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The Lodger
The first biographical novel about Dorothy Richardson, peer of Virginia Woolf, lover of H.G. Wells, and central figure in the emergence of modernist fiction
Dorothy exists just above the poverty line, doing secretarial work at a dentist's surgery and living in a seedy boarding house in Bloomsbury, when she is invited to spend the weekend with a childhood friend. Jane recently married a writer who is hovering on the brink of fame. His name is H.G. Wells.
Wells appears unremarkable at first. But then Dorothy notices his grey-blue eyes taking her in, openly signalling approval. He tells her he and Jane have an agreement which allows them the freedom to take lovers, although Dorothy is not convinced her friend is happy with this arrangement.
Not wanting to betray Jane, yet unable to draw back, Dorothy free-falls into an affair with Wells. Then a new boarder arrives at the house—striking unconventional Veronica Leslie-Jones, determined to live life on her own terms—and Dorothy finds herself caught between Veronica and Wells. Amidst the personal dramas and wreckage of the militant suffragette movement, Dorothy finds her voice as a writer.
The Lodger is a beautifully intimate novel that is at once an introduction to one of the most important writers of the 20th century and a compelling story of one woman tormented by unconventional desires.
Dorothy exists just above the poverty line, doing secretarial work at a dentist's surgery and living in a seedy boarding house in Bloomsbury, when she is invited to spend the weekend with a childhood friend. Jane recently married a writer who is hovering on the brink of fame. His name is H.G. Wells.
Wells appears unremarkable at first. But then Dorothy notices his grey-blue eyes taking her in, openly signalling approval. He tells her he and Jane have an agreement which allows them the freedom to take lovers, although Dorothy is not convinced her friend is happy with this arrangement.
Not wanting to betray Jane, yet unable to draw back, Dorothy free-falls into an affair with Wells. Then a new boarder arrives at the house—striking unconventional Veronica Leslie-Jones, determined to live life on her own terms—and Dorothy finds herself caught between Veronica and Wells. Amidst the personal dramas and wreckage of the militant suffragette movement, Dorothy finds her voice as a writer.
The Lodger is a beautifully intimate novel that is at once an introduction to one of the most important writers of the 20th century and a compelling story of one woman tormented by unconventional desires.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2014
25 people are currently reading
2907 people want to read
About the author
Louisa Treger
6 books106 followersBorn in London, Louisa Treger began her career as a classical violinist. She studied at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music, and worked as a freelance orchestral player and teacher.
Louisa subsequently turned to literature, gaining a First Class degree and a PhD in English at University College London, where she focused on early twentieth century women’s writing.
Married with three children, she lives in London.
Louisa subsequently turned to literature, gaining a First Class degree and a PhD in English at University College London, where she focused on early twentieth century women’s writing.
Married with three children, she lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 127 reviews
July 24, 2025
Dorothy Richardson and her 13-volume semi-autobiographical novel Pilgrimage are the basis for this rather limp and pedestrian fictionalisation of Richardson's life. It focuses, especially on her affair with H.G. Wells, that serial adulterer who had liaisons with a variety of early twentieth century female authors including Elizabeth von Arnim and Rebecca West.
This is from Treger's afterword:
'In reality, Dorothy's friendship with Bertie Wells developed into a love affair over a ten-year period, but for the sake of narrative impetus, I fast-forwarded and had him seduce her during the course of one spring. I also omitted some aspects of their lives, such as their mutual interest in Fabian Socialism, feeling it did not sufficiently enhance the interest of my account.'
So, this book essentially reconstructs biography and erases Richardson's intellectual interests, confining the story to one of romantic relationships.
This is a fairly thin and predictable take on Richardson's more quietly transgressive life: she strives for independence and self-sufficiency, supporting herself financially at a time when this was both unusual and hard for women. Her first volume of Pilgrimage also gave rise to the term stream of consciousness, used by May Sinclair in a review. Virginia Woolf too reviewed this book and appreciated the way Richardson was striving to find a new way to write that privileged female perceptions and experience.
To reduce this fictional portrait, then, to a sliver of what Richardson was doing and thinking doesn't do her justice. A large part of the later chapters detail the experiences of a completely different character, Veronica, who is arrested on a suffragette march, imprisoned in Holloway for a month and force fed: it's horrific, of course, but it's not a part of Richardson's story and takes up space in what is only a c.200 page book that could usefully have been deepening the portrait of Richardson herself.
An unsatisfactory rendering of a fascinating female writer: 2.5 stars.
This is from Treger's afterword:
'In reality, Dorothy's friendship with Bertie Wells developed into a love affair over a ten-year period, but for the sake of narrative impetus, I fast-forwarded and had him seduce her during the course of one spring. I also omitted some aspects of their lives, such as their mutual interest in Fabian Socialism, feeling it did not sufficiently enhance the interest of my account.'
So, this book essentially reconstructs biography and erases Richardson's intellectual interests, confining the story to one of romantic relationships.
This is a fairly thin and predictable take on Richardson's more quietly transgressive life: she strives for independence and self-sufficiency, supporting herself financially at a time when this was both unusual and hard for women. Her first volume of Pilgrimage also gave rise to the term stream of consciousness, used by May Sinclair in a review. Virginia Woolf too reviewed this book and appreciated the way Richardson was striving to find a new way to write that privileged female perceptions and experience.
To reduce this fictional portrait, then, to a sliver of what Richardson was doing and thinking doesn't do her justice. A large part of the later chapters detail the experiences of a completely different character, Veronica, who is arrested on a suffragette march, imprisoned in Holloway for a month and force fed: it's horrific, of course, but it's not a part of Richardson's story and takes up space in what is only a c.200 page book that could usefully have been deepening the portrait of Richardson herself.
An unsatisfactory rendering of a fascinating female writer: 2.5 stars.
November 21, 2014
Kami Garcia, a New York Times bestselling author has been quoted while saying:
“We don't get to chose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.”
Louisa Treger, an English author, has portrayed the life and times of a writer named, Dorothy Richardson, who was the peer of Virginia Woolf, lover of H.G. Wells, and ultimately got stuck between the crossfire’s of her past and a new era of unconventional world where she desires to be a writer of modernist fiction, in her debut novel, The Lodger.
Synopsis:
Dorothy exist just above the poverty line, doing secretarial work at a dentist's surgery and living in a seedy boarding house in Bloomsbury, when she is invited to spend the weekend with a childhood friend. Jane recently married a writer who is hovering on the brink of fame. His name is H.G. Wells or Bertie as he is known to friends.
Bertie appears unremarkable at first. But then Dorothy notices his grey-blue eyes taking her in, openly signaling approval. He tells her he and Jane has an agreement which allows them the freedom to take lovers, although Dorothy is not convinced her friend is happy with this arrangement.
Not wanting to betray Jane, yet unable to draw back, Dorothy free-falls into an affair with Bertie. Then a new boarder arrives at the house—striking unconventional Veronica Leslie-Jones, determined to live life on her own terms—and Dorothy finds herself caught between Veronica and Bertie. Amidst the personal dramas and wreckage of the militant suffragette movement, Dorothy finds her voice as a writer.
For a first time author, Treger's writing can be compared to any noteworthy author's work. Her prose is completely poetic and very polemical since she has crafted a fiction based on factual data and real life events! We have read so many biographies, but I never read such a profound biography which happens to be a fiction! Treger has painted the picturesque image of the late 20th century in London. From eating habits to sociopolitical changes, all were described very intricately. And from Dorothy's life, we get to see the hardships faced by a woman who chooses the road to independence rather than depending on a man and such women used to lead a life just above the poverty line. Whoever reads this book in this 21st century, can relate to Dorothy and may find Dorothy as a very striking character. Her fight to get a life of completely independence as a writer and as a lover and not bound by the marital strings can be very well apprehended the women of this century. But imagine how she struggled in a different century, when the society decided a women's fate rather than their brain and mouths.
Dorothy's relationship with the famous author, H.G. Wells is written with much compassion and vividness. Their physical encounters will not only stir you up but will also make you see the darkness behind their affair. Dorothy even develops feeling for another house guest of her best friend, Veronica, and the author has written this forbidden relationship with so much depth!
It's not only a novel about forbidden love stories and illicit love affairs, but it's about the women who were looked upon as out casted by the society during the 20th century. And Dorothy's illicit affair with Wells made her a writer, and she wrote 13 volumes of an autobiographical tale, Pilgrimage , which remains forgotten by us!
Louisa Treger has done enough research about her Dorothy character to deliver a brilliant yet subtle novel. She not only takes us back in time and place but also fills up us with a fire inside to understand the narrow-mindedness of a gender partial society. In one world, I can say that this novel is written with utmost passion thus resulting into something so riveting and evocative. This tale will not only make you think but it'll touch the very soul of your heart!
Verdict: You can't miss this deeply moving tale!
Courtesy: I'm very thank to the author, Louisa Treger for providing me with a review copy of her book.
“We don't get to chose what is true. We only get to choose what we do about it.”
Louisa Treger, an English author, has portrayed the life and times of a writer named, Dorothy Richardson, who was the peer of Virginia Woolf, lover of H.G. Wells, and ultimately got stuck between the crossfire’s of her past and a new era of unconventional world where she desires to be a writer of modernist fiction, in her debut novel, The Lodger.
Synopsis:
Dorothy exist just above the poverty line, doing secretarial work at a dentist's surgery and living in a seedy boarding house in Bloomsbury, when she is invited to spend the weekend with a childhood friend. Jane recently married a writer who is hovering on the brink of fame. His name is H.G. Wells or Bertie as he is known to friends.
