The Vicar's Daughter

by E.H. Young

Seeing her thus, standing in the assured grace which seemed to him to belong to no one else ... he wanted to make her suffer he did

The Reverend Maurice Roper awaits his cousins' return to Old Framling with a mixture of desire and dread: years have passed since he saw Edward, his childhood hero, and Margaret, the woman he secretly loved, but whom Edward married. As temporary incumbent of the parish, Maurice has taken only one decisive step. Although he is reluctant to acknowledge how deeply past slights and thwarted desire still rule him, he is yet aware that his action could disrupt forever the household he so envies. Here, with her characteristic piquancy, E.H. Young explores the pain of loving -- and of being unloved -- to produce an evocative account of human frailty.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 1927

About the author

Born Emily Hilda Young.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
“And meanwhile the thunder, the sound impersonal, yet applicable to many states of mind, to fear, triumph, despair, suspense, was gradually coming nearer and the rain slackened a little as if to listen,”

One of the great things about the old green virago books (of which I have quite a few) is reading stuff you don’t find in most bookshops and authors who are less well known and not in the “canon”. This is the second one by Young, I’ve also read Chatterton Square. Young was an interesting character, a supporter of women’s suffrage and a keen mountaineer. She was in a long relationship with a married man. After her husband died in the First World War she moved in with her lover and his wife and they lived together, all three of them.
This novel really does feel quintessentially English. It’s set in a vicarage and involves a vicar, his wife and daughter, a clergyman friend staying with them, and a couple of brothers involved in the Church who live across the road and their housekeeper. That’s pretty much the whole ensemble, although there is the odd skeleton lurking in a cupboard or two.
This is an odd one. It’s a bit melodramatic and almost feels like one of the old school farces (I remember from my youth the farces they used to put on TV, Brian Rix I seem to remember). It would also make a good play as characters are forever moving to and fro, on and offstage. There is a comedic element, but it isn’t a comedy. Plot wise, not a great deal happens. Edward and Margaret, have a daughter Hilary. Edward is the vicar of a parish. They go on holiday and another cleric, Maurice looks after the parish. Maurice is an old friend and was once in love with Margaret (still is). There are lots of misunderstandings, a stray child form twenty years ago, misdirection, jealousy, a bit of doctrinal disagreement, some reflections on marriage, a few more reflections on belief and disbelief. It can get a bit preachy at times and in terms of plot, not a great deal happens. The interplay between characters is at the centre of it. The ending is a bit too tied up and neat and none of the characters are particularly likeable, but they are human with plenty of nuance. There are reflections on the role of women. Margaret is by far the most competent of the characters but she subsumes her talents to be the wife of a vicar. Maurice is the most unsympathetic character, traditional in his religion, alone and jealous of those around him, but he is the most welldrawn. The whole is a bit inconsequential but it is an interesting period piece.

“She felt tired, incapable of emotion, and her mind, detached from agitating considerations, could deal reflectively with the double dramas of John’s dishonesty and Edward’s youthful sin, known to each other, unless Caroline had been silent, and both depending for proof on assertions alone, both hasty sins, if Margaret judged John aright, and both, in their complications of fear, repentance, jealousy, revenge and love, liable to change the currents of many lives. This might be well or it might be ill: the problem of good and evil, in intention and in result, could not be settled until the end of time, for as the cause of sin might lie in some good intention generations back, so what seemed evil might be productive of future good. There was nothing to be done with the past or the future except what seemed good in the present and even that was doubtful.”

[JimZ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. 🙁

I only finished it so I could review it. 😐

I don’t know why it was titled ‘The Vicar’s Daughter’...the vicar’s daughter, Alicia, about 21 years of age, was one of the characters in the novel, but not the central one. I’d have to say the two central characters were her mother, Margaret, and a curate, Maurice, who as a younger man was in love with Margaret. But that was over 20 years ago, and now he is a grouchy whiny loser of a man who has a bug up his ass most of the time in the book. I couldn’t stand him. And I wasn’t fond of Margaret or her husband, the Vicar, Edward. Wasn’t fond of next-door neighbors that were also characters in the novel, John and James. I didn’t like anybody. 😐

