking and harassed man who can barely make ends meet supporting his wife and three children, in addition to a second household consisting of an aging mother, spinster sister and dissolute brother. A chance stumble in a railway station leads to a connection with a powerful and (as is obvious to the reader but not Thomas) unethical financier, the great Mr. Knight of the title. Mr. Knight gives Thomas advice about how to set about buying back the engineering works that had been in his family for generations before being sold by his father. Following Mr. Knight's advice on this and other matters, Thomas' family becomes wealthier and more socially prominent, to the delight of his children and the unease of his wife Celia, who had always been perfectly happy with their modest lifestyle and her small garden. Honestly, I have to say I found the arc of the plot tediously predictable (we all know that what goes up must come down) and it did not make for comfortable reading at all. Whipple is regrettably unsubtle in showing us again and again how various members of the family compromise their values in their pursuit of materialistic and social ends, and Celia is just too good to be true. There are some bright spots however -- many of the minor characters are delightful (I loved the very unexpected fate that befalls Thomas' brother) and despite the dips into melodrama, there's a certain crispness to the writing and the characters that I find very pleasing. Here is the unpleasant gossipy neighbor, Mrs. Green, commenting to Celia on seeing the oldest daughter, Freda, being picked up by Mr. Knight's chauffeur:
"I saw Freda setting off in the Rolls-Royce this morning," said Mrs. Green with her smile. "I saw the man tucking the rug around her. She takes it all as to the manor born, doesn't she?"
"Well," said Celia. "I don't know how else you would wish her to take it."
"No," said Mrs. Green, defeated. "Quite."
So the short version: Whipple is a good writer but this one is not her best. I'd recommend starting with The Priory.
Incidentally, although Persephone's paperbacks are elegant and lovely, it's worth poking around in dusty used bookshops for Whipple -- most of her books seem to have had American editions in the 30's and 40's when they were first published. This particular copy was a happy $2 find miss-shelved in the children's section of one of my favorite stores.
I myself find her stories compulsively readable, but unfortunately for me, each novel of hers that I've read thus far (this was my fourth) has been progressively less delightful and more depressing than the last!
This one concerns Thomas Blake, a decent hardworking and harassed man who can barely make ends meet supporting his wife and three children, in addition to a second household consisting of an aging mother, spinster sister and dissolute brother. A chance stumble in a railway station leads to a connection with a powerful and (as is obvious to the reader but not Thomas) unethical financier, the great Mr. Knight of the title. Mr. Knight gives Thomas advice about how to set about buying back the engineering works that had been in his family for generations before being sold by his father. Following Mr. Knight's advice on this and other matters, Thomas' family becomes wealthier and more socially prominent, to the delight of his children and the unease of his wife Celia, who had always been perfectly happy with their modest lifestyle and her small garden. Honestly, I have to say I found the arc of the plot tediously predictable (we all know that what goes up must come down) and it did not make for comfortable reading at all. Whipple is regrettably unsubtle in showing us again and again how various members of the family compromise their values in their pursuit of materialistic and social ends, and Celia is just too good to be true. There are some bright spots however -- many of the minor characters are delightful (I loved the very unexpected fate that befalls Thomas' brother) and despite the dips into melodrama, there's a certain crispness to the writing and the characters that I find very pleasing. Here is the unpleasant gossipy neighbor, Mrs. Green, commenting to Celia on seeing the oldest daughter, Freda, being picked up by Mr. Knight's chauffeur:
"I saw Freda setting off in the Rolls-Royce this morning," said Mrs. Green with her smile. "I saw the man tucking the rug around her. She takes it all as to the manor born, doesn't she?"
"Well," said Celia. "I don't know how else you would wish her to take it."
"No," said Mrs. Green, defeated. "Quite."
So the short version: Whipple is a good writer but this one is not her best. I'd recommend starting with The Priory.
Incidentally, although Persephone's paperbacks are elegant and lovely, it's worth poking around in dusty used bookshops for Whipple -- most of her books seem to have had American editions in the 30's and 40's when they were first published. This particular copy was a happy $2 find miss-shelved in the children's section of one of my favorite stores.
