Dangerous Ages

by Rose Macaulay

“May I ask your daughter’s age?”
“Nan is thirty-three.”
“A dangerous age.”

Rose Macaulay takes a lively and perceptive look at three generations of women within the same family and the ‘dangers’ faced at each of those stages in life. The book opens with Neville celebrating her 43rd birthday and contemplating middle age now that her children are grown. Her mother, in her sixties, seeks answers to her melancholy in Freudianism. Her sister, Nan, 33, a writer who has hitherto led a single and carefree life in London, experiences the loss of love and with it her plan for the future. And Neville’s principled daughter Gerda, who is determined not to follow her mother’s generation into the institute of marriage, finds herself at an impasse with the man she loves.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Classics, Literature

211 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1921

About the author

Emilie Rose Macaulay, whom Elizabeth Bowen called "one of the few writers of whom it may be said, she adorns our century," was born at Rugby, where her father was an assistant master. Descended on both sides from a long line of clerical ancestors, she felt Anglicanism was in her blood. Much of her childhood was spent in Varazze, near Genoa, and memories of Italy fill the early novels. The family returned to England in 1894 and settled in Oxford. She read history at Somerville, and on coming down lived with her family first in Wales, then near Cambridge, where her father had been appointed a lecturer in English. There she began a writing career which was to span fifty years with the publication of her first novel, Abbots Verney, in 1906. When her sixth novel, The Lee Shore (1912), won a literary prize, a gift from her uncle allowed her to rent a tiny flat in London, and she plunged happily into London literary life.

From BookRags: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/ros...

Reviews

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very pleased to see this has recently been 're-published by the British Library Women Writers series.

The story concerns the lives of several women of one family, Grandmama; old and wise, her daughter, in her sixties, isn't. She is widowed and has lost her purpose in life. She is vain and not very intelligent, though she'd never admit this and pretends to have read books she hasn't and such like, making herself look ridiculous to her children, and spiteful daughter-in-law, who enjoys showing her up. She goes to a psycho-analyst which helps, as one of her main pleasures is talking about herself.
Neville, her daughter, sees all this and worries about the same thing happening to her; she is happily married but her children are now grown up and ready to leave the nest, she decides to go back to medical school, but struggles after so many years away.
Nan, her sister, is a prickly character, a writer who has finally decided that she will say yes the next time her friend Barry asks her to marry him. Unfortunately for her, Neville's daughter Gerda has now caught his attention, leading to a wonderful few chapters on a holiday in Cornwall with Gerda and Nan in competition. The story is told from the perspective of these characters and reading their inner thoughts and struggles are what makes this book so interesting.

It is the first one of hers I've read, but with the beautiful writing and wonderful characterisation, it won't be the last, I'll be seeking out more of her work.

[JimZ · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of those books where I really didn’t like anybody. I suppose I liked Neville Bendish a bit. She was the first female we were introduced to in the book. She was celebrating her 43rd birthday and was caught up with middle-aged angst over that...that she had raised her children and that is all she had done with her life, and what was there to look forward to...had she done anything in her life that was worthwhile or was there any hope in the future of that... Then there was HER mother, Mrs. Hilary, and she was 63 and was very unlikable. She took up being psychoanalyzed in an attempt to be cured (I suppose of unhappiness). I am not sure what Macaulay thought of psychoanalysis. At the time there were laypeople who wrote books for the masses describing what psychoanalysis was all about (everything revolved around sex according to the popular press) and I suppose Macaulay was poking fun and derision at that, and not so much at Freud.

I thought the book was extremely dated. A period piece. The book did portray the sorry plight of women in that era in England — post World War I. Couldn’t vote...a woman’s place is in the home...baby makers...

I shouldn’t be so hard on this book. It was a book super-heavy on satire. I don’t think one was supposed to lose oneself and be part of the book...I always felt an artificiality about it. Macaulay was primarily using the book to make a point...and not so much to tell a believable story. All the reviews (see below) liked the book very much, so although it was not my cup of tea, you might like it very much! 😉 😌

Notes:
• ‘Dangerous Ages’ won the 1922 Femina-Vie Heurise Prize, a short-lived English equivalent to France’s prix Femina.
• I did not know that women could go to Oxford and study the same stuff as men and take exams, etc. but not be awarded degrees! That didn’t come until 1920 at Oxford. Macaulay went to Oxford in 1900 and studied Modern History, and was not awarded a degree. Terrible! 😕 🙁
• This book was a re-issue by the British Library Women Writer series...my aim is to get all the books in this series (18 to date, https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... ) since I have generally liked most of them a lot.

