The Misses Mallett: The Bridge Dividing

by E.H. Young

She sat there, vividly conscious of herself, and sometimes she saw the whole room as a picture and she was part of it; sometimes she saw only those three whose lives, she felt, were practically over, for even Aunt Rose was comparatively old. She pitied them because their romance was past, while hers waited for her outside; she wondered at their happiness, their interest in their appearance, their pleasure in parties; but she felt most sorry for Aunt Rose, midway between what should have been the resignation of her stepsisters and the glowing anticipation of her niece.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, British Literature, Relationships, Historical Fiction, Romance, 20th Century

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Born Emily Hilda Young.

Although almost completely forgotten by recent generations, E. H. Young was a best-selling novelist of her time. She was born the daughter of a shipbroker and attended Gateshead Secondary School (a higher grade school later renamed Gateshead Grammar School) and Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, Wales. In 1902, at the age of 22, she married Arthur Daniell, a solicitor from Bristol, and moved with him to the upscale neighbourhood of Clifton.

Here, Young developed an interest in classical and modern philosophy. She became a supporter of the suffragette movement, and started publishing novels. She also began a lifelong affair with Ralph Henderson, a schoolteacher and a friend of her husband.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Young went to work, first as a stables groom and then in a munitions factory. Her husband was killed at the Battle of Ypres in 1917. The following year she moved to Sydenham Hill, London to join her lover, now the headmaster of the public school Alleyn's, and his wife in a ménage à trois. Young occupied a separate flat in their house and was addressed as 'Mrs Daniell'; this concealed the unconventional arrangement.

This change seems to have been the catalyst that she needed. Seven major novels followed, all based on Clifton, thinly disguised as 'Upper Radstowe'. The first of these was The Misses Mallett, published originally under the title The Bridge Dividing in 1922. Her 1930 novel Miss Mole won the James Tait Black Award for fiction. In the 1940s, Young also wrote books for children, Caravan Island (1940) and River Holiday (1942).

After Henderson's retirement and the death of his wife, Young moved with him to Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire. They never married. During the Second World War, she worked actively in air raid precautions. She lived in Wiltshire with Henderson until her death from lung cancer in 1949.

Although popular in her time, Young's work has nearly vanished today. In 1980, a four-part series based on her novels – mainly Miss Mole – was shown on BBC television as "Hannah". The feminist publishing house Virago reprinted several of her books in the 1980s, and the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society has marked her Clifton home with a plaque.

The 'E H Young Prize for Greek Thought' was an annual essay prize awarded in her memory at Bristol Grammar School.
(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[JimZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m moving through the oeuvre of E. H. Young...this is my fourth read of hers, the others being Miss Mole (1930) which I liked the best (5 stars), and still like the best, then William (1925; 2.5 stars), then Jenny Wren (1932; 3.5 stars), then the Curate’s Wife (1934; 2.5 stars). This was written before all of them (1922), and overall, I liked it. The ending of the 256-page book came within the last two pages, so it was rather sudden. I predicted one thing would happen and guessed that, but was surprised by the other thing. Somewhat of a head scratcher.

This book came before Jenny Wren and two themes of this book were resurrected again in Jenny Wren. 1. In this book, Reginald who is Henrietta’s father and the brother of Caroline and Sophia, marries a commoner who is kind but, God forbid, ‘has an accent and makes grammatical mistakes’ which angers Reginald. In Jenny Wren, Jenny and Dahlia’s father marries a commoner, Louisa, and he is embarrassed by the way his wife talks. 2. In this novel, one of the sisters, Rose, who is one of the major protagonists in the novel, in the end marries a man she used to be in love with but is no longer in love with, because it is the right thing to do. In ‘Jenny Wren’, the mother, Louisa, marries a farmer who she once had an affair with but no longer loves, because by doing so (marrying him), it might prevent Jenny from making a mistake in marrying somebody who is no good for her. I did not like the two young women in ‘Jenny Wren’ but I was not too put off by them — they just had a lot of growing up to do. And the young Henrietta in this novel was so wrapped up in herself that it was hard to like her (in the beginning of the novel I did like her and then as I got to know her, I grew to dislike her).

