Rhapsody

by Dorothy Edwards

Original collection of ten short stories.

Extremely controlled studies of constrained desire, loneliness, and incomplete relationships, these tales fostered Edwards' development of a nonrealist world of imagery and symbolism in her own language. The ten stories of Rhapsody are utterly distinctive in voice and sensibility. At least three of the Rhapsody stories—"A Country House," "Days," and the brilliant, enigmatic "A Garland of Earth"—are small masterpieces sure to by enjoyed by a whole new generation.

Genres: Short Stories, British Literature, Classics

233 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Dorothy Edwards (18 August 1903 – 6 January 1934), was a Welsh novelist of the early 20th century.

Edwards was from Ogmore Vale in South Wales. She was educated at Howell's School for girls in Llandaff and at Cardiff University. She was politically active, working for socialist and Welsh nationalist causes, but wrote in English. She was also a talented amateur singer. On 6 January 1934 she threw herself in front of a train near Caerphilly railway station. She left a suicide note stating: "I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life. I have accepted kindness and friendship and even love without gratitude, and given nothing in return."

Edwards wrote a short story, "The Conquered," which was included in A View Across The Valley (an anthology re-claiming female Welsh nature writers).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[JimZ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read Winter Sonata and I did not like it. I complained that nothing happened in the book. Well, this was published a year before that, and this is even worse, which is hard to do. In each of the 10 stories that make upon this collection absolutely nothing happens. This was truly punishing to read. I cannot recommend this book. It’s amazing that such writers as Virginia Woolf and Arnold Bennett liked the output of this writer. Having said all this, it's just my (honest) opinion. The two reviewers below very much liked it.

Note:
• It's sad that this writer committed suicide when she was 31.
• Elaine Morgan wrote the Introduction to the collection of short stories. It was more interesting than any of the 10 stories.
The stories in the order in which they appeared in the book:
1. Rhapsody — 2 stars
2. A Country House — 1.5 stars [It just ended...it was like watching, or reading about, paint drying.]
3. The Conquered — 1 star [Why does anybody like her stories?]
4. Treachery in a Forest — 1 star [What is the treachery? Beats the hell out of me...]
5. Cultivated People — 1 star [I’m flummoxed...how boring these stories are...]
6. Summer-Time — 1 star [I really want to finish this...to be over with it.]
7. Sweet Grapes — 2 stars
8. A Garland of Earth — 1 star [there is one sentence in this story in which a male character is said to have acid-stained fingers. That doesn’t make sense to me...if fingers are stained with acid, the man wouldn’t have fingers anymore.]
9. A Throne in Heaven — 1 star (here’s a sentence using a simile that is too much: “...they all looked at him, like a procession of tall, wicked nuns pushing out their golden, worldly tongues.]
10. Days — 1 star

Reviews:
• https://www.walesartsreview.org/rhaps...
• In this review, HeavenAli does say that this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, ‘especially those who like an obvious plot’. Yep. That’s me....https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/...

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy Edwards was a welsh writer – associated with some of the Bloomsbury group – who I suspect is little read now. Her writing is carefully restrained. In Rhapsody we have ten beautiful tales of loneliness and desire, stories with little plot – but so much pared back emotion. Aside from this collection of stories – she published only one novel Winter Sonata a year later (which I may have read many moons ago, but no longer own, sadly). Her life appears to have been quite unhappy, and in 1934 at the age of thirty-one, she threw herself under a train. The note she left behind read:

“I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life. I have accepted kindness and friendship, and even love, without gratitude and given nothing in return.”

How truly sad. This sadness certainly seeps into her writing, in a number of ways, particularly in the relationships which so often never find fulfilment.

It is perhaps odd that these stories don’t reflect the world that Dorothy Edwards herself lived in. Here we have the polite, ordered world of the English country house – worlds that are often disrupted by an outsider, a visitor usually. These are characters who unlike Edwards’ family, had no money worries, their money was unearned, and they live deep in the English countryside of Dorothy Edwards imagination. Her narrators are male, which I admit threw me in the first story Rhapsody. I’m so used to women writers of about this period writing from a female perspective that I simply assumed the first-person narrator of the title story was woman, a couple of pages in I became a tad confused and had to do a rapid reassessment.

Full review: https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/...