Reviews:
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2020/...
• https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2020...
• https://www.ninjabookbox.com/post/boo...
• https://www.stuckinabook.com/british-...

[Pascale · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is NYRB Classics waiting for to reissue this book? I was lucky to find a battered copy in Montclair, NJ.
The story follows the fortunes of various female members of the Hilary family at the outset of the 1920s. The doyenne, Grandmamma, is a wise old owl, well-loved by everyone. In her 80s, she still takes some interest in things, but is mostly happy to await death. Her daughter, who is in her 60s, isn't so lucky, as she is too vain and stupid to enjoy anything. Her children, who have long seen through her, tolerate her without feeling close to her at all, which is a cause of unending sadness. The portrait of this unlikable character is one of the gems of this wonderful book. Macaulay is at her best dissecting the pettiness and ineffectual attempts to fill time of someone devoid both of brains and of backbone. Too clumsy to do anything with her hands, and too selfish to involve herself in good works, Mrs. Hilary is a nuisance to herself and others, until the day she finds out about psycho-analysis. Since the only thing that gives her any pleasure is to talk about herself and reminisce over trivialities, going to therapy does wonders for her. Of course, when she has to stop "treatment" because it is too expensive, she is worse off than before. Mrs Hilary has 5 children, but the book is mostly concerned with 2 of them: Neville, happily married to an MP, finds herself at a loose end when her children leave the nest; Nan makes the mistake of keeping her beau on a leash too long, with the result that he leaves her for her own niece. Both Neville and Nan are afflicted with the kind of fretfulness that plagues their mother, but since both are intelligent and self-aware, they fight it back. Having tried unsuccessfully to resume her medical studies in her 40s, Neville seems to make up her mind to turn to politics, where she is likely to succeed as well, and perhaps better, than her husband. Nan goes to live abroad with a married painter. One of the highlights of the book is the chapter pitting Nan against her niece Gerda (Neville's daughter) for the love of Barry, a high-minded social worker and all-round reformer. Nan has finally made up her mind to marry Barry as soon as he asks her. Unaware that while she was finishing a novel, Barry has fallen in love with Gerda, who shares his zeal for good causes, she has invited her almost fiancé to join her for a cycling holiday in Cornwall, along with Gerda and her brother Kay. As soon as she realizes what has happened in her absence, Nan makes use of her physical strength and vigor to humiliate the quiet Gerda, and taunt her into swimming and cycling adventures for which the girl doesn't have the training or stamina. An accident ensues, which precipitates Barry's declaration to Gerda. Interestingly, Gerda at this point is ferociously opposed to the idea of marriage, which she finds too horribly bourgeois for words. Part of the comedy in the later chapters of the book derives from the conflict of wills over the issue between Barry and Gerda. Unsurprisingly, Gerda finds a way to change her mind without losing face. This book is full of wit and wisdom, and has many insights on the various stages of a woman's life. In a sense it is a novel of ideas, except that the ideas are exquisitely fleshed out by the characterization. The last word goes not to any of the major characters, but to the third Hilary sister, Pamela, a serious social worker, who says: "The difference between one age and another is, as a rule, enormously exaggerated. How many years we've lived on this ridiculous planet - how many more we're going to live on it - what a trifle! Age is a matter of exceedingly little importance." As is life itself, she adds in the last sentence of the book. That this comes from the most active, and most uncomplaining character in the whole novel, gives food for thought. Like Rumer Godden and so many of the British female novelists who had a wide readership during their lifetime, Macaulay is as relevant today as she was then.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The English writer Rose Macaulay – whose work spans the first half of the 20th century – seems to be enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment. First with the Virago reissues of Crewe Train and The World My Wilderness, and subsequently with the more recent publication of some of her earlier work by Handheld Press and the British Library. Dangerous Ages – recently reissued by the BL as part of their beautiful Women Writers series – falls into the latter category. It is novel that considers the lives of women at various points in the lifecycle, the perpetual trajectory from birth to death.

