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librarymouse's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is lovingly crafted and insightfully cyclical in its form.
I did not expect Griselda to die. At the very least, the parallels of their deaths were narrativelyIinteresting. The priest standing dumbly by as William notes the futility of his work in the war and the futility of war, just as William had stood frustrated and malcontented as Griselda roused herself to drink from the wine he offered her. Neither of the care fivers had any idea of the reality of what it means to know one's own, personal and physical destruction.
Both William and Griselda were hard to like at the beginning of the novel, but I believe that is intentional. They are meant to be caricatures of the blindly ideological worst of the movements they were a part of.
I found the novel's use of "comrade" interesting, especially in light of having read this book and associated literature for a modernism course. One of our readings ruminated on the chasm of difference between comeradeship and friendship, and the longevity of the two relationships. In every situation, Williams comerades are relationships of circumstance which do not or cannot be retained and maintained when the circumstances disolve. William dying alone in the building in which he does clerical work after years of the soul/spirit/chutzpah he'd just grow being crushed back down to the state it had been when he lived under the thumb of his mother ties up the story neatly and in a way that begs questions about the futility of change, especially in change of ideology. This futility of attempting individuality within the monolith of nation and military is, in the end, the cessation of William as a character.
Both William and Griselda were hard to like at the beginning of the novel, but I believe that is intentional. They are meant to be caricatures of the blindly ideological worst of the movements they were a part of.
I found the novel's use of "comrade" interesting, especially in light of having read this book and associated literature for a modernism course. One of our readings ruminated on the chasm of difference between comeradeship and friendship, and the longevity of the two relationships. In every situation, Williams comerades are relationships of circumstance which do not or cannot be retained and maintained when the circumstances disolve. William dying alone in the building in which he does clerical work after years of the soul/spirit/chutzpah he'd just grow being crushed back down to the state it had been when he lived under the thumb of his mother ties up the story neatly and in a way that begs questions about the futility of change, especially in change of ideology. This futility of attempting individuality within the monolith of nation and military is, in the end, the cessation of William as a character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Murder, Death, Misogyny, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and War
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Slavery and Medical content
absolutive's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
William-An Englishman has some wonderfully rendered, indelible moments. There's the naive, idealistic couple who mistake the first guns of World War I for thunder and lightning on their honeymoon; the inexorable, uncontained flow of life and death and trains for civilian refugees caught up in the probabilities of war; the two neighbouring towns, one prospering from being British headquarters and its increased trade, the other destroyed. The novel is full of these moments, and yet they are its best parts. The narration, the characters and above all the mocking of ideals of pacifism, socialism, gender equality and international cooperation were less successful. Cicely Hamilton makes it clear that these convictions and those who act on them are somehow just like militarism and those who engage in war. The war for justice at home is somehow provincial and small-minded in her novel, compared to the realities and duties of the war abroad. I found this message troubling and not at all compelling.
In the end, William and England represent an ideal and a lost world. The novel is an elegy for them written in 1919, and it's a powerful elegy in a world that doesn't care about the Vote and "The Woman Question," represented by (Patient) Griselda, who is little more than a type in this novel, Socialism and Empire. I think the book would have been more powerful as a story with less commentary and more character development, and more well-rounded characters.
In the end, William and England represent an ideal and a lost world. The novel is an elegy for them written in 1919, and it's a powerful elegy in a world that doesn't care about the Vote and "The Woman Question," represented by (Patient) Griselda, who is little more than a type in this novel, Socialism and Empire. I think the book would have been more powerful as a story with less commentary and more character development, and more well-rounded characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Murder
Minor: Violence
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