South Riding
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a triumph of personality, a testament of its author's undaunted philosophy (Vera Brittain )
Review
a triumph of personality, a testament of its author's undaunted philosophy Vera Brittain
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
65 of 66 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the best portrails of English provincial life ever written, South Riding is on a par with the best of Arnold Bennett in it's depiction of 'big fish in little ponds.' The story revolves about a headmistress who arrives to take over a girls high school in a depressed northern town in the nineteen thirties. Other figures include a number of local councillors, a talented but poor girl with a host of brothers and sisters to look after and the local squire and his highly strung daughter.
Winifred Holtby was a strong socialist and she could have made stock villans from the local bigwigs and heros out of the working class. What she does do however is create real people with good and bad sides. The local squire is shown to real prtoblems of his own, a mad wife and daughter and no money, while some of the working class fiqures are shown to be shiftless. In its humanity this book is on a par with its near contempory 'Grapes of Wraith.' It is also a very good read with a host of figures remarkable in their realism.
Winifred Holtby died young and this is her only major work. Indeed she knew she was dying as she wrote it. Read it and it will not let you down.
The nineteen seventies TV series is a good adoptation also worth a look.
If you want to known what it was like to live in nineteen thirties provincial England this book will tell you. One of the best books I have ever read.
Winifred Holtby was a strong socialist and she could have made stock villans from the local bigwigs and heros out of the working class. What she does do however is create real people with good and bad sides. The local squire is shown to real prtoblems of his own, a mad wife and daughter and no money, while some of the working class fiqures are shown to be shiftless. In its humanity this book is on a par with its near contempory 'Grapes of Wraith.' It is also a very good read with a host of figures remarkable in their realism.
Winifred Holtby died young and this is her only major work. Indeed she knew she was dying as she wrote it. Read it and it will not let you down.
The nineteen seventies TV series is a good adoptation also worth a look.
If you want to known what it was like to live in nineteen thirties provincial England this book will tell you. One of the best books I have ever read.
47 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
South Riding is subtitled An English Landscape, and it is just that, a landscape made up of people.
Sarah Burton is a dedicated and idealistic teacher who returns to her home county to become headmistress of a girls' high school.
Emma Beddows is the first woman alderman in the district and her work is the focus of her life now that her children are grown.
The dialogues and the developing relationship between those two dedicated but different women are quite wonderful, and there is much more besides.
Robert Carne is a county councilor and a struggling gentleman farmer. His wife is in an asylum and he worries that their daughter Midge will inherit her mental illness.
Lydia Holly loves learning and Sarah believes she has more potential than any other child she has taught but, when her mother dies after one pregnancy too many, her father pulls her out of school to look after her younger siblings.
And so many more - councilors, teachers, pupils, farm workers, townsfolk, all of the people that make up a community and all with their own story.
Their paths, of course, cross and Winifred Holtby tells all of their stories, mixing them and balancing them perfectly.
The characterization is absolutely wonderful, right across the social spectrum.
And there are so many wonderful words and ideas, so many wonderful moments. I really can't praise this book enough.
South Riding is a quite wonderful picture of provincial England in the 1930s.
Sarah Burton is a dedicated and idealistic teacher who returns to her home county to become headmistress of a girls' high school.
Emma Beddows is the first woman alderman in the district and her work is the focus of her life now that her children are grown.
The dialogues and the developing relationship between those two dedicated but different women are quite wonderful, and there is much more besides.
Robert Carne is a county councilor and a struggling gentleman farmer. His wife is in an asylum and he worries that their daughter Midge will inherit her mental illness.
Lydia Holly loves learning and Sarah believes she has more potential than any other child she has taught but, when her mother dies after one pregnancy too many, her father pulls her out of school to look after her younger siblings.
And so many more - councilors, teachers, pupils, farm workers, townsfolk, all of the people that make up a community and all with their own story.
Their paths, of course, cross and Winifred Holtby tells all of their stories, mixing them and balancing them perfectly.
The characterization is absolutely wonderful, right across the social spectrum.
And there are so many wonderful words and ideas, so many wonderful moments. I really can't praise this book enough.
South Riding is a quite wonderful picture of provincial England in the 1930s.
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the best books I have ever read, and undoubtedly a classic of 20th century literature, this book provides as authentic a portrait of 1930's England as has yet been put to paper. With its huge cast of characters, the narrative encompasses all aspects of human life, and Winifred Holtby achieves a depth of characterisation which would be the envy of most living authors. Buy it and enjoy!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A powerful depiction of English provincial life in the thirties
As every schoolboy knows, or at least as every schoolboy knew before the local government reforms of the 1970s, the county of Yorkshire was traditionally divided into three... Read more
Published 8 months ago by J C E Hitchcock
An amazing tale of a Yorkshire community
I purchased my copy of South Riding after watching the BBC adaptation on TV. The book is even better, as it features characters that aren't even mentioned in the Drama. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Emily
A Masterpiece
This is an outstanding book, a masterpiece. It reveals a facinating world of the 1930s, of local government, and of rural England and its social structure. Read more
Published 11 months ago by W. Tegner
Woe, woe and thrice woe
I really wanted to like this. Sarah Waters refers to it as a 'Twentieth Century Classic' and as I rate her work highly I had great hopes for the book. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Social history in a novel?
Having just finished reading this book, I feel incredibly grateful to Winifred Holtby. In writing 'South Riding', she created a big world within a small world. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Alison McVey
A book for all time.
'South Riding' is a novel which is deeply rooted in a particular time and place - a fictionalised version of the East Riding of Yorkshire in the 1930s - but its sensitive treatment... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Dr. P. M. Stoneman
TV A GOOD INTRODUCTION TO AN EXCELLENT NOVEL
I watched the TV showing of this novel recently, and was inspired toread the book. I had heard it mentioned in relation to life in the 30's. Read more
Published 13 months ago by bibliophile
South Riding - Superb
I watched the TV series and absolutely loved it. Based on that, I brought the book. My word! Loved it loved it loved it! Read more
Published 13 months ago by Disengaged
Now that I've read the book...
... I am at a loss to understand why some reviews concerning the recent BBC adaptation were so ferocious. Read more
Published 13 months ago by H. Lacroix
Re read of South Riding
I had read South Riding many years ago but it wasnt until the recent TV dramatisation of it that I found I wanted to re-read it. Am glad i did. Read more
Published 13 months ago by New book reviewer
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