Macaulay takes as her canvas various generations of one middle-class family, alighting on each of the women in turn to explore their hopes, preoccupations and in some cases their disappointments. It’s a novel where characterisation plays a prominent role, with emotions and outlook being more important than plot.

Central to the novel is Neville, who at forty-three is considering resuming her studies to be a doctor – an ambition she sidelined in favour of marriage and motherhood some twenty years earlier. Now that her children – Kay and Gerda – have grown up, Neville is conscious of not wanting to end up like her mother, Mrs Hilary, a woman whose life seems empty and purposeless.

Neville looked down the years; saw herself without Rodney, perhaps looking after her mother, who would then have become (strange, incredible thought, but who could say?) calm with the calm of age; Kay and Gerda married or working or both. …What then? Only she was better equipped than her mother for the fag-end of life; she had a serviceable brain and a sound education. She wouldn’t pass empty days at a seaside resort. She would work at something, and be interested. Interesting work and interesting friends–-her mother, by her very nature, could have neither, but was just clever enough to feel the want of them. The thing was to start some definite work now, before it was too late. (p. 21)

To read the rest of my review, please visit:

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2020...

[Chrissie]

**********************
*The World My Wilderness TBR
*Dangerous Ages TBR

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ups and downs in the lives of four generations of women. Neville is forty three, married, her two children are grown up and she is planning to go back to medical school and finish the degree she gave up to marry. Neville’s mother Hilary is sixty three, and has no real interests in life apart from her children. She loves them, especially her two oldest children, Neville and Jim, but she is jealous of their affection for others, and is uncomfortably aware that they are cleverer than she is. Her mother is also cleverer than she is, and pities Hilary for her lack of intellect. Neville’s daughter Gerda is full of ideals and falls in love with Barry, who unfortunately is also loved by Neville’s younger sister Nan. She and Nan compete for Barry’s affections on a cycling holiday in Cornwall.
While it is all quite amusing, none of the characters interested me enough to really care what happened to them. But it is a light and easy read and passes the time pleasantly enough.

[Gina House · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique and interesting novel about the many ages of women and the "dangers" they face during those times in their lives.

I read Keeping Up Appearances a couple of months ago and I wasn't sure how I really felt about Rose Macaulay's writing style. So, I was very glad when my dear friend Caro (@carosbookcase) recommended we have a buddy read for this British Library Women Writers selection. Knowing that we could discuss the book afterwards helped to motivate me to give this book a try.

I think, perhaps, that Dangerous Ages was a bit too philosophical for me with frequent mentions of Freud and analysis of others. I also felt that any humor in this book was completely lost on me. I found many of the characters to be unlikable (except the Grand Mama, Barry and Gerda) and I had a hard time sympathizing with their situations.

Although I'm sure that the thoughts, comments and actions of the characters were all over-exaggerated in the novel on purpose, I had a hard time fully enjoying the story all the same. Dangerous Ages slightly depressed and frustrated me and, sadly, I don't think Rose Macaulay's books are for me.

That said, I had no problem reading and finishing the book in a timely manner. The author's writing was never boring or stagnant, it flowed well from beginning to end. Perhaps it's the fact that I love books with likable characters, happy endings and a hopeful tone that made it more difficult to love Dangerous Ages.

