Pirouette

by Susan Scarlett (Pseudonym), Noel Streatfeild

“Dancing is not, as with some of the other arts, a matter of short inspiration and quick effects; dancing is a vocation. A girl whom I choose to star as much gives her life to dancing as a novice entering a nunnery gives her life to religion.”

So says the demanding Madame Tania as she offers a long-awaited starring role to young Judith Nell, who has strived her whole life for success in the ballet. But her big break arrives just as she’s falling for Paul, who has demands of his own. The resulting conflict, and the pressure from Judith’s mother, who tries to make up for her own stifled ambitions by obsessing over Judith’s career, form the crux of a riveting, poignant tale by an author who knows the ins and outs of ballet better than anyone. Enriching the main story are Judith’s fellow dancers—including a young girl who has sacrificed her youth only to grow too tall for a career—and her brothers. Not to mention the fearsome Madame Tania, who ends by getting told off in no uncertain terms!

Pirouette is the eleventh of twelve charming, page-turning romances published under the pseudonym “Susan Scarlett” by none other than beloved children’s author and novelist Noel Streatfeild. Out of print for decades, they were rediscovered by Greyladies Books in the early 2010s, and Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow are delighted now to make all twelve available to a wider audience.

“A writer who shows a rich experience in her writing and a charm” Nottingham Journal

Genres: Fiction, Romance, British Literature

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Pseudonym used by the English author Noel Streatfeild for publishing her romance novels.

Reviews

[Jo Walton]

In a romance novel written in 1949 where a woman choses between love and career, it's hardly a spoiler to expect love will win out. This lent a strange aspect of tragedy to the book because "love" in this case meant moving to Rhodesia at the age of 18 in 1949, where in the best case they became Doris Lessing's parents, hopelessly farming with no experience in an awful climate and pining for civilization ("I was about to become a star ballerina!") and then experienced all the turbulent events of the twentieth century history of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. I spent a while trying to work out whether they fled penniless or died horribly. This much more tragic sequel to Pirouette is almost clearer in my mind than the reality of this little love story.

As always with Streatfeild, the family dynamics are absolutely excellent.

[Suanne Laqueur · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a weakness for what I call “Stiff Upper Lip Fiction,” which is basically sensible working-class British women tackling problems in sensible ways and being sensible about it. Stella Gibbons. Margery Sharp. Miss Read. So imagine my delight when I discovered “…twelve charming, page-turning romances published under the pseudonym ‘Susan Scarlett’ by none other than beloved children’s author and novelist Noel Streatfeild.”

My library acquired the e-book versions, and as of this morning, with Pirouette, I have read all twelve. Are they wonderful if you like this sort of thing? Yes. Are they cozy AF and somewhat formulaic? Absolutely. Are they, by today’s standards, anywhere from a little misogynistic to extremely problematic? Sure. Were they a delight anyway? Oh GOD yes. Now let’s powder our noses and have a cup of tea, it’ll do us good.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

oddly stiff

I didn't enjoy this one. It's the first time I've felt Streatfeild was trying to cut her cloth to genre expectations. Also the heroine is utterly wet and the hero a patronising clod.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited to read my first Susan Scarlett (pen name of Noel Streatfeild) book, one about ballet no less, and was utterly disappointed in it. Most of the characters in the book were not all that likable and the stage mother of our main character was so horrible that it was painful to read about her! I nearly gave up on this one but persevered as it was my choice for my book club for the month. While it did get easier to read, and I was glad to see a bit of character development for some of the characters, this was pretty much a dud for me.

I am still planning to read more Susan Scarlett but if you have never read her before, do NOT start here!

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

This could have been a 4.5 star book if it wasn't for the horribly selfish mother, Olive. Ughhh. At the end, I could sympathize with her more. But, during the 3/4 of the novel I was so angry at her behavior and misplaced passionate energy for her daughter Judith's ballet career.

Susan Scarlett never disappoints with the conversations, little home-y details and family/friend/love relationships. I just love her style and her books are like candy to me! (If only there were more than 12!)