December 3, 2023
Reading this alongside Middlemarch was fortuitous. It illuminated the parallels between George Eliot’s writing style and Dorothy Whipple’s. They both have a psychological realism to their characters’ behavior and motivations that is breath-takingly accurate. In the tradition of Jane Austen, both Eliot and Whipple operate in a deeply moral universe where characters suffer for their sins and foolishness and where blindness to one’s own sinful nature has painful consequences. This sounds bleak. And at times, these authors’ novels are bleak. But the flip side to this is that repentance, love, grace, gratitude, and virtue also have real weight. Even characters who sin through foolishness or wrongdoing have the ability to repent and find that their eyes are opened to reality—a reality in which consequences have lasting effects but never the final word.
I think this novel may be Dorothy Whipple’s Middlemarch. It’s brilliant. And I think it’s a novel best started without knowing anything about it. Keep your heart open and your mind receptive and, like Celia (a new favorite character), God will do a good work in you as you read.
I think this novel may be Dorothy Whipple’s Middlemarch. It’s brilliant. And I think it’s a novel best started without knowing anything about it. Keep your heart open and your mind receptive and, like Celia (a new favorite character), God will do a good work in you as you read.
November 17, 2018
The story of Faust is such a universal one. This version takes place in the Midlands of England, where
the uber-wealthy Mr. Knight tempts people with promises of wealth and power. No spoilers necessary - you know how it will end, yet Whipple's characters command attention and sympathy even as they careen towards ruin.
the uber-wealthy Mr. Knight tempts people with promises of wealth and power. No spoilers necessary - you know how it will end, yet Whipple's characters command attention and sympathy even as they careen towards ruin.
November 15, 2025
Wow! I am a little bit in awe of Dorothy Whipiple. The literary and religious quality of this novel is astonishing, especially considering the current critics *squints at Virago and their "Whipple line* who don't see it. The characters are so real, and I truly loved some of them. Whipple's world has real consequences, too, which adds to the realism.
Elizabeth's review compares Whipple to Eliot. Another comparison I found was the nuggets of wisdom Whipple, like Eliot, effortlessly includes in the narrative. I've put my favorites below, but in a spoiler, because I agree it's great to go into the novel blind.
Much of what I wanted to say in my review was said better in the afterword by Rev. Terence Handley MacMath. She highlighted the strong religious imagery and the spiritual world of the novel. What I'd add is that I read They Knew Mr. Knight as a Fall narrative.
Elizabeth's review compares Whipple to Eliot. Another comparison I found was the nuggets of wisdom Whipple, like Eliot, effortlessly includes in the narrative. I've put my favorites below, but in a spoiler, because I agree it's great to go into the novel blind.
Much of what I wanted to say in my review was said better in the afterword by Rev. Terence Handley MacMath. She highlighted the strong religious imagery and the spiritual world of the novel. What I'd add is that I read They Knew Mr. Knight as a Fall narrative.
June 28, 2014
This story could so have been written today.
To speculate and to end up losing it all.
We all want the good life but it comes at a cost.
Dorothy Whipple writes so well and I enjoyed this one.
I'm so glad that Persephone have re printed a few of her wonderful books.
Good that a new generation can enjoy them.
I couldn't put it down.
To speculate and to end up losing it all.
We all want the good life but it comes at a cost.
Dorothy Whipple writes so well and I enjoyed this one.
I'm so glad that Persephone have re printed a few of her wonderful books.
Good that a new generation can enjoy them.
I couldn't put it down.
October 4, 2022
Dorothy Whipple is a great discovery for me and I am working my way through all of her novels. My notes on this one are that this is a real family story. In the other books I have read the families are slightly dyfsunctional, often with dead mothers or abusive partners. Although Greenbanks has a wonderful matriarch at the centre, her dead husband seems to have been rather unsatisfactory, and only one of her children and one grandchild really give her joy. This story however is focused on a nuclear family. When the story starts they are in their teens and although they have their problems, some more than others, there is a great deal of love there. And the parents have a very good relationship, there is compromise, not everything is said, but there is affection. This makes the rise and fall of this family all the more compelling. It is a timeless story of greed and of carelessness. Of taking people up and of throwing them off, of being too trusting and believing one is special and protected when in fact the protector is not to be trusted. It is also a morality tale and, like many of Whipple's books, spiritual without being religious
January 25, 2009
Persephone publish 5 Dorothy Whipple books, four novels and one book of short stories, and it is easy to see why, her writing of families and their ups and downs their triumphs and disasters is brilliant. This is the third of the four novels re-published by Persephone that I have read. My favourite was They were Sisters, but this one is almost as good. I found it quite unputdownable really, it is nearly 500 pages long but I read it so quickly it din't feel as long as that.
