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flappermyrtle's review
4.0
One way of describing Mariana would be that it is the epic tale of an ordinary girl. A girl, and later woman, like you and me, with dreams and hopes for the future that need to be altered constantly in order to fit into reality somehow. The novel features some heavy plot twists, several decisions that are life-changing and special events leading up to a clearer perspective on matters. What makes Mariana so readable, however, is not its plot - it's the moments inbetween major plot points, the depiction of every day life, of smouldering feelings, the description of relationships between the players in Mary's life. Mariana is simply delicious in its ordinariness; it's like a warm blanket, a whole world opening up for the reader to explore.
It is hard to pinpoint the exact element that makes Mariana such an enjoyable read. The characters are lovely, imperfect creatures trying their best at the lot life has given them. Mary's lovers all incite a different feel, different associations (not all good); despite scarce physical desciption you know quite well what Sam looks like, as well as the smooth Pierre. Monica Dickens does not treat major events as major, the narrative is a narrative as a whole, not a string of big happenings following one another. Her realism is on point, leaving the right amount of space for the reader to imagine things for oneself while providing enough detail to give the reader a good starting place for such musings.
Mariana is not an exciting novel, yet I nearly finished it in one day. Mary's life is comfortable to witness, showing good times and bad, and the only true suspense is whether her husband has survived the shipwreck Mary has read about or not - but by the end of the novel, such a thing would be quite as unimaginable to the reader as to Mary, so much has Sam become a part of the structure of the story and Mary's life. Mariana is a novel to leisurely read and revisit, not dashing but nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable.
It is hard to pinpoint the exact element that makes Mariana such an enjoyable read. The characters are lovely, imperfect creatures trying their best at the lot life has given them. Mary's lovers all incite a different feel, different associations (not all good); despite scarce physical desciption you know quite well what Sam looks like, as well as the smooth Pierre. Monica Dickens does not treat major events as major, the narrative is a narrative as a whole, not a string of big happenings following one another. Her realism is on point, leaving the right amount of space for the reader to imagine things for oneself while providing enough detail to give the reader a good starting place for such musings.
Mariana is not an exciting novel, yet I nearly finished it in one day. Mary's life is comfortable to witness, showing good times and bad, and the only true suspense is whether her husband has survived the shipwreck Mary has read about or not - but by the end of the novel, such a thing would be quite as unimaginable to the reader as to Mary, so much has Sam become a part of the structure of the story and Mary's life. Mariana is a novel to leisurely read and revisit, not dashing but nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable.
flappermyrtle's review against another edition
4.0
Rereading Mariana for my MLitt dissertation was nothing short of a joy. Though obligatory reading can turn a wonderful book into a drag, I cannot think of anything that would make Mariana a boring read.
A novel that some - and with some I do perhaps think more of men than women - might think very uneventful and unimportant, Mariana sketches a wonderful picture of women's lives between the World Wars. While we get Mariana's rather traditional outset in life, to marry and be blissfully happy, we also see other types of women - Mariana's mother working as a dressmaker and eventually owning her own shop, Mariana's female teachers at college, her friends who try to make a career on the stage, and so on. It is clear that many options were open, but Mariana is never really judged for her preference for marriage and to keep house for her husband.
Something that caught my attention that I kind of missed last time is the omnipresence of female environments. Writing my dissertation on the woman's novel, a novel perhaps unintelligible to most men because it deals with women's lives and tells a story for women about women, with the importance of details not to be overstated, I realised that much of Mary's childhood and adolescence is played out in female-only communities. From her youth spent with her mother when uncle Geoffrey leaves for America, the all-girls St Martins, the almost exclusively female dressmaker's college in Paris and the household she stays in with a mother and two daughters - the world of men and women is rather separate in this novel, and indeed, in this era, something also very acute when Mary visits Denys at Oxford for a ball, where all the boys are at home and the girls effectively outsiders.
While Mariana is not always right and I, as a twenty-first century feminist, have some issues with her insistence on getting married rather than at the very least trying to learn how to do a job so she may take care of herself if needed, it is I feel very strongly a spirit of the times she lives in. One shudders to think what would have become of Mary had Sam indeed died in the marine accident, for she is truly unprepared to be independent.
One of Persephone's longer novels, Mariana is nevertheless a breezy read as the reader is propelled along as Mary grows up. Flawed but essentially a nice girl trying her best, I rooted for Mary to find her knight in shining armour - and their dramatic first encounter is sure worth the wait. Recommended for holidays, be they winter or summer, since one can easily float in and out of Mary's narrative on a beach or a couch with a hot water bottle.
A novel that some - and with some I do perhaps think more of men than women - might think very uneventful and unimportant, Mariana sketches a wonderful picture of women's lives between the World Wars. While we get Mariana's rather traditional outset in life, to marry and be blissfully happy, we also see other types of women - Mariana's mother working as a dressmaker and eventually owning her own shop, Mariana's female teachers at college, her friends who try to make a career on the stage, and so on. It is clear that many options were open, but Mariana is never really judged for her preference for marriage and to keep house for her husband.
Something that caught my attention that I kind of missed last time is the omnipresence of female environments. Writing my dissertation on the woman's novel, a novel perhaps unintelligible to most men because it deals with women's lives and tells a story for women about women, with the importance of details not to be overstated, I realised that much of Mary's childhood and adolescence is played out in female-only communities. From her youth spent with her mother when uncle Geoffrey leaves for America, the all-girls St Martins, the almost exclusively female dressmaker's college in Paris and the household she stays in with a mother and two daughters - the world of men and women is rather separate in this novel, and indeed, in this era, something also very acute when Mary visits Denys at Oxford for a ball, where all the boys are at home and the girls effectively outsiders.
While Mariana is not always right and I, as a twenty-first century feminist, have some issues with her insistence on getting married rather than at the very least trying to learn how to do a job so she may take care of herself if needed, it is I feel very strongly a spirit of the times she lives in. One shudders to think what would have become of Mary had Sam indeed died in the marine accident, for she is truly unprepared to be independent.
One of Persephone's longer novels, Mariana is nevertheless a breezy read as the reader is propelled along as Mary grows up. Flawed but essentially a nice girl trying her best, I rooted for Mary to find her knight in shining armour - and their dramatic first encounter is sure worth the wait. Recommended for holidays, be they winter or summer, since one can easily float in and out of Mary's narrative on a beach or a couch with a hot water bottle.
zjunjunia's review
3.0
Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid-twentieth century (mostly) women writers. Their bookstore used to be on Lamb Conduit St., a few minutes away from my first year accommodation and I remember taking a picture of the outside but never going in. They moved from London to Bath recently and I followed their journey as they posted on social media. With nothing but that to go on, I knew I'd want to visit them when I ended up going to Bath.
And so I did! Soaked to the bone on a rainy day, we were wandering through the streets of Bath and ended up inside the store. I absolutely loved how all the books had the same pastel grey covers and then a vibrant, unique inside cover. Of course, I did not recognise any of the titles so asked for some help and ended up choosing this book.
I'm not sure how to describe it - there was no groundbreaking plot or out-of-the-world characters but the book just conveyed a story of life with beautiful descriptions of the surroundings. It read almost like a diary with a flowing narrative which makes sense as it was based on Monica's own life. It's definitely not for everyone but I really enjoyed it the gentle espcae into another, quite normal life.
P.S. this was the best physical book I've read in terms of page weight, typeset and spine. I don't know how to describe but it just felt so satisfying to hold and read! The spine bent just right and each page had a lush weight to it with wide margins, great line spacing and a creamy texture. Oh, to nerd out about this...
P.P.S. only after finishing I found out that Monica was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens!
And so I did! Soaked to the bone on a rainy day, we were wandering through the streets of Bath and ended up inside the store. I absolutely loved how all the books had the same pastel grey covers and then a vibrant, unique inside cover. Of course, I did not recognise any of the titles so asked for some help and ended up choosing this book.
