E.M. Delafield (1890–1943)
Auteur van Diary of a Provincial Lady
Over de Auteur
Ontwarringsbericht:
(eng) Please note the following distinctions, and try to keep the single-story separate from the omnibus editions which contain several "Provincial Lady" stories.
Single Story:
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (Virago, 1844085228)
Diary of a Provincial Lady (Prion, 1853753688)
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (Remploy, 0706610342)
Diary of a Provincial Lady (Chicago, 0897330536)
Omnibus Edition (contains 4 stories):
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (Virago, 0860685225)
The Provincial Lady (Macmillan, pre-ISBN)
Reeksen
Werken van E.M. Delafield
Collected Works of E. M. Delafield: The Complete Provincial Lady Series, 15 Novels, Short Story Collections & Plays… (2015) 6 exemplaren
The Bazalgettes or Folly and Farewell 4 exemplaren
The Diary of a Provincial Lady: A BBC Radio 4 Full-cast Dramatisation. Starring Imelda Staunton & Richard Hope (BBC… (2000) 4 exemplaren
The Provincial Lady at home and abroad. Containing Diary of a Provincial Lady, The Provincial Lady goes further, The… (1935) 3 exemplaren
Love has no Resurrection, and Other Stories — Auteur — 3 exemplaren
Collected Novels of E. M. Delafield (6 Unabridged Editions in One Volume): Zella Sees Herself, The War Workers,… (2015) 2 exemplaren
A reversion to type 2 exemplaren
Sophy Mason Comes Back 2 exemplaren
Excellent Women; The Diary of a Provincial Lady ; A Game of Hide and Seek; Valley of the Dolls; A Far Cry from… 2 exemplaren
The glass wall, a play in three acts 1 exemplaar
Reflex Action [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Entertainment [short story] 1 exemplaar
O Tempora! O Mores! [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Incidental [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Luggage in the Hall: An Un-moral Story [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
And Never the Twain Shall Meet [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
This is One Way Round [short story] 1 exemplaar
The Tortoise [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Holiday Group [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Waiting Lady [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
A Tale of the Times [short story] 1 exemplaar
Reparation [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Threshold of Eternity [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Bond of Union [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Terminus [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
My Son Had Nothing on His Mind [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
They Don't Wear Labels [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Young Are In Earnest [short work] 1 exemplaar
The Provincial Lady: The Diary of a Provincial Lady & The Provincial Lady Goes Further, abridged (1951) 1 exemplaar
Gwen [short story] 1 exemplaar
Hukutav naine 1 exemplaar
Love Has No Resurrection [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Mothers Don't Know Everything [short story] 1 exemplaar
O.K. for Story [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
It's All Too Difficult [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Bluff [short work] 1 exemplaar
The Philistine [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Girl Who Told the Truth [short story] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Victims [short work] 1 exemplaar
The Other Poor Chap [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
I Believe in Love [short work] 1 exemplaar
It All Came Right in the End [short work] 1 exemplaar
Soliloquy Before a Mirror [short work] 1 exemplaar
The Reason [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Indispensable Woman [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Opportunity [short work] — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
The Diary of Provincial Lady 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists (2000) — Medewerker, sommige edities — 554 exemplaren
The Virago Book of Ghost Stories: The Twentieth Century, Volume 1 (1987) — Medewerker — 78 exemplaren
Charlotte Mary Yonge: The Story of an Uneventful Life (1943) — Introductie, sommige edities — 11 exemplaren
Missing From Their Homes — Medewerker — 1 exemplaar
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Officiële naam
- Dashwood, Edmee Elizabeth Monica
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- de la Pasture, Edmee Elizabeth Monica (birth name)
- Geboortedatum
- 1890-06-09
- Overlijdensdatum
- 1943-12-02
- Graflocatie
- Kentisbeare churchyard, Devon, England, UK
- Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- UK
- Geboorteplaats
- Steyning, Sussex, England, UK
- Plaats van overlijden
- England, UK
- Woonplaatsen
- Kentisbeare, Devon, England, UK
Malay States
Llandogo, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK - Beroepen
- novelist
short story writer
book reviewer - Relaties
- de la Pasture, Elizabeth Lydia Rosabelle (mother)
Dashwood, R. M. (daughter)
Clifford, Hugh (stepfather) - Organisaties
- Voluntary Aid Detachment
Time and Tide
Women's Institute - Korte biografie
- E.M. Delafield was the pen name of Edmee Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture, born in Steyning, Sussex, England, the daughter of well-known novelist Elizabeth Bonham and her husband Count Henry Philip Ducarel de la Pasture. Delafield was educated by French governesses and attended several boarding schools, followed by nine months as a postulant nun in a convent in Belgium. She worked with the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) during World War I, and these experiences formed the basis of her first novel, Zella Sees Herself, published in 1917. She continued to publish one or two novels every year until her death. She is best known for the bestselling series The Diary of a Provincial Lady and its sequels. She also was an important contributor of book reviews, sketches, and short stories to Time and Tide magazine. In 1919, she married Colonel Arthur Paul Dashwood, an engineer, and they spent two years living in the Malay States before returning to live in an old house in Kentisbeare, Devonshire. The couple had two children, and Delafield served as president of the Kentisbeare Women's Institute for the the rest of her life. Her daughter Rosamund Dashwood published Provincial Daughter, a continuation of Delafield's popular series of books, in 1961.
