The Rector's Daughter (Virago Modern Classics)

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Mayor's first book was a collection of stories, Mrs Hammond's Children, published in 1902 under the pseudonym Mary Strafford. Her short novel, The Third Miss Symons, was published in 1913 with a preface by John Masefield. Thanks to another Goodreads reviewer, I've just remembered that I bought the book after it was praised by Susan Hill in Howards End Is On the Landing. Her best-known novel is The Rector's Daughter (1924). (In October 2009 this was described in the BBC's 'Open Book' programme as one of the best 'neglected classics'.) Mary is thirty five years old when she meets the love of her life – a scholarly man, similar in this aspect to her Father – a man called Robert Herbert who becomes a close friend of the family. With Robert, Mary discovers an intelligent mind, a passion for reading and their friendship gradually develops into a very deep love – which consumes Mary in ways, she had not thought previously possible. As with all other things in life, Mary loves Robert passionately and in her mind contemplates a life with him, filled with love and light and family. But what happens to Mary is a fate too cruel to behold and as a reader we share Mary’s feelings of dismay and disappointment.

If you want to read this book, do not read this review beforehand because it gives too much of the plot away...but it is a good review: https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2010/... Mary Jocelyn is in her mid-thirties and already fading, her life has been one of quiet, respectful duty. Living in the home of her father Canon Jocelyn, Dedmayne Rectory a house as faded as its occupants, Mary is pitied by her neighbours for the reduced life she is living. Having devoted herself to her father, her recently deceased, disabled sister, and the few wants of the villagers Mary has little to look forward to. An occasional visit from her childhood friend Dora, a short holiday to Broadstairs with her Aunt, is what her life has become. Her father is an octogenarian of Victorian values, a man of cold reserve, he has no idea of Mary’s inner life, and he takes her and her continual presence for granted. There were three typos that I found in this book, but I don’t know if somebody at Penguin messed up or whether the original edition had the typos. Who do I complain about this (i.e., the typos)?The Rector’s Daughter was published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press. The plot is timeless: a young woman called Mary Jocelyn lives at home in the rectory with her widowed father, a classical theologian; at first she finds fulfilment through looking after her disabled sister but eventually is left alone to be her father’s companion. She realises that she feels deeply about the local curate and for a while it looks as though she might be happy at last. Rather like The Fortnight in September, PB No. 67, it doesn’t sound much. But it is everything. And it is why we wanted Persephone readers to be able to read this superb novel and understand why it has been praised so highly by generations of critics. Questo romanzo mi è piaciuto perché è ben lontano dai gusti da melodramma che molto spesso nel passato hanno fornito una scusa per relegare la letteratura femminile in un cantuccio, come se fosse meno importante, o non potesse parlare di grandi temi sociali. Probabilmente un uomo non avrebbe mai preso in considerazione come tema sociale la condizione di zitella al punto da renderlo centrale nel romanzo, semplicemente perché non potrebbe aver vissuto l'emarginazione che questo stato comportava fino a non tanto tempo fa. L'autrice al contrario l'ha vissuto sulla sua pelle, eppure è riuscita a raccontare questa condizione da una prospettiva lontana da quella che ha vissuto lei (era benestante, al contrario di Mary, ha tentato la carriera d'attrice, prova a sposarsi ma il fidanzato muore in viaggio d'affari proprio come il promesso sposo di Cassandra Austen), e non è semplice partire da una base biografica e distaccarsene in maniera così profonda man mano che si scrive, Mi è piaciuto che la Mayor utilizzi invece certi temi da romanzetto come la fuga amorosa o l'incidente chirurgico in maniera completamente diversa e realistica. Canon Jocelyn is the most erudite man in Dedmayne and has one of the best minds anywhere and at any time (it is hard to think of people not just knowing Latin nowadays, but being very intimate with ancient classics) and it is only natural for someone like that to be less inclined to rub shoulders with the hoi polloi, only this has the effect that since they do not invite people for dances, they do not want to send cards for Mary, who seems destined to remain unmarried, until she meets Mr. Robert Herbert, a handsome, very well educated clergyman.