Celia is an innocent, a housewife and mother who knows nothing of finance, and understands even less. She is however a steadfast and true woman who supports her husband, and her children in everything, and she knows enough to dislike Mr Knight. Freda - the eldest daughter is rather selfish, although she longs for great things to happen to her, the reader can't help but shake their head over what must surely come to pass, and pity her in her silliness. This is a very moral tale, in which those who aim too high have everything come crashing down, and who have to live with the results.
Celia is an innocent, a housewife and mother who knows nothing of finance, and understands even less. She is however a steadfast and true woman who supports her husband, and her children in everything, and she knows enough to dislike Mr Knight. Freda - the eldest daughter is rather selfish, although she longs for great things to happen to her, the reader can't help but shake their head over what must surely come to pass, and pity her in her silliness. This is a very moral tale, in which those who aim too high have everything come crashing down, and who have to live with the results.
May 7, 2015
This is my favorite Dorothy Whipple novel thus far. Enchanted from the first chapter on, I felt connected to these characters and looked forward every evening to reading about them and their lives. I was deeply moved by Miss Whipple's description of Celia's spiritual journey and I was in tears by the end of the book. Not tears of sadness but that wonderful feeling you get when an author beautifully captures an experience that you didn't think could be put into words. Miss Whipple did put it into words and they are lovely.
This is a treausre. A book that you could read again and again and still find new aspects to cherish. Do yourself a favor and go get this book now and you can thank me later.
This is a treausre. A book that you could read again and again and still find new aspects to cherish. Do yourself a favor and go get this book now and you can thank me later.
July 4, 2014
I wasn't sure about this one at first, but it grew on me. Set in an industrial town in 1930s northern England, it describes the effects on an ordinary middle-class family when the father begins to speculate in increasingly shady financial dealings.
August 31, 2018
The Blake family typifies many English middle-class families. Thomas and Celia Blake have two daughters and one son. There is Douglas, who longs to be a chemist but is expected to follow in his father's (and grandfather's) family business. There is dreamy, cheery Ruth who seems to get along with everyone and has aspirations of becoming a novelist, and there is the difficult, unhappy and snobbish Freda.
"I saw Freda setting off in the Rolls-Royce this morning,' said Mrs. Greene with her smile. 'I saw the man tucking the rug round her. She takes it all as to the manner born, doesn't she?'
Thomas Blake, the patriarch, longs for financial security; enough capital to perhaps even buy back the machinist factory that his father, due to unwise decisions, had lost. "Thomas's father, Percival, long dead, had not been a good business man. He inherited the works from his father, but he had not been able to manage them. He first made his manager, Joseph Simpson, a partner, and later, as Thomas was about to enter them from school, he sold the works outright to Simpson for a ridiculously small sum.
Thomas, at seventeen, felt a chagrin bitter beyond his years..."
Douglas, constantly caught up with his chemistry experiments, needs a good university education, and Freda, scorning the teaching or secretarial careers held out to her, desires to become part of the upper class: "Mr. Knight was so rich, he had a magnificent car, a lovely house, and no children. Suppose Mr. and Mrs. Knight took a fancy to her? Suppose they adopted her? Standing by the dressing-table, she saw herself as the darling of Mr. and Mrs. Knight, with all their wealth at her command."
The stability of the family seems to rest most upon Celia. And yet Celia herself has no overt talents or education to sustain the apparent weight her family puts upon her..."Half an hour of peace and solitude was precious in her busy day. She was the wife of Thomas, the mother of Freda, Ruth and Douglas, the mistress of Agnes and of No. 17 the Grove, but when she was alone she was herself. When she was alone another self,ordinarily covered over, walled in by preoccupations of house, husband and children, took the air, as it were, and walked abroad..."
When a chance meeting with the affluent financial wizard, 'Mr. Knight', evolves into something more, Thomas Blake is set upon a path that begins to fulfill all the family's dreams of wealth and position... but will security evade them in the end?
