Do you ever find books that you love, but wish you had found years ago and be able to read for the first time when you were at a very different point in your life? That’s how I feel about Monica Dickens’ Mariana, which I had never even heard of until last year.
The story of a young English girl’s growth towards maturity in the 1930s. We see Mary at school in Kensington and on holiday in Somerset; her attempt at drama school; her year in Paris learning dressmaking and getting engaged to the wrong man; her time as a secretary and companion; and her romance with Sam. We chose this book because we wanted to publish a novel like Dusty Answer, I Capture the Castle or The Pursuit of Love, about a girl encountering life and love, which is also funny, readable and perceptive; it is a ‘hot-water bottle’ novel, one to curl up with on the sofa on a wet Sunday afternoon. (Persephone Books description)
Even having seen it compared with favourites like I Capture the Castle and The Pursuit of Love, I wasn’t quite prepared for how hilarious Mariana is. I was kept smiling throughout the book by lines like: “Ever since her husband had forgotten her at a wedding and taken the car home without her, she was always expecting to be forgotten, even by people who could not conceivably have had too much champagne” (P. 27). Mary Shannon, though in no way particularly special or remarkable herself, is a great criticizer of those around her, making for both intentional and unintentional humour, as we are exposed to her opinions on schoolmates, acquaintances and family members.
The plot is comfortable, rather than remarkable, the normal coming-of-age set up. Idyllic childhoods spent running around unchaperoned in the country, awful school days, misguided (but oh so amusing) aspirations to become an actress, fantastically glamourous and romantic days in Paris (and a love interest to suit) before finally settling down to a somewhat normal life in London and, of course, the introduction of the Ideal Man (who is lovely and wonderful and everything that the Ideal Man should be, even able to overcome being named Samson).
As much as I enjoyed this book now, I needed this book at thirteen or fourteen. Like most girls who read too much, I was far too inclined to take myself seriously and to take the world around me seriously as well (very dangerous and far too reminiscent of Elizabeth Taylor’s Angel). I read too many books that were of this same type but without the humour that elevates it and makes it worth reading. Eventually, I found the right books, but there were a few rather embarrassing years there, filled with affectation and precociousness. I internalized most of these feelings (knowing, as I did, that no one around me had sufficient understanding to grasp the depth of my emotions and thoughts, so extraordinary were they) and have only terribly, terribly awful diary entries and poetry to remember them by – the worst of which were burned, the rest kept to laugh at. As much as I know that it was a necessary step in my development, both as a reader and as an adult, there are times I wish I could go back and shake some sense into my silly little self, pointing her in the right direction with books like this one.
Nice review, thanks. I’ve come to Persephone books much later than the rest of the blogosphere, but I’ve had my eye on this one.
I know exactly what you mean about wishing you’d read a book at an earlier point of your life. I wish I had spent less time thinking I was Sylvia Plath when I was a teenager, and more time wearing rather less eyeliner… 🙂
This was the first Persephone book I’ve read, I also having discovered them late. That said, there are many on my TBR list!
Oh Sylvia Plath…The Bell Jar is a very dangerous books for girls of a certain age.
It is, it is, although I do think it’s a very good book. I also think she’s a very good poet, rather unfairly maligned as “depressing”. Sadly, when I was 16, I just thought she was, *like* soooooooo deep.
I felt exactly like you about Mariana. I wish I had read it as a teenager. I really loved this book although this one seems to have divided a lot of Persephone book lovers.
First time on your blog! Welcome to the world of book blogging!
Thanks for the welcome! Since I don’t know many people who have read Mariana(never mind who share my wish that I’d read it earlier), I’m delighted to hear from you. As for the divide among Persephone readers…what fun would there be if we all liked exactly the same books? None at all, at least not in the book blogging community.
Simon from Stuck in a book has just highlighted your blog to me, and I think I’m going to enjoy it! Mariana is the ONLY Monica Dickens that I haven’t read, despite having two copies, as I can’t bear to read the last Monica Dickens for the first time. I am a big Persephone fan as you will see from my blog. Looking forward to reading future posts!
Mariana was my first Persephone book and I’m excited to explore more of them (I just started reading The Making of a Marchioness this morning). Glad that you like the blog and hope to see you are in the future!
I also found your blog through Simon. A pleasure to see another book blogger with the same name (you and I and Paperback Reader). 🙂
I am also loving your blog. And, like you, wish I had read Mariana when I was younger. I read it last year and, sadly, did not connect with it very much. It was fun while it lasted, but I didn’t feel like it enriched my reading experience or anything. I did love Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary. Looking forward to reading more Persephones.
Still haven’t read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day or Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary, but am looking forward to both! The only Persephones I’ve read so far have been Mariana and The Making of a Marchioness (not a favourite) but I have many on my Wish List.
I’ve read Miss Pettigrew. I liked it well enough but it was a bit simplistic for me. Warm, but not memorable. It’s a quick read though and provides some insight into the ongoing class struggles in the UK (now complicated by pluralism/multiculturalism).
I’m not sure whether I’ve read this or not – I have a feeling I did – but I do remember, a long time ago, reading and loving her memoirs One pair of hands, and One pair of feet.
If you enjoyed her other works, I’d absolutely recommend trying this one!
I loved the quote. I will have to look out for this one in the library!
I know just what you mean about this being a book that teenage girls would enjoy… and I don’t mean that to disparage the book, but it just captures that region of the mind that only a 15 year old girl knows so well… I think that the comparisons with I Capture the Castle are quite fair – in particular in connection with the Mary/Denys story line.
Lovely review, thanks for sharing
Hannah
I agree about books at the right time. The summer I was thirteen I read Rumer Godden’s “The Greengage Summer”. It was a typically hot, dry marcrocarpa-scented New Zealand summer and I read it at least four times. I had to leave it for at least two years before I picked it up again and have never had the courage to get past Chapter Two in case the magic is gone and I ruin everything it meant to me.
Weirdly, I can pick up and dip into “I Capture the Castle” (which I read the following winter) at any time and smile, and yet I found it a far more uncomfortable book to read. I remember Rose being so close in age and yet so willing to calmly manipulate Simon made me feel quite squeamish.
That was also the year I discovered Mary Stewart…aah, women writers. Where would we be without them?
Great review! I adored I Capture the Castle as a child, so this might be up my alley!