Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield 10 out of 10

 Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield

10 out of 10

 

 

Diary of a Provincial Lady is an exalting novel, fictional diary based on the life of the author, whose children, Lionel and Rosamund, have inspired the characters of Robin and Vicky – treated with kindness, but also with an impressive, X ray like manner and humor…when they show the normal indifference to the misfortune of others and a rather cruel disinterested towards Mademoiselle, their mother thinks of the appropriateness of writing a version of A High Wind in Jamaica and then when they receive the visit of the boy called Henry, she thinks that it is not proper to say parents always prefer and are partial towards their children, since she can see the superiority of the visitor when compared with her own members of the family…

 

 

The only ‘problem’ with this superb magnum opus was that one part of this reader was enthused and wanted to see what happens next and all the way to the end, while the prevailing side insisted on prolonging the infinite pleasure offered by this book – incidentally, you can find a fabulous – if missing (we can only hope some short bits) some portions – audiobook version, read with genteelness, talent and charm, on YouTube, where other classics are available – which sat in contrast with the rather sad, depressing and ultimately abandoned Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/11/dinner-at-homesick-restaurant-by-anne.html

Right from the title we have a sense of the modesty of the author and the principal character of the novel, the ‘Provincial Lady’, who is gifted, charming, devoted – even when she has to face some challenging moment, small crises created by the children and Henry, their guest, and she says that between her duty as a mother and the inopportune situation and the temptation to avoid the hassle, she allows Mademoiselle to deal with the complications – forced to cope with financial distress and other provocations, which upset her, but tries her best to balance, find the famous ‘golden mean’, which Aristotle declared to be the need to find the middle between two extremes…for instance, one has to avoid giving all possessions and thus rendering the family homeless and the opposite, being so mean as to offer no alms…the best is to use the golden mean…

 

The servants are a problem, one gives notice and when there is no way out, they have to hire a male employee – which was odd for the position, we are to understand – and furthermore, his name is Fitzsimmons, which sounds impossible for the heroine to use and when conferring with her husband, Robert, the latter suggest using the Christian name, Howard…nonetheless, the Lady only manages to say ‘Howard Fitzsimmons’ in his absence, with ironical, aerial inverted commas presumably and only address the man with ‘you’…the cook is another issue to confront the main character, posing the almost permanent threat of giving notice herself, forgetting the bananas in the fruit salad now, banging the gong when not suitable on another occasion and generally leading with the other to the conclusion that one is always afraid of the servants, albeit when talking to a neighbor that proclaims her complete harmony with them, our heroine says that she keeps hers chained in the cellar, when off duty…which is just one sample of her Limitless humor

 

Robert is not the worst husband one can have, but neither is he perfect, in that on more than one occasion he does not answer when his spouse is keen to get some reaction, has quite a few hurting, if amusing words to say on the matter of age – as when there is dancing and he says that is for the young and she asks what is the limit – there is the subject of tennis…when the Provincial Lady teams up with different partners and all of these lose – making her observe that there is perhaps a connection between her skill and their loss – and she talks about this with her husband, the latter offers only the observation that he does not know what other sport she can take…then there is the matter of the bulbs, which he does not take from the station, making our diarist state that men and women are different, males do not want to go to bed and she thinks of buying a gift with ‘do it now’, only to renounce when she anticipates that this would bring marital trouble…

Other intriguing, amusing, superb characters populate this phenomenal chef d’oeuvre, such as the wife of the vicar, who keeps saying she is in a hurry and will not stay, only for us to know half way into the book that whenever she is present, she will be for long after she declares her departure imminent…there is the quite pompous lady from the neighborhood, who will necessitate some shaking, our narrator declares when there is a party, but in her superior manner, the lady, who is the host, shows that she does not notice any of her guests and a shaking will at least make her see one of them at least.

 

Though erudite – if not familiar with Dostoyevsky in the same, perhaps exaggerated manner as one of the neighbors – the Provincial Lady is not one to manifest superiority, or the airs of some of the personages we meet…she takes on the suggestion to ‘touch up’ her hair with results that almost horrify her…thinks of the writers and how they find the time for their works, she appears to be busy all the time and money is a constant pressure, as they spend much more than they have, she has to see the bank manager and when he says he wants to see how her account stands, she thinks that the bank account does not stand, it actually wobbles.

This a genuine, endearing, exalting figure, concerned and again hilarious about the clash between the moral need to be sincere and the requirements of politeness – as in the invitation made by one other lady, who is serious about her visiting when there is something to see in the garden and the reply the heroine thinks of, which is along the lines of she would rather come when there is nothing to see in the garden and rest in the house, but she cannot be open about this…

 

In its striking simplicity, which makes for such serene, blissful reading, this book does not shy away from major questions and comments on morality, the Freudian implications of one aspect or the other, the fact that others compliment us on our children, but they surely think otherwise, the idea expressed by a poet that we would need to think us others see us…altogether, the Provincial Lady has mesmerizing, glorious things to say, from the memorable and most thoughtful, to the jokes she makes…when the lady in the vicinity expresses some admiration for Robert, our narrator says that he is in fact a combination of the Marquis De Sade, Doctor Crippen (a famous murderer) and Don Juan…she imagines the Queen coming to stay, just as the cook has some menial, dream shattering thing to say…when she is sick, the same pretentious, rich lady tells our heroine to call if there is anything she wants and our humorist muses is she could call and ask for…the pearls.