Elizabeth JenkinsBesprekingen

Not super in-depth but told in an Austen-like style. The audio version is ridiculously calming.

This was a phenomenal read, brilliant in the way it establishes its characters and then sat back and pressed play so that the characters may continue to meander along their courses to bounce and collide off of each other.

It's the book version of the line "Still waters run deep". We are taken along to tea time picnics, nursery visits, antique shops, house visits, day to day occurrences. The tension almost silently clicked over at every one of these events, and the discomfort and internal yelling crept up on me so gradually that it really felt true to life.

My own ignorance of the plot made me really immerse myself in the protagonist's own uncertainties. A truly insightful dissection of what drives us and our actions.

A true crime novel about human depravity and the ease with which people slide from mere selfishness into depravity. Written in an eloquent but not florid antique style.

Exquisitely written with care to detail, setting and emotion. It did turn much more tragic than I anticipated...not your usual broken hearted period novel...and it is based on a true story.

Ohhhh my, this book may be the most devastating portrait of the unraveling of a marriage that I've ever read. Written in 1954, it's a slow burning look at the ways a man can belittle and abandon his wife without her even being aware of it, or at least not at first. Evelyn Gresham is a handsome 52 year old lawyer who has everything he wants, including his doting wife Imogen and his 11 year old son. Their neighbor, near their large country estate, Blanche is everything Imogen isn't: unattractive and in her 50s, but athletic and interested in fishing, hunting, racing and other masculine things.

What I liked best was Jenkins way of slowly revealing the way this marriage was falling apart, and how Imogen seemed to operate with blinders on, continuing to cater to Evelyn's every wish and failing to realize what the reader can plainly see. The writing is both humorous and tragic in the way the plot is slowly developed. But this author can take down a character like nothing I've ever seen. Blanche's stepsister, Marcia for instance:

"Marcia Plender was short, plump and middle-aged. She was also excessively feminine, but so far from throwing her stepsister in the shade on this account whatever she might've done when both were girls, she now acted as a foil to her, though one would have been as far from suspecting it as the other. Marcia took great care of her person and appearance though she had allowed herself to get fat. As her constitution required her to rest in bed till half-past twelve and drink two double gins before lunch, it was difficult for her to avoid increasing weight....The assured, formidable appearance, combined with a sugary air, fluttering eyelids and die-away voice, made the beholder turn to Blanche with relief and even a sort of admiration. Blanche's abruptness and half-strangulated accents were not charming, but they were a great deal better than Marcia's efforts at charming" (Page75)

The minor characters are just as fully developed as the three protagonists and the ending knocked my socks off, but in a way, that made me think, "Oh, of course, all signs pointed to this. I should've known."

Just an absolutely brilliant book.½

Imogen is the young, attractive wife of Evelyn Gresham, a London barrister, and mother to their son Gavin. At 52, Evelyn is much older than Imogen, and his career success has made them comfortably well off. Imogen is devoted to Evelyn, keeping house and making sure his meals and other needs are attended to. But Evelyn has struck up a friendship with neighbor Blanche Silcox, who fills an emotional void in his life. Imogen is initially dismissive of Blanche; after all, she is older and plain in her appearance. But the reader sees what Imogen does not: Evelyn is finding reasons to spend time with Blanche, and to stay in London “for work” instead of coming home.

Reality dawns slowly, acceptance even more so. As her marriage unravels, Imogen must decide the shape of her future. Locked in the societal norms of the 1950s, she has options but saying and doing are two different things. Support from friends and an unlikely ally make for an unconventional outcome. Elizabeth Jenkins delivers a fairly balanced character study: Evelyn comes across as a fairly decent guy who cares about his family, even Blanche Silcox has her merits, and all three played a part in the ultimate fate of the marriage.

This is a Virago edition. Love those. It's a slow starter, and I thought it might be a DNF for me because I was just not getting into the story - it really needs 50 or so pages and then it picks up. It's the unwinding of a marriage, and it is just so well done. I wanted to lecture the main character, Imogene, and explain that we teach people how to treat us. Don't put up with this. Speak up. Be brave. When push comes to shove, always shove! But alas, Imogene and I do not have the same temperaments or personalities. In frustration, I actually did something I never do - I turned to the final pages and read the ending before continuing. The ending saved it for me. Anyway, it's brilliant in how it shows us the marriage from different vantage points. This one is not about the plot; it's more of a character study, so you will need patience, but it is worthy.