All of the books in the British Library Women Writers series are truly worth a try. Some of them were 5 star reads for me and I'll still keeping looking forward to each and every one.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mit Mitte 40 stellt Neville Hilary fest, dass ihr niemand mehr zuzuhören scheint und ihr Mann und ihre erwachsenen Kinder die Gesprächsthemen bestimmen. Nevilles alte Geschichten kennt inzwischen jeder in ihrer Familie. Neville und ihre Mutter scheinen beide um das Interesse der jüngeren Generation zu konkurrieren. Ein Familientreffen auf dem Landsitz der Mutter in St Mary’s Bay lässt geplatzte Illusionen und unerfüllte Träume dreier Generationen aufbrechen. In wohlhabenden Verhältnissen in Cornwall lebend, hatte Neville die Rolle der Frau übernommen, die ihrem erfolgreichen Mann den Rücken freihält. Männer konnten vor 100 Jahren mit ihrer Berufswahl nicht viel falsch machen, vorausgesetzt, sie wurden nicht gerade Schriftsteller. Töchter dagegen hatten es weit schwerer, die Erwartungen zu erfüllen. Nan, die zynische jüngere Schwester Nevilles, kann als Literaturkritikerin und brillante Schriftstellerin nicht genügen, nein, sie muss unbedingt von der Familie verkuppelt werden. Nevilles nicht sehr realistischer Vorsatz, ihr einst abgebrochenes Medizinstudium endlich abzuschließen, endet mit dem Lehrbuch im Liegestuhl – und das war es mit ihrer Karriere nach Ehe und Mutterschaft. Mrs Hilary, Nevilles unternehmungslustige Mutter, hat ein ähnliches Problem. Tätigkeiten wie Stricken und Gärtnern, die Frauen in ihrem Alter zugestanden werden, interessieren die Pfarrerswitwe nicht. Um endlich einmal im Mittelpunkt zu stehen, beginnt sie eine Psychotherapie. Vermutlich würde genügen, wenn ihr im Gespräch endlich jemand rechtgeben würde.

Der bereits 1921 im englischen Original erschienene Gesellschaftsroman zeigt eine Familie, in der begeistert geschwommen und Rad gefahren wird. Im Vergleich zur Großmutter, einer begnadeten Selbstdarstellerin, wirkt Nevilles Generation verwöhnt, zimperlich und prüde. Nevilles jüngere Schwester und ihre Kinder haben es offenbar weit schwerer als sie vor 20 Jahren, sich für einen Lebensweg zu entscheiden. Männern wird in dieser Welt gehuldigt, Frauen werden übersehen oder lassen sich herablassend behandeln.

In leichtem, ironischen Ton beobachtet Rose Macaulay die Generation 1880 und vorher geborener Frauen und deren Beziehung zu ihren Töchtern. Mit einem Werk von über 20 Romanen ist Macaulay meine Entdeckung dieses Sommers. Den Schwebezustand eines Ferienaufenthalts, nach dem für mehrere Generationen Weichen gestellt werden müssen, vermittelt sehr treffend ein Buchcover in Grüntönen.

[Ruthiella · Rating 3 out of 5]

“May I ask your daughter’s age?”
“Nan is thirty-three”
“A dangerous Age”
“All Nan’s ages”, said Mrs Hilary, “have been dangerous. Nan is like that.”

All ages are dangerous in this book. It is the story of four generation of women in one family. From the wise and calm Grandmamma in her 80s to the insipid Mrs. Hilary, in her 60s, to the high strung, adventurous Nan in her 30s and her sister Neville (why this name for a female? Never explained) in her 40s who wants to have a career now that her children are grown, down to Neville’s daughter Gerda who is in her 20s and enraptured by modern ideas of free love and socialism. This book is mostly a psychological portrait of the female characters and how they manage in 1920, an era in which women are still largely seen only as useful in their role as helpmeets to men and mothers to children. It was an interesting time capsule to read..

[Letterrausch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Roman über vier Generationen von Frauen im England der 1920er Jahre. Hier werden ernste und aktuelle Themen verhandelt (Feminismus, arbeitende Frauen, die Rolle der Frau in der Gesellschaft, gesellschaftlicher Umbruch), aber immer mit leichter Feder und einem guten Schuss Ironie. Man darf sich hier gleichzeitig glänzend unterhalten und intellektuell angeregt fühlen - diese Kombination kommt ja nicht allzu häufig vor. Macaulays Prosa hat mich von Seite eins an überzeugt, ebenso wie ihre unglaublich vielschichte Figurenzeichnung. So gute Charaktere muss man erstmal schreiben können!

Habe ich absolut genossen, was für ein Fundstück!

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, what a joy it is to discover a new author, with so much of her work free on PG...this was a delightful read, brave, bittersweet, a perfect snapshot of life for women just after WWI. And my generation thinks it invented Women's Lib....

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It wasn’t really touching to be young; it was touching not to be young, because you had less of life left. Touching to be thirty; more touching to be forty; tragic to be fifty; and heartbreaking to be sixty. As to seventy, as to eighty, one would feel as one did during the last dance of a ball, tired but fey in the paling dawn, desperately making the most of each bar of music before one went home to bed.”

