James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
Miss Mole (Virago Modern Classics)
A novel centered on an independent woman living in a provincial town, tracing the intersections of daily life, relationships, social expectations, and personal desire. Its careful psychological detail captures the atmosphere of the era.
Work Information
One woman's wit gradually unsettles the air of a closed town.
Hannah Mole's sharp wit and hidden kindness slowly shift the lives around her. With keen observation and lively dialogue, it is one of E. H. Young's signature novels.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Virago
- Published
- 2021-10-19
- Pages
- 304 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.7 x 1.91 x 17.78 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780349014135
- ISBN-10
- 0349014132
- Price
- 2566 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/British/Humor & Satire
'Who would suspect her sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who would imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate garments?' Miss Hannah Mole has for twenty years earned her living precariously as a governess or companion to a succession of difficult old women.Now, aged forty, a thin and shabby figure, she returns to Radstowe, the lovely city of her youth. Here she is, if not exactly welcomed, at least employed as housekeeper by the pompous Reverend Robert Corder, whose daughters are sorely in need of guidance. But even the dreariest situation can be transformed into an adventure by the indomitable Miss Mole. Blessed with imagination, wit and intelligence, she wins the affection of Ethel and her nervous sister Ruth. But her past holds a secret that, if brought to life, would jeopardise everything.
Emily Hilda Young (1880-1949) was born in Northumberland, the daughter of a ship-broker. She was educated at Gateshead High School and Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, Wales. In 1902, after her marriage to solicitor, J.A.H. Daniell, she went to live in Bristol, which was to become the setting of most of her novels.
Reviews
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A very special book about an unusual woman, later made into a movie which just this week I uploaded to YouTube. Look for the title "Hannah... a love story," to enjoy a really good adaptation.
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Hannah Mole is an unmarried woman approaching forty who, due to a lack of money, has worked for over twenty years as a governess, companion or housekeeper. However, although lacking in financial wealth and rather plain to look at, Miss Mole is no shrinking violet and what she lacks in money she more than makes up for in her sharp sense of humour, her wit and her optimistic outlook on life. When, due to her subversive behaviour, she loses her position as lady's companion to yet another difficult employer, her wealthy cousin (who is ashamed of Hannah's situation - something which affords Hannah no little pleasure) arranges for her to work as housekeeper for the Reverend Robert Corder, a nonconformist minister who is a widower and the father or two growing girls. Hannah, despite unsettling the minister with her outspokenness and her unusual view on life, soon makes herself almost indispensable to the family and she also becomes the object of attention to Mr Blenkinsop, a bank clerk - who, in spite of his outward reserve and respectability, finds Hannah an increasingly attractive and interesting personality. But then a secret, which Hannah has kept hidden for years, threatens to come into the open - a secret which could lose her her position and the good opinion of those around her - and Hannah has to decide whether to use her wonderful imagination to explain away the situation, or whether to reveal her past life and take the consequences. First published in 1930 (when the author was fifty years old and who, incidentally, was living an interesting double life) this is a wonderful and unusual story of a rather wonderful and unusual woman and I found 'Miss Mole' a real pleasure to read. Filled with excellent descriptions of situation and setting and some very interesting and sympathetic characters, I found myself becoming involved in Hannah's story from the very first page and was quite sorry to turn the last page and leave her behind. I've only read a couple of E.H. Young's novels but, from what I have read so far, I am very impressed and I am looking forward to reading more from her. I also have a non-fiction title 'Domestic Modernism, the Interwar Novel and E.H. Young' which looks very interesting and one I hope to start quite soon too. 5 Stars.
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This is a slightly dated but appealing book about an overlooked heroine who turns up trumps and is always the smartest in the room
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The characterization of Miss Mile was excellent. So few novels today take the time to relate character motivation for the action that follows. This novel does that very well, much like Edith Wharton masters in most of her novels and short stories. you know why the characters do what they do and therefore the consequences are more real.
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This is a little-known masterpiece which is one of my very favourite novels.