Clara Hopgood

by Mark Rutherford

Excerpt from Clara HopgoodNevertheless, for days and weeks it has a charm possessed by few other landscapes in England, provided only that behind the eye which looks there is something to Which a landscape of that peculiar character answers. There is, for example, the Wide, dome - like expanse of the sky, there is the distance, there is the freedom and there are the stars on a clear night. The orderly, geo metrical march of the constellations from the extreme eastern horizon across the meridian and down to the west has a solemn majesty, Which is only partially discernible when their course is interrupted by broken country.

108 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

A pseudonym of William Hale White.

Reviews

[Charles Edwards-Freshwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

An obscure, rather philosophical little classic that was deemed entirely inappropriate when published in the 1890s.

The story itself is set in the 1840s (making what goes on even more shocking for the time) and I can see why this book caused consternation. There's women reading German literature (gasp), sex out of wedlock, a resulting preganancy and more goings on that, by today's standards, are very tame transgressions, but must've caused quite the to do back then.

Interestingly, the character at the heart of these scandalous events (not Clara) finishes the novel on top, while the eponymous heroine has a rather bleak time of it.

I think the reason this isn't better known is largely due to the fact it's so brief. The scenes whip by and there's never really much chance to connect to the family. Death scenes are constrained to throwaway sentences and the resolution of the novel is brusque and rather unfeeling.

Still, I enjoyed my time with this and would recommend it to anyone who wants to pick up a lesser-known classic that doesn't follow the usual formula of "badly behaved woman gets punished".

[Surreysmum · Rating 2 out of 5]

[These notes were made in 1984, some length of time after reading. I read this book in the 1896 edition:]. I remember that a strong religious theme runs through this book, and that the heroines are rather offbeat sisters named Clara and Madge. The plot, however, has not stayed clearly with me, except that Clara is involved in some sort of mjaor sacrifice.

[Daniela Peiris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was interesting and very new for it's time. However, the novel failed to engage me and I had no empathy for the characters.

[Jim Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clara Hopgood is one of a handful of novels written in the 1890’s about women who become unwed mothers. It was shocking in its time and considered “immoral,” but the sex scene is so subtle that I had to read it 3 times to figure out it had even taken place! The two main characters, sisters Clara and Madge, never really come alive, but rather stiffly represent female intellect and independence. Unneeded characters are disposed of in a paragraph and new friends and lovers pop up to suit the author’s desire to discuss politics and religion. Both women end up in unconventional circumstances--Madge marries an older Jewish intellectual who does not care that she is an unwed mother and Clara becomes a freedom fighter for Italians revolutionaries! While the novel is a quick read, it is not successful in plot, characterization, or as a defense of women’s independence.

[Penelope Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a raffle. Previously I had never heard of Mark Rutherford, the free-thinking author of unique Victorian fiction. This is a thought-provoking study of the purpose of life for two sisters. It's a book about refreshingly thoughtful people. The idea in 1840 of Madge refusing to marry the (likeable) father of her child is a daring move, and must have raised many eyebrows at the time. I found the analysis of the nice but shallow Frank to be very evocative. I think I should read it again sometime to pick up the philosophical details.