This was a free read for Kindle from Amazon. Really interesting novel written in 1921 about women in a family, and how their ages affects their actions. Grandmama, 83; Mother 63; one daughter 43; another daughter 34 and a granddaughter 20. Macaulay wrote this in her 40s when middle age is faced. Since I'm 63, you know who I identified with!

I remember a great scene from the old Frasier show, where Frasier and Niles are talking about being "middle aged."

Dr. Frasier Crane:
Niles, I'm 41. That's hardly middle-aged. Middle age is more like 50, 55.

Dr. Niles Crane:
Only if you live to be 110.

Here, the daughter who's 34 is referred to as being in a dangerous age because she has to buckle down at that point. (meaning marriage in 1921) The most serene was the grandmother as well as another daughter not really covered here because they both realized, "what's the fuss"?

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel, written in 1921, focuses on the dangerous ages of women layered in satire. Obviously despite a century having passed, 'twas forever thus - the same but different. Who knew, or would have identified these as the dangerous ages? I loved that these "ages" are shown through four generations of the same family, 20s, 40s, 60s and 80s. Despite these women having the cushioning of middle class liberties the issues are not so dissimilar from today's "issues" for women- fulfilling lives, returning to education after having a family, love, "free love", workers rights, gossip, psychoanalysis.

The book is wholly character driven as each generation faces her own challenges with a foreground (and background) awareness of the others. The interactions between the women are what primarily carries the novel, the plot line feels merely incidental.

A modern novel but for the "nerves", smelling salts and amount of adjectives.

[Patrisia Sheremeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many great books are spoiled by a bad ending. I was engrossed and delighted and then it was suddenly over. It's like the author got sick of telling the story and just wanted it over. I believe if I were a novelist I would have this flaw.

[Susan Kavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so happy to see the number of recent reprints of Rose Macaulay's books. Published originally in 1920, this terrific novel was recently reprinted by the British Library Women Writers. Macaulay focuses on five female characters in one family who represent Dangerous Ages between 18 and 85.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marriage arrangements, same sex unions, women in the work force, abortions, analysis and counseling, women in politics, physical fitness – all of these topics you’d expect to find in a contemporary novel about women. Surprisingly, a they come up and are essential in this novel written 100 years ago in l921.

The “ages” refer to four generations of women in a family, one in her 80’s, one in her 60’s, one in her 40’s, and one in her 20’s, and for each of them there are dangers in navigating the time period. Maccauley writes satirically as she makes the reader aware that some of these dangers were not as serious as they seemed to be to the women.

Of the four, the 84 year old is generally dismissed as not having much to do except sit around and wait to die. She is actually a wise old woman, but no one is much interested in her opinions, and that may be her danger.

The daughter in her 60’s has focused her life on raising a family and has few outside interests, even though she never admits to a lack of knowledge about anything. She scorns psychoanalysis, but when she is finally convinced to seek a counselor, sessions become the high point of her life, even though she’d be hard pressed to subsequently explain how some of the psychological terms explain her behavior.

The granddaughter in her 40’s has some of the same feelings, having married young. Her two children, a son and a daughter, are both in their early 20’s now, but she is losisng some of the closeness, and begins to think longingly of the fledgling medical career that she gave up to get married and start a family. The specter of her dissatisfied mother is staring her in the face. Her husband is a rising politician, and she aspires to be something other than his supportive, smiling wife.

Finally, the 20 year old, the great granddaughter is a somewhat naive and idealistic dreamer who is going to have to painfully square her dreams, especially romantic ones, with the realities of a modern world.

The problems these women face are real, still with us today, and it’s oddly interesting to see them first emerging in this free-wheeling period in the immediate post-World War I period. Macauley’s gentle and often funny satire of the women often shows them as self-centered and foolish, but their concerns were real enough, then, and now.

[Priscilla Westover · Rating 4 out of 5]

You may know Macaulay from the first line of one of her other novels, The Towers of Trebizond:
"Take my camel, dear", said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.

Dangerous Ages has plenty of that snarky humor and painful truth about four generations of women in a family and how they each navigate their ages and perceived expiry dates.

