Sheila Kaye-Smith (1887–1956)
Auteur van Joanna Godden
Over de Auteur
Werken van Sheila Kaye-Smith
Iron and smoke 3 exemplaren
The happy tree 3 exemplaren
Isle of Thorns 3 exemplaren
The mirror of the months 2 exemplaren
Anglo-Catholicism 2 exemplaren
Mrs. Gailey 2 exemplaren
The hidden son 1 exemplaar
The treasures of the snow 1 exemplaar
A Day in a Woman's Life 1 exemplaar
Selina is older 1 exemplaar
Thomas Shetter 1 exemplaar
The ploughman's progress 1 exemplaar
A wedding morn : a story 1 exemplaar
Summer holiday 1 exemplaar
Three Ways Home 1 exemplaar
Soumrak rodu Alardů 1 exemplaar
Železo a dým 1 exemplaar
Joanna golden 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
Angel of the Delta / Vessel of Clay / Speck, the Altar Boy / Cornelia Connelly (1959) — Auteur — 3 exemplaren
Our Lady of Beauraing; Father Malachy's Miracle; Padre Ignacio; Quartet in Heaven (1958) — Medewerker — 3 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Kaye-Smith, Emily Sheila
- Geboortedatum
- 1887-02-04
- Overlijdensdatum
- 1956-01-14
- Graflocatie
- St Teresa of Lisieux, Northiam, Sussex, England, UK
- Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- UK
- Geboorteplaats
- St Leonards -on-Sea, Sussex, England, UK
- Plaats van overlijden
- Northiam, Sussex, England, UK
- Woonplaatsen
- St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England, UK
London, England, UK
Northiam, Sussex, England, UK - Beroepen
- novelist
short-story writer
autobiographer
poet - Relaties
- Kaye, M.M. (relative)
Stern, G.B. (co-author) - Korte biografie
- Sheila Kaye-Smith was born in St. Leonard’s-on-Sea, Sussex, England, the daughter of a country doctor. She made her publishing debut at age 21 in 1908 with the novel The Tramping Methodist. Other novels and collections of short stories and poetry followed, including Sussex Gorse: The Story of a Fight (1916), her first critical success, Joanna Godden (1921), and The End of the House of Alard (1954). Many of her works are set in rural West Kent and East Sussex. In 1924, she married Theodore Penrose Fry, an Anglican clergyman, and five years later they both converted to the Roman Catholic faith. She published more than 40 books in her career, including three volumes of autobiography, two biographical studies (with G.B. Stern) of Jane Austen, and several other works of nonfiction.
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Besprekingen
When I read warm words about Sheila Kaye-Smith’s Joanna Godden I remembered how warmly I felt about that book too; and I thought that it really was time I read another of Sheila Kaye-Smith’s novels. I’ve read a couple but I still had a lots to choose from, because I had been lucky enough to pick up what must have once been somebody’s prized collection in a book sale a few years ago.
I hoped that I might find a book from one of those tricky earliest years of the twentieth century for my 100 Years of Books project – and I did!
I was a little wary, because the plain little hardback book that I picked up was a very obscure early work ; but when I began to read I was quickly caught up with the story and the characters, and so I had to turn the pages quickly to find out what would happen.
This is the story of Miles Starbrace; the son of a gentleman and a serving maid who died when her son was so young that he has no memories of her. His father, Gerald, had done the honourable thing, telling his his father that he was going stand by the woman that he loved, and that he would support their child. His father disowned him and Gerald fell a long way, because he had no aptitude for letters or numbers and so he struggled to find the employment that he needed to support his wife and son.
In the end he found employment as a shepherd, and he was not unhappy to be doing honest work in the countryside, but he did struggle with poverty and with his motherless son. Gerald’s greatest hope was that Miles would rise in the world, and regain everything that his father had lost; and so he did his best to educate the boy, to instill good manners, and to make sure that he spoke well. Miles wasn’t much interested in all of that. He knew little of his father’s past, but he loved the world around him; and, because he was free to do as he liked for many of the long hours when his father was with his flock, he grew into a wild and headstrong young man.