Not just about financial security, greed and power, "They Knew Mr. Knight" is also about social position and acceptance. Each character, from the well-heeled, suave and assured Mr. Knight down to the frustrating, cynical and gossipy Mrs. Greene, is a realistic portrait of the best and worst in human nature.
"It had been agreed between them, when Freda left school, that when she had done the work allotted to her in the house, she should do as she liked. She must live her own life, she said. What this life as, her mother could not make out; it was no sort of a life that anybody else could define. A great deal of it seemed, to Celia, to be spent in yawning and saying there was nothing to do.'
"They Knew Mr. Knight" is the first Whipple novel I have read and it drew me in, compelling me to spend many late hours in the evening comfortably reading and enjoying the well-drawn cast of characters, all with their own flaws and strengths.
According to notes in an afterword, in 1932 Swedish "Match-King' Ivan Kreuger committed suicide in a Paris hotel after financial losses totaling 300 million. In 1930 Clarence Hatry was sentenced to fourteen years for fraud. Dorothy Whipple wrote "They Knew Mr. Knight" sometime around this time and it was published in 1934.
I so enjoyed this novel and can't wait to read more of Dorothy Whipple in the future.
"I saw Freda setting off in the Rolls-Royce this morning,' said Mrs. Greene with her smile. 'I saw the man tucking the rug round her. She takes it all as to the manner born, doesn't she?'
Thomas Blake, the patriarch, longs for financial security; enough capital to perhaps even buy back the machinist factory that his father, due to unwise decisions, had lost. "Thomas's father, Percival, long dead, had not been a good business man. He inherited the works from his father, but he had not been able to manage them. He first made his manager, Joseph Simpson, a partner, and later, as Thomas was about to enter them from school, he sold the works outright to Simpson for a ridiculously small sum.
Thomas, at seventeen, felt a chagrin bitter beyond his years..."
Douglas, constantly caught up with his chemistry experiments, needs a good university education, and Freda, scorning the teaching or secretarial careers held out to her, desires to become part of the upper class: "Mr. Knight was so rich, he had a magnificent car, a lovely house, and no children. Suppose Mr. and Mrs. Knight took a fancy to her? Suppose they adopted her? Standing by the dressing-table, she saw herself as the darling of Mr. and Mrs. Knight, with all their wealth at her command."
The stability of the family seems to rest most upon Celia. And yet Celia herself has no overt talents or education to sustain the apparent weight her family puts upon her..."Half an hour of peace and solitude was precious in her busy day. She was the wife of Thomas, the mother of Freda, Ruth and Douglas, the mistress of Agnes and of No. 17 the Grove, but when she was alone she was herself. When she was alone another self,ordinarily covered over, walled in by preoccupations of house, husband and children, took the air, as it were, and walked abroad..."
When a chance meeting with the affluent financial wizard, 'Mr. Knight', evolves into something more, Thomas Blake is set upon a path that begins to fulfill all the family's dreams of wealth and position... but will security evade them in the end?
Not just about financial security, greed and power, "They Knew Mr. Knight" is also about social position and acceptance. Each character, from the well-heeled, suave and assured Mr. Knight down to the frustrating, cynical and gossipy Mrs. Greene, is a realistic portrait of the best and worst in human nature.
"It had been agreed between them, when Freda left school, that when she had done the work allotted to her in the house, she should do as she liked. She must live her own life, she said. What this life as, her mother could not make out; it was no sort of a life that anybody else could define. A great deal of it seemed, to Celia, to be spent in yawning and saying there was nothing to do.'
"They Knew Mr. Knight" is the first Whipple novel I have read and it drew me in, compelling me to spend many late hours in the evening comfortably reading and enjoying the well-drawn cast of characters, all with their own flaws and strengths.
According to notes in an afterword, in 1932 Swedish "Match-King' Ivan Kreuger committed suicide in a Paris hotel after financial losses totaling 300 million. In 1930 Clarence Hatry was sentenced to fourteen years for fraud. Dorothy Whipple wrote "They Knew Mr. Knight" sometime around this time and it was published in 1934.
I so enjoyed this novel and can't wait to read more of Dorothy Whipple in the future.
March 1, 2021
Another classic from Dorothy Whipple and the wonders of Persphone Books. I sometimes hit or miss with DW but this time I really enjoyed this family saga of when the devil - Mr Knight - comes to town and leads the family Blake down the path of sin - who will surcome? OK its dated? And a hulk of a book. But it is a great read nevertheless. Great characters given the time to develop and 'hang' themselves as the plot decrees. Lovely touches in the writing. Superb dialogue, really of its time. It is a great example of a well written novel and how they did it then.
