Read for joy!

Three fun reading recommendations

I started this substack to write about Very Serious things, but I do read quite a lot of lighter fare. July was a month of upheaval around here. A good kind of upheaval, but that which, nonetheless, left me wanting to cozy up with something like a murder mystery rather than any literary heavy-weights.

Some of the books I read ended up being so memorable, so captivating that I felt I had to share them in case anyone's in reading rut and needs to liven things up a bit.

The Lark, E. Nesbit, 1922

Did you grow up on Edith Nesbit? (And if so, is she E. or Edith to you? She lives on as Edith in my brain.) I have many happy childhood memories of pulling the Paul O. Zelinsky illustrated editions of her books off the shelves at the public library and pouring over them. It wasn't until recently, though, that I discovered she wrote adult novels, The Lark being one of them.

Orphaned cousins, Lucilla and Jane, are expecting a large fortune left to them by a great-aunt when they come of age, but it soon comes to light that their financial trustee has mismanaged affairs and bled the money nearly dry on poor investments. With irrepressible optimism, the girls decide to treat the experience as “a lark” and embark on various money-making schemes including selling flowers and taking in paying guests. It is whimsical and a bit all over the place, and in a lesser writer's hands it might have become a twee narrative mess. But Nesbit somehow manages to give us a heartwarming, hilarious, and sunshiny book, one I wished would go on and on even as I came to the end.

Some favorite quotes:

“Bacon is an admirable brain tonic.”

“‘We have a vow in heaven,” said Jane, ‘not to close the shop till the accounts come right.’ 
‘And they never will, you know,’ said Lucilla in gentle desperation; ‘unless…’ she added, with a sudden ray of hope, ‘unless you can do sums?’ 
He could; he did. He brought the sundries to the irreducible minimum of elevenpence. He made the book look balanced, at any rate”

“‘I don't blame them for having nice things to eat,’ said Lucilla firmly. “I should do that myself. What I blame them for is not enjoying things. They have everything they want, everyday—and, of course, a peach is just a peach to them and not the fruit of Paradise.’”

The Diary of a Provincial Lady, E.M. Delafield, 1930

Truly the funniest thing I've read in ages. This has bumped its way onto my desert island book list, because who wouldn't need a laugh under those circumstances?

Our narrator, the Provincial Lady, recounts her day-to-day battles with such opponents as her daughter's intractable French governess, her dwindling bank account, and the odious Lady B. who never fails to flaunt her social superiority over the PL.

“Call from Lady Boxe, who says she is off to the South of France next week, as she Must have Sunshine. She asks Why do I not go there too, and likens a me to a piece of chewed string, which I feel to be entirely inappropriate and rather offensive figure of speech, though perhaps kindly meant. 
Why not just pop into the train, enquires Lady B., pop across France and pop into Blue Sky, Blue Sea, and Summer Sun? Could make perfectly comprehensible reply to this, but do not do so, question of expense having evidently not crossed Lady B.’s horizon. (Mem., Interesting subject for debate at Women's Institute, perhaps: That Imagination is incompatible with Inherited Wealth. On second thoughts, though, fear this has a socialistic trend.”

“Take entire family to children's party at neighbouring rectory. Robin says Damn three times, in the Rector's hearing, an expression used by him neither before nor since, but apparently reserved for this unsuitable occasion.”

The best. I cannot stop recommending it to everyone I meet.

Business as Usual, Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford, 1933

Business as Usual is a another charmer, but it's also a fascinating piece of social history depicting the life of a working girl in 1930s London. Hilary, our protagonist, is engaged to be married to Basil, a doctor in training. Instead of waiting around at home, she decides to spend the year of their engagement working in London. It's an epistolary novel, told from Hilary’s one-sided perspective in her witty letters and memos to her fiancé, family, and colleagues.

Hilary lands a job in the subscription lending library of a department store (free public libraries not being what they are today), so the reader gets to see the inner workings of a business model which doesn't exist anymore. And it’s great fun to watch our jaunty protagonist tackle trials (as with awkward exchanges with employees who are set in their ways—do things ever change?) and enjoy triumphs as she works her way up in the library.

The book does paint a realistic picture of the struggles faced by single women dependent on their own incomes, and Hilary is aware of the luxury she has of returning to the security of her parents home if working life doesn’t agree with her:

“I know I shan't spend my life this way. I won't. But the others, Miss Hopper and Miss Watts and Mildred Lamb, will. And they know it. It's the only way they can be safe; sure of a place to sleep in, food, and those tidy, monotonous clothes. But they pay so much more for that safety (in things that aren't money), than the basic two pounds ten a week.”¹

But this book isn't a downer. I promised fun and it is fun!

“Not a success, Basil, either of those interviews. I sat at the end of the first queue for an hour; then I was shown into a split-new office, where a beautiful and surprisingly cordial young man greeted me and offered a buoyant arm-chair. I sat into it, and he began to talk about Personality, Opportunity, and Ideals in Business. He went on for a long time, with suitable gesture, and I could neither get away nor bring him to the point. 
Eventually it proved to be Corsets. It was further conveyed to me that I was expected to put down thirty pounds—what with one thing and what with another—for the privilege of selling them. The serpent said it was nothing ‘compared to the profits.’”

“I was so overpowered by affluence that I slept in this morning and had to take a taxi to work. Which means dipping into the Emergency Fund. I've always distrusted sudden riches.’

I'd love to see this one made into a miniseries or tv show with Lucy Boynton as Hilary. It’d be a smash hit for sure.

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There you are! Three books to put a pep in your reading step. But don't you worry, I'll be back sooner or later dithering on with much gravitas.

1. Just so no one is blindsided, there is a brief instance of an unmarried employee who finds out she's pregnant and ultimately has an abortion. I found it odd as I read through reviews online to find someone celebrating the book as being pro-abortion. I didn’t actually think the scene begged a positive reading, but instead seemed to me to convey an indictment on a society that needs to do better in supporting women and their children. Is the choice between poverty and abortion a real choice at all? Here, indeed, is a woman paying “much more…in things that aren't money” for safety.