Horses were Miles’ greatest love; and the greatest day of his life was the day when he had been given a horse so that he could join the hunt, and when he had been able to come to the aid of the squire’s lovely daughter, Theodora, who he had always admired from afar. They had made their way home together, and they had an encountered a man who she told him was quite disreputable, and his French lady love, along the way.
When Gerald fell ill Miles did his best to cope, but his father knew that their future was bleak. He swallowed his pride and, for the sake of his son, he asked his father for assistance. Sir John Starbrace agreed, but his help came at a price. He told his son that he would take in Miles and educate him, but that Gerald must retire to the continent for a few years to contemplate the error of his ways.
Miles hated the plan but his father convinced him that they had no choice; and the prospect of having a horse of his own and being near to the house where Theodora was staying with an aunt led him to accept the plan.
It was a disaster. The conventional and unsympathetic clergyman charged with Miles’ education tried to break his spirit; but Miles would not compromise and his spirit would not be broken. His love for his horse and that his new position allowed him to visit Theodora held him for a while, but one day he lashed out at his tutor. He thought that he had killed him, and so he mounted his horse and rode away.
Eventually they had to stop, and when they did Miles saw a familiar face. Michael Daunt, the man he had encountered on that wonderful day with Theodora, recognised him and he told him that the chaplain had died and that he must leave his old life behind. It wasn’t true but it allowed him to draw the young man into his band of highway robbers.
Theodora tried to reach Miles and to help him, but she couldn’t save him. He was arrested and only his grandfather’s influence prevents him from going to the scaffold. That finally broke his spirit, and then he and his horse were doomed ….
The story kept me turning the pages, but I have to say that this is the work of an author who has not fully mastered her craft.
The plot is well constructed but it needed a bigger book to stretch out and develop properly; the influence of books she must have read as a young woman is all too clear; and the drawing of the characters and their relationships needed more subtlety and sophistication.
There was much to appreciate. The relationship between Miles and Gerald was complex and interesting. I loved Theodora – an intelligent young woman who was willing to bend the rules of society and had the wisdom not to break them – and could have happily spent much more time with her. But there wasn’t enough.
The book is well written, the evocation of the Sussex countryside is lovely, and the mood of the story is exactly what it should be. I think that there is more than enough here for early readers to see promise and wonder what Sheila Kaye-Smith might go on to write.
She expressed what I want to say perfectly in the introduction to a later edition of this book:
‘Starbrace is the work of a young girl, whose experience of life was small though her appetite for it was immense.’… (meer)
I hoped that I might find a book from one of those tricky earliest years of the twentieth century for my 100 Years of Books project – and I did!
I was a little wary, because the plain little hardback book that I picked up was a very obscure early work ; but when I began to read I was quickly caught up with the story and the characters, and so I had to turn the pages quickly to find out what would happen.
This is the story of Miles Starbrace; the son of a gentleman and a serving maid who died when her son was so young that he has no memories of her. His father, Gerald, had done the honourable thing, telling his his father that he was going stand by the woman that he loved, and that he would support their child. His father disowned him and Gerald fell a long way, because he had no aptitude for letters or numbers and so he struggled to find the employment that he needed to support his wife and son.
In the end he found employment as a shepherd, and he was not unhappy to be doing honest work in the countryside, but he did struggle with poverty and with his motherless son. Gerald’s greatest hope was that Miles would rise in the world, and regain everything that his father had lost; and so he did his best to educate the boy, to instill good manners, and to make sure that he spoke well. Miles wasn’t much interested in all of that. He knew little of his father’s past, but he loved the world around him; and, because he was free to do as he liked for many of the long hours when his father was with his flock, he grew into a wild and headstrong young man.
Horses were Miles’ greatest love; and the greatest day of his life was the day when he had been given a horse so that he could join the hunt, and when he had been able to come to the aid of the squire’s lovely daughter, Theodora, who he had always admired from afar. They had made their way home together, and they had an encountered a man who she told him was quite disreputable, and his French lady love, along the way.