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

oh lordy....this wasn't a good idea. Dorothy Edwards, committed suicide in 1934, age 31, by throwing herself under/at a train near Cardiff. At the time a newspaper wrote that "Wales has lost one of her most promising writers of the younger school." She had a note in her pocket which said, "I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life. I have accepted kindness and friendship, and even love, without gratitude and given nothing in return."
She was a short story writer, and Rhapsody is a collection of her work - the stories are as bleak as her suicide note...the language is precise, considered, stark - characters are isolated, unable to connect with each other - it was all too much for me, after the first story I was turning each page with a feeling of dread, and after three stories had to give up.
Poor lady, what a sad story.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

1927. Thank goodness for the re-issues in the Virago Modern Classics series.
I had never heard of Dorothy Edwards. As the intro says, who knows what brilliant books we missed out on because she did not live beyond age 31!

These short stories are deceptively simple, describing homely scenes so that you feel you are there without there being anything extraordinary about it.

Wiki:

Dorothy Edwards (1903 – 6 January 1934), was a Welsh novelist of the early 20th century.
Edwards was from Ogmore Vale in South Wales. She was educated at Howell's School for girls in Llandaff and at Cardiff University. She was politically active, working for socialist and Welsh nationalist causes, but wrote in English. She was also a talented amateur singer. On 6 January 1934 she threw herself in front of a train near Caerphilly railway station. She left a suicide note stating: "I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life. I have accepted kindness and friendship and even love without gratitude, and given nothing in return."

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, where to start... This author has a very small oeuvre, and she committed suicide in her early 30s. The stories in this collection move from completely banal to slightly intriguing as her experience grew, so perhaps her future work would have been notable. The themes are repetitive (vague and glancing unrequited crushes by men on married women, or vice versa) and the writing in most of them unremarkable and without any plot whatsoever. Nothing happens, which isn't bad when the prose is lovely, but here...not so much. Two of the later stories, one involving two children and one a misfit love triangle that could have been expanded into a novel, have some beautiful passages on nature and weather. It makes me sad that she struggled in life, particularly because the editor notes she was trying very hard to find independence as a single woman with no money and a dependent mother.

[Bethany Everett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been collecting my own newer editions of Virago Modern Classics for a couple of years and recently stumbled upon someone's collection of original issues at a used bookstore (probably about 30 or so). This is my first out of that stack. This set of short stories was published by a young author whose suicide note read: "I am killing myself because I have never sincerely loved any human being all my life." The cold remove of the author permeates these stories- my particular favorite, The Conquered, about a young man who realizes the woman he is infatuated with is too happy for him to ever be with... I mean, who among us hasn't been turned off by the audacity of happiness in 2025.

[JimZ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this in August of last year and forgot to post my review! Egads!

I read Winter Sonata and I did not like it. I complained that nothing happened in the book. Well, this was published a year before that, and this is even worse, which is hard to do. In each of the 10 stories that make upon this collection absolutely nothing happens. This was truly punishing to read. I cannot recommend this book. It’s amazing that such writers as Virginia Woolf and Arnold Bennett liked the output of this writer.
Note:
• It's sad that this writer committed suicide when she was 31.
• Elaine Morgan wrote the Introduction to the collection of short stories. It was more interesting than any of the 10 stories.
The stories in the order in which they appeared in the book:
1. Rhapsody — 2 stars
2. A Country House — 1.5 stars [It just ended...it was like watching, or reading about, paint drying.]
3. The Conquered — 1 star [Why does anybody like her stories?]
4. Treachery in a Forest — 1 star [What is the treachery? Beats the hell out of me...]
5. Cultivated People — 1 star [I’m flummoxed...how boring these stories are...]
6. Summer-Time — 1 star [I really want to finish this...to be over with it.]
7. Sweet Grapes — 2 stars
8. A Garland of Earth — 1 star [there is one sentence in this story in which a male character is said to have acid-stained fingers. That doesn’t make sense to me...if fingers are stained with acid, the man wouldn’t have fingers anymore.]
9. A Throne in Heaven — 1 star (here’s a sentence using a simile that is too much: “...they all looked at him, like a procession of tall, wicked nuns pushing out their golden, worldly tongues.]
10. Days — 1 star
Reviews:
• https://www.walesartsreview.org/rhaps...
• In this review, HeavenAli does say that this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, ‘especially those who like an obvious plot’. Yep. That’s me....https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/...
• https://katemacdonald.net/2015/05/08/...