I like that it's short but detailed. Quite interesting. Not fantastic but a good read. I'd recommend it if, like me, you're not really a non-fiction person and are after a short biography to read. Read this on audio through the Overdrive elibrary.

sad, very interesting.
i loved the red stockings on the cover.

A good overview of the life and reign of Elizabeth I of England with an emphasis on her private life. The politics of the reign (a fascinating but complex topic) take a backseat in this biography, which is an excellent starting point of someone new to Elizabeth I. I have to stop myself from comparing this short biography with others which delve into particular aspects of Elizabeth's reign with more complexity and depth, as those works also lack the conciseness of this one. This is a great book for someone who wanted to read a quick, factual, and readable biography of Elizabeth I.

The Gentle Sex ?
By sally tarbox on 11 Mar. 2013
Format: Paperback
Six chapters, each on a criminal - but unknown, at least to me - female. I found two of the women pretty uninteresting:
Alice Perrers, a "rapacious harpy" and mistress of Edward III. There's only so much you can say about the land and the gorgeous outfits she obtained from her adoring lover.
And Lady Ivie, whose forging of documents to obtain land was complicated and rather dull.
But the other four are compulsive reading, like something out of a tabloid newspaper: Sarah Rachel Leverson, who supplemented her income from running an overpriced beauty salon with blackmailing some of her less intelligent clients...
Sparky gang leader and pickpocket Jane Webb...
The wealthy young wife and her female companion who were undoubtedly involved in the Balham Mystery (an incident covered in greater detail in another of Jenkins' works 'Dr Gully'.)
And definitely worst of all, the dreadful Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset. "The passion of a girl of sixteen was the central theme, but it was repeated in a wild variety of love and hate, the hate being as fierce as the love."
Interesting read.½

' "After all", thought Elizabeth, "it isn't as if she felt anything- " '
By sally tarbox on 27 Feb. 2013
Format: Paperback
'At half-past five on a January evening of the year 1875, Mrs Ogilvy's drawing room was a pleasant place.'
Yet from such a cosy outset - Mrs Ogilvy living a luxurious life with her retarded 32-year-old daughter Harriet - who could guess the horror just around the corner? While staying with relatives, Harriet is noticed by the charming and unscrupulous Lewis Osman. At once turning aside from his true love, the sulky but beautiful Alice who yearns for nice things, he starts courting Harriet. But his marriage proposal is not for romantic reasons:
'He did not shudder now, as he had done on the evening of their first meeting, at the idea of marrying her, but he was in no hurry to do it.'
Yet Harriet's wealth propels him on, much to the anger and frustration of her loving mother, who comes to realise her impotence in the face of this 'pert, undersized, vulgarly good-looking person of the lower middle-class, he impressed even her stalwart bosom with a sense of foreboding.'
How the story works out makes for a shocking and unputdownable read. Based on a real-life case.

Rather unconventional ending, when the third party got her way and got her man. But she was not alone when the son of a neighbour chose to live with her.

En mayo de 1870, Florence Ricardo, esposa de un capitán bebedor y violento, acudía a la consulta del doctor Gully en Malvern (Gales), en busca de una cura para su estado de nervios: estaba agotada, deprimida, ansiosa, bebía preocupantemente, no paraba de llorar. El doctor Gully era famoso por sus tratamientos que hoy denominaríamos alternativos, en especial la hidroterapia. A pesar de los más de treinta años de edad que los separaban, el medico y su paciente iniciaron una relación que no tardaría en ir más allá de lo profesional y que, a lo largo del tiempo, pasaría por las más diversas fases, siempre bajo la amenaza del escándalo. Como en Harriet, Elizabeth Jenkins reconstruye en La historia del doctor Gully (1972) un sonado caso criminal que dejó perpleja a la sociedad victoriana. Psicológicamente brillante, socialmente revulsiva, esta historia de amor, manipulaciones y traición es una novela tan lúcida como intrigante.