When Gerald fell ill Miles did his best to cope, but his father knew that their future was bleak. He swallowed his pride and, for the sake of his son, he asked his father for assistance. Sir John Starbrace agreed, but his help came at a price. He told his son that he would take in Miles and educate him, but that Gerald must retire to the continent for a few years to contemplate the error of his ways.
Miles hated the plan but his father convinced him that they had no choice; and the prospect of having a horse of his own and being near to the house where Theodora was staying with an aunt led him to accept the plan.
It was a disaster. The conventional and unsympathetic clergyman charged with Miles’ education tried to break his spirit; but Miles would not compromise and his spirit would not be broken. His love for his horse and that his new position allowed him to visit Theodora held him for a while, but one day he lashed out at his tutor. He thought that he had killed him, and so he mounted his horse and rode away.
Eventually they had to stop, and when they did Miles saw a familiar face. Michael Daunt, the man he had encountered on that wonderful day with Theodora, recognised him and he told him that the chaplain had died and that he must leave his old life behind. It wasn’t true but it allowed him to draw the young man into his band of highway robbers.
Theodora tried to reach Miles and to help him, but she couldn’t save him. He was arrested and only his grandfather’s influence prevents him from going to the scaffold. That finally broke his spirit, and then he and his horse were doomed ….
The story kept me turning the pages, but I have to say that this is the work of an author who has not fully mastered her craft.
The plot is well constructed but it needed a bigger book to stretch out and develop properly; the influence of books she must have read as a young woman is all too clear; and the drawing of the characters and their relationships needed more subtlety and sophistication.
There was much to appreciate. The relationship between Miles and Gerald was complex and interesting. I loved Theodora – an intelligent young woman who was willing to bend the rules of society and had the wisdom not to break them – and could have happily spent much more time with her. But there wasn’t enough.
The book is well written, the evocation of the Sussex countryside is lovely, and the mood of the story is exactly what it should be. I think that there is more than enough here for early readers to see promise and wonder what Sheila Kaye-Smith might go on to write.
She expressed what I want to say perfectly in the introduction to a later edition of this book:
‘Starbrace is the work of a young girl, whose experience of life was small though her appetite for it was immense.’… (meer)
I’ve been wanting to read more of Sheila Kaye-Smith’s work for ages, but because I had a huge choice, after finding what must have once been somebody’s prized collection in a book sale, I wasted far too much time picking books up and down, not quite able to decide which one to read first.
In the end, a beloved author made my mind up for me.
“Have been reading in the half hour before I go to sleep ‘The End of the House of Alard’. Sheila Kaye-Smith is a favorite of mine. She reminds me of George Eliot. But her work is tinged – I had almost said tainted – with the pessimism of most present day writers of power. They reflect their age. It is hard to be hopeful today when one looks at the weltering world.”
(From the journal of Lucy Maud Montgomery, November 22, 1923)
I tend to agree. The comparison is a little flattering, of course it is, but it goes some way to balancing out the unfairness of Sheila Kaye-Smith being bracketed with many lesser rural novelists of the same period. She was a countrywoman, and that shows in her books, but she does much, much more than tell tales of country folk.
The Alard family could trace their ancestors back to medieval times, but their fortunes were fading. Lord and Lady Alard lived in their grand house, refusing to recognise that the world had changes, and believing that if only their children would make good marriage fortune would favour them and things would – things must – continue as they always had.
There were three sons and three daughters.
Peter became heir when his brother was killed in the was, and found himself caught between marrying for love and marrying for the money he knew the estate desperately needed; George had followed one of the classic paths for a second son, joining the priesthood and settling into the family living; Gervase, the youngest brother believed that the world was changing, decided that he must break with tradition and follow his own calling, even though he knew his family would disapprove …
Doris, the eldest daughter, had never married, telling herself that her parents needed her at home, and becoming set in her – and their – ways; Mary had married but she was unhappy, wanting to leave her husband but aware of the consequences and the social disgrace would follow; and Jenny was young and headstrong, she wasn’t going to make the same mistakes her sisters made, she was going to follow her heart …
The story moves back and forth between them all, touching on so many themes: family, love, duty, tradition, society, change, faith. There is much about faith – as there is in most if not all of Sheila Kaye-Smiths’s books – thoughtfully woven onto the story, a natural part of many of her characters lives. Details of lives lived on a country estate are woven in as naturally. I never for one moment doubted that the author knew – and believed – everything that she wrote about.