There’s 60 something Mrs Hilary who, ‘disliked nearly all novels, finding them tedious, vulgar, conventional, and out of all relation both to life as lived and to the world of imagination.’

So of course I disliked her right away although I related with her in other ways.

Then about the in-law Rosalind, ‘there was no doubt that the family party was happier for her departure. The departure of in-laws, even when they are quite nice in-laws, often has this effect on family parties.’

And a reflection from 40 something Neville,
‘To be aimless: to live on emotions and be by them consumed: that was pitiful. To have done one's work for life, and to be in return cast aside by life like a broken tool: that was tragic.’

Our small book club had mixed opinions on this one over breakfast but we’ve only met a few times so we are just getting to know the types of literature we are all interested in.

It did drag a bit in the middle but overall I recommend it if you like this sort of book.

[Ruth Ngobi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book presented an interesting, thought provoking if not amusing perception of "dangerous ages".
It was "touching to be thirty; more touching to be forty; tragic to be fifty, and heartbreaking to be sixty"!
"... for Mrs Hilary (who is 63yrs) there was ennui, and the dim, empty room in the cold grey July afternoon. The empty stage; no audience, no actors. Only a lonely, disillusioned actress trailing about it, hungry for the past." Mrs Hilary's mind is described as "tenacious, intolerant and not many-sided....stuffed with concrete instances and insusceptible of abstract reason"!
With 60yr olds today so busy, active, vibrant and delaying retirement it is too easy to brush off Mrs Hilary as a victim of an era past BUT yet we regularly encounter aspects of Mrs Hilary today. The loneliness that comes from an "empty nest" and the craving for something to fill that void. The desire to "be independent of other peoples jobs, of human and social contacts, however amusing and instructive".
Lesson for me as a 60yr old - age is just a number, stay active and busy!

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi ha colpito meno di Crewe Train, ma ho apprezzato comunque. Tre generazioni di donne si confrontano all'interno di una stessa famiglia: ognuna di queste donne ha nell'arco della narrazione una crisi di qualche tipo, oggetto di approfondita indagine psicologica da parte dell'autrice. Le età pericolose del titolo a quanto pare sono tutte, per le donne, tranne forse gli ottant'anni della quarta generazione presente nel romanzo, ovvero la nonna, che sembra vivere finalmente in pace. Il romanzo affronta molte tematiche importanti per le donne: i rapporti familiari, l'amore, la famiglia versus il lavoro o altra attività, l'età che assottiglia il numero di scelte possibili... Possibilmente un romanzo da rileggere ad un'altra età per vedere che cosa cambia nella percezione.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of those books that are interesting as portraits of their times but not so much as novels. The best chapter is the one where Nan eggs on Gerda. The rest is too much explaining of characters' thoughts and no real arc. Did we end anywhere different from where we started? It's too bad because the makings of a good novel are there: strong personalities, interpersonal conflict, social commentary, and a little satire of Freud thrown in. I thought we would focus on Neville and have her sisters and mother and grandmother as side characters, but the focus fades from Neville and nothing really happens with her. Macaulay also goes a little too hard on making Mrs. Hilary unlikeable. It might have come across better if there had been less outright explaining of who she was and more letting her actions speak. I wish this had undergone a lot more editing.

Mrs. Hilary cared nothing for style; she liked nice life-like books about people as she believed them to be and, though she was quite prepared to believe that real Russians were like Russians in books, she felt that she did not care to meet either. (p. 24)

Barry, as he would tell you frankly if you inquired and not otherwise, believed in God. He was the son of a famous Quaker philanthropist, and had been brought up to see good works done and even garden cities built. I am aware that this must prejudice many people against Barry; and indeed many people were annoyed by certain aspects of him. But, as he was intellectually brilliant and personally attractive, these people were, as a rule, ready to overlook what they called the Quaker oats. (p. 43)

A pleasant, Oxfordish room, with the brown paper and plain green curtains of the college days of these women, Dürer engravings, and sweet peas in a bowl, and Frances Carr, stirring bread and milk over a gas ring. (p. 57)