Bertie appears unremarkable at first. But then Dorothy notices his grey-blue eyes taking her in, openly signaling approval. He tells her he and Jane has an agreement which allows them the freedom to take lovers, although Dorothy is not convinced her friend is happy with this arrangement.
Not wanting to betray Jane, yet unable to draw back, Dorothy free-falls into an affair with Bertie. Then a new boarder arrives at the house—striking unconventional Veronica Leslie-Jones, determined to live life on her own terms—and Dorothy finds herself caught between Veronica and Bertie. Amidst the personal dramas and wreckage of the militant suffragette movement, Dorothy finds her voice as a writer.
For a first time author, Treger's writing can be compared to any noteworthy author's work. Her prose is completely poetic and very polemical since she has crafted a fiction based on factual data and real life events! We have read so many biographies, but I never read such a profound biography which happens to be a fiction! Treger has painted the picturesque image of the late 20th century in London. From eating habits to sociopolitical changes, all were described very intricately. And from Dorothy's life, we get to see the hardships faced by a woman who chooses the road to independence rather than depending on a man and such women used to lead a life just above the poverty line. Whoever reads this book in this 21st century, can relate to Dorothy and may find Dorothy as a very striking character. Her fight to get a life of completely independence as a writer and as a lover and not bound by the marital strings can be very well apprehended the women of this century. But imagine how she struggled in a different century, when the society decided a women's fate rather than their brain and mouths.
Dorothy's relationship with the famous author, H.G. Wells is written with much compassion and vividness. Their physical encounters will not only stir you up but will also make you see the darkness behind their affair. Dorothy even develops feeling for another house guest of her best friend, Veronica, and the author has written this forbidden relationship with so much depth!
It's not only a novel about forbidden love stories and illicit love affairs, but it's about the women who were looked upon as out casted by the society during the 20th century. And Dorothy's illicit affair with Wells made her a writer, and she wrote 13 volumes of an autobiographical tale, Pilgrimage , which remains forgotten by us!
Louisa Treger has done enough research about her Dorothy character to deliver a brilliant yet subtle novel. She not only takes us back in time and place but also fills up us with a fire inside to understand the narrow-mindedness of a gender partial society. In one world, I can say that this novel is written with utmost passion thus resulting into something so riveting and evocative. This tale will not only make you think but it'll touch the very soul of your heart!
Verdict: You can't miss this deeply moving tale!
Courtesy: I'm very thank to the author, Louisa Treger for providing me with a review copy of her book.
January 7, 2018
An emotionally gripping and riveting debut novel, The Lodger by Louisa Treger, is a compelling journey of one woman’s struggle between a past, and a new—complex, fascinating, yet unconventional world.
Rather than summarize the book, I want to get right to the heart of my feelings of this incredible and engrossing debut, written with compassion and sensitivity.
Set in 1906, in London—Dorothy is experiencing life for the first time to the extremes; a world of solace with her newfound writing while striving for independence without marriage or dependence on a man. Her guilt and betrayal to her best friend (Jane), an unhealthy attraction and illicit affair with a famous writer—married and complicated man H.G. Wells, and a woman she is passionate about (Veronica)—desires to give her heart and soul to her, but sees no future at a time when this lifestyle is socially unacceptable.
All the while in a time when women have no rights or freedom to express themselves, as they fight for emancipation with conviction and furry. Dorothy, torn with many conflicting emotions on her road to emotional freedom and self-expression, torn between fear and exhilaration.
Can Dorothy discover peace or find a relationship without domination and possessiveness—someone who would allow a healthy distance and offer her space to be herself. Is it too much to hope for, for love to be able to express openly and one to be proud? A lessening of yearning—one of peace?
I bookmarked many pages, and poetic phrases–Wow! A powerful and emotional novel was blown away-not only by the story, characters, details, and the in-depth research; however, more importantly, the incredible creativity, and the voice of the author.
I am sometimes bored with historical fictions or biographies; whereas, Treger, grabs you from the first page and never takes you away from her intense main protagonist, Dorothy. Her intimate, thoughts, feelings, the conflicting emotions, and the picturesque settings, which puts you almost in a trance, making it even more compelling.
The Lodger sets itself apart from others, due to Treger’s imagination and her coloring inside and outside the lines blending fact and fiction -- Brilliantly executed!
As mentioned in the afterword, (I found very intriguing and inspirational), Treger stumbles upon Dorothy Richardson by accident, in the library of London University while searching for an angle on Virginia Woolf for her Ph.D. thesis. While doing so she discovers a review Virginia had written about a writer (Dorothy) whose name she did not recognize. Treger was riveted and began her investigation to Dorothy’s life work, the twelve-volume autobiographical novel-sequence Pilgrimage. With her enduring fascination with Dorothy she was ignited to retell her story; hence, many years later, a rebirth, of this exciting debut novel, The Lodger.
As a research nut, devouring such efforts by an author (also a lover of books about books), the insights, the commentary, and especially the melding of fact and fiction. The author uses certain liberties with the events and time scheme to further enhance focus and narrative in specific areas.
After reading some of the elements she eliminated, feel it set the stage magically, even though there are similarities of character and incident between the two works.
I enjoyed the secondary characters, Mrs. Baker and Mr. Cundy in the early scenes with Veronica, and the extraordinary way Dorothy engineered the relationship between Veronica and Benjamin, as well as the shape and tone of Dorothy’s love affairs with both Bertie and Veronica (the author’s creation), and the sexual differences between the two different relationships.
The Lodger is a beautiful intimate novel, and one I highly recommend, as not only an introduction to one of the most important writers of the 20th century; more importantly, an introduction to a talented newfound writer, Louisa Treger for a moving debut novel. Looking forward to many more!
Fans of The Paying Guests, will enjoy The Lodger, with some of the similarities with the time, the boarding house and the taboo, female love relationships, even though each is different and unique. However, I enjoyed The Lodger much more!
I also enjoyed the extraordinary moments Dorothy experienced on her bicycle sailing forward, as compared to her life journey:
I also purchased the audiobook performed by Helen Lloyd, classically trained British actor and voice artist, offering an outstanding performance!
A special thank you to St. Martin's Press, Thomas Dunne Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
Rather than summarize the book, I want to get right to the heart of my feelings of this incredible and engrossing debut, written with compassion and sensitivity.
Set in 1906, in London—Dorothy is experiencing life for the first time to the extremes; a world of solace with her newfound writing while striving for independence without marriage or dependence on a man. Her guilt and betrayal to her best friend (Jane), an unhealthy attraction and illicit affair with a famous writer—married and complicated man H.G. Wells, and a woman she is passionate about (Veronica)—desires to give her heart and soul to her, but sees no future at a time when this lifestyle is socially unacceptable.
All the while in a time when women have no rights or freedom to express themselves, as they fight for emancipation with conviction and furry. Dorothy, torn with many conflicting emotions on her road to emotional freedom and self-expression, torn between fear and exhilaration.
Can Dorothy discover peace or find a relationship without domination and possessiveness—someone who would allow a healthy distance and offer her space to be herself. Is it too much to hope for, for love to be able to express openly and one to be proud? A lessening of yearning—one of peace?
I bookmarked many pages, and poetic phrases–Wow! A powerful and emotional novel was blown away-not only by the story, characters, details, and the in-depth research; however, more importantly, the incredible creativity, and the voice of the author.
I am sometimes bored with historical fictions or biographies; whereas, Treger, grabs you from the first page and never takes you away from her intense main protagonist, Dorothy. Her intimate, thoughts, feelings, the conflicting emotions, and the picturesque settings, which puts you almost in a trance, making it even more compelling.
The Lodger sets itself apart from others, due to Treger’s imagination and her coloring inside and outside the lines blending fact and fiction -- Brilliantly executed!
As mentioned in the afterword, (I found very intriguing and inspirational), Treger stumbles upon Dorothy Richardson by accident, in the library of London University while searching for an angle on Virginia Woolf for her Ph.D. thesis. While doing so she discovers a review Virginia had written about a writer (Dorothy) whose name she did not recognize. Treger was riveted and began her investigation to Dorothy’s life work, the twelve-volume autobiographical novel-sequence Pilgrimage. With her enduring fascination with Dorothy she was ignited to retell her story; hence, many years later, a rebirth, of this exciting debut novel, The Lodger.
As a research nut, devouring such efforts by an author (also a lover of books about books), the insights, the commentary, and especially the melding of fact and fiction. The author uses certain liberties with the events and time scheme to further enhance focus and narrative in specific areas.
After reading some of the elements she eliminated, feel it set the stage magically, even though there are similarities of character and incident between the two works.
I enjoyed the secondary characters, Mrs. Baker and Mr. Cundy in the early scenes with Veronica, and the extraordinary way Dorothy engineered the relationship between Veronica and Benjamin, as well as the shape and tone of Dorothy’s love affairs with both Bertie and Veronica (the author’s creation), and the sexual differences between the two different relationships.
The Lodger is a beautiful intimate novel, and one I highly recommend, as not only an introduction to one of the most important writers of the 20th century; more importantly, an introduction to a talented newfound writer, Louisa Treger for a moving debut novel. Looking forward to many more!
Suffragettes- Was quite interested in the suffragettes’; members of women's organization (right to vote) movements in the late 19th and early 20th century, particularly in the UK and US. The term "suffragette" is particularly associated with activists in the British women's suffrage movement in the early 20th century, whose demonstrations included chaining themselves to railings and setting fire to mailbox contents. Many suffragettes were imprisoned in Holloway Prison in London, and were force-fed after going on hunger strike. (a part of Veronica’s story).
