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A review by crazygoangirl
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I read Taylor’s Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont in 2018 and was bowled over by her beautifully gentle yet incisive prose. There was an underlying tenderness and pathos that suffused the narrative of an older woman moving into the Claremont and dealing with the loneliness and depression that so often define that stage of life. I gave it five-stars, deservedly so.
This is my second Taylor and my second five-star read from this somewhat underrated but formidable author. Her prose is exquisite, economical and effectual. Her characterisations are par excellence. She knows her characters right down to the depth of their bones and it’s evident on the page. One can like them or hate them but indifference is not an option. In Mrs. Palfrey, her characters were likeable, in Angel they are the opposite, but she is at the top of her game in both.
Angel was one heck of an emotional roller coaster of a ride! Following this deeply unhappy, bitter, angst-ridden young fifteen-yr-old as she claws her way out of despondency through sheer grit and her wildly florid imagination was in turns, devastating, satisfying, aggravating and strangely fulfilling. I disliked Angel intensely from the start and although I mellowed slightly toward the end (although God knows she didn’t!), I still disliked her then. Her malaise toward life, her exclusion of all reality other than the stories in her own head, her terrible behaviour toward her mother, all served to raise my hackles and as a mother myself, I was angry and sad and frustrated. It was hard not to be, even when I could understand her goal and admire her gumption. I couldn’t empathise.
Angel is representative of what thousands of girls were going through in her time, the early 1900s. She wasn’t alone or unique in her condition but she chose isolation, absurdity and extreme vanity over an attempt to belong and integrate into society, and to cultivate kindness and compassion in herself. She became, for a time, an extremely successful, famous and wealthy writer of a certain kind of ‘rebel’ literature (of her time), but an obnoxiously selfish, self-absorbed egotistical human being. How Theo, her publisher, whom I blame squarely for publishing her first book, The Lady Irania, and Nora, a failed poet and later lifelong companion, tolerated, supported and even loved her is beyond my comprehension, because Angel was as cruel to her handful of well wishes as she was to the world at large. In that at least she was consistent. The blame rests partly with Mrs. Deverell (her hapless mother), Theo, Nora and the infamous Esme too, for they were the perfect enablers. They took the easy way out, especially her mother in my opinion, choosing flattery and lies over discipline and firmness. Still, Angel was clever enough to understand what she was doing wrong, she certainly had self-awareness enough to recognise her internal loneliness, but she chose, not only to ignore her faults but strengthen them over the years until they turned into bad habits & settled irreversibly into her psyche. Mantel’s introduction, which I read after I finished the book, interestingly co-related these traits of self-absorption and vanity to great writing. She writes how Taylor is showing us that “writers are monsters” and something clicked in my brain. Perhaps this is why many great writers have tortured personal lives? Food for thought.
I cannot stress how much I disliked Angel and almost every other character in this book. Mrs. Deverell, Aunt Lottie, Theo, Hermione, Nora, Esme and even Marvell, who was probably my most favourite from this woefully duplicitous cast. It is Taylor’s considerable skills as a writer that makes this character driven story, a compellingly unforgettable marriage of human frailty and human will power. She’s impeccable, whether in her thoughts or in their execution on the page and an expert practitioner of her craft.
I will read anything and everything she has written ♥️
This is my second Taylor and my second five-star read from this somewhat underrated but formidable author. Her prose is exquisite, economical and effectual. Her characterisations are par excellence. She knows her characters right down to the depth of their bones and it’s evident on the page. One can like them or hate them but indifference is not an option. In Mrs. Palfrey, her characters were likeable, in Angel they are the opposite, but she is at the top of her game in both.
Angel was one heck of an emotional roller coaster of a ride! Following this deeply unhappy, bitter, angst-ridden young fifteen-yr-old as she claws her way out of despondency through sheer grit and her wildly florid imagination was in turns, devastating, satisfying, aggravating and strangely fulfilling. I disliked Angel intensely from the start and although I mellowed slightly toward the end (although God knows she didn’t!), I still disliked her then. Her malaise toward life, her exclusion of all reality other than the stories in her own head, her terrible behaviour toward her mother, all served to raise my hackles and as a mother myself, I was angry and sad and frustrated. It was hard not to be, even when I could understand her goal and admire her gumption. I couldn’t empathise.
Angel is representative of what thousands of girls were going through in her time, the early 1900s. She wasn’t alone or unique in her condition but she chose isolation, absurdity and extreme vanity over an attempt to belong and integrate into society, and to cultivate kindness and compassion in herself. She became, for a time, an extremely successful, famous and wealthy writer of a certain kind of ‘rebel’ literature (of her time), but an obnoxiously selfish, self-absorbed egotistical human being. How Theo, her publisher, whom I blame squarely for publishing her first book, The Lady Irania, and Nora, a failed poet and later lifelong companion, tolerated, supported and even loved her is beyond my comprehension, because Angel was as cruel to her handful of well wishes as she was to the world at large. In that at least she was consistent. The blame rests partly with Mrs. Deverell (her hapless mother), Theo, Nora and the infamous Esme too, for they were the perfect enablers. They took the easy way out, especially her mother in my opinion, choosing flattery and lies over discipline and firmness. Still, Angel was clever enough to understand what she was doing wrong, she certainly had self-awareness enough to recognise her internal loneliness, but she chose, not only to ignore her faults but strengthen them over the years until they turned into bad habits & settled irreversibly into her psyche. Mantel’s introduction, which I read after I finished the book, interestingly co-related these traits of self-absorption and vanity to great writing. She writes how Taylor is showing us that “writers are monsters” and something clicked in my brain. Perhaps this is why many great writers have tortured personal lives? Food for thought.
I cannot stress how much I disliked Angel and almost every other character in this book. Mrs. Deverell, Aunt Lottie, Theo, Hermione, Nora, Esme and even Marvell, who was probably my most favourite from this woefully duplicitous cast. It is Taylor’s considerable skills as a writer that makes this character driven story, a compellingly unforgettable marriage of human frailty and human will power. She’s impeccable, whether in her thoughts or in their execution on the page and an expert practitioner of her craft.
I will read anything and everything she has written ♥️