I recently finished reading FM Mayor’s classic novel – ‘The Rector’s Daughter’, recently published by Persephone Books. I found it hard to have much sympathy for the male characters; Mary’s father, the scholarly and reclusive elderly rector of Dedmayne, is harsh and critical of his sons and daughter, and unable to show them any affection. I didn’t particularly warm to the Reverend Herbert either. Take care, Mary dear, you stepped right into that puddle. Wait a minute. Let me wipe your coat. I am not quite sure that I understand what you were saying.”

Finding Your Story

Juliet Stevenson reads FM Mayor's unfairly Neglected Classic, the story of a plain, reliable parson's daughter whose life of duty and service is thrown into confusion by an unexpected and unsought love affair. Today a confession in the rectory garden commits Mary's heart forever, despite what is to come. The Rector’s Daughter (1924) concerns the life and ill-fated love of Mary Jocelyn, the rector’s daughter in question. She is motherless, and lives a life of obedient graciousness towards her father – who is deeply intellectual, but not able to show his love for his daughter. I think Mary was supposed to be in the mold of silently passionate women, having to be content with their lot. A bit like Jane Eyre, perhaps… but then I have always thought Jane Eyre a little overrated. Here she is: It is a sensitive exploration of human relationships, set against a very quiet, dull rural setting in East Anglia, U.K. in clerical households. Mary is a complex and sympathetic character, and eventually Kathy, the beautiful daughter of an old county family, is also revealed as having more depth of feeling than one might originally credit her with. Take a bare bones look at the plot and not much happens but read The Rector's Daughter and you experience a lifetime of small lives. There is a community of richly drawn characters circling Mary. Mayor used these characters not just to believably populate Dedmayne but also to highlight Mary's Victorian life verses her desires. Her journey outward isn't dramatic or life changing by today's standards but Mary's Victorian upbringing had not prepared her for personal growth let alone what the world would expect of her in the Jazz Age. Dora is also a spinster, but less angsty. I think I would have rather enjoyed a novel from Dora’s perspective…

The reason why I think that the narrative of ‘The Rector’s Daughter’ is so powerful is perhaps due to the fact that the reader deeply sympathises with poor Mary’s plight. To discuss her life and plight would reveal too many aspects of the plot – so it is difficult to discuss in great detail.

Flora M Mayor, like the woman she created in this novel was the daughter of a clergyman. However according to Janet Morgan in her introduction to this edition, Flora was nothing like her heroine Mary Jocelyn. I was rather delighted to learn that Flora seemed to have had quite a bit of spirit about her. Who can thatbe coming down the road? Why, it’s the pretty little girl with the dark curls we saw yesterday when the Canon took me out a little walk – your dear father. Oh no, it’s not; now she comes nearer I see it’s notthe little girl with the dark curls. My sight isn’t quite as good as it was. No, she has red hair and spectacles. Dear me, whata plain little thing. Did you say she would be calling for the milk, dear? Or is this the little one you say helps Cook? Oh no, not that one, only ten; no, she would be rather young. Yes, whatthe girls are coming to. You say you don’t find a difficulty. Mrs. Barkham – my new lodgings; I told you about her, poor thing, she suffers so from neuralgia – she says the girls now – fancy her last girl wearing a pendant when she was waiting. Just a very plain brooch, no one would say a word against, costing half-a-crown or two shillings. I’ve given one myself to a servant many a time. Oh, that dear little robin – Mary, you mustlook – or is it a thrush? There, it’s gone. You’ve missed it. Perhaps we could see it out of the other window. Thank you, dear; if I could have your arm. Oh, I didn’t see the footstool. No, thank you, I didn’t hurt myself in the least; only that was my rheumatic elbow.” The Rector's Daughter was written by F.M. Mayor and originally published in 1924. It caught my attention for two reasons. The intellectual reason is that the title sounds like it could be a novel by Trollope, one of my many favorite authors. The other reason is the secretly-I-am-12 reason. Rector? Damn near killed her. Okay. I have gotten that out of the way and can now move on to a book I adore. No one could accuse F M Mayor of writing a cheerful story, but she certainly wrote a beautifully poignant one, and one I found very readable. I have been circling around this novel and The Third Miss Symons for some time, knowing already that there would be a degree of sadness to the stories of stagnant lives that Mayor appears to have particularly written about. I have Simon and Karen’s 1924 club to thank for giving me the nudge to read The Rector’s Daughter my first F M Mayor novel.