The Tysons: Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson

by May Sinclair

"The Tysons" (originally titled "Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson") is a character study of a doomed marriage. Nevill Tyson is a man of humble birth and cosmopolitan education, whom inheritance thrusts into the unsuitable position of country gentleman, as he lacks interest in the country and gentle breeding. All might have been well save his marriage to Mollie Wilcox, who gossip says he met in a railway carriage. The closed and narrow society of Drayton Parva, Nevill's inability to remain true to anyone, and the love of Nevill's friend Stanistreet for Mollie will ultimately lead to tragedy.

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really, really enjoyed this story. I cannot possibly say anything better than the Librivox narrator, who wrote this (and I quote from the Librivox website) -

Another frank May Sinclair exploration of fin de siècle English love and sex, marriage and adultery, "The Tysons" is the story of the caddish Nevill Tyson and his beautiful but frivolous young wife Molly. Sinclair uses a different narrative voice than we hear in much of her fiction, a sort of witty Jane Austen archness as she dissects the characters of the provincial village Drayton Parva. As always, she demonstrates an intriguing mixture of Victorian prudishness and modern free-thinking, particularly in her rendering of the sexual escapades of her characters. The step-by-step fragmentation of the Tyson marriage seems predestined from the start, but the novel reveals, as Sinclair's novels always do, a passion for profound understanding of the human comedy and why we do what we do. Even though the story is told from the perspectives of mostly masculine characters, Sinclair uses their voices to shine a stark light on the many ways in which women were victimized at the time by being the chattel of the men in their lives, in particular the denigration of the female intellect in favor of the merely decorative feminine beauty which existed only for the male ego.

Read it! Or, better still, listen to it!

The Tysons: Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson (15/12/14) ★★★★
The Three Sisters (07/08/16) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Romantic (12/10/19) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Life and Death of Harriett Frean (11/05/19) ★ ★ ★
The Flaw in the Crystal (20/03/20) ★ ★ ★
Anne Severn and the Fieldings (12/08/21) ★ ★ ★ ★
Far End (22/01/22) ★ ★
Audrey Craven (25/03/22) ★ ★ ★ ★
Mr. Waddington of Wyck (14/11/22) ★ ★
The Tree of Heaven (02/09/23) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Rector of Wyck (31/05/24) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second May Sinclair and still no suffragettes but you can see how the role (and ultimate powerlessness) of women is an integral part of her writing. Molly Tyson is not a particular sympathetic character, although more so than her husband, but that’s part of the interest as the story develops. Unfortunately I did find the novel to be a bit disjointed and with both short and long time jumps treated much the same it could be confusing. Still an interesting enough read but I’ll probably try one of her better known novels next rather than continue to read them in chronological order.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sinclair is fantastic, and whilst this isn't her best book, there is so much of interest within it. There are some very interesting musings upon motherhood and marriage, and whilst it is not quite as engaging as the likes of The Life and Death of Harriett Frean and The Romantic, it still provides a great read. It does improve as it goes on, too; whilst I was rather indifferent to it at the beginning, by the end of the novel, I could hardly bear to put it down.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

She really was an amazing writer, absolutely pitiless. What an absolute rotter Mr Tyson is, makes you squirm. I only gave four stars because I would have liked more of Miss Batchelor.