I could not divine the plot of the book or what I was supposed to be concerned about. As far as I could tell, Edward was courting a woman before he married Margaret and had fathered a child with her named Caroline. He was not aware of this because he had broken up with the mother in order to court Margaret and eventually marry her. This was revealed in dribs and drabs during the first half of the novel. The child was now 19 years old and had taken on a job as maid to the next-door neighbors, half-witted James and his brother John. Their father had been rich and when he died apparently left a will that I guess gave a lot of money to various sources including paying for an organ in Edward’s church. But it wasn’t an official will and John tore it up. In that will there was also a stipend that was to be given to the father’s housekeeper, and John did not honor that, and she was in the hospital and she was going to reveal all of this to Edward. Maurice thought he knew that Caroline was Edward’s daughter and was going to reveal it to either him or to Margaret because he was a bitter old man and wasn’t happy that Edward had married Margaret. I don’t know how one secret (supposedly Caroline was fathered out of wedlock by Edward and her mother) was tied into the other (John tore up a will, and it may have been illegal to do so...I dunno), but by this point I was only wanting to finish the book.

I have liked several other books by E. H. Young, including Miss Mole (1930, 5 stars), ‘The Misses Mallett’ (1922, 4 stars), and ‘Jenny Wren’ (1932, 3.5 stars). I gave Jenny Wren’s sequel, ‘The Curate’s Wife’ (1934) 2.5 stars.

I hope this is the only clunker written by E.H. Young because I have two more of her works on my bookshelf, ‘Celia’ and ‘Chatterton Square’. I do like E.H. Young, but this book was out-of-this-world bad. 😐 In my humble opinion that is. 😬

Reviews
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[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It takes a prodigious talent to build a novel around an unappealing character, but that is the skill that makes E. H. Young such an interesting writer. The central character in The Vicar's Daughter is sanctimonious, self-pitying, and without friends or close family. He is not someone we'd chose to spend time with, but Young manages to incite our interest (and our sympathy?) in this dull cleric.

This is the third book (Miss Mole, Chatterton Square) by this author that I've read and, although Miss Mole was by far my favorite, I find myself fascinated by her character studies. Young immerses us with characters who have very limited scope to their daily lives. Either limited society, limited opportunity, or both. The focus is on their interior lives which are, conversely, very busy places. Not much to do and alot of time to think. . . .

I am fascinated by these stories of small town life. Issues center around relationships, and like Barbara Pym's novels---nothing ever really happens, so there is lots of room for "much ado about nothing."

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my least favorite of E.H. Young's novels. I found it turgid and overworked. I certainly understood Mr Roper much better than Margaret, who seemed immature and delighted in toying with people's emotions.

[Abigail Moreshead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torn between 3 and 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed some aspects of this book, like the way Young builds so much tension into a story with a small cast of characters that takes place over the course of one long weekend. I like how nothing happens and yet, weirdly, lots happens. That same intensity, though, made the tone a bit stifling at times.

The characters felt very real, though I took turns being irked by each of them. I wish they had developed a bit more; Maurice did seem to have some breakthrough moments but Edward remained static and their relationship didn’t seem to change much.

At the end I was left wondering what/who this book was about—Maurice? Margaret? The situation with the Blunts? I started it thinking it was about Maurice’s relationship to his relatives but ultimately Margaret is the character who developed the most as a result of the book’s events. I should have taken a stronger clue from the title, obviously, but in the early chapters there’s more emphasis on Maurice’s perspective before it focuses more heavily on Margaret.

[Mela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world was full of explanations, but poor human beings were blind.

What happens when people are trying to save the feelings of beloved ones by relying on guesswork about facts? Bigger mess.

Fear is the only thing one need be afraid of.

There was an understanding of human nature in the story. E.H. Young created a deep study, with complex, interesting characters. The book should be read probably slower than I have read it and with a lot of discussing - to get all messages/levels. Nonetheless, I did enjoy it and found many things to think through.

There was nothing to be done with the past or the future except what seemed good in the present, and even that was doubtful.

I have one but. Sometimes it was too tedious. In such parts, I lost focus while reading. I had to go back a few sentences and read again. And it didn't happen a few times, but dozens of times. It slowed my reading noticeably and was rather frustrating.

[3-3.5 stars - the story and characters were great, but the way of delivering it spoilt it for me a bit]

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second E H Young novel I have read recently, and I have become quite a fan.