In the US, women over 21 were first allowed to vote in the territories of Wyoming from 1869 and in Utah from 1870, and with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the suffrage was extended to women across the United States in time for the 1920 presidential election.
Fans of The Paying Guests, will enjoy The Lodger, with some of the similarities with the time, the boarding house and the taboo, female love relationships, even though each is different and unique. However, I enjoyed The Lodger much more!
I also enjoyed the extraordinary moments Dorothy experienced on her bicycle sailing forward, as compared to her life journey:
"As she was lifted off the ground, skimming through the moving air. She was no longer merely struggling along, trying to forget how wobbly she felt. She could control the bicycle’s instability. She could steer with confidence, not worrying about crashing into people. She pedaled tirelessly, delighted by her unexpected reservoir of energy and the feeling of freedom and exhilaration. She could not remember ever feeling quite as free. Nothing compared to this. To be able to ride a bicycle transformed life; she felt like a different person."
I also purchased the audiobook performed by Helen Lloyd, classically trained British actor and voice artist, offering an outstanding performance!
A special thank you to St. Martin's Press, Thomas Dunne Books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
JDCMustReadBooks
July 29, 2021
This book has taken me quite a while to finish, at least longer than expected. It wasn’t because I thought the book was immensely boring, I just had to to take my time absorbing each and every detail. I couldn’t skim through the pages or else I wouldn’t be able to fully grasp the matter.
This story revolves around Dorothy, a young woman who is invited to her friend’s house for a weekend to stay with her and her husband. Her husband, Bertie, is a novelist, who values great literature and science. He and Dorothy fall in love... but to an extent that Dorothy feels trapped.
She encounters a young woman named Veronica. She becomes tied between Bertie and Veronica, both wanting her love.
This book is so much more than what it seems. The writing style is captivating and absolutely brilliant. The current matters and subjects it holds and discusses is acknowledged today. In all honesty, it’s spectacular.
I’m very glad I bought this. It was only for $1. Yes, $1. I bought it at a dollar tree while I was in Texas. The cover looked interesting so me being me had to get it. I would never pass up the opportunity to have my greedy-for-books-hands on this copy.
This story revolves around Dorothy, a young woman who is invited to her friend’s house for a weekend to stay with her and her husband. Her husband, Bertie, is a novelist, who values great literature and science. He and Dorothy fall in love... but to an extent that Dorothy feels trapped.
She encounters a young woman named Veronica. She becomes tied between Bertie and Veronica, both wanting her love.
This book is so much more than what it seems. The writing style is captivating and absolutely brilliant. The current matters and subjects it holds and discusses is acknowledged today. In all honesty, it’s spectacular.
I’m very glad I bought this. It was only for $1. Yes, $1. I bought it at a dollar tree while I was in Texas. The cover looked interesting so me being me had to get it. I would never pass up the opportunity to have my greedy-for-books-hands on this copy.
September 3, 2016
2.5 stars **
Honestly, I'm not quite sure how to review this book. If the purpose was to pique my interest in the real-life Dorothy Richardson and her work, then it was a resounding success. I went into this knowing nothing about Richardson and being far more familiar with the work of H.G. Wells (the "Bertie" of this novel with whom Richardson had a relationship). After reading The Lodger, I was curious about both Richardson's life as an independent woman at a time when such a lifestyle was discouraged, and about her work, which seems like a precursor to more famously experimental and feminist literature. All of that fascinates me, and I definitely want to know more.
But as a novel...um...it was an easy read. The writing was competent and quick. The descriptions were often quite nice. And there were some passages that provided food for thought about feminist perspectives and the difficulties that women like Richardson faced. But if that sounds like I'm damning the novel with faint praise...it's probably because I am.
Oddly enough, it's Treger who manages to explain my issues with the novel when she has Dorothy describe what she is attempting to capture in her new style of writing. "To let reality filter through, she had to keep her own voice out of it--no explaining, summing up, depicting characters and incidents in immutable lines. There had to be another way of writing convincingly--what was it? She didn't want to instruct her reader what to think and feel. Reading should be a process of collaboration between reader and author, a path of discovery. It should be an adventure."
This, I think, is why I found myself both fascinated with Richardson as a writer and disappointed with Treger's novel about her. Treger does the exact opposite of what she claims Richardson was attempting. Treger tells us how to feel...about Bertie, about Dorothy, about the women's suffrage movement, about independence, about literature... In spite of the first person limited perspective, which should have allowed the readers to get inside Dorothy's head, it all felt very constructed, very filtered, carefully crafted to force us to agree with Treger's interpretations. It took the life out of the novel for me, as well as reducing complicated relationships and a complicated period of history to simplistic interpretations.
What's more, I don't like Dorothy. I sympathize with her. I feel for her. And I think that Richardson (the actual writer, not the character) was probably a fascinating woman and a revolutionary writer. But Dorothy, in this novel, is constantly judging everyone around her. Even with her lovers, she acts as though she is above them, often making contemptuous or pitying comments about even the most important people in her life. It felt like Treger was speaking in Dorothy's voice to remind us that Dorothy was ahead of her time, and therefore above all of these other people. It rang false, and a bit petty.
So as a novel...I'm not convinced this book succeeds. It does, however, present some interesting pictures of a woman struggling for independence in a hostile world. And some passages stand out: "Her life appeared in a bleak relentless light: she was poor and isolated, hovering permanently on the brink of catastrophe, without security or prospects. A combination of hard work and insufficient nourishment was destroying her strength, If she wasn't fit to earn a living, what would become of her?" I kept thinking how disturbingly easy it would be to apply this to many modern women (and men) working difficult but low-paying jobs in an economy that offers less and less security. Perhaps times haven't changed so much for the working poor. There was also this: "The reason women didn't produce much 'art' was because they were pulled in different directions; torn and scattered by the unending multiplicity of their preoccupations and tasks; unable to do any one thing properly. It was a state of being unknown to men. Art demands what present-day society won't give to women, she decided." Aside from the obvious ways in which this quote is summarizing Virginia Woolf (A Room of One's Own), it also echoes things I've heard from modern working mothers...or simply under-paid workers (both male and female) who hold down two jobs (or more) and try to squeeze "art" in around the edges. Again, perhaps times haven't changed as much as we think.
So...The Lodger made me think. It piqued my interest in Dorothy Richardson. But as a novel...it felt somewhat artificial and underwhelming.
Honestly, I'm not quite sure how to review this book. If the purpose was to pique my interest in the real-life Dorothy Richardson and her work, then it was a resounding success. I went into this knowing nothing about Richardson and being far more familiar with the work of H.G. Wells (the "Bertie" of this novel with whom Richardson had a relationship). After reading The Lodger, I was curious about both Richardson's life as an independent woman at a time when such a lifestyle was discouraged, and about her work, which seems like a precursor to more famously experimental and feminist literature. All of that fascinates me, and I definitely want to know more.
But as a novel...um...it was an easy read. The writing was competent and quick. The descriptions were often quite nice. And there were some passages that provided food for thought about feminist perspectives and the difficulties that women like Richardson faced. But if that sounds like I'm damning the novel with faint praise...it's probably because I am.
Oddly enough, it's Treger who manages to explain my issues with the novel when she has Dorothy describe what she is attempting to capture in her new style of writing. "To let reality filter through, she had to keep her own voice out of it--no explaining, summing up, depicting characters and incidents in immutable lines. There had to be another way of writing convincingly--what was it? She didn't want to instruct her reader what to think and feel. Reading should be a process of collaboration between reader and author, a path of discovery. It should be an adventure."
This, I think, is why I found myself both fascinated with Richardson as a writer and disappointed with Treger's novel about her. Treger does the exact opposite of what she claims Richardson was attempting. Treger tells us how to feel...about Bertie, about Dorothy, about the women's suffrage movement, about independence, about literature... In spite of the first person limited perspective, which should have allowed the readers to get inside Dorothy's head, it all felt very constructed, very filtered, carefully crafted to force us to agree with Treger's interpretations. It took the life out of the novel for me, as well as reducing complicated relationships and a complicated period of history to simplistic interpretations.
What's more, I don't like Dorothy. I sympathize with her. I feel for her. And I think that Richardson (the actual writer, not the character) was probably a fascinating woman and a revolutionary writer. But Dorothy, in this novel, is constantly judging everyone around her. Even with her lovers, she acts as though she is above them, often making contemptuous or pitying comments about even the most important people in her life. It felt like Treger was speaking in Dorothy's voice to remind us that Dorothy was ahead of her time, and therefore above all of these other people. It rang false, and a bit petty.
So as a novel...I'm not convinced this book succeeds. It does, however, present some interesting pictures of a woman struggling for independence in a hostile world. And some passages stand out: "Her life appeared in a bleak relentless light: she was poor and isolated, hovering permanently on the brink of catastrophe, without security or prospects. A combination of hard work and insufficient nourishment was destroying her strength, If she wasn't fit to earn a living, what would become of her?" I kept thinking how disturbingly easy it would be to apply this to many modern women (and men) working difficult but low-paying jobs in an economy that offers less and less security. Perhaps times haven't changed so much for the working poor. There was also this: "The reason women didn't produce much 'art' was because they were pulled in different directions; torn and scattered by the unending multiplicity of their preoccupations and tasks; unable to do any one thing properly. It was a state of being unknown to men. Art demands what present-day society won't give to women, she decided." Aside from the obvious ways in which this quote is summarizing Virginia Woolf (A Room of One's Own), it also echoes things I've heard from modern working mothers...or simply under-paid workers (both male and female) who hold down two jobs (or more) and try to squeeze "art" in around the edges. Again, perhaps times haven't changed as much as we think.