WHAT I LOVED:
❤️ So many lovely ballet school details
❤️ True friendships (Nadia)
❤️ Thoughtful, hands-on, and caring father
❤️ A sweet love relationship
❤️ Difficult family issues being resolved

If I was less upset with Olive's behavior, this would be an almost perfect story. Even though Judith's thoughts and actions are sometimes maddening, you can see why she thinks that way or makes bad choices. All in all, she's still not a mature adult and is a human being trying to go through life living with her family and attempting to please both herself and them at the same time.

I don't know if I'd read this book again (because there's no way to get away from Olive's part in it all), but I would like to. If you like Susan Scarlett books, I would definitely give it a try!

[Sula · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. As usual, Noel Streatfeild manages her characters and writes prose well. However, two of the main characters, the heroine and her mother, are not likeable at all, which rather discolours the whole story. The mother is ghastly, and as Noel Streatfeild writes characters well, that is sadly in a painfully realistic way, rather than an evil villian way.

The plot boils down to the heroine's choice of her career or getting married. Which given the time period the book is written, you can guess what the ending is going to be! As there seemed to be very little to the romance (these are supposed to be romantic novels but the overriding relationship is really the unhealthy one between her and her mother), and she is only eighteen, this did not help digestion of the book.

While I did enjoy being transported to the historic setting, and the ability of her writing, there was just too much that left a bad taste in my mouth to really enjoy it.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t care for this book for most of it, due to the ninny of a heroine, the mother desperately in need of therapy, and the equally unhinged character of Prudence. But as I made my way through the book, I found it quite interesting as a picture of life in England immediately after WWII, and the role that colonialism played in the lives of people who had been psychologically harmed by the war. The world of ballet as described by the author seemed very real and authentic.

[Little Red Readinghood]

Giving up

This is a very old fashioned story about values long left behind. It is also charming and a good hard look at how women were expected to marry and have their family as a career. Sneakily she has put in a bit about those who are denied the chance of a career and how it can affect their lives.

[Maite Onaindia · Rating 3 out of 5]

El Susan Scarlett que más me ha decepcionado, agobiado e infuriado. Una pena, porque me sigue encantando cómo escribe, cómo describe los sentimientos, las dinámicas familiares y a la gente pragmática, pero este libro no ha sido para mí.

[Bookworman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Definitely not as good as most of the others in this series.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uggh

This reminds me of a terrible song Ballerina all about how awful it is to be a great artist rather than an ordinary married woman. Misogyny rules!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Judith, everyone was messing with her!

[Kalliope Ormond · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've enjoyed many of Susan Scarlett's novels beforehand, but this one sadly was a disappointment. Having a great love of and fascination with ballet, I hoped to be drawn in by a romance set in the world of tutus and pink tights, for what could be nicer? Unfortunately not.

Here are my issues with the book:
1. The 'mummy', Olive, is demanding and manipulative (oh yes, big time). She only changes at the very last part of the book and was so bad that she made me grind my teeth with frustration.
2. The ballet mistress, Madame Tania, is just as bad.
3. Judith has veeerrry low IQ, or at least appears to throughout the book. Of course, this is the fault of her manipulative mother and demanding ballet mistress. It is startling that a guy like Paul even fell for her the irritatingly innocent way she acted all the time. The only thing which she was good at was ballet, but it turns out she doesn't follow a career in dance after all.
4. Nadia and Peter should have had more written about their story. Actually, in my opinion, the book should have been about them. They made such a great couple, and I loved reading about them so much that this saved the book from being a measly one star. I understood Nadia completely as she experienced something similar to me. She loved dance yet her body changed so that she was unable to pursue it professionally. Did she let that bother her? No, she picked herself up, dusted herself off and set about taking her life off on another equally good path.
5. The ending felt very sudden, yet I was relieved to get it over and done with by that point.

That is not everything which is wrong with this book. It's just that I want to move on to reading and reviewing better books.

[L B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh my! The 19-year-old protagonist becomes a prima ballerina and then randomly runs off to Rhodesia with her boyfriend who didn't like the idea of being a sort of prince consort to a star? What a downer! Knowing what happened in Rhodesia later on, I have to believe that was a poor choice for other reasons too.