- Ontwarringsbericht
- Please note the following distinctions, and try to keep the single-story separate from the omnibus editions which contain several "Provincial Lady" stories.
Single Story:
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (Virago, 1844085228)
Diary of a Provincial Lady (Prion, 1853753688)
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (Remploy, 0706610342)
Diary of a Provincial Lady (Chicago, 0897330536)
Omnibus Edition (contains 4 stories):
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (Virago, 0860685225)
The Provincial Lady (Macmillan, pre-ISBN)
Leden
Besprekingen
Published in 1930, Diary of a Provincial Lady is a humorous, laugh-out-loud account of a wife and mother in the English countryside. Although this is fiction, it was based on E. M. Delafield's experiences. I first came to this book a couple of years ago and got up to the part in which the lady's husband disposes of some kittens. I couldn't go on with the rest and the husband annoyed me. This time however I was in the mood to enjoy it's merits. She writes in such a way describing everyday situations which is great fun and very amusing.
https://readableword.wordpress.com/2021/05/29/the-diary-of-a-provincial-lady-by-...… (meer)
https://readableword.wordpress.com/2021/05/29/the-diary-of-a-provincial-lady-by-...… (meer)
This collection of four of E. M. Delafield's Provincial Lady books in one edition was an absolute delight. If you've not heard of this writer or these books before, completely ignore the cover of this edition as it is entirely inappropriate and of the wrong era.
Written in diary form in often truncated sentences, the first book in this series was written in 1930, and although containing fictional characters the books borrow much from Delafield's own life.
This woman was, in short, an absolute riot. Despite the setting being close on 100 years ago, the Provincial Lady's daily concerns feel almost modern, which is no doubt down to the razor-sharp wit throughout which feels ahead of its time compared to much writing of that era. She is the Caitlin Moran or Helen Fielding of her era, a writer whose very essence exudes from her protagonist with endless witticisms, self-deprecation and withering commentary on those that cross her path.
In the first book, The Diary of a Provincial Lady, our narrator documents with dry humour her daily struggles as a woman of relatively high social standing running a household. We're never told what her husband Robert's occupation is, but they move in upper middle class circles and have a small staff to manage the domestic chores in the household. The cook is fairly useless but formidable, and our Provincial Lady spends much of her time failing to work up the courage to address her about areas that need improvement, which reminded me of friends who work full time in demanding jobs yet are scared to confront their cleaner when they do a lousy job. Our protagonist has a busy mind, and although she accepts that household management is her responsibility it's not something she enjoys or wishes to prioritise when she can help it. She sends story offerings to her favourite publication Time and Tide, but at this stage this feels like a hobby also indulged in by many of her friends and acquaintances. She enjoys trips up to London and wishes to spend more of her time there, the country life being a little too dull, but despite governesses for her youngest child, boarding school for her oldest and a small household staff, money is always tight. Despite this, her spending is only occasionally curtailed, and she regularly gets indignant over the increasingly short patience of the bank over the state of her overdraft.
I am sure that every woman will acknowledge that choosing and creating one's own rich, elegant, and costly clothes is an extremely efficient cure for any worries about money.
In the second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, our narrator is shocked to have earned a book deal from her Time and Tide writing which considerably changes the financial circumstances of the family (echoing how Delafield found her way to publishing). Now a woman of independent means, she delights in spontaneously buying a flat up in London to support her need to spend regular time there for her work, when in reality the writing of the second book she's received an advance for is continually pushed to the end of her to do list as she's much too busy enjoying herself. Our protagonist has little ego or airs about her, and her regular disappointment in her appearance surely strikes a chord with so many modern females reading this book, despite the passage of time.