"Marriage," said Gerda, "is so Victorian. It’s like antimacassars."
"Now, my dear, do you mean anything by either of those statements? Marriage wasn’t invented in Victoria’s reign. Nor did it occur more frequently in that reign than it did before or does now. Why Victorian then? And why antimacassars? Think it out. How can a legal contract be like a doily on the back of a chair? Where is the resemblance? It sounds like a riddle, only there’s no answer. No, you know you’ve got no answer. That kind of remark is sheer sentimentality and muddle headedness. Why are people in their twenties so often sentimental? That’s another riddle." (p. 151)

"Nan is thirty-three."
"A dangerous age."
"All Nan's ages," said Mrs. Hilary, "have been dangerous. Nan is like that."
"As to that," said Mr. Cradock, "we may say that all ages are dangerous to all people, in this dangerous life we live. But the thirties are a specially dangerous time for women. They have outlived the shynesses and restraints of girlhood, and not attained to the caution and discretion of middle age. They are reckless, and consciously or unconsciously on the look-out for adventure. They see ahead of them the end of youth, and that quickens their pace." (p. 178)

[Evaczyk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es klang interessant und reizvoll - ein Buch, das fast 100 Jahren nach seiner Erstveröffentlichung wieder erscheint und den Lesern des Jahres 2020 einen Blick in die Gedanken, Träume und Hoffnungen der Frauengeneration nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg zu ermöglichen. Was damals frisch war, ist heute längst Geschichte. Anderes, worum in "Ein unerhörtes Alter" von Rose Macaulay heftig debattiert wurde, wie Ehe ohne Trauschein, Psychoanalyse oder Karrierrewünsche von Frauen, sind mittlerweile selbstverständlich. Obendrein stellt der britische Gesellschaftsroman gleich Frauen aus vier verschiedenen Generationen in den Mittelpunkt, von der 21-Jährigen Gerda bis zu ihrer 84-jährigen Urgroßmutter. Interessante Lektüre garantiert?

Ich wollte dieses Buch mögen, bin aber letztlich enttäuscht zurückgeblieben. Denn irgendwie plätschert die Handlung beliebig vor sich hin in Episoden und Anekdoten, in denen die Frauen der britischen Oberschicht ziemlich konturlos bleiben und andere - außer den obligatorischen Dienstboten drumherum - gar nicht erst in Erscheinung treten. Lässt sich leicht lesen, ist halbwegs unterhaltsam, aber irgenwie denke ich am Ende: Na ja....

Die Leben und die Lieben von jung und alt sind vor allem eines: privilegiert. Progressive, ja revolutionäre Gedanken werden gerade bei der jüngeren Generation gepflegt, ohne dass deshalb der upper class-Lebenstil in Frage gestellt oder verändert wird. Es lässt sich leicht reflektieren und debattieren im Luxusdasein zwischen Sommerhaus am Meer und Londoner Stadtwohnung - der weitgehend unsichtbar bleibende Ehemann von Neville ist Parlamentsabgeordneter.

Überhaupt, Neville - sie will mit 43 ihr bei der Heirat unterbrochenes Medizinstudium wieder aufnehmen und Ärztin werden. Das könnte eine starke Frauenfigur werden. Doch ach, der Verstand hat gelitten, es passt einfach kein Lehrstoff mehr in den Kopf. Oberschichtehefrau mit ausgedehnter Reisetätigkeit ist ja auch nicht so schlimm. Der Ehrgeiz, der sich so vielversprechend abgezeichnet hat, verpufft ohne Kampf. Und die Leserin aus dem 21. Jahrhundert ist not amused.

Die gepflegte Langeweile der Reichen und Schönen - hat sie uns irgendwas zu sagen? Ich fürchte, im Jahr 2020 hat sie ebenso wenig Substanz wie im Jahr 1921.

[A J HOOPER · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 1921, the plot reflects on the Ages of women, most specifically on four generations of a family. These are changing times. The older women struggle to remain satisfied about their mainly passive lots. The middle aged discover psychoanalysis (an amusing description of fixation on an outrageous practitioner) and the young barge blindly into the fashions of the time which, again amusingly, end up as marriage. Only the 33 year old Nan, chooses to live in sin, thus putting herself beyond the pale. Considering the times, this was modern stuff and the author Rose Macaulay herself a brave and contemporary writer.

[Kay Robart · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2020...