So...The Lodger made me think. It piqued my interest in Dorothy Richardson. But as a novel...it felt somewhat artificial and underwhelming.
November 4, 2014
The Lodger is a wonderful fictionalized account of an important period in the life of Dorothy Richardson, ground-breaking modernist writer and contemporary of Virginia Woolf. Written in beautiful prose, the book begins with Dorothy’s atmospheric visit by steam train to Dorothy’s former school friend, Jane. Jane has married writer H G Wells but her role has shrunk to a kind of chaste enabler of the writer’s talent. Immediately we enter a fascinating England of contrasts: of genteel but seedy boarding houses, of a generation of women challenging archaic roles, attempting to create meaningful lives and forge new types of love.
Against this vivid backdrop, Dorothy is a young and desperately lonely figure battling to find a new way of living: she is bold and exhilarated, but so poor she often goes hungry. When ‘Bertie’, as she knows H G Wells, makes his infatuation known to her, the couple become lovers, meeting in cheap hotel rooms because of Wells’ fear of scandal.
Treger’s magic is to take risks with the reader’s sympathies, by illuminating Dorothy’s quest for fulfilment while not quite allowing us to detest Wells and his sexual selfishness. With the irony of true-to-life characters, it appears to be Bertie’s crucial encouragement that urges Dorothy to begin writing, a process in which she can finally find her true spirit.
Another risk is to examine the life of a revolutionary writer, a pioneer of the ‘gendered’ female sentence and author of the now largely forgotten ‘Pilgrimage’ sequence of novels. This is a challenge for a debut novelist, but Treger succeeds, not by by replicating full blown ‘stream of consciousness’ style, but by adopting a sensitive, delicate prose style that maps out Dorothy’s moods, from euphoria to profound depression. At times I was reminded of Woolf’s character, the painter Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse, forever striving to impress a pattern on the complexity of existence. I was particularly moved by vivid scenes of police violence to suffragettes (and the crass reactions of male bystanders), and a scene of utter poignancy towards the end. True to its themes of female exploration, it seems appropriate that Dorothy’s affair with Wells is contrasted with Dorothy’s more erotically charged affair with another female lodger, yet the times are such that this love is condemned to secrecy. Another strong presence is London itself: foggy, shabby, crowded, and predatory towards a lonely woman.
What I was left with at the end of this book was that ineffable appreciation of other lives in other times, of women’s bravery, fear and excitement on the cusp of social change. There is nothing formulaic about this novel, for as Dorothy comes to understand, unlike genre fiction, ‘The unthinkable happens in life.’
Against this vivid backdrop, Dorothy is a young and desperately lonely figure battling to find a new way of living: she is bold and exhilarated, but so poor she often goes hungry. When ‘Bertie’, as she knows H G Wells, makes his infatuation known to her, the couple become lovers, meeting in cheap hotel rooms because of Wells’ fear of scandal.
Treger’s magic is to take risks with the reader’s sympathies, by illuminating Dorothy’s quest for fulfilment while not quite allowing us to detest Wells and his sexual selfishness. With the irony of true-to-life characters, it appears to be Bertie’s crucial encouragement that urges Dorothy to begin writing, a process in which she can finally find her true spirit.
Another risk is to examine the life of a revolutionary writer, a pioneer of the ‘gendered’ female sentence and author of the now largely forgotten ‘Pilgrimage’ sequence of novels. This is a challenge for a debut novelist, but Treger succeeds, not by by replicating full blown ‘stream of consciousness’ style, but by adopting a sensitive, delicate prose style that maps out Dorothy’s moods, from euphoria to profound depression. At times I was reminded of Woolf’s character, the painter Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse, forever striving to impress a pattern on the complexity of existence. I was particularly moved by vivid scenes of police violence to suffragettes (and the crass reactions of male bystanders), and a scene of utter poignancy towards the end. True to its themes of female exploration, it seems appropriate that Dorothy’s affair with Wells is contrasted with Dorothy’s more erotically charged affair with another female lodger, yet the times are such that this love is condemned to secrecy. Another strong presence is London itself: foggy, shabby, crowded, and predatory towards a lonely woman.
What I was left with at the end of this book was that ineffable appreciation of other lives in other times, of women’s bravery, fear and excitement on the cusp of social change. There is nothing formulaic about this novel, for as Dorothy comes to understand, unlike genre fiction, ‘The unthinkable happens in life.’
May 20, 2015
I've been aware of Dorothy Richardson for a long, long time without ever reading her work.
When I was very young and Virago Modern Classics were a brand new idea I remember seeing the Pilgrimage, her thirteen novel series, collected in four thick volumes that had covers that were similar but not quite the same. They looked very important and rather frightening.
Years later, I looked at those four big books again and I learned how very significant Dorothy Richardson had been. That she published the first complete work of stream-of-consciousness fiction, and from that first novel a whole series of autobiographical novels grew, speaking profoundly of the female experience.
Virginia Woolf, who published her own first novel in 1915, praised her for inventing “the psychological sentence of the feminine gender .....”
I meant to begin reading the novels, and the first volume of Pilgrimage was sitting on my bedside table when I went to hear Louisa Treger speak about Dorothy Richardson and about 'The Lodger', her first novel, inspired by Dorothy's life and writing. She spoke with such erudition and such love that I was inspired. But I was also left with a dilemma. What should I read first? The thirteen novels she wrote or the one novel about her?
I settled on the one novel about her, hoping that it would inspire me to start the long journey through the thirteen. And I think it has.
Dorothy's affair with H.G. Wells is at the centre of the book and it is story of adultery and regret; told with understanding and horribly easy to believe. Bertie Wells, is married to an old friend of Dorothy’s old school friends, but still she is drawn into a relationship with a man whose charms a more mature woman, a less vulnerable woman, would have found easy to resist.
She did feel remorse over her betrayal of a friend, but it was mixed with so many other feelings. She was grieving after her mother’s recent suicide, something she believed she could, she should have prevented. She was living in London boarding house, she was working at a dull job in a dentist's surgery, but she knew that she could do more, be more..
I felt for her, I really did. Louisa Treger presented the life and the emptions, the hopes and the dreams and the fears of a real, complex, fallible woman quite beautifully.
She was a woman who knew that she had to make a life for herself. She began to write fiction - ironically, after being encourage to do so by her lover - and she began a new relationship, discovered another aspect of her sexuality, with a new lodger at her boarding house. They were both feminists; one would be imprisoned as she fought for female suffrage, and one would struggle to find a pure form of writing of a woman's consciousness:
That was when this book began to fly.
It had been a very well told story of one woman's life, written in traditional prose rather than stream of consciousness that woman wrote - a wise choice I think, because this is a biographical not an autobiographical novel - but then it found a passion and a depth that had been just a little lacking in the story of the life and the affair
I had been very taken with woman and with the progress of her life, but when I read about the writing I was inspired.
And maybe that was right.
Because now I want to know more about Dorothy Richardson, and I know that the first of those four volumes is still on my bedside table ....
When I was very young and Virago Modern Classics were a brand new idea I remember seeing the Pilgrimage, her thirteen novel series, collected in four thick volumes that had covers that were similar but not quite the same. They looked very important and rather frightening.
Years later, I looked at those four big books again and I learned how very significant Dorothy Richardson had been. That she published the first complete work of stream-of-consciousness fiction, and from that first novel a whole series of autobiographical novels grew, speaking profoundly of the female experience.
Virginia Woolf, who published her own first novel in 1915, praised her for inventing “the psychological sentence of the feminine gender .....”
I meant to begin reading the novels, and the first volume of Pilgrimage was sitting on my bedside table when I went to hear Louisa Treger speak about Dorothy Richardson and about 'The Lodger', her first novel, inspired by Dorothy's life and writing. She spoke with such erudition and such love that I was inspired. But I was also left with a dilemma. What should I read first? The thirteen novels she wrote or the one novel about her?
I settled on the one novel about her, hoping that it would inspire me to start the long journey through the thirteen. And I think it has.
Dorothy's affair with H.G. Wells is at the centre of the book and it is story of adultery and regret; told with understanding and horribly easy to believe. Bertie Wells, is married to an old friend of Dorothy’s old school friends, but still she is drawn into a relationship with a man whose charms a more mature woman, a less vulnerable woman, would have found easy to resist.
She did feel remorse over her betrayal of a friend, but it was mixed with so many other feelings. She was grieving after her mother’s recent suicide, something she believed she could, she should have prevented. She was living in London boarding house, she was working at a dull job in a dentist's surgery, but she knew that she could do more, be more..
I felt for her, I really did. Louisa Treger presented the life and the emptions, the hopes and the dreams and the fears of a real, complex, fallible woman quite beautifully.
She was a woman who knew that she had to make a life for herself. She began to write fiction - ironically, after being encourage to do so by her lover - and she began a new relationship, discovered another aspect of her sexuality, with a new lodger at her boarding house. They were both feminists; one would be imprisoned as she fought for female suffrage, and one would struggle to find a pure form of writing of a woman's consciousness:
'She didn’t want to instruct her reader what to think and feel. . . . The inner world of her heroine — her maturing developing consciousness — would be all there was.'
That was when this book began to fly.
