Beowulf

by Bryher

In a novel whose setting is London during the Blitz, and whose characters are the tenacious common people in crisis, Bryher proves herself as masterful a narrator of recent history as she is of ancient Roman frontiers, the crucial age of the Battle of Hastings, or of the Jacobean twilight. Compassion and humor mingle in this beautifully wrought story of a London neighborhood whose hearth is in the teashop where their lives converge. The book's title as well as the key to its overtones, comes from the teashop's mascot, a plaster bulldog named for Beowulf, the heroic figure of the Anglo-Saxon epic of hardihood and valor.

Genres: London, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, World War II

201 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1956

About the author

Bryher was the pen name of the novelist, poet, memoirist, and magazine editor Annie Winifred Ellerman.

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the heart of Bryher’s quietly impressive novel is The Warming Pan, a café in central London acting as a hub for a small, local community, Beowulf follows a cross-section of this group over the course of a day and night during the peak of the WW2 Blitz - a period when the city was the target of an intensive bombing campaign that lasted for years and destroyed the homes of over half a million Londoners. There’s no real plot or fixed narrator, place and time are the key unifying factors here, Bryher’s focus is on her characters moving from one to another to highlight their thoughts about their circumstances and their personal strategies for wartime survival.

This is an acutely-observed, carefully-constructed piece that I find hard to adequately represent, at first it seemed almost mundane in its emphasis on representing the minutiae of daily life, queuing for food, worries about shortages and bills but it slowly built in power and momentum, until I was totally caught up in it. There are moments of desolation here followed by scenes of gentle comedy, a series of snapshots in time created out of overheard bus conversations, meetings over cups of tea, glimpses of the toll on individuals of stifling wartime bureaucracy.

All of the central characters seem to exist in a state of longing not just for an end to the war but for a lost time of small certainties and taken-for-granted pleasures. Bryher’s cross-section of urban society is a microcosm of a nation not just under siege but in transition to some radically different way of life. An England where some will thrive while others are left behind. For Selina, the café’s manager, change is loss, typified by the breakdown of ancient class barriers - there’s a wonderfully telling scene where her regulars are unnerved by the sudden influx of shopgirls, unimaginable before the war when steps were taken to ensure no woman would have to socialise with a person who’d served them elsewhere! Aging artist Horatio retreats into memory, eking out his allowance to buy the tea his dead wife so loved. Others endlessly rehash the events leading up to war, the actions of politicians, the routes they’d have taken to avoid conflict. Only Angelina, Selina’s partner, takes everything in her tweed-coated stride, triumphantly installing her life-size model bulldog inside the café, christened Beowulf, he’s a visual reminder of the British bulldog of wartime propaganda fame, signifier of Britain’s supposedly indomitable spirit ‘though his fragile plaster form suggests other possibilities.

In her later memoir Bryher - born Annie Winifred Ellerman she called herself Bryher as part of her rejection of traditional gender roles - noted,

“The English refused to publish Beowulf. They do not want to remember. It was a documentary, not a novel, but an almost literal description of what I saw and heard during my first six months in London.”

And perhaps its origins explain its directness, immediacy and fresh feel. Bryher’s more often remembered, if at all, as the long-term partner of modernist writer H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) but she was an established author in her own right and if this novel’s representative well worth rediscovering - and this edition features a really useful introduction detailing her life and work.

[Sue Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising novel considering the title but a really good account of a small area of London during the Blitz. The characters are well realised and the narrative gripping.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fascinating read, a series of images and characters in London during the Blitz.
I loved the style of writing and the character development.
I'm happy I discovered this author.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of those books that I admired rather than loved and although it’s easy to read it does need a little bit of focus as it is the little intricacies of the characters and events that are its strongest feature. The stoicism of Londoners during the blitz is embedded in our national psyche so it is interesting to read something written during that period before any of the mythology had established itself (indeed the book was not published in Britain at the time for that very reason). And of course there is plenty of stoicism, but there is also fear, apathy, ignorance, sadness and a whole host of other things besides. Worth a read for the social commentary alone.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much of fiction centers on a single protagonist, maybe two, and a relatively small cast of characters. Reading a book that moves the camera back makes a refreshing change of perspective. Novels like Grand Hotel, by Vicky Baum, and the recently republished Beowulf, by Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman), pull that camera back so that we can get a sense of how many people even a lonely person can come in contact with and so that we can really get a sense of a place and time. Beowulf takes place over the course of one day during the Blitz, as characters who lodge in the same building and frequent the Warming Pan tea room, try to keep calm and carry on...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.

[Nadia Jiménez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leí la primera traducción que se hace al español.
Me encantó, aun cuando tiene algunos problemas de traducción.
Es una novela con una estructura poco convencional en donde, al inicio, es difícil encontrar el hilo conductor.
Los personajes están muy bien desarrollados y al final, la autora nos deja una serie de reflexiones acerca de la guerra, del individualismo y la comunidad, entre otros.
Es un libro que exige atención pero que sin duda, bien vale leerlo.

[Mab · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quiet and fascinating novel about the Blitz. This edition has a truly dreadful introduction but don't let that put you off, Bryher does a lot of beautiful character and atmosphere work in very few pages.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written but a bit too sad for me, so DNF.

*Book Group: Undervalued British Women Writers, 1930-1960

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review scheduled for 19/5 at anzlitlovers.com

[Pomelete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Muy aburrido y lento.

[Lila · Rating 5 out of 5]

An episodic account of a teashop and its workers and patrons during the London Blitz. Bryher is known for her connection to the poet H.D. and her circle.

The title is a bit confusing. Beowulf is the name of a plaster bulldog that one of the teashop operators brings in that becomes a symbol of British resistance in the face of daily life during bombardment.

[Susan Kavanagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kudos to Lucy Scholes for introducing readers to this blitz lit novel in her Re-coverd column in the Paris Review in June 2020. Because Bryher's novel did not depict her characters as acting with a stiff upper lip, she was unable to have her book published in Britain until recently although it was published in the U.S. in 1946.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A realistic (I imagine) example of “Blitz lit” that follows half a dozen interconnected characters over the course of one day. Not all the characters are likeable, but they’re all extremely human and realistically if sparingly drawn.