As well as a lovely lot of Margery Sharps (including “Rhododendron Pie”, reviewed here) Dean Street Press have republished a batch of novels by Stella Gibbons in their Furrowed Middlebrow imprint. You can see all the delights that have just come out on the Furrowed Middlebrow blog. And another pretty cover, getting across the nature of the Hampstead setting beautifully!
Stella Gibbons – “A Pink Front Door”
(01 November 2020)
Marcia and Ella are elderly cousins who live together in a large house now divided into flats, always the protector and the protected, loved more than they know, and ruled by a tyrant of a maid. Marcia has past glories and Ella continues to go out every day to paint miniature scenes of the neighbourhood. Their cousin/niece Daisy is a collector and organiser of lost souls, always with a new one to flit to if one doesn’t quite come up to scratch, and these lost souls and their various housing solutions form a sort of loose network around North London and especially Hampstead, somewhere Gibbons loved living herself and which she writers about in several others of her novels. But is the little house with the pink door, on whom you’re never sure who will be knocking, really the perfect family home?
We get caught up in the lives of the people Daisy is trying to help, not always noticing her poor, long-suffering husband James in the background. There is a strong feminist commentary, with the waste of a good scientific mind when the babies come, the punitive attitude of employers when they do, the need for poor women to coast from man to man to keep themselves off the streets, the lack of servants leading to a double shift for working women, and the older, single woman’s
wonder that anyone could prefer the state of marriage to that of celibacy, which offered one so many more opportunities for solitude.
There’s also a commentary on
This howling mid-century wilderness – without domestic service, enough house room or well-defined social customs
which the older generation find so difficult – Daisy’s father in particular seems stuck between two ways of life, not sure what the right thing is to do and knowing that really he used to meddle as much as Daisy does, and a woman slightly connected to him frets about renting out her top floor, but clings to views of servants that are sadly outdated. But younger women are also having to choose between the new sexual freedoms and being safe, and the expectations that they will manage both.
The perspectives shift between an overarching one and the internal narratives of certain characters, so we really understand them from the inside, and this is done to particular effect in the final parts of the book. Three quite shocking events advance the plot quite quickly and those shifting narratives come quickly, letting us deep into observation of the characters’ lives.
A very interesting and readable novel and I will undoubtedly be picking up more of this crop of reprints.
Thank you to Dean Street Press for sending me an ebook of this novel in return for an honest review.
JacquiWine
Jan 24, 2021 @ 08:48:52
Sounds very good, Liz, with some interesting points to make about choices available to women at the time. I’ve read very little by Stella Gibbons over the years (only Cold Comfort Farm), but your post shows that there’s much more to discover…
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Liz Dexter
Jan 24, 2021 @ 11:58:13
Her other novels are nowhere near as hilarious but are still well worth a read – I have read three or four of them now, which you can find using the search field hopefully. This was a jolly and interesting one with some big surprises, and I would recommend it.
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Cosy Books
Jan 24, 2021 @ 12:05:30
I searched online to see if there’s a plaque on one of the houses Gibbons lived in. An article from 2014 says one was being installed on her Vale of Health home. Who knows when I’ll be able to do something like fly overseas for a holiday (imagine!) again but it would be a nice place to stop for a look.
Looking forward to owning these new titles!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 24, 2021 @ 12:12:42
Well indeed – who knows when I can get from Birmingham to London to have a look! I hope you enjoy getting hold of these ones, such a special collection this time around.
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Davida Chazan
Jan 24, 2021 @ 15:32:00
Such a lovely book. They sent me the same two books, as well!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 24, 2021 @ 15:37:21
I always feel so lucky when they send them out to me pre-publication!
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kaggsysbookishramblings
Jan 24, 2021 @ 15:48:46
This does sound interesting Liz. Like Jacqui, I haven’t read much past CCF, and though that was quite brilliant, the short stories I read were a bit thinner. But the elements you describe here sound much more involving, with a bit of a deeper read. I may have dismissed her other work too quickly!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 25, 2021 @ 08:44:09
Oh the Christmas at CCF which weren’t even much about CCF were quite weak; her other novels are fully realised and very interesting, if a little strange at times (this is one of the less strange ones!).
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heavenali
Jan 24, 2021 @ 17:58:20
Skimming your review, as this is one of a huge pile of unread Dean Street Press books I have. I have this one on kindle, so it’s been easy to overlook it. It sounds great though, so I should really try and read it soon.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 25, 2021 @ 08:44:56
It is a very decent read and has a lot to say about that time a bit after directly post-war when everything had changed and shifted, so I think you’d get a lot out of it.
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Jane
Jan 25, 2021 @ 17:27:38
more opportunities for solitude! love it!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 25, 2021 @ 17:33:45
That was my favourite bit in the book, I think!
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Lory
Jan 25, 2021 @ 18:42:33
I’ll definitely dip into this when I’m feeling like a trip to London. Since it’s the only way I’ll get there…
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Liz Dexter
Jan 25, 2021 @ 19:10:34
Me, too, apart from talking to my best friend and seeing her photos! It is very evocative of a certain part of London, so happy travelling!
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Thomas
Jan 26, 2021 @ 03:59:30
Love reading about the strong feminist theme and how you write about it in this review! Yay for books that comment on those things and reviewers who highlight that commentary as a strength. (:
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Liz Dexter
Jan 26, 2021 @ 08:06:40
It’s a really interesting book – I’d love to know what non-British people make of it as it’s so rooted in a particular historical context and types of people and I’m not sure if there’s a shorthand in it that would make it confusing to people not brought up on that.
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