Honourable Estate

by Vera Brittain

When Janet Harding marries a kindly vicar, she discovers the constraints of life with a clergyman and throws herself into the suffragette movement. But her dreams of emancipation give way to the responsibilities of an overburdened wife and mother. Stephen Allendeyne, smug heir to Dene Hall, prides himself on his union with Jessie Penryder, an impoverished governess with social ambitions. Generally at odds, the couple find harmony in opposing their daughter's modern ideas about independence. Then, in the aftermath of World War I, two lovers meet in Eastern Europe. Overcoming the scars of the war and their own pasts, they succeed in forging a new kind of partnership.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Novels, Classics, Literary Fiction, British Literature, Fiction

588 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Vera Mary Brittain was an English writer and pacifist, best remembered as the author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth, recounting her experiences during World War I and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism.

Her daughter is Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, who is a British politician and academic who represents the Liberal Democrats.

Reviews

[Hector Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vera Brittain is a wonderful writer. I love her descriptions and the incredible detail she provides. There were several phrases in this book that I had to jot down so I would not forget them. Yes, one feels that Ms. Brittain really wanted to write an 'important' book, and there is much in here about the politics of the period, the struggle of the suffragists, and the damage caused by the Great War to those who survived. I do think, though, that a reader has to keep in mind the time in which she was writing. To my mind, I found the discussions of birth control for a book of this period surprising and not something I had come across before in any books I've read from the early 20th Century.

On another level, though, it seemed to me that Ms. Brittain was retelling her own story, but with slight twists that, I imagine, were closer to what she wished would have happened in her life, rather than what actually did occur. I found that very touching, particularly considering she was writing 20 years after the war and still struggling to cope.

I'm a huge fan of her work and, in all, I found "Honourable Estate" nearly as poignant as her great memoir, "Testament of Youth."

[Abigail Moreshead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounding down from 3.5 stars. My first foray into Brittain's fiction writing... and I can see why she has a more established reputation as a memoirist. That said, this book has some great qualities: many well-constructed characters, relationships that show the intersection of the personal and political, a cleverly-constructed plot. But as some have remarked, her prose is a bit preachy at times, and the last section dragged/felt quite belabored at times. But Brittain imparts some really insightful views about humanity, Western civilization, and morals that I appreciated.
A couple favorite quotes...

"What did disturb him was the distance that they revealed from 'a right state of mind' - which in his view involved the unquestioning acceptance of 'truths' that actually represented, as nearly all 'truths' do, some of the most controversial uncertainties of the universe."

"The cruellest [sic] afflictions were those of humiliation, dishonour, frustration, defeat; the woes that must be concealed because they evoke not reverence but derision; the loves and losses that could not be acknowledged and were never pitied, because they did not fit into the stereotyped pattern which man had evolved for his social conduct."

[Inky Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astounded by how modern this book was on topics such as homosexuality and pre marital sex. I know when this book was published in 1936 it received mixed reviews, and I can see why- it could definitely benefit from a sharper edit- but ultimately I loved this book. Was really interesting to find how much I related to the thoughts and feelings of some of the central characters despite reading 90 years after they were written.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times, Brittain paints an interesting picture of Great Britain in transition from the late Victorian and Edwardian eras through to post-WWI. Yet she so often slips into didacticism that I was continually bounced out of the narrative just as I started to be interested in the characters. I can appreciate her wish to show the struggle for women's rights and the anti-war movement, but a more subtle writer would have been able to show it through her story and her characters, rather than constantly lapsing into lecturing.

It's been years since I read Testament of Youth and I barely remember it, but I hope I will get on better with that and her other autobiographical books than I did with Honourable Estate.

[Sareene · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much eye rolling at Brittain's heavy handedness with her characters. Much like her Victorian predecessors who like to present paragons of Victorian femininity (think Esther in Bleak House), Brittain presents the paragon of the women's right's activist pre- and post-WWI. Her characters aren't complicated: they are either bad, like Mr. Rutherford; perfect, like Ruth; or simply sympathetic, like Denis. It's difficult to disassociate her from Ruth so it felt like she was trying to present herself as a perfect, intellectual socialist pacifist. Bottom line, eye rolling.