The Testing of Diana Mallory

by Mrs. Humphry Ward (Illustrator), William Hatherell (Illustrator)

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484 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

Mary Augusta Ward CBE (nee Arnold) was an English novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs. Humphry Ward. Mary Augusta Arnold was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, into a prominent intellectual family of writers and educationalists. Mary was the daughter of Tom Arnold, a professor of literature, and Julia Sorrell. Her uncle was the poet Matthew Arnold and her grandfather Thomas Arnold, the famous headmaster of Rugby School. Her sister Julia married Leonard Huxley, the son of Thomas Huxley, and their sons were Julian and Aldous Huxley. The Arnolds and the Huxleys were an important influence on British intellectual life.Mary's father Tom Arnold was appointed inspector of schools in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and commenced his role on 15 January 1850. Tom Arnold was received into the Roman Catholic Church on 12 January 1856, which made him so unpopular in his job (and with his wife) that he resigned and left for England with his family in July 1856. Mary Arnold had her fifth birthday the month before they left, and had no further connection with Tasmania. Tom Arnold was ratified as chair of English literature at the contemplated Catholic university, Dublin, after some delay. Mary Augusta Ward died in London, England, and was interred at Aldbury in Hertfordshire, near her beloved country home Stocks.

Reviews

[Simon]

Mary Augusta Ward is a much underrated novelist, in my humble opinion. This is the fourth novel of hers that I have read. It was first published in 1908, the year the author became the first president of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League and Wikipedia suggests that this novel (as also her Delia Blanchflower of a few years later) reflects her ideas on the issue of female suffrage. I wanted to see what such a highly intelligent woman (her novels are mostly novels of ideas) had to say in favor of her regrettably reactionary views on the matter. Wikipedia! How will I ever trust you again! The passages devoted to female suffrage in this book add up to about half a page only. The eponymous heroine is a young woman, brought up in somewhat secluded and mysterious circumstances, who finds herself a rich orphan at the age of 22 and returns to England from a life-long exile, full of passion for the Empire and the Tories in general. She is not sympathetic to the rights of women. Two other characters in the novel are, one of whom is portrayed in a very unflattering light, the other of whom is portrayed as nearly a saint. To the latter, Diana says at one point (I paraphrase from memory) "How can you favor female suffrage? To brutalize, to unsex us." The saint replies by pointing out of her window (she lives and does good in the East End, one of the poorest parts of London at the time) at some working class women, coming out of a bar, and says"they are the brutalized ones. Try anything to help relieve that." That is the sum total of words spoken for or against the issue in the entire book.

They are, however, potent words (despite quoting from memory, I am certain of the words "brutalize" and "unsex"). Why and how should giving women the vote brutalize them? Or unsex them? The author is evidently committed to the view that women have a special place in society and special talents that suit them to it. But the heroine's most distinctive feature is clearly, at least at the beginning, meant to be her ardent interest in politics. True, her Tory views are tempered a little by her 'testing'; so one might think that her interest in politics itself (though against female suffrage) was a fault to be beaten out of her by the trials of life she has to go through. But what strikes me as remarkable is that, in the end, at the climax of the novel she has to choose, to elect a course of action in complete defiance of what is expected of her as a woman. Of course, it ultimately results in her assuming the woman's mantle, but it is a piece of 'unsexing' nevertheless. And it involves reaching out to a man who has himself been brutalized by violence. (There are shades of Jane Eyre here.)

The book, in conclusion, is highly complex with respect to its take on politics (the life of politics, rather than the issues, forms a large part of the book). One would not infer from it that its author was crusading against the vote for women.

[Sophie]

I think this novel might more appropriately have been titled The Inertia of Diana Mallory, because when the big trial moment comes, our heroine essentially does nothing. Oh, she suffers and grows pale and thin, she loses her bloom and evokes tons of sympathy in those around her who see her tormented aspect, but she doesn't exactly demonstrate any resilience or character growth as a result of her troubles. She just suffers passively. Even at the end when she finally gets the gumption to go to Oliver—the unworthy object of all this suffering—it's only after he sends his regards to her that she actually enters his house rather than just mooning around outside in the dark. Perhaps I'm looking at the situation with too modern a perspective, but when the man you love is potentially at death's door, it hardly seems the time to be worrying about the niceties of the situation. Over all, not one of Mrs. Humphry Ward's best.