This is a memoir by the first female professor in the UK, Edith Morley, Professor of English Language at the University of Reading. It’s an essential read for anyone exploring the history of women’s higher education in Britain, and for those keen on reliving the struggles of women to make headway in a profession that … Continue reading Edith Morley’s Before and After. Reminiscences of a Working Life
This is the end of Pilgrimage, and for the first time I understand why Richardson named this sequence after a religious journey of self-examination and hope. I don’t understand the worship part, but I completely understand the point of her writing this journey, begun in wartime to say that all experience matters, and the future is something … Continue reading The end of Pilgrimage: Dorothy Richardson’s Dimple Hill, and March Moonlight
With nine volumes of Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage down, and four to go, Dawn’s Left Hand is the one in which Miriam has sex with H G Wells. It’s an extraordinary episode, and if you’ve read H G Wells’ Ann Veronica, you’ll be fuming, because the setting is exactly the same as the attempted rape of … Continue reading Dorothy Richardson’s Dawn’s Left Hand, and Clear Horizon
After the long trudge through the last four novels in Pilgrimage, Dorothy Richardson's The Trap, and Oberland, are a surprising contrast. They’re short, they’re full of recognisable and traceable incident, they have drama rather than meandering conversations, and Miriam learns to sledge. The main reason for this difference in tone and mood is that The Trap … Continue reading Dorothy Richardson’s The Trap, and Oberland
Continuing this series of posts about successive volumes in Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage, here are volumes six and seven, Deadlock, and Revolving Lights. We’re at the halfway mark, and I have to say that this is now a trudge for me. It’s grim duty and a distant curiosity about what will happen next that keeps me … Continue reading Dorothy Richardson’s Deadlock, and Revolving Lights
This conversation began when Brad Bigelow of The Neglected Books page noticed that I'd reviewed Pointed Roofs, the first volume of Pilgrimage. We began to chat about our respective experiences of reading the books, since he was only five volumes ahead of me, as I posted about Backwater and Honeycomb, and The Tunnel and Interim. … Continue reading Reading Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage
Today begins a total splurge of reviews of the remaining novels in Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage. I've already written about the first volume, Pointed Roofs, and Backwater and Honeycomb. Today I'm tackling The Tunnel and Interim, and next week's posts begin with a long conversation with Brad Bigelow of The Neglected Books Page about how we both read Pilgrimage (more or less … Continue reading Beginning a festival of Dorothy Richardson: The Tunnel, and Interim