Some of the writing in this novel was humorous.

I liked the structure of the book — it consisted of three parts, the first part was mainly about Rose, the youngest of three sisters (Caroline and Sophia being the two older sisters) who lived with each other (they were well off and lived in a house with a maid, and had inherited a boatload of money from their mother and father) and her relationship with a neighbor, Francis Sales and his ill bedridden wife Christabel. The second part was mainly about Henrietta whose mother and father had died, and who came to live with her aunts. The third part was about Rose and Henrietta and the whole kit-and-caboodle, including Francis who was attracted to Henrietta given that Rose was no longer interested in him and Charles Batty who was a young man who had absolutely no social skills and was besotted by Henrietta. Lots of names I am throwing out, but it wasn’t hard to follow the plot at all in the novel.

One interesting element throughout all 3 parts was Christabel — she would not have had a horrific accident with a horse she was riding on if Rose had only opened up her pie hole and warned everybody that Christabel was too inexperienced to ride the horse, but Rose did not warn anybody, and Christabel indeed had a horrific accident and ended up bedridden for the rest of her life in chronic pain. Christabel came to realize after she was bedridden that Rose could have warned her, and also realized that her husband had a thing for Rose. Hmmm... 🤨 I felt sorry for Christabel, but I also didn’t entirely blame Rose either. It’s not like she was wishing for the accident to happen. 😐

Reviews:
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[Mary Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.

Caroline, Sophia and Rose are faded beauties living in Radstowe.
Jolly spinsters where beauty has faded and loves lost!
Along comes their niece Henrietta.
She encounters Francis who has loved Rose from childhood but is now married to a crippled wife .
Then there is Charles Batty who loves Henrietta.
Who will win her love?
All set among beautiful countryside.
Wonderful descriptive writing.
Originally called The Bridge Divided.
A twentieth century Jane Austen!

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★

I'd heard good things about E.H. Young & wanted to read one of her books for quite some time. This one came up as a group read in Women's Classic Literature Enthusiasts and did not disappoint.

Older unmarried sisters Sophia & Caroline live with their half sister Rose in a small village. The older two are content with their lot. They are comfortably off & enjoy their high social standing. Rose is more dissatisfied. She declines a marriage offer from an eligible but self centred man, but is a little piqued when he marries someone else.

Then the Malletts' niece Henrietta comes into their lives.

Henrietta's ne'er do well father married below his social station (but above him in character) After Henrietta's mother dies, the elder aunts invite Henrietta to live with them. Henrietta is not a pliant personality & her vivacity attracts two very different men.

This book is beautifully written and contains many quotable quotes.

You stay with me all the time: you always will. You're like music, always in my head, but you're more than that. You go deeper: I suppose into my heart. Sometimes I think I'm carrying you in my arms. I can't see you but I can feel you're there, and sometimes I laugh because I think you're laughing.

I'm still thinking about the ending. It was a happy ending for one Miss Mallett, but I confess I was disappointed in it for another.

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. it's set in Clifton, Bristol (re-named Radstowe), between the wars. I thought the writing was almost poetic in places and the characters were very well drawn, Caroline and Charles were my favourites (the aunts reminded me of my Great Aunts). It's about the relationships between the Sisters and missed opportunities. I'll be reading more of her books.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, I put aside a library book by a contemporary author to pick up an E.H. Young book that I was pretty sure would satisfy me. I wasn't wrong, and happily fell into a book about the 4 Misses Mallett. The two oldest sisters are confirmed spinsters, 30 year old Rose is well on her way, despite being beautiful and loved by a wealthy farmer, and 21 year old niece Henrietta comes to stay with them after being orphaned. "We Mallett women never marry" is the boast, but it seems both Rose and Henrietta may disregard that advice.