It had been a very well told story of one woman's life, written in traditional prose rather than stream of consciousness that woman wrote - a wise choice I think, because this is a biographical not an autobiographical novel - but then it found a passion and a depth that had been just a little lacking in the story of the life and the affair
I had been very taken with woman and with the progress of her life, but when I read about the writing I was inspired.
And maybe that was right.
Because now I want to know more about Dorothy Richardson, and I know that the first of those four volumes is still on my bedside table ....
November 25, 2016
I devoured the gorgeous words of this debut novel on numerous gloomy bus trips to work, and was transported to the early 1900s, to London, to an era of extreme sexism, and Dorothy Richardson, later a peer of Virginia Woolf and a central figure in the emergence of modernist fiction. Through an illicit relationship (a variety, in truth) and through poverty, she begins to write. The book is a beautiful mix of fact and fiction, the kind where the research is so well done that you barely notice it. I discovered that Tregar is a musician too and it makes absolute sense - there is such a poetic and lyrical quality to the language. There were certain paragraphs I read over a few times. I can't recommend this book enough.
December 8, 2016
Dorothy Richardson, the central character of The Lodger, fascinated me. She was a real person and Louisa Treger has done a brilliant job in mingling fact and fiction.
When the book opens in 1906 she is living in near poverty in London, working as a dentist's secretary and living in an attic room in lodgings. In spite of this hardship she has the most refreshing attitude to the freedom of her life. She glories in her long walks around London and in her ideas about people.
She resists two marriage proposals both of which offered her a way out of poverty and struggle: 'But she couldn't get married just to stop being tired.'
She starts an affair with the married writer H G Wells and this has a huge influence on her and eventually starts her on the road to writing her own novels.
The more I read this book the more I found myself admiring Dorothy's courage, her strength of purpose and her lack of bitterness. She has very low and vulnerable moments too and these are shown vividly.
The tone of voice of the book felt so right and you get a real feeling of how it felt to be a woman living at that time.
Dorothy was an important modernist writer, one of the first to explore how to capture a uniquely feminine point of view and she should be better known. Unfortunately Virginia Woolf made some mean-spirited criticism of her work.
Louisa Treger has produced such a rich evocation of Dorothy that I think this will direct readers back to her writings. I loved it.
September 9, 2014
I received a copy of The Lodger as the result of a Goodreads giveaway. The novel was a quick read, with a deceptively simplistic writing style that dragged me from one chapter into the next over and over again. The atmosphere of poverty and grime in this story looms heavily the entire time, taking just as central a role as any of the characters do.
The romantic relationships seemed fatalistic, to me, and didn't even seem to surprise the main character all that much when they appeared, blossomed, and proceeded swiftly along the tracks to their various endings. But, all of the characters were very engaging and their interactions were nonetheless entertaining for their predictability.
I enjoyed reading this novel, and feel lucky to have received a copy. It was an odd feeling, peeking into the lives of famous writers from history in this extremely personal, visceral way.
The romantic relationships seemed fatalistic, to me, and didn't even seem to surprise the main character all that much when they appeared, blossomed, and proceeded swiftly along the tracks to their various endings. But, all of the characters were very engaging and their interactions were nonetheless entertaining for their predictability.
I enjoyed reading this novel, and feel lucky to have received a copy. It was an odd feeling, peeking into the lives of famous writers from history in this extremely personal, visceral way.
March 12, 2020
A fascinating story with a mix of fact and fiction that did a wonderful job of transporting me back in time, and brought the story of Dorothy Richardson to my attention, as I'm ashamed to say I knew very little of her and her work before I picked this book up.
This follows the story of Dorothy as she moves to London and tries to find her way, and herself!, in a world that is very sexist and dismissive of women and their intentions to make it in the world. She's working as a dentist's secretary, living in poverty in a room in a boarding house, but feels that there's more to this world, even if she's unsure what that is and how she fits into it. She catches the eye of her friends' husband, the one and only H G Wells, and embarks on an affair with him that seems to be unsatisfying for both of them but they just can't seem to live without each other. She knows she shouldn't do what she's doing but seems unable to stop herself! But what he does encourage her to do is to write, and spending time with him she starts to discover more about herself and just how resilient she really is. You can understand her dilemma though as the attention must have been flattering and as she was so unsure of herself. It must have been a huge boost to her ego that someone as well known as H G Wells would show an interest in her.
Another fascinating character is Veronica whom she meets at the boarding house, and that was an intriguing twist to the tale and allowed them both to find comfort in one another - but in secret! It's also set around the suffragete time so reading about the treatment the women received was staggering and just vile but really brought it to the fore about what those women were fighting for.
It's a story of loss, loneliness and self discovery and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey I was taken on with Dorothy and the world she lived in.
This follows the story of Dorothy as she moves to London and tries to find her way, and herself!, in a world that is very sexist and dismissive of women and their intentions to make it in the world. She's working as a dentist's secretary, living in poverty in a room in a boarding house, but feels that there's more to this world, even if she's unsure what that is and how she fits into it. She catches the eye of her friends' husband, the one and only H G Wells, and embarks on an affair with him that seems to be unsatisfying for both of them but they just can't seem to live without each other. She knows she shouldn't do what she's doing but seems unable to stop herself! But what he does encourage her to do is to write, and spending time with him she starts to discover more about herself and just how resilient she really is. You can understand her dilemma though as the attention must have been flattering and as she was so unsure of herself. It must have been a huge boost to her ego that someone as well known as H G Wells would show an interest in her.
Another fascinating character is Veronica whom she meets at the boarding house, and that was an intriguing twist to the tale and allowed them both to find comfort in one another - but in secret! It's also set around the suffragete time so reading about the treatment the women received was staggering and just vile but really brought it to the fore about what those women were fighting for.
It's a story of loss, loneliness and self discovery and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey I was taken on with Dorothy and the world she lived in.
January 23, 2016
THE LODGER is an impressive debut for Ms. Treger. She weaves fact and fiction seamlessly in this story about 20th century writer Dorothy Richardson. Dorothy is determined to live freely on her own accord without being stifled within the bonds of marriage, but freedom has its price--hunger, oppressive loneliness and drudgery of another kind as she lives barely above poverty. It's no wonder that Dorothy falls under spell of H.G. Wells, the husband of her oldest friend. She struggles with her loyalty to Jane and the pull from the charismatic Bertie.
The author takes the reader inside the mind of Dorothy as she lives through crisis after crisis. Events of the suffragette movements sweep her up in the drama when her friend Veronica plans to march in a peaceful demonstration. Dorothy knows absolute bliss and abject depressions and Ms. Treger gives the reader a front row seat to both. Knowing that Dorothy was an important voice for women writers in the early 20th century makes this novel even more riveting. A slight criticism is that the author's descriptions tended to be a bit too long and took me out of the story. This is a powerful story of how one woman found her voice against seemingly impossible odds. Highly Recommended.
The author takes the reader inside the mind of Dorothy as she lives through crisis after crisis. Events of the suffragette movements sweep her up in the drama when her friend Veronica plans to march in a peaceful demonstration. Dorothy knows absolute bliss and abject depressions and Ms. Treger gives the reader a front row seat to both. Knowing that Dorothy was an important voice for women writers in the early 20th century makes this novel even more riveting. A slight criticism is that the author's descriptions tended to be a bit too long and took me out of the story. This is a powerful story of how one woman found her voice against seemingly impossible odds. Highly Recommended.
October 29, 2014
The Lodger is a historical fiction based on the actual life of Dorothy Richardson. Richardson was a writer in Victorian London. This account deals with the period where she begins her writing career.
The Lodger has shades of Sarah Waters The Paying Guest ....there are several similarities. I will leave it at that, as to not give away any spoilers!
The Lodger has shades of Sarah Waters The Paying Guest ....there are several similarities. I will leave it at that, as to not give away any spoilers!
March 6, 2021
Disclaimer: Jonathan Ball Publishers South Africa kindly sent me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Lodger is not entirely a work of historical fiction. Louisa Treger based her protagonist on the real life story of Dorothy Richardson who helped pioneer 'stream-of-consciousness' writing in the 1800's. Richardson's story is virtually unknown, and it is through Treger's delicate handling that we are introduced to not only a fascinating literary character but also to a writer who may have been overshadowed by the male authors of that time.
Dorothy Richardson lives in London in a bit of a second-rate boarding house making the bare minimum wage as a secretary. Her life is surrounded by poverty, and this stark existence is only ever interrupted briefly by an invitation from her childhood friend Jane to visit her (and her husband) in the country. With very little reason to turn the invitation down Dorothy leaves London by train and is met at the station by Jane's husband Bertie, who is also the very famous writer H.G.Wells, author of The Time Machine. The weekend is a success, though a little strange for reasons Dorothy can't quite put her finger on. Soon she is visiting every weekend, and after numerous flirtations finds herself involved in a very torrid love affair with Bertie – who is insistent that his wife knows all about his indiscretions, and simply asks that he not flaunt them in front of her.
Dorothy is torn. Torn between the world of physical pleasure, and the guilt over her affair with Bertie. In the midst of their passion Bertie leans on Dorothy more frequently, often reading his work to her, whilst her friendship with Jane dwindles. Her life in London has not changed much though, and the stark contrast between her poverty-stricken life and her weekends in the country are becoming clearer. When a new lodger moves into the boarding house, Dorothy's life once again changes dramatically, and through it all she will discover both a passion and a talent for writing.