The story of Maurice Roper, who having been caretaking his cousins parish awaits his return, and that of Margaret, the woman he once loved and his cousin married. The one decision Maurice has had to make during their absence, sets them all on a course of misunderstanding and secrecy. Poor Maurice, though a middle aged man, is very much still, the young orphaned boy who didn't measure up to his more glamorous cousin, who was pushed into the sea and laughed at. Maurice's desperation to be liked, and to fit in, is often heartbreaking.
E H Young writes in such a way as to only half reveal to the reader what the characters themselves know. The reader if left to observe the characters as the drama unfolds slowly through such things as daily family interactions and mealtimes. This is a beautifully written, old fashioned novel, where in some ways nothing much happens, and yet at the same time it does.

[Connie Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved other books by E.H. Young, particularly Chatterton Square. This one was harder for me to get into and didn't keep me engrossed. But that may be due to pandemic brain, as it's been hard for me to read anything of any length in 2020. I'm going to re-read this one at some point.

[Carla]

The central plot here is surprisingly priggish for EH Young. The matter of whether Caroline is “actually” the vicar’s daughter seems too thin to hang a novel on, and by the end, it runs out of steam. Some great comic moments early on though.

[Mary Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it!

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I starred "really liked it" because of my affection for Young's writing style. The plot was moving along smoothly and enjoyably until the final section. The ending was a disappointment and a surprise twist. Young led the reader to believe that some ominous and possibly tragic event might occur and instead turned the culmination into a rather farcical comedy of errors. That was a letdown for me and not because I wanted some calamitous tragedy but a joke was too much to absorb. I still enjoyed and find in Young's books that her exposition of the interior life of the characters is always fascinating and I think her unique talent. I look forward to reading more of her work.

[Squeak2017 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tiresome, smug and uber sensitive characters, no plot beyond minuscule variations of who knew what and when, as tiny nuances of conversation have a disproportionate impact on the characters' delicate understanding of their situation, and clunking prose signalling great unknown secrets which passes for creating suspense - there really wasn't anything to like about this book. This is the last Young novel I shall read and I am relieved to be finished it.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably 3.5 - but it got a bit tedious in places.

[Steve Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Possibly E.H. Young's worst novel, but still worth reading.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read many Virago Modern Classics and because I always think I should, I picked up this one at my public library sale. I looked at the pleasant front cover, read the back cover and thought I was being set up for a nice Sunday read that wouldn’t tax my brain. Yet, a few pages in it became clear I had a lot in common with one of the main characters who I found quite annoying. Needless, to say this cozy Sunday read took a turn….

Although I am hoping I am not exactly like the self-pitying Vicar Maurice Roper, whose past hurts and humiliations have turned him into a brooding, weak-willed, sanctimonious bore. When the story opens we find him house sitting for his cousin Edward and his wife Margaret and their daughter, Hilary. Edward is also a vicar, so Maurice took over the parish while the family was away. Maurice’s love for Margaret is unrequited and unexpected by her and much of the action centers on Maurice’s ruminations on the “what ifs” had things been different.

An interesting aspect of this book is that, except for a few scenes, all of the action takes place in the house-or in the minds-of the characters. Yes, it is one of those books where each character is constantly thinking and rethinking what the other person really “means.” Especially for Maurice, whose lack of self-confidence is so low he is focused on the tiniest nuances of speech, which shows him, in the same conversation, feeling accepted and relevant one minute and in the next being made to feel a horrible outcast and often back and forth again. If the word whiplash occurs to you, you are right.

Though I found this annoying at first, I began to warm up to Maurice after learning about his childhood and Edward’s part in it. Bullied, unloved, never apologized to, never feeling he mattered Maurice grew into manhood, broken. Once this was understood, I was able to see him in a new light. Although, in one of the story lines having to do with Edward, he played it a bit dangerous which did nothing for his likeability-there’s a spoiler here that I can’t give away.

In general there are several story lines involving the other characters that give the novel a certain mystery content that draws the reader to the ending. While I enjoyed the writing and narrative style, most of the characters were frozen at a time of unresolved secrets and questionable actions and were not particularly likeable. However, a short research into Young’s biography shows her to have had an intriguing personal life and I would certainly read another novel by her.