The story touches on Judaism as well as Christianity. Peter’s bride, Vera, is Jewish and it is mentioned often – Sheila Kaye-Smith writes beautifully, and she can be wonderfully subtle, but occasionally she labours a point. It is to her great credit though that Vera takes a great pride in her Jewishness, seeing it as something that makes her special, and that is never questioned. There were a few small details that made me suspect that her character was inspired by the author’s friend and sometime co-writer, G B Stern.
Above all this is a story of characters and relationships. Each and every character is beautifully drawn, complex and fully realised; the multitude of different relationships between them are caught perfectly too. They all lived and breathed, but it was in the dialogues that they were most alive. I remember Jenny, stridently making her case for doing just what she wanted to do; Gervase and George talking about faith; Mary quietly explaining why she couldn’t bear to go on with her husband ….
I was captivated. but I have to acknowledge there was something missing. A little more variation, maybe some outside influence – the story seemed to be set in a very closed world – might have made this a great book instead of a very good one. And it maybe needed to be a bigger book set over a rather longer period to allow the characters their stories to shine as brightly as they might.
The characters in the foreground needed to come forward a little. I loved Stella and how she coped when Peter made her decision, and her father who did his best to support her, even though he didn’t quite undestand. Their was as lovely, and believable, a father-daughter realtionship as I can ever remember reading. And the characters who were a little further back deserved more space. At first George seemed uninteresting, but when he spoke about faith, when he was called on as a priest, he came to life and I wished that I could have known him a little better.
This is one of those maddening books that I loved, but at the same time I wished I could have loved it even more. It was a very good book that might have been a great book. And the great book it might have been would made that comparison with Middlemarch entirely right.
And there’s just one more thing I must take issue with: the title. The fact the this was ‘The End of the House of Alard’ made the outcome of certain events rather predictable, and sorrow rather inevitable. The ending veered dangerously close to melodrama, but it was saved by the reactions of those left to cope and carry on.… (meer)
In the end, a beloved author made my mind up for me.
“Have been reading in the half hour before I go to sleep ‘The End of the House of Alard’. Sheila Kaye-Smith is a favorite of mine. She reminds me of George Eliot. But her work is tinged – I had almost said tainted – with the pessimism of most present day writers of power. They reflect their age. It is hard to be hopeful today when one looks at the weltering world.”
(From the journal of Lucy Maud Montgomery, November 22, 1923)
I tend to agree. The comparison is a little flattering, of course it is, but it goes some way to balancing out the unfairness of Sheila Kaye-Smith being bracketed with many lesser rural novelists of the same period. She was a countrywoman, and that shows in her books, but she does much, much more than tell tales of country folk.
The Alard family could trace their ancestors back to medieval times, but their fortunes were fading. Lord and Lady Alard lived in their grand house, refusing to recognise that the world had changes, and believing that if only their children would make good marriage fortune would favour them and things would – things must – continue as they always had.
There were three sons and three daughters.
Peter became heir when his brother was killed in the was, and found himself caught between marrying for love and marrying for the money he knew the estate desperately needed; George had followed one of the classic paths for a second son, joining the priesthood and settling into the family living; Gervase, the youngest brother believed that the world was changing, decided that he must break with tradition and follow his own calling, even though he knew his family would disapprove …
Doris, the eldest daughter, had never married, telling herself that her parents needed her at home, and becoming set in her – and their – ways; Mary had married but she was unhappy, wanting to leave her husband but aware of the consequences and the social disgrace would follow; and Jenny was young and headstrong, she wasn’t going to make the same mistakes her sisters made, she was going to follow her heart …
The story moves back and forth between them all, touching on so many themes: family, love, duty, tradition, society, change, faith. There is much about faith – as there is in most if not all of Sheila Kaye-Smiths’s books – thoughtfully woven onto the story, a natural part of many of her characters lives. Details of lives lived on a country estate are woven in as naturally. I never for one moment doubted that the author knew – and believed – everything that she wrote about.