Veronica Leslie-Jones who moves into the boarding house is exotic and alluring and an active member of the suffragettes. She exposes Dorothy to a whole new world, and in turn Dorothy begins to seriously question her involvement with Bertie, and her role as a woman in society in general. Treger's novel touches on a number of unconventional notions that include sexuality, Dorothy and Veronica's roles as unmarried woman, infidelity, Jane and Bertie's 'arrangement' and the overtly misogynistic character of Bertie. Dorothy herself has broken away from conventions, not only in her lifestyle and choices but in her style of writing – one that is completely her own.
“It's the same thing that makes me dislike so many novels – the endless accumulation of external detail. Where's the life in it? Reality isn't fixed; it's continual movement and fluctuation. I'd love to find a way of writing that captures it.”
Though Treger's novel is brief, it unpacks a variety of social issues and showcases a very bleak London at a time of great suffering amongst the poor and the oppressed. The massive distinction between the rich and the working class was broad, and does not feel very different to our present society. Scattered amongst the love affairs and the notion of love and sex, there are women marching in the streets in order to be allowed to vote, and Virginia Woolf is reviewing Dorothy's work – and not very favorably, mind you.
This is a novel about writing, about novels, about being a revolutionary and remaining chaste. It is a novel about the practicalities of love, and about unrequited love and forbidden love. Written beautifully and sensitively The Lodger mingles fiction and truth in a tale about finding yourself in the rawest sense, and remaining true to that despite the many contradictions and obstacles that may never actually lead you to the place you desire. At a time when being a woman and being a writer were revolutionary acts, Dorothy's journey is a refreshing reminder that human beings have (and most likely always will) fight the most delicate and traumatic of wars just to be able to be themselves.
February 27, 2024
Dorothy and Jane have been friends since school. One weekend, Jane invites Dorothy to come spend the weekend with her and her husband, Bertie. Bertie and Dorothy come to fall in love, but Jane’s the “understanding” type and allows Bertie his affairs. Dorothy is the independent type so, eventually, her attachment to Bertie starts losing its luster.
When she’s not spending the weekends with Jane and Bertie, Dorothy lives in a boardinghouse in London. A new boarder appears one day and causes Dorothy to feel things that she’s always tried to suppress.
Ultimately, this novel is about Dorothy’s struggle to be like everyone else or be her own independent person who can take care of herself. It’s an interesting read that could possibly frustrate the feminist in you.
When she’s not spending the weekends with Jane and Bertie, Dorothy lives in a boardinghouse in London. A new boarder appears one day and causes Dorothy to feel things that she’s always tried to suppress.
Ultimately, this novel is about Dorothy’s struggle to be like everyone else or be her own independent person who can take care of herself. It’s an interesting read that could possibly frustrate the feminist in you.
January 30, 2023
Was H.G. Wells really like this??
Something seems weird or off about Bertie (H.G. Wells) from the moment he runs up to Dorothy at the train station to pick her up. Who nicknames their wife ‘Jane’ when her name is Amy Catherine? It was never explained where the nickname came from. At first, Dorothy thinks it’s strange too and that the plain name doesn’t fit the old friend she remembers, and yet, it doesn’t take long for Dorothy to be calling her ‘Jane’ too.
Also, why would Dorothy be hesitant in talking to Jane about the ‘relationship arrangement’ that Bertie told her they had together? If they really did talk about it and made this deal together there shouldn’t be a problem in telling Jane about the probability of her getting together with Bertie. Maybe just leave out her growing feels for the man, but Dorothy should at least bring this up with Jane and ask her if they really do have this agreement before going any farther with Bertie.
A couple weeks into Dorothy getting to know Bertie, she overhears him talking to his wife about what is going on between him and Dorothy. The excuse that Bertie gives Jane for cheating on her; “When I’m at home for more than a few days at a time, I get into an impatient and claustrophobic state, I can’t help myself. I know how ugly this sounds, forgive me . . . the crude fact is that I have bodily appetites you are too fragile to meet. I truly love you, but I have this basic need for the thing itself. I must have it when the craving takes me, to release tension and leave my mind clear for work. You and my work are my true obsessions. The sex thing is merely refreshment. Believe me, I have no satisfaction in being enslaved to its tiresome insatiability” (72). What kind of excuse is this?? And I highly doubt he gets ‘no satisfaction’ from his sex drive’s ‘tiresome insatiability’.
Another thing that didn't make a lot of sense was why Dorothy thinks Veronica was the one that left the message for her on the mirror. I mean, she was just being followed by some strange man, and by the time she gets home she is obviously anxious over what had happened outside . . . So when she finally gets home and sees the "I Love You" message on her mirror her mind jumps straight to her new friend?? Shouldn’t her first instinct be that some man broke inside her apartment to write the message. We already know that Dorothy doesn’t always lock her door. Anyone could have come in. Even though Veronica seems to have a knack for breaking her gifts from past lovers, which could possibly be seen as jealousy, having Veronica announce her love in this way should not be Dorothy’s first thought; especially after just being stalked by a man on her way home. And we weren’t even told about Veronica breaking stuff until AFTER Dorothy found the message. Anybody reading this book wouldn’t have gone straight to pointing the finger at Veronica given the limited information we know about her. This possibility came completely out of no where.
Something seems weird or off about Bertie (H.G. Wells) from the moment he runs up to Dorothy at the train station to pick her up. Who nicknames their wife ‘Jane’ when her name is Amy Catherine? It was never explained where the nickname came from. At first, Dorothy thinks it’s strange too and that the plain name doesn’t fit the old friend she remembers, and yet, it doesn’t take long for Dorothy to be calling her ‘Jane’ too.
Also, why would Dorothy be hesitant in talking to Jane about the ‘relationship arrangement’ that Bertie told her they had together? If they really did talk about it and made this deal together there shouldn’t be a problem in telling Jane about the probability of her getting together with Bertie. Maybe just leave out her growing feels for the man, but Dorothy should at least bring this up with Jane and ask her if they really do have this agreement before going any farther with Bertie.
A couple weeks into Dorothy getting to know Bertie, she overhears him talking to his wife about what is going on between him and Dorothy. The excuse that Bertie gives Jane for cheating on her; “When I’m at home for more than a few days at a time, I get into an impatient and claustrophobic state, I can’t help myself. I know how ugly this sounds, forgive me . . . the crude fact is that I have bodily appetites you are too fragile to meet. I truly love you, but I have this basic need for the thing itself. I must have it when the craving takes me, to release tension and leave my mind clear for work. You and my work are my true obsessions. The sex thing is merely refreshment. Believe me, I have no satisfaction in being enslaved to its tiresome insatiability” (72). What kind of excuse is this?? And I highly doubt he gets ‘no satisfaction’ from his sex drive’s ‘tiresome insatiability’.
Another thing that didn't make a lot of sense was why Dorothy thinks Veronica was the one that left the message for her on the mirror. I mean, she was just being followed by some strange man, and by the time she gets home she is obviously anxious over what had happened outside . . . So when she finally gets home and sees the "I Love You" message on her mirror her mind jumps straight to her new friend?? Shouldn’t her first instinct be that some man broke inside her apartment to write the message. We already know that Dorothy doesn’t always lock her door. Anyone could have come in. Even though Veronica seems to have a knack for breaking her gifts from past lovers, which could possibly be seen as jealousy, having Veronica announce her love in this way should not be Dorothy’s first thought; especially after just being stalked by a man on her way home. And we weren’t even told about Veronica breaking stuff until AFTER Dorothy found the message. Anybody reading this book wouldn’t have gone straight to pointing the finger at Veronica given the limited information we know about her. This possibility came completely out of no where.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 20, 2014
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity of reading an Advanced Reading Copy of this fascinating debut novel by Louisa Treger and I loved it.
The central character of The Lodger, Dorothy Richardson, earns her living as a secretary to a dentist. An unusual situation for most middle-class Edwardian girls, but Dorothy’s father is bankrupt and rather than live in genteel poverty, within the protection of her family, Dorothy moves to London to become a working woman.
Despite the many hardships of her precariat existence, Dorothy embraces the opportunity to become a truly independent woman as she struggles with loneliness, inadequate food and the discomfort of a dilapidated boarding house. Then she receives an invitation from an old school friend who lives with her new husband, the writer H.G. Wells (Bertie), in a comfortable house in the country. Bertie is a compelling character: dynamic, charming with a voracious appetite for life and a growing interest in the sympathetic and intelligent Dorothy, they become friends and inevitably lovers.
As Dorothy continues to cope with the harsh realities of being a member of the working poor, she enjoys many aspects of her new life in London. Some of the book's most delightful passages describe Dorothy on her bicycle as she pedals her way around London, keenly observant of the daily lives of those around her; details she enjoys relating to Bertie who urges her to consider writing about her experiences.
At her boarding house she is drawn into friendship with her fellow lodgers. Veronica, a vital, captivating and exquisitely beautiful young woman, is fascinated by the courage and determination displayed by the militant suffragette movement.
Veronica and Dorothy become passionately involved in a love affair. As Veronica is drawn further into the dangers of the militant women’s movement - and the inevitable path to imprisonment and the horrors of forcible feeding - Dorothy goes through her own transformation toward emancipation. As she ends her constricting relationship with Bertie, and avoids marriage as the only opportunity to lead a protected and more stable life, she turns to writing and it is through her work that she discovers herself.