January 22nd - Robert startles me at breakfast by asking if my cold, which he has hitherto ignored - is better. I reply that it has gone. Then why, he asks, do I look like that? Feel that life is wholly unendurable, and decide madly to get a new hat.
In the third novel, The Provincial Lady goes on a promotional tour of America for her book and delights us with her mixed emotions on being away from her family for two months whilst having a whale of a time. Every telegram she receives she's convinced brings news of her children dying in some tragic accident, which of course never happens yet taps into the preposterous ideas that many of us mothers get into our heads when we have to leave our children for any considerable length of time. She attends the Chicago World Fair, delights that the English custom for tea seems to translate to cocktails in America, and insists on a trip to the Alcott house, which is her publisher's only concession on a whirlwind tour full of engagements. Despite her somewhat new rise to the fame, everyday worries continue to keep her feet planted firmly on the ground.
Write postcards, to Rose, the children, and Robert, and after some thought send one to Cook, although entirely uncertain as to whether this will gratify her or not. Am surprised, and rather disturbed, to find that wording of Cook's postcard takes more thought than that on all the others put together.
In the final book, The Provincial Lady in Wartime, our Provincial Lady chronicles her life up in London during the initial stage of WWII, dubbed the Phoney War. During this time she, along with all her friends and acquaintances, is keen to 'do her bit', yet there's so little happening she can't get anyone to take any interest in using her skills on a voluntary basis. It's an interesting (and of course amusing) account of a period I've not read about previously in WWII accounts, this desperation to call oneself to action and feeling the social and personal disappointment of not having any role of importance to undertake, and also waiting for the action to start which never seems to come. She eventually gets a position in 'the underworld' canteen beneath the Adelphi Theatre, where volunteers for the ambulance corps, etc. are occasionally training but more often than not hanging around waiting for something to happen.
I absolutely loved this series (which absolutely didn't need such a long review, but once I got started I couldn't stop myself). She's a funny and quirky writer, and it was an absolutely delight from start to finish. If you've enjoyed reads such as Mrs Bridge I can definitely recommend this.
Diary of a Provincial Lady - 4.5 stars
The Provincial Lady Goes Further - 4.5 stars
The Provincial Lady in America - 4.5 stars
The Provincial Lady in Wartime - 4 stars (the tightening of belts and loss of socialising during this early war period made this last book a little less entertaining).… (meer)
Written in diary form in often truncated sentences, the first book in this series was written in 1930, and although containing fictional characters the books borrow much from Delafield's own life.
This woman was, in short, an absolute riot. Despite the setting being close on 100 years ago, the Provincial Lady's daily concerns feel almost modern, which is no doubt down to the razor-sharp wit throughout which feels ahead of its time compared to much writing of that era. She is the Caitlin Moran or Helen Fielding of her era, a writer whose very essence exudes from her protagonist with endless witticisms, self-deprecation and withering commentary on those that cross her path.
In the first book, The Diary of a Provincial Lady, our narrator documents with dry humour her daily struggles as a woman of relatively high social standing running a household. We're never told what her husband Robert's occupation is, but they move in upper middle class circles and have a small staff to manage the domestic chores in the household. The cook is fairly useless but formidable, and our Provincial Lady spends much of her time failing to work up the courage to address her about areas that need improvement, which reminded me of friends who work full time in demanding jobs yet are scared to confront their cleaner when they do a lousy job. Our protagonist has a busy mind, and although she accepts that household management is her responsibility it's not something she enjoys or wishes to prioritise when she can help it. She sends story offerings to her favourite publication Time and Tide, but at this stage this feels like a hobby also indulged in by many of her friends and acquaintances. She enjoys trips up to London and wishes to spend more of her time there, the country life being a little too dull, but despite governesses for her youngest child, boarding school for her oldest and a small household staff, money is always tight. Despite this, her spending is only occasionally curtailed, and she regularly gets indignant over the increasingly short patience of the bank over the state of her overdraft.
I am sure that every woman will acknowledge that choosing and creating one's own rich, elegant, and costly clothes is an extremely efficient cure for any worries about money.
In the second book, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, our narrator is shocked to have earned a book deal from her Time and Tide writing which considerably changes the financial circumstances of the family (echoing how Delafield found her way to publishing). Now a woman of independent means, she delights in spontaneously buying a flat up in London to support her need to spend regular time there for her work, when in reality the writing of the second book she's received an advance for is continually pushed to the end of her to do list as she's much too busy enjoying herself. Our protagonist has little ego or airs about her, and her regular disappointment in her appearance surely strikes a chord with so many modern females reading this book, despite the passage of time.
