A review by spauffwrites
South Riding An English Landscape by Winifred Holtby

3.0

I had never heard of this novel before the Masterpiece Theatre series, but I’m glad I picked it up. There are the obvious comparisons to Jane Eyre – a school teacher in love with a man beyond her reach, a mad wife locked away – but it has the quirkier characters of an Austen or Dickens novel. The parts about the workings of local government can get a bit confusing, but on the whole, I liked the book. It was funnier than I expected, but it also has a darker and sadder ending. There’s no “Reader, I married him,” and no one really lives happily ever after. They just live.