Louisa Treger tells Dorothy Richardson’s story of her early life, before she became a recognized writer, with strength and honesty. Her deft portrayal of Dorothy’s most intimate feelings as she struggles with issues entirely in context with the time in which she lives is beautifully written with sympathy and understanding. Dorothy’s heartbreak at the loss of her mother, her very real fear of loneliness and her sense of disenfranchisement from the rigid social conventions of the day give the reader a very strong sense of place and time. Dorothy’s friendship with Bertie and her joyful love for Veronica reveal a woman of compassion and true understanding.
The central character of The Lodger, Dorothy Richardson, earns her living as a secretary to a dentist. An unusual situation for most middle-class Edwardian girls, but Dorothy’s father is bankrupt and rather than live in genteel poverty, within the protection of her family, Dorothy moves to London to become a working woman.
Despite the many hardships of her precariat existence, Dorothy embraces the opportunity to become a truly independent woman as she struggles with loneliness, inadequate food and the discomfort of a dilapidated boarding house. Then she receives an invitation from an old school friend who lives with her new husband, the writer H.G. Wells (Bertie), in a comfortable house in the country. Bertie is a compelling character: dynamic, charming with a voracious appetite for life and a growing interest in the sympathetic and intelligent Dorothy, they become friends and inevitably lovers.
As Dorothy continues to cope with the harsh realities of being a member of the working poor, she enjoys many aspects of her new life in London. Some of the book's most delightful passages describe Dorothy on her bicycle as she pedals her way around London, keenly observant of the daily lives of those around her; details she enjoys relating to Bertie who urges her to consider writing about her experiences.
At her boarding house she is drawn into friendship with her fellow lodgers. Veronica, a vital, captivating and exquisitely beautiful young woman, is fascinated by the courage and determination displayed by the militant suffragette movement.
Veronica and Dorothy become passionately involved in a love affair. As Veronica is drawn further into the dangers of the militant women’s movement - and the inevitable path to imprisonment and the horrors of forcible feeding - Dorothy goes through her own transformation toward emancipation. As she ends her constricting relationship with Bertie, and avoids marriage as the only opportunity to lead a protected and more stable life, she turns to writing and it is through her work that she discovers herself.
Louisa Treger tells Dorothy Richardson’s story of her early life, before she became a recognized writer, with strength and honesty. Her deft portrayal of Dorothy’s most intimate feelings as she struggles with issues entirely in context with the time in which she lives is beautifully written with sympathy and understanding. Dorothy’s heartbreak at the loss of her mother, her very real fear of loneliness and her sense of disenfranchisement from the rigid social conventions of the day give the reader a very strong sense of place and time. Dorothy’s friendship with Bertie and her joyful love for Veronica reveal a woman of compassion and true understanding.
May 20, 2015
Before reading The Lodger I hadn't heard much about Dorothy Richardson – a modernist writer and contemporary of Virginia Woolf as well as lover to H.G.Wells. But this novel manages to successfully weave fiction and fact together to tell a story of what her life was like in the turn of the 20th Century, and how and why she became a writer. The author successfully tells a gripping story of the poverty Dorothy faces in grimy, foggy London, living in a boarding house with some colourful characters and never having very much money. When she goes to stay with an old school friend Jane she becomes enraptured with her husband, Bertie (H.G Wells). They live in a beautiful country house with no money worries and being with the couple helps Dorothy forget her own poverty and hunger for a while. But when her feelings for Bertie are reciprocated she flees back to London, eaten up with guilt at what she's doing to her oldest friend.
Back in London Dorothy is unhappy and pines for Bertie. When he turns up outside her lodgings and declares his feelings for her they begin an affair, meeting up in tatty hotel rooms, hidden away from society due to Bertie's fear of a scandal. Dorothy, who resisted getting married to the men who had asked because she wanted to keep her freedom, begins to realise that she is still being stifled and, in some ways, controlled by a man.
When she meets a new lodger, the beautiful, capacious Veronica, a suffragette, she realises what it's like to feel true physical passion. But their love also has to be hidden away, due to the nature of the times.
I really enjoyed this novel, it reminded me of Sarah Waters The Paying Guests in some ways (a novel that I loved); the lodging house, the romance between two women, the intensity of wanting to be free but being constrained by the times. The author's writing is beautiful and gripping and I wanted to turn the pages to find out what happened to Dorothy, Veronica and Bertie. Highly recommended.
October 21, 2014
This was a amazing read. I really liked the story. Every time I picked the book up to read, I felt this calming feeling as I went from one page to the next. The story takes you to another world and draws you in to the point to where you can actually visualize the people and the places they go. This to me, shows a really great author. One who truly knows how to write. Seeing how this is her first novel and realizing how great it is, I know she will have more great reads to come.
We are taken on a journey in the time of the twentieth century through the eyes of Dorothy Richardson. She is not doing all that well financially, but is able to survive. It starts of with her spending some time with an old friend and realizing that she has fallen for her husband. Even though that is something that shouldn't be touched, they decided to start to see each other. In the midst of it all, she meets up with a lady named Veronica, who winds up caring for her also. Dorothy is torn between who to care for. During that time, a life with Veronica would be looked upon as not being normal. Then again, if she stays with her friends husband, she could ruin a very important friendship. Along the way, she decides that she wants to take a stab at writing, just like her lover, who happens to be H.G. Wells. Through all of this, she experienced a major life altering crisis. Who does she choose? How does her life turn out? Does she become a writer? Of course your going to have to read the story to find out.
I can't see anyone not liking this book. It was well written and is a simple read. The story and dialogue isn't too over complicated so you can easily get in to the story and not want to put the book down.
We are taken on a journey in the time of the twentieth century through the eyes of Dorothy Richardson. She is not doing all that well financially, but is able to survive. It starts of with her spending some time with an old friend and realizing that she has fallen for her husband. Even though that is something that shouldn't be touched, they decided to start to see each other. In the midst of it all, she meets up with a lady named Veronica, who winds up caring for her also. Dorothy is torn between who to care for. During that time, a life with Veronica would be looked upon as not being normal. Then again, if she stays with her friends husband, she could ruin a very important friendship. Along the way, she decides that she wants to take a stab at writing, just like her lover, who happens to be H.G. Wells. Through all of this, she experienced a major life altering crisis. Who does she choose? How does her life turn out? Does she become a writer? Of course your going to have to read the story to find out.
I can't see anyone not liking this book. It was well written and is a simple read. The story and dialogue isn't too over complicated so you can easily get in to the story and not want to put the book down.
November 29, 2015
The Lodger by Louisa Treger is a debut novel that sets the tone for a promising writing career. Set in the 20th Century, The Lodger acts as both a biographical book as well as historical fiction, which makes for intriguing reading. Furthermore, there's a feminist undertone to this book; sexuality and independence are explored.
I've never heard of Dorothy Richardson before I read The Lodger, but I've done some research on her work and I must say that I'm rather disappointed in myself for not knowing about her earlier. H.G. Wells, on the other hand, is one of the most prolific writers of his time (and I know his work quite well). Reading about their personal lives, though, was a rather interesting way to discover more about the world we've left behind. Yes, people still face similar struggles today, but things have still changed a lot.
What I liked the most about this book was the author's writing style. Although this is a debut, Louisa Treger's writing was able to transport me back in time. The beautiful descriptions and her word use is not what I expected from a debut writer, but it was definitely refreshing and it sets the bar high for other writers.
If you're looking for a gift for the reader in your life, The Lodger needs to go onto your shortlist. Historical fiction lovers will love it. Fans of H.G. Wells would enjoy it. And those who want to know more about the interesting life of Dorothy Richardson would want to get their hands on it.
Review originally posted at:
I've never heard of Dorothy Richardson before I read The Lodger, but I've done some research on her work and I must say that I'm rather disappointed in myself for not knowing about her earlier. H.G. Wells, on the other hand, is one of the most prolific writers of his time (and I know his work quite well). Reading about their personal lives, though, was a rather interesting way to discover more about the world we've left behind. Yes, people still face similar struggles today, but things have still changed a lot.
What I liked the most about this book was the author's writing style. Although this is a debut, Louisa Treger's writing was able to transport me back in time. The beautiful descriptions and her word use is not what I expected from a debut writer, but it was definitely refreshing and it sets the bar high for other writers.
If you're looking for a gift for the reader in your life, The Lodger needs to go onto your shortlist. Historical fiction lovers will love it. Fans of H.G. Wells would enjoy it. And those who want to know more about the interesting life of Dorothy Richardson would want to get their hands on it.
Review originally posted at:
September 6, 2014
See this review on 1776books.net...
http://1776books.blogspot.com/2014/09...
Louisa Treger's The Lodger has an interesting story on how it came about. Treger was looking for an angle about Virginia Woolf that hadn't been done before and came across something Woolf had written about peer Dorothy Richardson. She decided to delve deeper into Richardson's life, of which nothing much had been written about up to that point.
A major English writer in the early twentieth century, Richardson did not have an easy time of it at first. She was residing in a boarding house, trying to scrape up enough money to live on from her job, when she became infatuated with her friend's husband, Bertie (otherwise known as Mr. H.G. Wells). Dorothy and Bertie began a passionate affair, but when Veronica, a new boarder, entered her life, Dorothy was torn between the two. Because of the time she was living in, her reputation would be in tatters no matter which one she chose. Treger weaves in plenty of history in The Lodger, with Dorothy beginning to write as the suffragette movement was taking place outside her walls.
This is a quick read, but I felt like the characters (though true) weren't fleshed out enough to hold my attention. However, if you're interested in this time period and in peeking into a slice of literary history, The Lodger is worth a read.
MY RATING - 3
http://1776books.blogspot.com/2014/09...
