Reviews

Mary Olivier, a Life by May Sinclair

kjboldon's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A moving and engaging woman artist coming of age story. Is the marriage plot and women writing incompatible in real life? And why is that still a question, more than a century after Mary Olivier lived it?

wolfsonarchitect's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this book for numerous of it’s facets. The beginning is so charming as it presents Victorian household life from the youngest child and only daughter’s perspective. Young Mary Olivier is particularly puzzled trying to figure out the lessons of her Anglican upbringing. This theme of the book grows into her explorations of Philosophy in her earlier teen years. She finds Pantheism brings her more happiness as an explanatory system then the holy Trinity. Other themes of interest are Mary’s growing up female in this Victorian house where her brothers can explore academic learning but it is discouraged for her. Mary has a complicated love/resentment relationship with her mother that the book portrays in-depth. The book held my interest as Mary struggles to find her identity and the freedom to express it.

alexiacambaling's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I first picked up May Sinclair’s work after doing a bit of research into some influential, but forgotten authors. It was then that I saw May Sinclair actually coined the term ‘stream of consciousness’ and her novels were considered ‘modernist’ like Virginia Woolf’s. I’ve tried reading Virginia Woolf before and didn’t really ‘click’ with her, although I do want to give her novels  another try. In any case, after reading The Life and Death of Harriet Frean, I could confidently say I liked May Sinclair more than Virginia Woolf. That book was my introduction to her writing and I haven’t read a book like that before which explored the main character’s life from her birth to her death. 

Mary Olivier: A Life is in many ways similar to The Life and Death of Harriet Frean. It is longer though, while the latter is a novella. Mary Olivier also only follows the life of its main character from her birth to middle age. I’d also argue that its main character is happier and more fulfilled in life. I think that both should be read together as both are examinations of the lives of the main characters and their relations with the people important to them. When reading them together, I would recommend The Life and Death of Harriet Frean first as it is shorter and a good introduction to this style.

I highly enjoyed the writing style of Mary Olivier: A Life. It starts off simple as the author gets into the mind of an infant, the narrative voice developing as the main character grows, becoming more complex. It charts the growth of Mary from a precocious child to an independent adult. The writing itself reflects the character study of Mary and you get to see how she changes over the years.

Mary’s relationships with others is at the forefront of this novel. You see how she chafes against the society she was raised in and how she stays true to who she is. Mary is honest to a fault and sometimes uncompromising. I see her as a foil to Harriet Frean who tried to adhere to societal norms at the cost of her own happiness. With Mary, even as she is admonished that she is making her mother unhappy due to her independence, her self-will, and unbelief remained steadfast to her beliefs and stubbornly held on. Her own relationships with men were affected by this, and I’m glad that she wasn’t actually worse off for it.

Mary’s relationship with her mother in particular is important. As I was reading, I thought that this book must be what it’s like to be raised by a Victorian ‘boymom’ or a mother who actively resented her daughter and prefers her sons. In some ways, it is like that, but it’s also more complicated. I understood the era in which the novel was written and how expectations for men and women differed. The exploration of Mary and her relationship with her mother is complex, sometimes adversarial, sometimes touching. Her mother’s admission of how jealous she was of Mary is, in my opinion, an acknowledgment of this sort of relationship and that perhaps she wished she could be more like Mary.

All in all, I absolutely loved Mary Olivier: A Life. I recommend reading the Life and Death of Harriet Frean but the novels are not connected in any way, except for the style. It’s a beautiful novel that charts the growth and development of a girl to an intellectual woman, self-willed and independent. Both are in the public domain and available for download on Project Gutenberg.

kristinana's review against another edition

4.0

A lovely autobiographical novel by an apparently neglected modernist writer. I am no expert on modernism, but his reminded me in parts of Virginia Woolf, particularly in three ways: the impressionistic early scenes in which Sinclair describes memories of being very young; the swift passing of time combined with descriptions of domestic life; and the struggles of an intelligent, talented woman trapped by the conventional thinking of her family and provincial neighbors. This is described as a story of a mother-daughter relationship, and it certainly is that, but I was surprised by how much it was also about Mary’s intellectual development and her rejection of Christianity—a very bold opinion to hold in the late Victorian era. The story is tragic in its depiction of how someone can be held down by the small-mindedness of those who are afraid of independent thinking, but Mary’s eventual triumphs are not to be dismissed, even if they come late in life. Because it is rather slow-moving, I would not recommend this book to everyone, but I thought it was beautiful.

jessreadthis's review against another edition

hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

mavenbooks's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

definitelyfinch's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If you like Virginia Woolf, give this book a try! 

hyacinth_girl's review against another edition

4.0

This is a good book but so sad. It's all about Mary and her mother and what makes it so sad is that her mother doesn't love her. She tries, at times, but is ultimately unsuccessful. I remember the part that made me the saddest is when Mary is still pretty young and she is begging for her mother to tell her that she loves her and her mother won't say it... which is one of the saddest things I have ever read. Because of this struggle between mother and daughter, the book is very powerful and totally worth a read.