Toast
Re-read Feb 2021
I found myself treading water this time around. Not because I could remember the plot etc but because I found the snobbery, the class ridden bits so aggrovating, the characters so unpleasant that I didn't really care for them. It was all very general, architypal whereas the ones with personality such as Ruth, I had more time for. It felt more a morality tale this time around and lost some of its bite as a result.
Toast
Toast
Re-read Feb 2021
I found myself treading water this time around. Not because I could remember the plot etc but because I found the snobbery, the class ridden bits so aggrovating, the characters so unpleasant that I didn't really care for them. It was all very general, architypal whereas the ones with personality such as Ruth, I had more time for. It felt more a morality tale this time around and lost some of its bite as a result.
Toast
Read
November 13, 2017I can't get past 25% on this one. I suppose it didn't help that I moved house at the same time as starting it! Now I've lost the thread completely, so I'm putting it on pause and will try again some time in the future.
November 1, 2021
Whipple, you've done it again! A gripping page-turner of a story.
They knew Mr Knight and boy did they end up regretting it.
Five gold stars from start to finish with just a tiny Whipple-wobble towards the end.
Thank you Dorothy, love you forever.
January 16, 2020
I think Dorothy Whipple was my loveliest discovery last year.
August 20, 2024
Republished by Persephone Books in 2000, They Knew Mr. Knight is a 1934 English novel about the encounter of the middle-class Blake family with the avaricious financier Mr. Knight. It goes rather poorly.
Overall, the book was a fantastic introduction to Persephone's catalogue, which specializes in resurrecting the works of forgotten female authors.
Whipple's writing is unvarnished and matter-of-fact, complimenting her wryly perceptive narration to make for a great page-by-page reading experience. I highlighted many passages:
"Thomas first travelled with Mr. Knight on Tuesday, and on Friday he travelled with him again, having this time taken a first-class ticket to do so. He excused this unwonted extravagance to Celia by saying it was worth it."
"She avoided her grandmother as much as possible; chiefly because she dreaded her sharp tongue, but also because she did not like to look at her. It was terrible and ugly to be old, she thought."
"'I've brought you a drop of my tonic wine...being composed of barley, wine, bovril, black beer, and port.' He was quoting from an imaginary label he intended to affix when he put the wine on the market, as he often thought of doing."
These sorts of passages--mundane, funny, incisive--are much of what makes the novel work. The characters are strong, too, from the charitable and overburdened mother to her oblivious and sincere husband. Though the novel is transparently moralistic, the large central cast is engagingly complex (aside from one or two exceptions).
And, despite the straightforward plot, the ending had a few tonal surprises that emphasized the novel's feminist themes and solidified my desire to read more of Whipple’s work.
Another joy of reading old books is finding new words: "empurpled" was a particular highlight.
Overall, the book was a fantastic introduction to Persephone's catalogue, which specializes in resurrecting the works of forgotten female authors.
Whipple's writing is unvarnished and matter-of-fact, complimenting her wryly perceptive narration to make for a great page-by-page reading experience. I highlighted many passages:
"Thomas first travelled with Mr. Knight on Tuesday, and on Friday he travelled with him again, having this time taken a first-class ticket to do so. He excused this unwonted extravagance to Celia by saying it was worth it."
"She avoided her grandmother as much as possible; chiefly because she dreaded her sharp tongue, but also because she did not like to look at her. It was terrible and ugly to be old, she thought."
"'I've brought you a drop of my tonic wine...being composed of barley, wine, bovril, black beer, and port.' He was quoting from an imaginary label he intended to affix when he put the wine on the market, as he often thought of doing."
These sorts of passages--mundane, funny, incisive--are much of what makes the novel work. The characters are strong, too, from the charitable and overburdened mother to her oblivious and sincere husband. Though the novel is transparently moralistic, the large central cast is engagingly complex (aside from one or two exceptions).
And, despite the straightforward plot, the ending had a few tonal surprises that emphasized the novel's feminist themes and solidified my desire to read more of Whipple’s work.
Another joy of reading old books is finding new words: "empurpled" was a particular highlight.