Louisa Treger's The Lodger has an interesting story on how it came about. Treger was looking for an angle about Virginia Woolf that hadn't been done before and came across something Woolf had written about peer Dorothy Richardson. She decided to delve deeper into Richardson's life, of which nothing much had been written about up to that point.
A major English writer in the early twentieth century, Richardson did not have an easy time of it at first. She was residing in a boarding house, trying to scrape up enough money to live on from her job, when she became infatuated with her friend's husband, Bertie (otherwise known as Mr. H.G. Wells). Dorothy and Bertie began a passionate affair, but when Veronica, a new boarder, entered her life, Dorothy was torn between the two. Because of the time she was living in, her reputation would be in tatters no matter which one she chose. Treger weaves in plenty of history in The Lodger, with Dorothy beginning to write as the suffragette movement was taking place outside her walls.
This is a quick read, but I felt like the characters (though true) weren't fleshed out enough to hold my attention. However, if you're interested in this time period and in peeking into a slice of literary history, The Lodger is worth a read.
MY RATING - 3
September 30, 2014
Like many a “New Woman”, Dorothy Richardson has decided to try to make her own way in the world, and comes to live in 1900s London. And despite the long hours at her underpaid job, despite the near-penury in which she lives, despite the loneliness, she is alive and independent and relying on no one but herself. And yet…emotional comfort (and physically comforting surroundings) come her way when she renews the acquaintance of an old school friend, now happily(?) married to the up-and-coming novelist, H.G. Wells. Weekend after weekend, Dorothy visits her friends, until her growing attraction to Wells eclipses all loyalty and common sense.
Their affair is inevitable, and rather predictable—but what really emerges from Dorothy’s struggles is her growing desire for agency, her own voice, and her own path in the world, which she ultimately forges, but not without great sacrifice.
I had never heard of the novelist Dorothy Richardson before, but this piece compelling and emotionally-loaded historical fiction makes me want to read her!
Their affair is inevitable, and rather predictable—but what really emerges from Dorothy’s struggles is her growing desire for agency, her own voice, and her own path in the world, which she ultimately forges, but not without great sacrifice.
I had never heard of the novelist Dorothy Richardson before, but this piece compelling and emotionally-loaded historical fiction makes me want to read her!
April 15, 2015
This atmospheric novel, which is based on the real-life affair between author and journalist Dorothy Richardson and HG Wells (or Bertie, as he was known) chronicles Dorothy’s life before she emerged as a central figure of modernist fiction among the Bloomsbury set.
Living just above the poverty line, working as a dentist’s secretary and lodging at a seedy boarding house, Dorothy escapes to the seaside home of her old school friend Jane and Bertie, Jane’s new husband. She becomes intrigued by Bertie, a moody, self-indulgent man on the cusp of fame, and they begin an affair. But she also falls in love with a new boarder at the house, the striking suffragette Veronica Leslie-Jones.
Breaking away from her unconventional arrangement, Dorothy dedicates herself to what will become a highly successful literary career. Louisa Treger has brought Dorothy to life in her compelling portrayal of a complex woman living by her own rules during the oppressive Edwardian era.
Living just above the poverty line, working as a dentist’s secretary and lodging at a seedy boarding house, Dorothy escapes to the seaside home of her old school friend Jane and Bertie, Jane’s new husband. She becomes intrigued by Bertie, a moody, self-indulgent man on the cusp of fame, and they begin an affair. But she also falls in love with a new boarder at the house, the striking suffragette Veronica Leslie-Jones.
Breaking away from her unconventional arrangement, Dorothy dedicates herself to what will become a highly successful literary career. Louisa Treger has brought Dorothy to life in her compelling portrayal of a complex woman living by her own rules during the oppressive Edwardian era.
November 5, 2014
*I won this book in a GoodReads First Reads Giveaway*
Let me begin by saying, if you are looking for a plot, this is not for you. The book wanders randomly throughout the life of the narrator, Dorothy, and is almost completely character driven. Unfortunately, I found Dorothy completely off-putting. She's selfish and condescending. The way she looks down on others, while remaining clueless to her own inadequacies, was too much for me. There was also something that rang false about her. The way she spoke, the way she thought and acted - none of it felt realistic. She never became a real person for me and I just didn't feel for her. Looking back, none of the characters were particularly likeable.
That said, it was very well written. The words flow together beautifully and quick (it only took me a day to finish). The descriptions, particularly of places, are vivid and alive. I just needed a little something more from Dorothy to make HER seem real.
Let me begin by saying, if you are looking for a plot, this is not for you. The book wanders randomly throughout the life of the narrator, Dorothy, and is almost completely character driven. Unfortunately, I found Dorothy completely off-putting. She's selfish and condescending. The way she looks down on others, while remaining clueless to her own inadequacies, was too much for me. There was also something that rang false about her. The way she spoke, the way she thought and acted - none of it felt realistic. She never became a real person for me and I just didn't feel for her. Looking back, none of the characters were particularly likeable.
That said, it was very well written. The words flow together beautifully and quick (it only took me a day to finish). The descriptions, particularly of places, are vivid and alive. I just needed a little something more from Dorothy to make HER seem real.
November 16, 2014
I was intrigued by the premise of this novel - biographical fiction about Dorothy Richardson, a woman who wrote ground-breaking novels at a time when most women had no voice at all, becoming "one of the most important writers of the twentieth century". Why had I never heard of her?
Author Louisa Treger delves into Dorothy's complex and passionate relationships with H. G.(Bertie) Wells, his wife and Dorothy's old friend Jane, and the free-spirited suffragette, Veronica. Treger's insights are keen and her writing masterful. I not only read but became part of Dorothy's struggle with poverty and loneliness, her perseverance and determination to keep her independence. I felt the ache of cold hands, the weariness of hard work, the unexpected joy of riding a bicycle through London at night and moments of heart-rending sorrow that brought me to tears.
This is a captivating, beautifully written first novel. Highly recommended.
Author Louisa Treger delves into Dorothy's complex and passionate relationships with H. G.(Bertie) Wells, his wife and Dorothy's old friend Jane, and the free-spirited suffragette, Veronica. Treger's insights are keen and her writing masterful. I not only read but became part of Dorothy's struggle with poverty and loneliness, her perseverance and determination to keep her independence. I felt the ache of cold hands, the weariness of hard work, the unexpected joy of riding a bicycle through London at night and moments of heart-rending sorrow that brought me to tears.
This is a captivating, beautifully written first novel. Highly recommended.
May 20, 2015
This beautifully written and fascinating novel reimagines a key period in the life of now-forgotten writer, Dorothy Richardson. Dorothy was a contemporary of Virginia Woolf and HG Wells, and, in fact, Wells plays an important part in the book. The story begins when Dorothy first encounters Wells, and charts their relationship from their first meeting and beyond. As well as throwing light on a little-known literary figure, and a bygone era, this novel offers an insight into the social mores of the time. Although undoubtedly meticulously researched (Treger focused on early-20th-century women’s writing for her PhD) The Lodger wears its research lightly as it is very skillfully woven into the narrative. An atmospheric tale of literary and sexual discovery, and so much more, The Lodger is a sparkling debut.
June 11, 2015
Dorothy Richardson had so very nearly been lost to us ! I became aware of her when doing a course on Virginia Woolf And Modernism recently. Richardson's books are now largely out of print but she is credited with writing the first 'stream of consciousness ' novel in the English Language . This is the centenary year of the publication of Pointed Roofs the first volume of Pilgrimage and fortunately word has it the novel series is to be reissued next year.
Treger first became aware of Richardson when researching Woolf for a PhD . Inspired, she has written a compelling and atmospheric re-imagining of Richardson's life leading up to the publication of Pointed Roofs . Fascinating in its periodic detail it is an account of feminism , lesbianism and the struggle for female independence . H G Wells ....what a dirty old goat !!!!!
Treger first became aware of Richardson when researching Woolf for a PhD . Inspired, she has written a compelling and atmospheric re-imagining of Richardson's life leading up to the publication of Pointed Roofs . Fascinating in its periodic detail it is an account of feminism , lesbianism and the struggle for female independence . H G Wells ....what a dirty old goat !!!!!
February 5, 2017
The first chapter sucked me in but from there forward my interest waned. The dialogue felt artificial and although based on the real life writer Dorothy Richardson, her character was written so embittered in martyrdom it was too much for me. Dorothy risks reputation to dabble in numerous affairs and the moment anything brings her even a remote moment of pleasure she cuts it off. I did appreciate the way the author depicted the momentum of the suffragettes' protest marches. It was quite shocking to read about the police punching women in the face and locking them up for months at a time without cause. The crowds chants reminding women of their place sadly is not all that different from what is heard today.
October 23, 2014
I love when debut authors get their first book right. Set in early 20th-century London, The Lodger tells the story of Dorothy Richardson. Louisa Treger’s novel follows the story of Dorothy during her time at a lodging house in London. It's a powerful story. It is quite fascinating, well written and the characters are both vibrant and believable. Historical novels can either be a hit or a miss in my book. I felt like The Lodger was a hit! I feel like this is has the makings of a great book club pick. 4 stars.
May 6, 2016
I was delighted to find this novel about Dorothy Richardson, an author I've long admired (we read her alongside Virginia Woolf in graduate school). This really brought her to life for me, and the story of her love affair with H.G. Wells, her friend's husband, was compelling and believable. Louisa Treger's prose is beautiful, too. Often I just stopped and read a sentence again, I liked it so much.
Highly recommended!
Highly recommended!
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