A great background on Richard III and his times. She serves as an apologist for Richard and makes him out to be the heroic figure he was. Unfortunately, she changes course at the end and assumes that he is guilty of killing his nephews. Her theory was that it was a matter of kill or be killed by the Woodvilles. If that was the case, he would have had to kill a great many more people who were in line to the throne in front of him. It just didn't make sense.

How is this getting such consistently high ratings? It's an uninteresting story overall, and as a bonus, virtually nothing happens until the last 30 pages.

More complete but just as negative review on Goodreads.

While many important events are glossed over or barely mentioned in this book (it's not a book on the history of England, after all), Jenkins makes an excellent study of a fascinating and complex woman. Jenkins insightfully theorizes that Queen Elizabeth never intended to marry and used the planning of marriage as a negotiating and diplomacy tool to attain the treaties and alliances she wanted, then abandoned each suitor once she got what she wanted. Manipulative, perhaps, but given her experiences before she became Queen it's understandable. She spent her whole life in peril of being beheaded, but she proved to be a master politician. I wonder how much of this was used as research for the HBO miniseries Elizabeth I?

This book is out of print, but a number of cheap used copies are available on Amazon.

After a very slow start, when I picked this up again a couple of days ago I became riveted by the story, painful as it is, of a not-so-bad marriage unraveling when a more determined and lively woman comes along and steps into what she perceives as a 'void' waiting to be filled. I think the novel does start slowly and carefully but once it gets underway (about 1/3 in) events pick up and, given the character of each person involved, which the careful beginning has made very clear, the end is inevitable. And complex. At the time it was written, late forties, divorce was just beginning to be something that could be survived socially. In its own way the novel is subversive, as much of women's fiction is - the question Imogen must face is whether she will 'settle' for being the wife who won't give up her husband and consents to share him, or whether she will leave him. The dance of active/passive that couples play is perfectly laid out here - in this case the man sets up the situation so that in all regards the women are making 'the moves' - that he is passively orchestrating everything he carefully blanks out of his consciousness - I've certainly seen that before but I've never encountered it written up so well. As an aside - Imogen's relationship with her son Gavin is beautifully done, he is his father's son completely, and does not 'get' or even respect her and the Leeper family is priceless and the son Tim, with his devotion and appreciation of Imogen, a wonderful balancing piece of the story. I've read several of Jenkins biographies and can't recommend them more highly, and now, I'm happy to say I can recommend her novel as well. ****1/2½

So dull that even I, who read Austen sequels by the tumbrel, proving I am rapacious and without taste, had no interest in it.

Jenkins does a very nice job of detailing Elizabeth's life. Very readable and an excellent introduction to her legacy.All of those who surround her are also part of the narrative, creating a fuller picture. Mary the Queen of Scots plays a major role in Elizabeth's decision-making and it is fascinating to see how she was able to tamp down constant threats and keep control of her kingdom. The Council and her advisors spend much effort trying to arrange a marriage for Elizabeth with no success. This interplay and Elizabeth's savvy at handling the situation is a model for political maneuvering; she certainly was skilled in diplomacy and strategy. Overall great book for those who love Tudor history.

I first came across this story when I heard a snippet on the radio a very long time ago, perhaps as much as thirty years ago. I didn't hear all the book and I'm not sure that I even knew what book it was but I remember being shocked by the events recounted. But as soon as I saw Persephone's description of their new publication [Harriet] I realised that it was the same book and that I should read it.

