kevinlu 's review for:

The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield

4.0

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E.M. Delafield: The Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930)
E.M. Delafield: The Provincial Lady Goes Further (1932)

Main Venue: a country village near Plymouth, Devonshire, England; accessible from Plymouth by bus and from London by train (North Road Station)

Time Period:

1. The Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930): 27 November 1929 to 23 October 1930
2. The Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930): 9 June 1931

Dramatis Personae

Robert - my husband; literary agent?
Vicky - my little daughter; age 5 when diary begins; younger sister to Robin, had a cold; in 12 yrs will be coming out and be needing some social connection; likes to recite French nursery, but need to enlarge repertoire
Robin - my son; looking thin, family going to Bournemouth, Dorset on Robin's half-term; attend boarding school accessible by train from Plymouth
Mademoiselle - Vicky's French nurse; annoyed as she feel mistreated due to the mat in her room being put in spare room in anticipation of Cissie's 2-night stayover
Aunt Gertrude - in Shropshire; Vicky and Mademoiselle visit her by train due to departure of housemaid at own home
Violet - my sister

Rose - Vicky's godmother and my dearest friend returning home from 3-yr stay in America; met some old friends from my Bohemian days when living w/ Rose in Hampstead

Ethel - house-parlourmaid
Cook - female; threaten to give notice b/c the kitchen range and dampers;
Helen Wills - cat (named after the first American woman tennis athlete to achieve global celebrity status in 1920s and 1930s), has 6 kittens and 5 survive

Lady Boxe (Lady B.) - has blue Bentley, literary friends; went to south of France and returned
Mrs. Somers - recent arrival at the neighborhood; met her at the rectory
Lady Dufford - my senior by a good many yr; last met at Jones wedding and now met again at Rosemary H's wedding; observe "a carriage and pair" in our old days vs. large car for groom today
Cissie Crabble - my old schoolfriend
Mr. Jones - librarian
Frippy and Coleman - request payment by check
The Fish - fishmonger, purveyor of cod and haddock

William - Robert's brother
Angela - William's wife; wrote her to see if she, too, went in for the Time and Tide competition

Mary Kellway - novelist and have published stories; motor travelled by for lunch and chat; 3 children including a small boy; Kellways lunch w/ us w/ the small boy before attending Rosemary H’s wedding

Rosemary H - daughter of Mary Kellway's and my mutual friend and neighbor

Whites - neighbour who are starting a chicken farm; good or perhaps brilliant tennis player; but my tennis court extremely inferior; Mrs. White play Ukelele a bit; I dislike them and wish to never see them again

Barbara Blenkinsop - married to Crosbie Carruthers
Mrs. Blenkinsop
Maud Blenkinsop -elderly unmarried cousin of Mrs. Blenkinsop; come to live w/ her while; has a baby Austin, went to Roedean (a prestigious all-girls school in Brighton, East Sussex)

Lady Frobisher -

Women's Institute - Committee of 12 members including me;

Cultural Reference:

1. Life of Sir Edward Marshall-Hall
2. Life of Lord Beaconsfield - Benjamin Disraeli
3. Rebecca West - British author
4. Richard Hughes: High Wind in Jamaica (1923)
5. Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford (1851)
6. Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit (1857)