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Synopsis
'This most welcome reissue must be one of the most compelling and perceptive books of informal literary criticism ever produced,' wrote the critic Elizabeth Young when "A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914-39", first published in 1983, was reprinted a few years later. She went on: 'Ranging through a variety of themes such as the Great War, the servant problem, psycho-analysis, sexuality and feminism, Nicola Beauman examines their effects upon the characters created by authors as diverse as Virginia Woolf, EM Delafield and Elinor Glyn. An astute critic, she produces an unforgettable picture of the lives of middle-class women during this period (inspired, she says, by "Brief Encounter").'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was written in response to the author's questions about the books read by ordinary, middle-class women in the period between the wars. The starting point was the scene in the film Brief Encounter when Laura picks up "the new Kate O'Brien" from Boots. What else would Laura have read? This is a fascinating survey of the themes and preoccupations of women at the time. Some, like the perennial servant problem, seem far away to us now. Others, like love, family dramas, relationships and careers, are eternal. Nicola Beauman has gone on to reprint many of the authors discussed in this book as the creator of Persephone Books, one of the most exciting ventures in publishing in recent years. Authors reprinted by Persephone include E M Delafield, Cicely Hamilton, Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Monica Dickens. Persephone has enabled us to discover that many of these novels have been unjustly forgotten, and their authors neglected. Persephone helps us realise that the "canon" should never be fixed, there will always be more great writers to be rediscovered.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nicola Beauman may now be better known for heading up the excellent publishing house Persephone, but she wrote A Very Great Profession quite a while before that... and as a Persephone addict, this book is an absolute must.
Many of the novels which later were published by Persephone are examined in this book - which examines in an entertaining and passionate, but not overly subjective, way the women's novel 1914-39. Some authors included in these pages are EM Delafield, Dorothy Whipple, Cicely Hamilton, Dorothy Canfield Fisher... all fascinating.
A valuable resource which I'm sure I will use for reference many, many times - but which makes the impressive feat of being readable cover-to-cover as well.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Happily, after writing this in the early 1980s, Nicola Beauman went on to found the utterly-lovely Persephone Books. As a middleclass, 20-something housewife she felt that these 'nice', middlebrow women's books were her secret vice. They were certainly ignored by intellectuals. She struggled to source them in secondhand bookshops (no Amazon marketplace or Abebooks in those days, and she couldn't get to the British Museum reading room because she had children).
Now, thanks to Nicola, many are back in print . Which makes it so much easier ... because after reading Beauman's wonderfully chatty book, I photocopied her glossary - because I'm inspired to go on to read almost every book that she mentions!
Now, thanks to Nicola, many are back in print . Which makes it so much easier ... because after reading Beauman's wonderfully chatty book, I photocopied her glossary - because I'm inspired to go on to read almost every book that she mentions!
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