An only slightly fictionalised account of a notorious and shocking murder trial in nineteenth century London, [Harriet] tells the story of Harriet Woodhouse (in real life Harriet Richardson), a thirty-two year old woman with learning disabilities who lives comfortably at home with her mother and step-father. Harriet can make herself understood (although she sometimes gets her words wrong), can read and write a very little and finds many things difficult to understand. But she has a loving mother and a prosperous home, with the money to indulge her love for pretty clothes and trinkets, and an inheritance of £5,000 (about £500,000) in today's money. Looking after Harriet day after day is something of a strain so Harriet's mother occasionally pays for her to visit some poorer relatives for a few weeks: on one of these visits Harriet meets Lewis Oran who on learning of her fortune (and it is a fortune to someone earning 25 shillings a week as an auctioneer's clerk) hatches a plan to marry her and obtain her money. And marry her he does, despite the horrified protests of her mother who attempts to have her made a ward of the Court of Chancery to prevent it. But once married and in control of Harriet's money Lewis sees little reason to keep Harriet in his own home, so she is farmed out to his brother and sister-in-law who receive a pound a week for the upkeep of her and her child. But her sister-in-law finds so many other things that a pound a week can be spent on other than providing for Harriet's maintenance ...

Harriet's fate shocked the Victorian public when it became known, and the events related are still shocking today. But this is not a book that goes into graphic details: much is implied and much is left to the imagination which is a far more effective way of conveying the horror of way was going on in the Oran household.

Although obviously society has changed a great deal since the 1870's there are issues raised in this book that are still relevant today. By not painting the Oran's as deranged monsters, but rather as selfish, greedy and obsessive people who have convinced thensekves that their actions are justified, Jenkins shows how a culture of abuse could grow up among people who would otherwise consider themselves decent and respectable members of society. And it is worth thinking about that when considering the cases of neglect and abuse that have been in the news in the UK recently, both for old people and for people with learning disabilities. Also, it made me think about the issue of freedom of choice for people with learning disabilities: as I work for an organisation supporting people with learning disabilities I'm aware that the focus has changed very much to one of supporting them to make their own choices in life, rather than the paternalistic attitude that prevailed in the past. But how far should this go, even if the choices made are arguably not in the best interest of the person involved. In this book, Harriet clearly chooses to marry Lewis of her own free will, but if someone has the mental capabilities of a child is it right to allow them to make choices which a child would very much not be allowed to make. Or should the freedom of the individual be all important? I'm not sure about the answer to this, but the book has made me wonder.

I have had this Persephone book on my shelf for a little while now- bought with some lovely Persephone gift vouchers on my Birthday in May. I was so looking forward to it, although I already knew that the story would be a dark one. It almost seems wrong to say I loved it – but I did. The story is a desperately sad one, all the more so for being based upon real events.
“Harriet came with little bouncing steps towards the tea table and looked into the teapot. “This is do Mama,” she said; she sometimes confused small words, though she could always make her meaning clear. At the age of thirty-two she had a sallow countenance, with strongly marked lines running from the nostrils to the corners of the lips; her chin receded, and her eyes were the glutinous black of treacle. Apart from her expression, and the slightly slurred enunciation of her words, however, her appearance was one of rather particular neatness and cost.”
In real life Harriet Staunton nee Richardson lived and died very much in line with the events in Elizabeth Jenkins’s 1934 novel. Like the Harriet in the novel, Harriet Staunton had what today we would call learning difficulties, she had been well brought up by her mother, who had taught her how to care for herself, but she had difficulty expressing herself and was prone to making sudden unexplained noises and flying into rages. She also had a legacy of about £5,000 – something like half a million in today’s money. Only one photograph exists of Harriet Staunton, taken upon the occasion of her engagement.
Despite being based upon real life events, I must stress that Harriet, is a novel, though there are I believe non-fiction works written about the famous case too. Elizabeth Jenkins was fascinated by what was known as the Penge mystery of 1877. Publishing this novel in the same year as F. Tennyson Jesse published ‘A pin to see the Peepshow’ which was also based upon a famous murder trial, Jenkins decided to take the unusual step of calling her characters by their real Christian names. Harriet Staunton became Harriet Woodhouse, Louis Staunton, Lewis Oman, Patrick Staunton, becomes Patrick Oman, sisters Elizabeth Staunton (nee Rhodes) and Alice Rhodes are in Jenkins novel Elizabeth Oman and Alice Hoppner respectively.
The story of Harriet is a desperate one, and Jenkins telling of it is a masterly piece of subtle storytelling, Jenkins had no need of gratuitous descriptions – the slow downward spiral of this unfortunate young woman’s life is enough in itself. The selfish greed which leads to Harriet falling victim to Lewis Oman’s handsome charms is brilliantly portrayed. A vulnerable young woman, who had previously only been in the company of her mother and step father with occasional visits made to relatives, easily has her head turned by the attentions of a handsome young man. Lewis the elder of two exceptionally close brothers is already becoming close to Harriet’s cousin, Alice when the two meet. Much to Alice’s horror, Lewis’s attentions switch to Harriet when he learns of her fortune. Lewis’s brother Patrick a surly bad tempered artist, is married to Alice’s elder sister Elizabeth. Lewis and Harriet become quickly engaged, Harriet’s mother is immediately on the alert and does all she can to stop her daughter marrying Lewis; however Harriet is over thirty and with Lewis’s contrivance sets herself against her mother, removing herself from the family home when her mother tries to make her a ward of chancery to prevent her marrying. Harriet and Lewis are married, and from there on there is a terrible inevitability to the events that follow, with Harriet isolated from her mother, again thanks to Lewis’s contrivance, and removed to the country to board with Patrick and Elizabeth, she becomes the unwitting victim to terrible cruelty and neglect.
This is a wonderfully readable novel, though it is a terrible story, made so much more poignant by the fact that the reader knows that it is a pretty accurate recreation of actual events. In his fascinating afterward to this edition Richard Cooke discusses the trial verdicts and Elizabeth Jenkins’s career and her obvious fascination with this case.