Young is a very witty writer who knew how to complicate her character's lives, and was able to create a world that put the reader right in the middle of it. Miss Mole is my favorite book by her, but I love the way she makes her spinsters very happy to occupy that state of existence.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bit of a period romance, but it is more about the petulant, misguided and ironic paths love can take. Modern lovers are faced with different problems than those we encounter here, but the basic contrariness of human beings hasn’t changed much. We do always seem to want what we cannot have, cast our lot into futures that do not ever arise, and disdain the good natured and affable for the pretty and enticing. Sometimes we get what we ask for, which can be the worst life failure of all.

Beyond her ability to keep me engaged with superb characters and a desire to know what will become of them, E. H. Young has a very charming writing style and a sharp sense of humor.

She stroked the curly wool, she pulled the apprehensive ears, she uttered absurdities and, glancing up to see if Sales were laughing at her charming folly, she saw that he was examining his flock with the practical interest of a farmer. He was apparently considering some technical point; he had not been listening to her at all. She hated that lamb, she hoped he would kill it and all the rest, and she decided to eat mutton in future with voracity.

She also understands the complexities of both love, attachment and obligation:

She knew he could not stand alone, she knew she must continue to hold herself ready for his service, but a prisoner fastened to a chain does not find much solace in counting the links, and that was all she had to do.

I have come to trust E. H. Young for a good story, some life lessons, and a sense of ultimate satisfaction upon closing the book. Happily, she and I are not finished with one another.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her first novel written after the Great War, the death of her husband, and her embarkation on a rather unconventional new life, E H Young tells the story of four Misses Mallett.

There are two sisters in late middle age, Caroline and Sophia Mallett. They live in a large, beautiful and comfortable home that had been left to them by their father, the Colonel; together with their much younger half-sister, Rose Mallet, the child of the Colonel’s second marriage.

Caroline is delighted with their situation, and she explains to their niece:

‘The Malletts don’t marry, Henrietta. Look at us, as happy as the day is long, with all the fun and none of the trouble. We’ve been terrible flirts, Sophia and I. Rose is different, but at least she hasn’t married. The three Miss Malletts of Nelson Lodge! Now there are four of us, and you must keep up our reputation.’

Henrietta was the fourth Miss Mallett, the daughter of the Colonel’s disinherited son, who had come to live with her aunts after her mother’s death. She had lived a very different life, she had an independent spirit, and she wanted to make her own decisions and not be told that she must follow a particular traditions.

She would learn that things were not quite as simple and straightforward as Caroline suggested.

Sophia had a great love in her past, and she cherished her memories of him

Rose had been beloved by a local landowner, Francis Sales, but she had rejected his proposals because she wasn’t sure that she loved him enough. She wondered if she had made the right decision when he went away, and when he returned with a bride who was quite unlike her; but she knew that she had to live with her decision.

And then there was a particularly cruel twist of fate.

Henrietta and Rose learned each other’s stories, but they were of different generations, they had different backgrounds and different outlooks, they didn’t talk about the things that were most important to them and so they didn’t understand what the other was feeling and what the other would do.

E H Young drew and delineated four the Misses Mallett quite beautifully. Caroline was warm and vibrant, Sophia was delicate and empathic, Rose was reserved and controlled, Henrietta was modern and independent; and as she portrayed their lives and their relationships she showed the advantages and disadvantages of being an unmarried woman between the wars.

By contrast, the men in the story were all flawed: Henrietta’s father, Reginald Mallet, was charming but he was utterly self-centred. Francis Sales was completely lacking in self knowledge and in understanding of the women he said he loved. Charles Batty, the son of Caroline’s dearest friend, was eccentric, and today it would probably be said that he was somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but he was true to himself and he would be a reliable friend to the younger Misses Mallett.

They were all interesting and believable characters; but it was the women who were strong and who set the course of the story.

That story was simple, but there were deep waters swirling below the calm surface. There was danger that Henrietta could be led astray, that Rose’s control could snap, that the good name of the Malletts’ could be tainted by scandal …

The playing out and the resolution of the story is a little predictable, and maybe a little unsatisfactory in that it wasn’t exactly what I wanted for characters I had come to know vey well; but I believed that it could have happened, I understand why it could have happened, and I loved my journey through this book.

I loved spending time with each of the Misses Mallett, and I loved spending time in their world.

E H Young wrote so well. She could capture so much in a single sentence, and she could sustain a point over much longer passages.

The depictions of the family home and the other homes that are part of the story are so perfect, every detail is so well drawn, that I was transported there. The descriptions of the countryside, the woods, and the fields, are so evocative that I wished that I could be there, riding with Rose or walking with Henrietta.

It was lovely, but there times when it was a almost too much and I would have liked to get back to the story a little more quickly.

I can’t say that this is E H Young’s strongest book; the later books that I have read are more subtle and more sophisticated, and I am inclined to think that she grew as a writer over the years.

I can say that this is a lovely period piece, that it is a wonderfully engaging human drama, and that it has made me eager to fill in the gaps in my reading of its author’s backlist.




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[Elizabeth]

E.H. Young’s prose has that kind of density that I associate with George Eliot and Henry James. Her characters can be frustratingly complex: not wholly likable and yet not wholly unlikable. The Misses Mallett was no exception to this but the reading did come easier the more I read. I also found Rose increasingly compelling as a character. We meet her first when she’s a young woman. When the story jumps forward to include Caroline, Sophia, and Rose’s young adult niece, Henrietta, Rose is in her early 30s and she has aged well. She has gained wisdom and clarity of vision and purpose.

Henrietta shakes up her aunts’ lives, though in subtle ways and the power of the story grows gradually and poignantly. Henrietta is something of an Emma and must have her eyes opened to her own behavior from the outside. She is blind to the weight her own actions have. I had to wrestle with my own impatience when reading about Henrietta. The self-centeredness of her youth is frustrating. Contrasting the four Malletts is interesting with their differing life stages. The blurb alludes to Sense and Sensibility too and I can see why that is. Rose and Henrietta’s paths to marriage are by no means smooth. Is the ending satisfying? I’m still pondering that.

Young is one of my “requires a re-read to grasp” authors. As I’m reading her, I often think: “I’ll get this better on a re-read.” While I’d rather love a book right away, I think there is something to books with the complexity to elude quick reactions. These books require a kind of pickling process: I need to let them sit before the taste is right.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

The narrative of the enormously charming novel, concerns aging spinster sisters Caroline and Sophia, and their younger half sister Rose, and their niece, the young Henrietta. Henrietta comes to live with the sisters upon the death of her mother, and is immediately drawn into their beautiful genteel world. This is world instantly recognisable, although it is gone forever now. It is a small world of good manners, and gentility.
Caroline, often heard to say "Mallets don't marry" - is not keen on the thought of Henrietta marrying, however Sophia is more romantic. Rose has a complex unconsummated relationship with a married man - Francis Sales - whom she has known since childhood. Beautiful, young Henrietta comes to the attention of Francis Sales, but is also admired by the wonderfully eccentric Charles Batty. These strained and flawed relationships are wonderfully explored, the characters beautifully drawn. The novel does have a lovely easy feel to it, and yet E H Young doesn't let her readers off with a mere cosy read. There is real drama to be mulled over, in this story of love, jealousies and missed opportunities.

[Mela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great ordinary sad story with happy (?) ending.

'You can't,' she said slowly, 'get happiness through a person if you can't get it through yourself'

--> 'great' --> Yes, the story was marvelous. I was gripped, I was moved. All characters were chosen perfectly. It was my first novel by Young and I am going to try more of her, that is sure.

People can't have everything. I don't suppose you'd change with anybody really, if you could. People are like that. They grumble, but they like being themselves

--> 'ordinary' --> The plot wasn't original. Aging spinsters, British manners, some social prejudice, a married man, first love. But this ordinariness was told splendidly.

She wished he would loosen his grip and hoped he would go on holding her for ever. It was a moment of mingled ecstasy and sadness

--> 'sad' --> I couldn't decide whether to be sad, sympathetic, angry or annoyed at Francis, Rose and Henrietta. Their feelings, decisions, convictions... nothing has changed. People were, are and will be the same. No matter in which times they live.

...a prisoner fastened to a chain does not find much solace in counting the links

--> 'happy (?) ending' --> One can call it 'happy ending' because we have it formally. But, I feel something bitter in my mouth. I felt the same at the end of "W.E." (it is a great movie (among others) about Wallis Simpson, the way it showed Simpson point of view - priceless, I have watched it two times). This feeling that one sometimes just has to do something that someone else (or everybody else) expects. Something that looks like HEA but is 'too late', 'too much', 'not the same', 'not enough'...

In their youth she and Francis had misunderstood, and in their maturity they had failed, each other; it was the fault of neither...

Besides all above, I adored Charles. My favorite character in this novel. My heartbeat speeded up when I read his answer to Henrietta's question why does he let her go:

I don't really let you go. It's you I love, not just your hair and your face and the way your nose turns up, and your hands and feet, and your straight neck. I have to let them go, but you don't go. You stay with me all the time: you always will. You're like music, always in my head, but you're more than that. You go deeper: I suppose into my heart. Sometimes I think I'm carrying you in my arms. I can't see you but I can feel you're there, and sometimes I laugh because I think you're laughing

[my sigh...]

Here, another few great quotes to convince you that you have to read it:

Yet she was no thief: she was only picking up what would otherwise be wasted

It seemed to her that life was hardly more than a perpetual and painful choice

...the past was mixed with the present, the done with the undone: she was assailed by the awful conviction that right was prolific in producing wrong.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caroline and Sophia Mallett pride themselves on once having been the flirts of their generation. Their much younger stepsister Rose is more aloof, but seems set to join them in happy spinsterhood. However, when a rejected suitor marries someone else, she perversely falls in love with him, causing complications that ripple through many lives. Then their even younger niece Henrietta joins them, increasing the complications.

I found this a fascinating portrayal of women who are not laser-focused on either marriage or a career, enjoying being their own independent people for the most part - although this does collapse a little towards the end.

Published in 1922, this book doesn't mention the war and perhaps is set just before it. It feels timeless in some ways, but there are a few "motor cars" on the roads as well as carriages and carts.

[Troy Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two elderly spinster sisters, a younger stepsister, and a niece – all under the one roof. Love, loneliness, jealousies, vanities and games - all set against a beautiful country backdrop.

I love coming across a new author whose style I enjoy, and I thought E. H. Young’s writing was exquisite. And then to discover she wrote ten other novels! I hope I can manage to find some in the Virago editions.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although some have considered this one of her weaker works, I enjoyed this novel. It held my interest throughout and was beautifully crafted, as always. Like another one of her novels, I found the ending weak. Things were ironed out in such a way that I could not really buy into it, but she is always worth reading.

[Chrissie]

****************

*Chatterton Square TBR
*The Misses Mallett: The Bridge Dividing TBR
*Miss Mole TBR

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

E. H. Young is one of those writers who gets likened to Jane Austen, but in her case, that's not a bad thing. I also don't think it's entirely true.

[Debbie Cole-Weber · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first E H Young was Miss Mole, which is a delight. The Misses Mallet is not delightful; at times it is even a bit tedious with overwrought heroines. Read Miss Mole..

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rose Mallett and her half sisters Caroline and Sophia live their seemingly contented lives in Upper Radstowe, the setting for many of E M Young's stories. Rose, however has a secret life of unfulfilled love with a married man. She has the strength of character and high moral values which stand in the way of succumbing to the temptations of an illicit love affair. Into the sister's lives enters their orphaned niece who very much upsets the balance that Rose has maintained. How these characters cope with their dilemma is the crux of the story. Young has delineated warmly and sympathetically the benefits and disadvantages of spinsterhood in the early part of the century and as in some of her previous books, provides affectionate descriptions of the town and it's surrounding rural beauty.

[Paul Allard · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early twentieth-century novel about life in Clifton, Bristol, for four women, the Misses Mallett.
Rose Mallett is the central character, living without any true purpose in life, possibly in love with Francis Sales, a landowner and farmer. Henrietta, her niece, also falls for Francis, a married man. Another few characters appear who have some impact on the story but it’s really about Rose and Henrietta, their thoughts and love.
There is not a lot of action and a lot of introspection from Rose and Henrietta. Compared with Jane Austen, it lacks her wit and I was disappointed with it following a praising introduction.

[Wanda]

30 OCT 2016 - read online here: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8...

Thank you, Project Gutenberg!

[Terris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sweet, and sometimes bittersweet, story about the four Misses Mallet -- some older, some younger -- who were all "in love with love," though it was often elusive.

[Jenny Yates · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel, first published in 1922, is gentle and introspective, with an undercurrent of passion. It’s been compared to Jane Austen, with its English country setting, its mild parodies of village characters, and its descriptions of unstated romantic yearnings. However, in spite of its extremely stoic and dignified heroine, Rose Mallet, it's more melodramatic than Austen.

It involves three sisters – Caroline, Sophia and Rose Mallet - living together quietly in the comfortable family home, when a young niece joins them. She is the daughter of their long-dead brother. The sisters are all described quite colorfully, with an emphasis on their harmless eccentricities.

The young niece, Henrietta, has been living in hardship, since her now-deceased mother was abandoned by her rakish father. She’s happy to spend her days in relative comfort, and to belong to a family, but she also has a lot of romantic notions. These center around Francis Sales, a very handsome local man who has always been in love with Henrietta’s Aunt Rose. However, Rose wouldn’t have him, and he married on the rebound. After he married, his wife had an accident and ended up bedridden, and she’s whiny and suspicious.

Francis tries to seduce Henrietta, who is flattered at having been selected by her aunt’s supposed lover, and resolves to run away with him. It’s up to Rose to save the day, and she manages to do this while maintaining her own dignity, as well as the dignity of all others involved. She’s a great character – reserved, principled, careful, but at the same time, unselfish.

The writing is quite beautiful at times. Some quotes:

< Gorse bushes flaunted their colour, larch trees hung out their tassels and celandines starred the bright green grass in an air which seemed palpably blue. It made a mist among the trees and poured itself into the ground as though to dye the earth from which hyacinths would soon spring. >

< Faint, delicious smells were offered on the wind and withdrawn in caprice; the trees were all tipped with green and interlaced with blue air and blue sky. >

< The Malletts were not easily pleased, and they were not good givers of anything except gold, the easiest thing to give. >

< The woman on the couch looked to Henrietta like a doll animated by some diabolically clever mechanism, she was so pink and blue and fair. She was, in fact, a child’s idea of feminine beauty and Henrietta felt a rush of sorrow that she should have to lie there, day after day, watching the seasons come and go. It was marvelous that she had courage enough to smile, and she said at once, “Rose Mallett is always trying to give me pleasure,” and her tone, her glance at Rose, startled Henrietta as much as if the little thin hand outside the coverlet had suddenly produced a glittering toy which had its uses as a dagger. >

< Yet, as they sat in the cool drawing-room with its pale flowery chintz, its primrose curtains, the faded water-colours on the walls and Aunt Rose pouring tea into the flowered cups, she might, if she had wished, have been persuaded that she was wrong. Perhaps she had mistaken that angry, starving look in the man’s eyes; it had gone; nothing could have been more ordinary than his expression and his conversation. But she knew she was not wrong and she sat there, on the alert, losing not a glance, not a tone. Her limbs were trembling, she could not eat and she was astonished that Aunt Rose could nibble biscuits with such nonchalance, that Francis Sales could eat plum cake. >

< If Charles had been a little different – but then, he did not really want her; he was making a study of his sorrow; he was gazing at it, turning it round and over, growing familiar with its aspects. He was an artist frustrated of any power but this of feeling and to have given him herself would simply have been to rob him of what he found more precious. >

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the great things about Kindle is that sometimes you can find novels by long-forgotten authors whose works are out of print. I loved some other works (reprinted by Virago in the '70s), especially The Curate's Wife, Jenny Wren, and Miss Mole.

The Misses Mallet was printed in 1922 and is not quite as good as the three aforementioned novels, but it was far more interesting to me than about 90 percent of what is currently in bookstores.

The Mallet sisters are well-to-do spinsters in the fictional neighborhood of Lafferton, which is roughly equivalent to Bristol. They occupy the upper middle-class of a British town that is the setting for most of Young's novels, which mostly deal with lower income folks. All of them treat the problem of intelligent, sensitive women who are sharply constrained by a male-dominated culture. The writing is superb.

[Bettie]

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8131

AUBOUT THE AUTHOR: Although almost completely forgotten by recent generations, E. H. Young was a best-selling novelist of her time. She was born in Whitley, Northumberland, (now known as Whitley Bay), the daughter of a shipbroker. She attended Gateshead Secondary School (a higher grade school later renamed Gateshead Grammar School) and Penrhos College, Colwyn Bay, Wales. In 1902, at the age of 22, she married Arthur Daniell, a solicitor from Bristol, and moved with him to the upscale neighbourhood of Clifton.

[Snowden Flood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written and very evocative. Reading it alongside North & South felt quite frustrating as it amplified the feeling of stuckness and lack of agency for women. Everyone sits around talking of men or hoping to have an encounter with one, there aren’t many other chances to have a life. I wish Henrietta and Rose had gone travelling and had a jolly time out in the world instead of settling for Charles and Sulky Francis

[Carla]

Another subtle and delicate novel from this great under-rated author. Both Rose and Henrietta are perfectly drawn, and the ending, seemingly a compromise is treated with humor. Not in the same class as Miss Mole or Jenny Wren, but still a novel that resonates.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad but intriguing story of a family's interactions and sacrifices. One happy end but only just. Excellent plot and craftsmanship but not as uplifting as other Young books.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as Miss Mole - but that was amazing - but still wonderfully acute and true. Wasn’t sure if it was Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty - probably between the two!

[HerbieGrandma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading fiction from the early 20th century. The Misses Mallett was amusing and a nice little slice of the life of woman during those changing times. I intend to read Miss Mole soon.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you follow Nora (@pearjelly_) on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll know that she’s currently hosting #SpinsterSeptember, a month-long reading event showcasing books featuring spinsters, ranging from the classic figures in 20th-century lit to the more modern incarnations we might see in books today. As my first contribution, I’ve chosen E. H. Young’s 1922 novel The Misses Mallett (originally titled The Bridge Dividing), partly because it features two spinster sisters, Caroline and Sophia Mallett, who live in Radstowe with their beautiful, younger stepsister, Rose. At thirty-one, Rose is too young to be considered a fully-fledged spinster, but if nothing changes for the better, she might become one…

In this delightful, thoroughly absorbing novel, E. H. Young tells the story of these three sisters, who, along with their spirited niece, twenty-one-year-old Henrietta, are the Misses Malletts of the book’s title. It is a novel about love and the tension between sense and sensibility – or, put more simply, between the head and the heart.

The book is divided into three parts, with the first focusing primarily on Rose and those in her direct orbit. Rose, we soon learn, was once courted by an attractive local landowner, Francis Sales, back in the days of her youth. However, with half an eye on the wider world and all its dazzling opportunities, she turned down Francis’ proposal of marriage at the time, partly to avoid being restricted. Now, following his father’s death, Francis and his wife, Christabel, whom he met and married in the US, have come to Radstowe, bringing Rose back into contact with her old flame.

Rose feels a pain of jealousy at this new development, for while Francis might not be the love of her life, she has no desire to ‘share’ him with another woman. For a moment, Rose wishes she had accepted Francis’ proposal back when she was twenty-three – at the very least, it would have given her life some purpose and structure.

She laughed at this decline in her ambition; she no longer expected the advent of the colossal figure of her young dreams; and she knew this was the hour when she ought to strike out a new way for herself, to leave this place which offered her nothing but ease and a continuous, foredoomed effort after enjoyment; but she also knew that she would not go. She had not the energy nor the desire. She would drift on, never submerged by any passion, keeping her head calmly above water, looking coldly at the interminable sea. This was her conviction, but she was not without a secret hope that she might at last to be carried to some unknown island, odorous, surprising and her own, where she would, for the first time, experience some kind of excess. (pp. 47–48)

When Christabel is severely injured in a riding accident (an accident that Rose might have been able to prevent), Rose feels a strange combination of annoyance and pity. Moreover, the accident throws her feelings for Francis into sharp relief. Now she is in love with him, a more passionate, tender type of love than she could have imagined back in her youth. And yet, Christabel remains in the way…

Into this mix comes the sisters’ niece, Henrietta, who at twenty-one is spirited, impetuous and a little naïve. When Henrietta’s widowed mother dies, leaving the girl in poverty, the Mallett sisters happily carry out their late sister-in-law’s wish by offering Henrietta a home in their comfortable Radstowe house. She is, after all, their brother Desmond’s daughter, even if Desmond himself was foolish and irresponsible. The sisters also grant their niece a decent allowance for clothes and social activities, giving her a degree of independence and responsibility in her sophisticated new life.

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[Mbuye · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘The Misses Mallett’ (1922) demonstrates EH Young’s skill at portraying strong women with sad, lonely lives. In ‘Misses Mallett,’ the story of three half-sisters, deeply fond of each other, and all unmarried, partly because of their own autocratic natures, yet each with a secret romance in the past, she creates three overlapping love triangles when their orphaned niece is invited to come and live with them. Henrietta, the niece, is impulsive and hot-headed, and falls in love with a married man, an Ashley Wilkes-like creature who has been in love with her youngish Aunt Rose, since before his marriage. His wife is bedridden thanks to a hunting accident, and it had been his pleasant habit to make love to Aunt Rose until Henrietta came, when he swiftly transfers his affections to a younger and more willing victim. Meanwhile, a young musician-cum-lawyer, the same age as Henrietta, falls in love with her.

The plot itself is not very complicated; it is merely that of untangling the couples and rearranging them more conveniently. Before that can happen, much anguish and more than one painful voyage of self-discovery and growth, and more than one death must occur.

The strength of each character is the strength also of the novel itself. From Caroline, the oldest and very imperious Miss Mallett, who lays down the law, to Miss Sonia Mallett, gentle and subservient to her older sister’s wishes, and keeps her own tragic romance locked within her heart, to the fairly young and very self-possessed Miss Rose Mallett, who is divided between her feelings of guilt for the accident that caused Mrs Sales to be bedridden and her ambiguous love for Francis Sales, every emotion is laid out with a sure hand. Just as unwavering is Young's pitiless reading of the impetuous Henrietta Mallett, a young woman in love with the idea of being in love, but as yet too selfish and immature to love anyone with the clear-eyed love of her Aunt Rose, or the undying devotion of her Aunt Sophia.