May 2, 2022
What a fascinating read this was! In some ways I did not enjoy the storytelling aspect of this novel as much as I have Dorothy Whipple's other novels, but an attempt to explore the nature of sin and a personal relationship with God provided much food for thought. These topics may now be considered deeply unfashionable as the theme of a novel but the afterword has sent me back to read The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macauley afresh. I am also reminded of the spiritual journeys undertaken by Elizabeth Goudge's characters, but somehow there is more grit in Dorothy Whipple's mill.
One small 'sin', stepping in to a first class railway carriage with a third class ticket, sets in motion a whole series of events which lead to the downfall of the family and prison. It is hard to believe that Celia can choose to be so naive and helpless and can find no practical way to assist her family, but this is summarised for us in the passage
'When Celia cast about now for some means of support, only small, unprofitable ways presented themselves. If the professions, offices, schools were closed to married women with qualifications, they were certainly not open to a married woman without qualifications.'
Finally Celia throws off the curse of caring what others think and discovers some measure of true happiness bringing a sense of resulution to the story.
One small 'sin', stepping in to a first class railway carriage with a third class ticket, sets in motion a whole series of events which lead to the downfall of the family and prison. It is hard to believe that Celia can choose to be so naive and helpless and can find no practical way to assist her family, but this is summarised for us in the passage
'When Celia cast about now for some means of support, only small, unprofitable ways presented themselves. If the professions, offices, schools were closed to married women with qualifications, they were certainly not open to a married woman without qualifications.'
Finally Celia throws off the curse of caring what others think and discovers some measure of true happiness bringing a sense of resulution to the story.
May 25, 2012
Reading Dorothy Whipple is like being invited into a home, meeting all the family, taking interest in their lives, being glad for them and sad for them and sorry when you have to leave their home.
She is certainly not the world's most exciting author, nor the one with the most lavish of descriptions. But, she has a way of writing that makes me want to read on and on. I really feel for the characters.
Mr. Knight is a wealthy businessman who befriends Mr. Blake who is married with 3 children. Blake is just making it and is enticed by Knight's ability to steer him into better economic means. Blake and his family move up and up, but in the end have to face the cruel consequences of wanting too much.
There is a wonderful thread of good and evil here, with Blakes' wife, Celia yearning for God and finding Him at the time she most needed Him.
This story is set in England of the 20's and 30's, one of my favorite settings.
She is certainly not the world's most exciting author, nor the one with the most lavish of descriptions. But, she has a way of writing that makes me want to read on and on. I really feel for the characters.
Mr. Knight is a wealthy businessman who befriends Mr. Blake who is married with 3 children. Blake is just making it and is enticed by Knight's ability to steer him into better economic means. Blake and his family move up and up, but in the end have to face the cruel consequences of wanting too much.
There is a wonderful thread of good and evil here, with Blakes' wife, Celia yearning for God and finding Him at the time she most needed Him.
This story is set in England of the 20's and 30's, one of my favorite settings.
February 5, 2021
This one was a slow burner for me as I struggled to connect with the main characters. Nonetheless it is a fine story with a real message about what happiness is and isn't. Mr Knight was really well imagined and very believable as were many of the peripheral characters. I just found Tom and Celia and their marriage difficult to believe in. Perhaps it is a time/class thing but they didn't chime as convincing for me at any rate. Whipple is brilliant at sketching people like Mrs Greene and indeed Mrs Knight. I imagine her description of Ruth scribbling in her exercise books is very much her!!
April 6, 2023
I am giving this a lesser rating as I found the christian themes ( that Dorothy was known for ) rather heavy handed . Not my favourite of her books.
However it was well written and I did empathise with the beautifully described characters rise to fortune and then almost more quickly , their inevitable fall .
However it was well written and I did empathise with the beautifully described characters rise to fortune and then almost more quickly , their inevitable fall .
July 15, 2014
Huge Whipple fan, but wasn't so enamored of this one. Part of the problem is that I could see the crisis really early on and it made me a little impatient waiting for it to happen.
March 16, 2015
I originally gave this four stars. However, the sublime and wholly unexpected turn of the tale at its conclusion was truly remarkable.
December 2, 2023
Old fashioned morality tale about avarice. Satisfying.