I'm not sure how to describe it - there was no groundbreaking plot or out-of-the-world characters but the book just conveyed a story of life with beautiful descriptions of the surroundings. It read almost like a diary with a flowing narrative which makes sense as it was based on Monica's own life. It's definitely not for everyone but I really enjoyed it the gentle espcae into another, quite normal life.
P.S. this was the best physical book I've read in terms of page weight, typeset and spine. I don't know how to describe but it just felt so satisfying to hold and read! The spine bent just right and each page had a lush weight to it with wide margins, great line spacing and a creamy texture. Oh, to nerd out about this...
P.P.S. only after finishing I found out that Monica was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens!
ohnoitsharmony's review against another edition
5.0
this was goddamned BRILLIANT - this quote alone on page 255 made me lose my mind: "If Paris had a feeling of its own in the air, so had England, but you only noticed it when you had been away. It was a feeling of damp, fresh security. Everything looked so right and so comfortably unexotic, like a cabbage. It seemed that even the breezes blew there because they knew that England was the only possible country in which to blow."
the second this lockdown is over, i'll be ransacking persephone's shelves!!
the second this lockdown is over, i'll be ransacking persephone's shelves!!
nadia_g's review against another edition
4.0
"But most she loathed the hour
When the thick-moted sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Was sloping towards his western bower.
Then said she, "I am dreary,
He will not come," she said;
She wept, "I am aweary, aweary,
Oh, God, that I were dead!"
Monica Dickens' novel "Mariana" takes its title from Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name. It's a poem that Mary, the main character in Dickens' novel, had to learn by heart when she was at Drama School.
The story is the story of Mary's early life. As Mary waits for the morning to get news from the British navy to confirm her husband is lost at sea, she lies alone in her cottage in the country during a storm unable to sleep.
As the night begins, memories flood back and Mary remembers all the childhood moments and her years as a young woman which have shaped her meeting the love of her life.
This is a beautiful ode to love, not the honeyed kind but of the eyes-open-wide.
Dickens crafted such a warm coming of age, and beautifully grasped the obstacles and ups-and-downs of falling in and out of love. This novel will stay with me for a long time.
And don't think the end is all set. It took me totally by surprise. Awesome read.
When the thick-moted sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Was sloping towards his western bower.
Then said she, "I am dreary,
He will not come," she said;
She wept, "I am aweary, aweary,
Oh, God, that I were dead!"
Monica Dickens' novel "Mariana" takes its title from Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem of the same name. It's a poem that Mary, the main character in Dickens' novel, had to learn by heart when she was at Drama School.
The story is the story of Mary's early life. As Mary waits for the morning to get news from the British navy to confirm her husband is lost at sea, she lies alone in her cottage in the country during a storm unable to sleep.
As the night begins, memories flood back and Mary remembers all the childhood moments and her years as a young woman which have shaped her meeting the love of her life.
This is a beautiful ode to love, not the honeyed kind but of the eyes-open-wide.
Dickens crafted such a warm coming of age, and beautifully grasped the obstacles and ups-and-downs of falling in and out of love. This novel will stay with me for a long time.
And don't think the end is all set. It took me totally by surprise. Awesome read.
ellenplum's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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? N/A
4.25
jessalynn_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
Here, the story of a girl growing up is book-ended by World War II. We meet her as she waits for news of her husband, then follow her through her girlhood and the beginning of adulthood, until we meet her back where we began. There's not much in the way of action, but this never stops the story from being fascinating. Mary is not always likable but somehow she manages to be sympathetic the whole way through. The characters are wonderfully drawn and the book never takes itself too seriously, make for a solid, leisurely read. This is the kind of book that doesn't demand to be read, but once you pick it up, it's easy to get stuck in its world.
juliaeditrix's review
4.0
Loved the meander through 1920s and 1930s British childhood, boarding school, cousin-romance, Paris as a foreign student, and then home again. The ominous background of WW2 and waiting to hear about her (now) husband by thinking about her long-ago childhood is a wonderful bracket for the story. I enjoyed this so much I read it twice through.
hennamelender's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0