The Thinking Reed
Rebecca West
1936
Around 430 pages
Rebecca West isn't widely read now, as evidenced by the librarian having to go into the basement to fetch the copy from storage for me. My copy had that really good old book smell, along with a loan slip stamped from the 1930s. I love libraries.
Isabelle is a wealthy widow in France with a slew of suitors. To general surprise, she chooses Marc Sallafranque, a short Jewish industrialist with a gambling problem. She thinks she can change him, and that goes about as well as expected.
I enjoyed this, and the well-aimed jabs at Henry James. West's Isabelle is very different from the protagonist of Portrait of a Lady. She seems much more real, even with her over the top behavior. West is also much funnier than James. I was smiling at her witty observations and the descriptions of Isabelle's other suitors. She did a great job capturing the way men can speak to women like they are children.
Jane Austen would have really enjoyed Rebecca West.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
West's real name is Cicily Fairfield. She took the pen name"Rebecca West" from the young heroine in Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen.
UP NEXT: Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley
1 comment:
I am going to have to check this one out!
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