The story touches on Judaism as well as Christianity. Peter’s bride, Vera, is Jewish and it is mentioned often – Sheila Kaye-Smith writes beautifully, and she can be wonderfully subtle, but occasionally she labours a point. It is to her great credit though that Vera takes a great pride in her Jewishness, seeing it as something that makes her special, and that is never questioned. There were a few small details that made me suspect that her character was inspired by the author’s friend and sometime co-writer, G B Stern.
Above all this is a story of characters and relationships. Each and every character is beautifully drawn, complex and fully realised; the multitude of different relationships between them are caught perfectly too. They all lived and breathed, but it was in the dialogues that they were most alive. I remember Jenny, stridently making her case for doing just what she wanted to do; Gervase and George talking about faith; Mary quietly explaining why she couldn’t bear to go on with her husband ….
I was captivated. but I have to acknowledge there was something missing. A little more variation, maybe some outside influence – the story seemed to be set in a very closed world – might have made this a great book instead of a very good one. And it maybe needed to be a bigger book set over a rather longer period to allow the characters their stories to shine as brightly as they might.
The characters in the foreground needed to come forward a little. I loved Stella and how she coped when Peter made her decision, and her father who did his best to support her, even though he didn’t quite undestand. Their was as lovely, and believable, a father-daughter realtionship as I can ever remember reading. And the characters who were a little further back deserved more space. At first George seemed uninteresting, but when he spoke about faith, when he was called on as a priest, he came to life and I wished that I could have known him a little better.
This is one of those maddening books that I loved, but at the same time I wished I could have loved it even more. It was a very good book that might have been a great book. And the great book it might have been would made that comparison with Middlemarch entirely right.
And there’s just one more thing I must take issue with: the title. The fact the this was ‘The End of the House of Alard’ made the outcome of certain events rather predictable, and sorrow rather inevitable. The ending veered dangerously close to melodrama, but it was saved by the reactions of those left to cope and carry on.… (meer)
3 
BeyondEdenRock | 1 andere bespreking | Oct 24, 2013 |
BeyondEdenRock | 1 andere bespreking | Oct 24, 2013 | The House of Alard could trace its ancestors back to medieval times but now only a scion of the family remains, living in genteel poverty in Sussex. The children are expected to make 'good' marriages to rescue the estate which is mortgaged to the hilt and to placate their irascible old father. Doris has turned down her only suitor who was 'beneath' her and is now an old maid...Peter has returned from the War set on marrying his beloved-but poor- Stella, but will he go against his father's wishes and do it? And then there's headstrong Jenny, and Mary caught up in an unhappy marriage. Finally the youngest, Gervase, has refused to go to Oxford, in order to pursue engineering, to everyone's disapproval. And he is becoming very drawn to the Catholic church...
Quite a readable book in which religion features quite significantly as Stella introduces Gervase to Catholicism (the author herself was a convert).… (meer)
Quite a readable book in which religion features quite significantly as Stella introduces Gervase to Catholicism (the author herself was a convert).… (meer)
1 starbox | 1 andere bespreking | Oct 25, 2012 |
starbox | 1 andere bespreking | Oct 25, 2012 | Lijsten
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- Werken
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- 549
- Populariteit
- #45,447
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Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern write whimsical and interesting essays on various aspects of Jane Austen's novels.
In this second volume, they tackle family life, letter-writing, questions of health, characters with no speaking parts, and other subjects.
They even dally with writing brief scenes for some of the novels seven years after "the end." It's all very charming and enjoyable, and much more satisfying than the current rage for fan-fiction and the Hollywoodization of Jane Austen.
Fun stuff!… (meer)