(21 January 2012 – from Ali for my birthday)

This is a gorgeous Virago hardback edition. SO pretty. Imogen is married to Eveylyn Gresham, a barrister a good few years older than her who is Not Particularly Nice, but exerts a traditional patriarchal and also sexual hold over her. She keeps up her end of the marital bargain by being decorative (which she was obviously raised to be) and trying to run the house and family smoothly (not so successfully), buoyed up only by her flirtatious relationship with old friend, Paul, and her sustaining friendship with Cecil (who is a lady with a man’s name, contrasting nicely with Evelyn’s bi-gendered name). Enter Blanche Silcox, bluff and gruff in her ill-fitting tweeds, and elderly at 50, who is, it seems, determined to prise Evelyn away from Imogen. The women thus far mentioned are contrasted with a terrifying poetess who operates entirely through her physicality, a brittle wife and a neglectful mother: no one comes out of this particularly well.

The psychological suspense is almost unbearable – you want to probe the situation like you would a slightly sore tooth or a mild bruise. Redemption comes through the most unlikely of sources, and only once you’ve been put through the wringer. It is rather Elizabeth Taylorian (even being set near Reading) and, to put it mildly, exquisite.

Obituaries of Elizabeth Jenkins observed that she chose strong female characters as subjects for her biographies. In the novel Harriet she chose a heroine who was weak in intelligence, a Victorian ‘natural’ and her story breaks one’s heart. Harriet lives a happy life with her doting mother, fussed over, delighting in afternoon tea and spending a fortune carefully on luxurious and beautiful clothes. Then a fortune hunter enters her life and takes her away to a life where cruelty, neglect and brutality is a quite normal and where Harriet is robbed of everything. Jenkins creates a claustrophobic world – one reminiscent of another victim within a family story, Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘Lois the Witch’ - and one only breathes fresh air when towards the end of the novel their world is shattered by a great roar of execration. There are many quietly haunting scenes: the cheap valentine cards and vulgar sweets, Harriet’s oddly furnished marital home, the entrancing blue dress, Harriet sitting at the top of stairs while the family eats and her last journey back into the outside world. It is said the Jenkins upset herself writing this book and that is understandable. It is chilling and all the more so when one learns, in Rachel Cooke’s excellent afterward, that it was based on a real story.

One of those books about being a woman in the middle of the twentieth century which is inadvertently chilling (I think this is why I don't usually read Viragos). Beautiful feminine Imogen has been married to her much older and intimidating barrister husband for more than a decade. Somehow he seems to have become increasingly drawn to their frumpy middle-aged spinster neighbour, despite her massive hats and appalling taste. Occasionally funny, but mostly a horrible insight into a time when women were brought up to be decorative and unfocused.