Although I've managed to collect most of the Virago editions of Christina Stead's work this is the first time I've actually opened one of her books - one of the agreeable side effects of listing all those Virago's has been feeling the excitement of discovery all over again. I have some really great looking books - and in a glass half full mood that means a lot to look forward to. Stead is one of those writers who clearly has a mighty reputation somewhere, Virago published her, Faber Finds found her, Capuchin Classics have dabbled with her titles, and so have plenty of others, but I still have a sense that she's just under the radar (that may be just me though).
'Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife)' managed to fool me, being new to Stead I didn't really know what to expect (okay, so I picked it up because of the cover which is beautiful but possibly a little misleading) and this one written late in her career may not have been the best place to start. The heroine of the piece Eleanor Brent (later Mrs Charles and then Miss Herbert) is a difficult character to come to grips with. She's a beauty, the genuine article - glowing with good health, vitality, and sexual curiosity, we meet her in her twenties not so long out of university, still given to intense talks with her girlfriends, and as conventionally chaste as any middle class girl in the twenties could be expected to be. This doesn't last, she heads off alone on a cruise which marks the beginning of a career in promiscuity that falls just short of professional - her occasional worries about plain cloths policemen make it clear just how close to the wind she sails.
Stead is coy about details and so is Eleanor who happily lies and prevaricates her way through the next five years. She is a master of self justification (and with it a deeply irritating character) intent on having her rights when it comes to youth and pleasure - but not love. It's an immensely readable book, which confused me at first because I hated Eleanor to begin with but just when she irritated me most Stead throws in a hint that all is not as it seems. Lies about the state of an engagement, those allusions to possible policemen, and scenes where Eleanor is not explaining herself - all are illuminating.
As Eleanor ages however she becomes easier to empathise with. By 30 she's getting a little desperate to marry and her literary career hasn't really taken off. She meets a man - Henry Charles almost by chance and decides he'll do. They marry without love (though Eleanor will later insist it was a love match) but she's happy with her bargain; loves running her home and making ends meet. Unfortunately her husband is a snob, would be social climber, and fascist sympathiser with a talent for duplicity that more than rivals Eleanor's generally good natured avoidance of the truth.
She is slowly manoeuvred out of her marriage, her home, and her self confidence, until finally she's left with two children and the task of making them a home in post war London without any reliable support. What follows is a bloody struggle which would be far more heroic if Eleanor wasn't, in so many ways, such a terrible mother. Still she battles on, playing by the rules which refuse to play by her and living with the double tragedy of being trapped in poverty (however hard she works and this, I think, is particularly relevant to the economic turbulence we're currently enjoying) and never really experiencing real love.
It's a complex book that will take some mulling over (it has something in common with Persephone's 'To Bed With Grand Music'), I'm certainly more interested in Christina Stead now, and wish my edition had come with an introduction - it's a book that wants some explaining, if for nothing else than the chance to disagree with another's opinion.
You may be right about "this one written late in her career" not being "the best place to start," but maybe not. It's given you a rare perspective. Most people come at her from The Man Who Loved Children, or, if they're Australian, For Love Alone. I'd be interested to hear your opinions on the earlier ones, if you ever feel like making your way to them. She started her writing life exuberantly with Seven Poor Men of Sydney and The Salzburg Tales; by the time she reached Miss Herbert she was harder and more sarcastic and angry. Miss Herbert herself was a vehicle for a lot of things the author didn't like. Her slash-slash-slash approach to editing is something Stead loathed. The character was anti-Semitic too, until an editor warned Stead that readers might think she, the author, was promoting anti-Semitism. (She was trying to do the opposite; Miss Herbert acts in bad faith and the anti-Semitism was supposed to be evidence of her thoughtlessness.)
ReplyDeleteI felt like she was creating a monster in Miss Herbert, but one who she eventually came to feel some sympathy for - right at the end she seems suddenly far more sympathetic. The anti-Semitism is interesting - Miss Herbert's politics definitely veer to the right and her sympathy with her husband's views suggests something more sinister (I imagine she might have rather fancied Oswald Mosley). There's a point about half way through when she reads her father's book and hates the heroine - it wasn't until then that I really began to understand what Stead was doing.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great book with so much going on, I will definitely read more of her, heaven knows I have plenty of them on the shelf, it's just a question of when...
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Delete"I felt like she was creating a monster in Miss Herbert, but one who she eventually came to feel some sympathy for" -- I think she says something like that in one of her letters but I'm looking for the reference now and I can't find it. Ron Geering, who put the letter-collections together, didn't include an index, which -- oh wait (flicking), found it. "No, I really didn't think much of Miss H.," she told a friend in 1976. "That's why I carried her around in my pouch for such a long time. But as usual, I have sympathy for any poor mug I'm delineating."
DeleteThank you so much for this, I really need to learn more about Stead.
DeleteThis is fascinating. I have never read Christina Stead but I must say you have made this one sound very tempting, especially with the interesting comments above. I must look out for it -- thanks.
ReplyDeleteI hope you find some Harriet, I really enjoyed reading this book.
DeleteI've been collecting Stead for a few years now, but have only actually read four of her books so far--Man Who Loved Children, For Love Alone, The People With the Dogs, The Little Hotel--and a short story or two. I have it in mind to read the rest in order written instead of proceeding so randomly, so it will definitely be awhile until I get to Miss Herbert; I very much enjoyed your review.
ReplyDeleteSFP, Thanks. I definitely picked this one up at random, if I'd known a bit more about her I would probably have started with an earlier book, but this one wasn't a bad place to start - it very effectively hooked me in.
DeleteWhat a perceptive review Hayley, and fascinating comments from Umbagollah - I think I'd like to read this, although I've got several unread Steads knocking about to read first. The cover is ace, don't you think? I second recommendations for The Man Who Loved Children, which is just a brilliant book.
ReplyDeleteI picked it up for the cover which I love, a shallow reason to choose a book but not always a bad one.
DeleteThanks for the review. I just finished this author's The Little Hotel--not perfect but I really enjoyed it. I was looking for a review of this book, so thanks for providing it.
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