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Mrs. Day's Daughters
It was three o’clock in the morning when the guests danced Sir Roger de Coverley at Mrs. William Day’s New Year’s party. They would as soon have thought of having supper without trifle, tipsy-cake, and syllabub, in those days, as of finishing the evening without Sir Roger.
218 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
About the author
Mary E. Mann
58 books2 followersMary Elizabeth Mann, née Rackham, (14 August 1848 – 19 May 1929) was a celebrated English novelist in the 1890s and early 1900s.
She also wrote short stories, primarily on themes of poverty and rural English life. As an author she was commonly known as Mary E. Mann.
She also wrote short stories, primarily on themes of poverty and rural English life. As an author she was commonly known as Mary E. Mann.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 14, 2015
The relatively prosperous Mrs. Day and her four children are suddenly left facing abject poverty when their father is convicted of fraud and commits suicide rather than face prison in this modest, fairly drab yet surprisingly unsentimental drama.
Mrs. Day's two daughters are chalk and cheese. The elder, Bessie, is plump and pretty but desperately lazy and self-centered. The slightly younger Deleah is petite and pretty, as hardworking and kindhearted as she is lovely.
Their fortunes are supposedly rescued by George Boult, a friend of their father's who organizes a collection for them and buys them a shop, only to exploit them and bully the once proud Mrs. Day. Bessie vainly cultivates two suitors - an increasingly pushy lodger called Mr. Gibbon and a feckless young heir to a brewery, Reggie Forcus - but both men are really interested in Deleah. Nor are they the only two.
The website literarynorfolk.co.uk likens Mary E Mann to Thomas Hardy. Not on this evidence. That's a comparison to flatter any novelist of the time though, so it's no surprise nor disgrace that she falls well short of the mark.
The story is weak,the prose humdrum, but it does do a good job of presenting just how vulnerable women could be back then when men were accustomed to behaving how they pleased, free to pester and pursue beyond toleration.
Mrs. Day's two daughters are chalk and cheese. The elder, Bessie, is plump and pretty but desperately lazy and self-centered. The slightly younger Deleah is petite and pretty, as hardworking and kindhearted as she is lovely.
Their fortunes are supposedly rescued by George Boult, a friend of their father's who organizes a collection for them and buys them a shop, only to exploit them and bully the once proud Mrs. Day. Bessie vainly cultivates two suitors - an increasingly pushy lodger called Mr. Gibbon and a feckless young heir to a brewery, Reggie Forcus - but both men are really interested in Deleah. Nor are they the only two.
The website literarynorfolk.co.uk likens Mary E Mann to Thomas Hardy. Not on this evidence. That's a comparison to flatter any novelist of the time though, so it's no surprise nor disgrace that she falls well short of the mark.
The story is weak,the prose humdrum, but it does do a good job of presenting just how vulnerable women could be back then when men were accustomed to behaving how they pleased, free to pester and pursue beyond toleration.
December 31, 2014
Vintage fiction. Not as melodramatic as most.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews