Good Mrs. Hypocrite: A Study In Self-Righteousness

by Rita

Excerpt from Good Mrs. A Study in Self-Righteousness

They were not rich or famous. Their women had been dowered with no special charms; and their men folk had never achieved greatness, nor, for that matter, had it been thrust upon them.

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288 pages, Paperback

First published June 29, 1899

About the author

Pen name of Eliza Margaret Jane Humphreys, born Gollan at Gollanfield in Inverness-shire, the daughter of John Gollan, a Scottish businessman. Her father travelled extensively, visiting India and Australia and Eliza received little formal education, however she was able to use her experience of Australia to write a semi-autobiographical novel ‘Sheba’ in 1889, using the pen-name ‘Rita’. Another novel, 'Episodes,' was originally published using the pen-name 'E. Jayne Gilbert.'

Eliza was married twice: first to the Anglo-German musician Karl Booth, with whom she had three sons; second to Anglo-Irish singer William Humphreys, with whom she had a daughter. The unhappy first marriage provided Eliza with material for 4 novels ‘Saba Macdonald’ (1906) ‘The Grandmothers’ (1927), ‘The Wand’ring Darling’ (1928) and ‘Jean and Jeanette’ (1929). Eliza spent her married life in Cork, Ireland, Bournemouth and Bath, Somerset. In 1910, she was listed as one of the celebrities of Bournemouth, with books published in French, German and Italian; at the time she was undertaking a tour of America.

The dedication in the first edition of 'Saba Macdonald' reads: To "THE EMANACIPATED WOMAN" who owes her present freedom of mind, morals, and pastimes, to such repression and tyranny as formed the discipline of youth in days such as this book commemorates.[2]

Writing as ‘Rita’, Eliza was prolific (she wrote 120 published works) and popular (‘Peg the Rake’ (1894) sold 160,000 copies). Her stories often featured aristocratic characters, and exotic settings. Eliza was a woman earning by her own success, and she helped to found the Lyceum Club Writers’ Club for Women.[3] She was critical of ideas being imported from America.

After meeting Madame Blavatsky she became interested in Theosophy and wrote ‘Calvary: A Tragedy of Sects’ (1909) exploring religious themes. This was one of her books that was made into a film. After the First World War Eliza struggled financially, as her husband became an invalid and her style of writing went out of fashion. However Queen Mary liked her books and ordered a complete set.

Eliza’s final book was an autobiography ‘Recollections of a Literary Life’ (1936).

Reviews

[Caleb Pereira]

The humour sticks. The writer seems to be a master at what she does, so there's no overwrought language in between the dialogues, and it never seems like she is reaching for something that is implausible. The characters fit in their world—it's perfectly believable. She achieved what she had to with immaculate wit and timing, and even though Scotch, the form of English spoken by Scottish people, is somewhat hard to read, it is understood within its context.

However, the dialogues are overwrought, made so to get the story going, rather than to let it progress at a natural pace. It is excusable, however, since it is a book that doesn't take itself too seriously—it's a small character study on a cantankerous, hypocritical, old spinster, who uses the veil of her Christian piety to mask her inadequacies. A woman who self-denies for most of her life to seem better than she actually is, who then leads herself away, within the richer environment of her brother's household, to creature comforts and romantic notions that she had so long denied herself. These soon become the sole objective of her new life in her brother's household. She is the slave who has"thrown off her shackles" to turn into a tyrant.

"There is no tyrant so merciless as the slave who has thrown off [her] shackles to mount to power, and, after a long experience of servitude to others, Catherine Macpherson could not sufficiently revel in the delights of ruling in her turn."

The other characters are fun, especially Tibbie, the domestic, who does her best to resist Catherine in the battle for the household. Their verbal jousts are memorable, and make up most of the story. The brother, Jamie, is an accurate sketch of a pensioner who prefers not to bother himself with household affairs... because they are a women's purview. He is also shackled by an inability to talk out his true feelings, especially to his daughter, which creates the ending of the book. All in all, 3 stars seems fair, because, for all its little flaws, it has a strong ending.

[Bright]

It was an interesting read. The subtitle says it’s a study in self righteousness. And it reads like a study. But there was just enough drama and storytelling to keep me reading to the end.
The author has self-righteousness pegged to a T.

“... she [the good Mrs. Hypocrite]was of a keen regret Tibby was not present [for the sermon that morning,] the discourse was so strangely applicable to her….It is always pleasant to see the failings of others held up to the light of day and riddled by bullets of home-truths.”