January 1, 2021
Fine but familiar. Like Lettice Cooper's "the New House", this novel follows the fortunes of a family largely through the lens of the real estate they acquire. Thomas and Celia Blake are a happily married couple with 3 teenagers, Freda, Ruth and Douglas, when Thomas bumps into a ruthless financier, the Mr. Knight of the title. Of modest origins, Lawrence Knight has decided to come back to the town of his birth and play at being the benevolent local squire. Thomas gets Knight to lend him the money to buy back his father's old factory, which had passed into other hands due to mismanagement. Unfortunately, success goes to Thomas's head, and he fails to realize that Knight only helps him to amuse himself and because it doesn't cost him anything, and not at all out of true friendship. Freda, who hated the idea of having to take a job after school, at first loves hobnobbing with the landed gentry, but once the feckless young man she falls in love with marries an heiress, she starts drifting through life without a purpose. Freda lusts after fine things but is too shy to go after them. On the other hand, Ruth goes to a finishing school in France and starts writing fiction, and Douglas graduates from Cambridge with honors. Once Knight, bored with country life, moves back to London, Thomas quickly discovers he can't keep his factory going without the help of Knight's hot investment tips. They are forced to return to the dingy house where we first met them, and Thomas goes to gaol for cooking his books in order to obtain a bank loan. Celia, Ruth, Douglas and the rest of the family remain devoted to him and they all pitch in to help, except Freda who marries a kind but vapid older man in order to escape from the shame and the mess. Of course she lives to regret it. Whipple is a competent novelist but this story of the rise and comeuppance of a bunch of basically decent folks lack verve and is nothing special. Ultimately her message is "don't get too big for your boots".
May 12, 2020
3.75
This was lent to me by a neighbour so I had really no expectations going in, but I was really pleasantly surprised. I liked the plot and how Dorothy Whipple really takes the reader along with the family's poverty, to riches, and back to poverty again arc. All her characters felt well realised, even the laughable ones. But what I liked best of all was her writing style - there were lots of sentences where I just stopped and thought...woah. How did she put that together, did it just come to her or did she assemble it? E.g.:
"It was the bitter bread of dependence. Women had to eat so much of it."
and
"The minutes of the Summer morning were slow. Each minute seemed to make itself round and full before it dropped into the pool of time."
particularly the descriptive scenes and moments from Mrs Blake - you can tell Dorothy Whipple enjoyed writing from her perspective. I also thought it was fun having one of the daughters be a writer, I felt like I could trust her perception and ability to keep an eye on everyone.
The entire first chapter I photocopied and annotated because it was just stunningly brilliant.
I thought it was clever her allegory for the Devil leading people astray, and though the bits about God didn't necessarily chime with me, I still empathised with these characters when they had religious moments, because it was how they coped, some of them.
I also loved all the jaw-drop plot moments at the end, finding out what happened to certain characters - they definitely made it finish on a high.
Overall would recommend, and I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled in case any more of her books come my way.
This was lent to me by a neighbour so I had really no expectations going in, but I was really pleasantly surprised. I liked the plot and how Dorothy Whipple really takes the reader along with the family's poverty, to riches, and back to poverty again arc. All her characters felt well realised, even the laughable ones. But what I liked best of all was her writing style - there were lots of sentences where I just stopped and thought...woah. How did she put that together, did it just come to her or did she assemble it? E.g.:
"It was the bitter bread of dependence. Women had to eat so much of it."
and
"The minutes of the Summer morning were slow. Each minute seemed to make itself round and full before it dropped into the pool of time."
particularly the descriptive scenes and moments from Mrs Blake - you can tell Dorothy Whipple enjoyed writing from her perspective. I also thought it was fun having one of the daughters be a writer, I felt like I could trust her perception and ability to keep an eye on everyone.
The entire first chapter I photocopied and annotated because it was just stunningly brilliant.
I thought it was clever her allegory for the Devil leading people astray, and though the bits about God didn't necessarily chime with me, I still empathised with these characters when they had religious moments, because it was how they coped, some of them.
I also loved all the jaw-drop plot moments at the end, finding out what happened to certain characters - they definitely made it finish on a high.
Overall would recommend, and I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled in case any more of her books come my way.
June 1, 2024
**4.5 Stars**
#PersephoneClub on Litsy - April 2024
#PersephoneClub on Litsy - April 2024
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