Keynotes and Discords

by George Egerton, Sally Ledger (Editor)

George Egerton was the pen name of Mary Chavelita Dunne (1859-1945). She was the most substantial and striking of the women writers of the fin de siecle who developed the modern short story, with its focus on the 'psychological moment', its exploration of the interior landscapes of human experience, and its only sporadic commitment to a realist aesthetic. This volume contains her two best collections of short stories, Keynotes (1893) and Discords (1895).

An incipient modernism can clearly be identified in her stories: there is a recurrent focus on the inner consciousness of their female subjects, revealed through reverie or dream, or through intense moments of psychological and emotional connection. The stories are full of wanderers, and have the sense of dislocation characteristic of literary modernism; their compression and resistance to narrative closure confirm their alignment with the emergent aesthetic. Coupled with this aesthetic experimentation are explorations of female sexual desire, new gender identities and the pains and pleasures of maternity. Thirty years before Virginia Woolf's annunciation of modernism in the 1920s, when she presented this 'new' aesthetic movement as an abrupt break with a worn-out nineteenth-century realism. George Egerton had penetrated the emotional and psychological tragedies of apparently unexceptional women's lives and powerfully translated these tragedies into fiction. She forged a new way of expressing women's experience: her status as an important and compelling writer is indisputable.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Victorian, Fiction, Irish Literature

196 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 1995

About the author

Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright (born Mary Elizabeth Annie Dunne; 14 December 1859 — 12 August 1945), better known by her pen name George Egerton, (pronounced Edg'er-ton) was a "New Woman" writer and feminist. Widely considered to be one of the most important of the "New Woman" writers of the nineteenth century fin de siecle, she was a friend of George Bernard Shaw, Ellen Terry and J.M. Barrie.

Egerton's stylistic innovations, often termed "proto-modernist" by literary scholars, and her often radical and feminist subject matter[4] have ensured that her fiction continues to generate academic interest in America and Britain. Egerton's experimentation with form and content anticipated the high modernism of writers like James Joyce and D H Lawrence, and Egerton's The Wheel of God often reads as a sort of rudimentary template for Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Thomas Hardy acknowledged the influence of Egerton's work on his own, in particular on the construction of his "New Woman" character, Sue Bridehead, in Jude the Obscure. Perhaps most notably, Holbrook Jackson credits Egerton with the first mention of Friedrich Nietzsche in English literature (she refers to Nietzsche in Keynotes in 1893, three years before the first of Nietzsche's works was translated into English).

Reviews

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5. A really intriguing collection - some fantastic stories (especially 'A Cross Line', 'Now Spring Has Come' and 'Virgin Soil') and some that were less powerful. Such an interesting read.

[Ronald Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

[']I don’t blame them; it must be so, as long as marriage is based on such unequal terms, as long as man demands from a wife as a right, what he must sue from a mistress as a favour; until marriage becomes for many women a legal prostitution, a nightly degradation, a hateful yoke under which they age, mere bearers of children conceived in a sense of duty, not love. They bear them, birth them, nurse them, and begin again without choice in the matter, growing old, unlovely, with all joy of living swallowed in a senseless burden of reckless maternity, until their love, granted they started l with that, the mystery, the crowning glory of their lives, is turned into a duty they submit to with distaste instead of a favour granted to a husband who must become a new lover to obtain it.’

This book is a combination of two volumes of short stories: Keynotes, published in 1893, and Discords, published one year later in 1894. It's frankly amazing how greatly George Egerton (Mary Chavelita Dunne) improved as a writer, and how cohesively her writing came together, over the course of that year.

Having read Fantasias (a later Egerton collection) a few years back (and being immensely impressed with it) I came to this volume with high hopes, and was mostly disappointed reading Keynotes. There are two good stories in the center of the collection ("The Spell of the White Elf" and "A Little Gray Glove") but I found the rest of the volume to be disappointing.