January 22nd - Robert startles me at breakfast by asking if my cold, which he has hitherto ignored - is better. I reply that it has gone. Then why, he asks, do I look like that? Feel that life is wholly unendurable, and decide madly to get a new hat.
In the third novel, The Provincial Lady goes on a promotional tour of America for her book and delights us with her mixed emotions on being away from her family for two months whilst having a whale of a time. Every telegram she receives she's convinced brings news of her children dying in some tragic accident, which of course never happens yet taps into the preposterous ideas that many of us mothers get into our heads when we have to leave our children for any considerable length of time. She attends the Chicago World Fair, delights that the English custom for tea seems to translate to cocktails in America, and insists on a trip to the Alcott house, which is her publisher's only concession on a whirlwind tour full of engagements. Despite her somewhat new rise to the fame, everyday worries continue to keep her feet planted firmly on the ground.
Write postcards, to Rose, the children, and Robert, and after some thought send one to Cook, although entirely uncertain as to whether this will gratify her or not. Am surprised, and rather disturbed, to find that wording of Cook's postcard takes more thought than that on all the others put together.
In the final book, The Provincial Lady in Wartime, our Provincial Lady chronicles her life up in London during the initial stage of WWII, dubbed the Phoney War. During this time she, along with all her friends and acquaintances, is keen to 'do her bit', yet there's so little happening she can't get anyone to take any interest in using her skills on a voluntary basis. It's an interesting (and of course amusing) account of a period I've not read about previously in WWII accounts, this desperation to call oneself to action and feeling the social and personal disappointment of not having any role of importance to undertake, and also waiting for the action to start which never seems to come. She eventually gets a position in 'the underworld' canteen beneath the Adelphi Theatre, where volunteers for the ambulance corps, etc. are occasionally training but more often than not hanging around waiting for something to happen.
I absolutely loved this series (which absolutely didn't need such a long review, but once I got started I couldn't stop myself). She's a funny and quirky writer, and it was an absolutely delight from start to finish. If you've enjoyed reads such as Mrs Bridge I can definitely recommend this.
Diary of a Provincial Lady - 4.5 stars
The Provincial Lady Goes Further - 4.5 stars
The Provincial Lady in America - 4.5 stars
The Provincial Lady in Wartime - 4 stars (the tightening of belts and loss of socialising during this early war period made this last book a little less entertaining).… (meer)
The Provincial Lady drags readers along with her dishonest reactions, tedious bank exchanges, secrets from annoying husband and
complaining dispassionate marriage...
...I gave up with husband drowning kittens...
complaining dispassionate marriage...
...I gave up with husband drowning kittens...
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I'd never heard of this English author before I stumbled upon this work of autobiographical fiction from 1930, originally published serially. While I could tell soon enough that this "diary" is indeed one of humor, it took a little while for me to get into the style and rhythm of the Provincial Lady's vignettes about her everyday life.
Once I got used to the style, the reading became funnier and funnier to me.
Even through my amusement, though, I would feel for the Lady during her awkward and discouraging moments. Her monetary troubles. Her worries about her looks and health and fashion. Her doubts about her motherhood and household capabilities.
I'd also feel touched at times when one experience or another of pleasure or kindness would make the Lady jot in her diary "Am touched." I found her brief accounts of actively playing with her two young children to be pretty adorable (even if it would once result in her hair and clothing being mussed in the sudden presence of unexpected guests), and so many of her sentiments jibed with me.
Like her figuring she'll think up a great answer/comeback to deliver on a subject—at some time after the conversation has long been over, and it'd be inappropriate by then to go spouting off her answer. While she's sitting in church or something. And her wondering how much she sacrifices the truth, not expressing what she really feels and thinks, for the sake of not rocking the social boat.
Now, one particular moment portends a war that she doesn't know is coming: when the Lady meets a lady who makes an offhand mention that something bad must be imminent concerning the Jewish people. Besides that, I couldn't help my little inward cringe at the one appearance of the outdated term for the Romani people. And some light reference to "Jamaica children" got an eye-roll from me, despite any non-malicious intent that may have been behind it.
There's also a lightly handled event that isn't too detailed but still cringey for animal lovers. Like the thought of what eventually happens to stray animals at certain animal pounds.
Even so, on the whole, this was an enjoyable old-fashioned read for me. I'm curious enough to go further into the series.… (meer)