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Sipz and Storiez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one! This was another pick from the British Library Women Writers series and one of the best I have read so far. Fans of Virginia Woolf will enjoy this novel, because Rose Macaulay writes about similar feminist themes from the 1920's which are just as true today as they were over a hundred years ago.

Dangerous Ages tells the story of four generations of women from the same family: Mrs. Hilary, the grandmother in her sixties struggling to find purpose in her life now that her children are all raised and her husband has died, Neville, Mrs. Hilary's oldest daughter in her forties who rebels against being a wife and mother and decides to go back to school to become a doctor, Nan, Mrs. Hilary's youngest daughter in her thirties who is a career women and resents having to give up her carefree life to settle down and Greta, Neville's daughter, an opinionated young women who takes her youth an beauty for granted. Things take an interesting turn when, just as Nan is about to make a commitment to her boyfriend, he unexpectedly falls in love with Greta.

I loved this book and even though Nan is the one who is specifically described as being at a "dangerous age" I appreciate the tongue and cheek way Macaulay describes every stage of a woman's life as a dangerous age with it's own unique set of challenges. I also love how the men in the novel are portrayed as necessary but useless. This is especially true of, not only Nan's boyfriend, but Neville's husband as well, who expects his smart and talented wife to give up her ambitions for the sake of his career. I think the roles between men and women have come far in recent decades, (thank goodness), but this book is a depressing reminder that women often share a bigger burden of responsibility and regret.

[Nicholas Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

AKA Rose Macaulay's soapbox and a worthy attempt to address the societal inequities that were a woman's lot in the 20's. Post-war the bright young things are challenging the societal norms and Rose Macaulay is right there beside them. She's quite OK with a lesbian relationship, living together without getting married (oddly though she departs from her acceptance here by maneuvering her male character - Barry to achieve his goal of marriage to Gerda who is vehemently opposed to marriage) - she gives in eventually of course, methinks Rose herself wasn't quite sure where she herself stood on this issue and most of all, a woman should have a meaningful career.

The novel is mainly focused on the women who have been relegated to the roles of mothers and child care and are floundering once these roles are no longer needed. A career would indeed have been a lovely thing! It's a novel of ideas (Freudian analysis plays a fairly major role in one characters life) and must have been quite ground-breaking in the 20's when it was published so it's a fascinating read as a time capsule but as a novel with plot, characterisation and so on it doesn't quite come off.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my second novel by Rose Macaulay following on from the excellent Keeping up Appearances. As such, it did not live up to the quality of the previous novel. An intergenerational comparison of women from the same family at different key decades in their lives: 20s, 30s, 40s, 60s and 80s, this present instalment was filled with psychological insights but it lacked a lighter touch and as such the humour that is so crucial and which stops novels such as these from falling into typical Sylvia Plath type drearier studies into female psychology. Perhaps if I would have got to this first novel first, I wouldn't have been so demanding. 2.5 stars. Clever but a little too serious for my taste. Still an excellent author.

[Margaret Conmey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reminded of some of the drama series I sometimes come across on BBC4 Extra - middle class families where nothing significant happens but the story is about the people , often the female members , of the family and their lives and concerns
Good writing and easy read
Interesting about the dissatisfaction of women in their middle years and contrasted with Garda the 20 year old full of youthful beliefs and first love and her 84 year old Great Grandmother who peacefully waits for death and the emotional struggles of her aunt , mother and grandmother whose ages range form mid 30s and 40s to mid 60s - the ‘ Dangerous Ages’ of the title
I enjoyed this book and style of writing to look for other novels by Rose Macauley

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dangerous Ages (1921) by Rose Macaulay (1881-1958). It’s a look at the dynamics of a family of four generations, and it provides a glimpse into their rather mundane lives at different life stages. The story switches perspectives over multiple characters, so I am not invested in any one character (as in a typical story in which there’s a primary protagonist). So far I’ve read about Neville, the oldest daughter who is 43 and thinking of resuming her medical studies after having raised Kay and Gerda, Mrs. Hilary, her widowed and discontented mother who is 63, a little about Grandmama, a little about Jim, the eldest and most beloved of Mrs. Hilary’s children who is a doctor, and Gerda, the leftist grand daughter. I’m pausing at page 111 (52%) and may return to it someday.