Discords, on the other hand, is simply superb, from beginning to end. The writing is exceptional, the individual characters are deeply defined, and the exploration of maternity, femininity, and societal expectations woven throughout the collection is insightful, wrathful, and illuminating. There is actually not a bad or disappointing piece in the collection, all are exceptionally strong, and each in their own distinct ways stand out.

None of the more fantastic elements Egerton would utilize in Fantasias are present here (saving maybe slightly in "The Spell of the White Elf") - and I love the inclusion of fantasy in the later collection - but she shows here that her fiction and writing skill stand perfectly fine on their own without any fantastical embellishment. Discords is so very highly recommended.

[Jenny Cooke (Bookish Shenanigans) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fascinating and feminist Victorian text.

[Hope Hushon]

Read George Egerton and try to tell me Taylor Swift doesn’t pull inspiration from her short stories. The references are crazy when you start to notice.

[paula.]

somehow she thinks of cleopatra sailing down to meet antony, and a great longing fills her soul to sail off somewhere too.

only read a cross line and virgin soil, i'm still counting it!!

tbh, didn't really understand a cross line because i am indeed stupid.
virgin soil however has my whole heart, i do be loving an outspoken, frank woman <3

what have these years been? one long crucifixion, one long submittal to the desires of a man i bound myself to in ignorance of what it meant.

book 1 for my moderns module

[Tori]

IN PROGRESS

Virgin Soil 5/5
Extremely interesting, reminds me of The Yellow Wallpaper? George Egerton - the pen name of Mary Dunne Bright.

[Libbysbookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

KEYNOTES by GEORGE EGERTON

This collection was, in fact, written by a woman. The New Woman herself. At the end of the nineteenth century, things were changing for women; they were allowed to do more than just get married and have babies, not a lot more, but it was progress.

These short stories are certainly of this time and I loved how men were often portrayed as these big, rough drunk characters or these meek types who didn’t understand their own emotions. Certainly there was an agreement here with the writing of Sarah Grand who believed men were in their infancy when it came to emotional intelligence!

Egerton herself was annoyed with man because she found they would often try to write about women; to understand them, but they would never just ask women straight up, “Yo, what’s your deal?” It would have saved a lot of pondering.

Some of these stories are fantastic in their own right (context aside) and others are entirely reliant on the reader understanding the New Woman or being the New Woman herself.

I really enjoyed this read and I will look forward to reading more about this writer and this movement.

[Caroline Waters · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Egerton cultivates an ambiguous quality in “A Cross Line” and “The Spell of the White Elf” to express the expanding possibilities and incongruities associated with New Womanhood. Her work, conscious of the malleability of such a transitory social, cultural, and political period, seeks not to paint a singular picture of the New Woman, but to represent a range of New Women, all while preserving a degree of mystery about them. Egerton doesn’t seek to crystallize, pin down, or solve any of her female characters, choosing instead to toy with these very penetrative tendencies; she portrays attempts to crystallize only to narratively refute them. She dips her characters in a valiant ambiguity that pushes readers to see them outside of their expectations, and in the light of their unfolding identities. In doing so, she asserts that there is no singular New Woman. Instead, the movement, and George Egerton’s Keynotes, embrace an expanded range of possibilities for women to explore what lies outside of their socially prescribed molds. 

[em]

“Someway she thinks of Cleopatra sailing down to meet Antony, and a great longing fills her soul to sail off somewhere too, — away from the daily need of dinner-getting and the recurring Monday with it’s washing, life with its tame duties and virtuous monotony. She fancies herself in Arabia on the back of a swift steed; flashing eyes set in dark faces surround her, and she can see the clouds of sand swirl, and feel the swing under her or his rushing stride; and her thoughts shape themselves into a wild song, — a song to her steed of flowing mane and satin skin, an uncouth rhythmical jingle with a feverish beat; a song to the untamed spirit that dwells in her.”

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I normally like to make piss-take reviews about books i'm required to read for uni because i already spend so much time analysing them in class, but I actually really enjoyed this one. Egerton's ideas and characters are refreshingly frank for a book of this time period and the dialogue is some of the best kind of prose I've read. I can actually see myself coming back to this book to re-read it or to look at certain passages just for my own leisure and I know this is without a doubt one of my favourite classic novels. Period. (does it count as a classic? i'm going to call it a classic)

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Keynotes:
A Cross Line --3
Now Spring Has Come: A Confidence --4
The Spell Of The White Elf --2
A Little Grey Glove --4
An Empty Frame --2
Under Northern Sky
How Marie Larsen Exorcised a Demon --1
A Shadow's Slant --2
An Ebb Tide --3

Discords:
A Psychological Moment at Three Periods
The Child --2
The Girl --2
The Woman --4
Her Share --4
Gone Under --3
Wedlock --3
Virgin Soil --3
The Regeneration Of Two --4

[chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting! the writing style was like nothing else i’ve read before — the focus on mundane events and the lack of exposition meant reading it sort of felt like people-watching (but with more insight into the people’s brains)… it also meant i didn’t always know what was going on but whatever

(also it was over 180 pages longer than it’s listed on goodreads as being but the page numbers restart at the end of ‘keynotes’ for some reason)

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I have found a new favourite author. The stories are beautifully written and the plights of these different women are effortlessly inspiring and can be both heart-wrenching and heart warming at the same time. If you ever get a chance to read this book, do it! You will never ever regret it.

[Fred · Rating 5 out of 5]

This woman's writing is amazing! Highly recommend her work and this is a nice edition with a critical introduction by the late, great Dr. Sally Ledger. A wonderful addition to my library of fin-de-siècle literature.

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thoughts on Keynotes: https://theblankgarden.com/2021/06/22...

[Kaaaaaaren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely exceptional

[Brooke Eff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing short stories written in the natal of modern feminism and still relevant today

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too satisfying. I was going to abandon it midway through the first story but went to this Goodreads site and briefly scanned people’s ratings of the book and I saw that it was well-liked, so I soldiered on. This woman had some of her characters in some of her stories ramble on and on, and then they would stop and take a deep breath and continue to ramble on and on some more. Fer chrissake. The Virago Modern Classics re-issue consisted of her first two short story (damn, some were long) collections, Keynotes (1893) and Discords (1894).

There were a couple that were pretty good, and there was one that was also good but really horrific. A mother who was forced to abandon her little daughter, Susie, because she had it out of wedlock learned that she had died....and that her husband had withheld a note from her that was from the caretakers of Susie pleading for the mother to see her little daughter as she lay dying. So she was overcome with grief and hatred towards her husband and his three children (ergo, her stepchildren) and she ended up killing the stepchildren in revenge for her husband’s misdeed. Dear God! Last words of the last two sentences: Her hands (JimZ: the mother's) are crimson as if they had been dipped in dye. A string of blue beads lies on her lap, and she is fast asleep: and she smiles as she sleeps, for Susie is playing in a meadow, a great meadow crimson with poppies, and her blue eyes smile with glee, and her golden curls are poppy-crowned, and her little white feet twinkle as they dance, and her pinked-out grave frock flutters, and her tiny waxen hands scatter poppies, blood-red poppies, in handfuls over three open graves. Good God!

Here are the story titles and my ratings for the two collections:
Keynotes
• A Cross Line — 2.5 stars
• Now Spring Has Come — 3.5 stars
• The Spell of the White Elf — 3 stars
• A Little Grey Glove — 4 stars
• An Empty Frame — 2.5 stars
• Under Northern Sky, Part 1: How Marie Larsen Exorcised a Demon — 2.5 stars
• Under Northern Sky, Part 2: A Shadow’s Slant — 2.5 stars
• Under Northern Sky, Part 3: An Ebb Tide — 1.5 stars

Discords
• A Psychological Moment, Part 1: The Child; Part 2: The Girl; Part 3: The Woman — 1.5 stars overall for Parts 1-3
• Her Share — 2 stars
• Gone Under — 2.5stars
• Wedlock — 4 stars
• Virgin Soil — 4 stars
• The Regeneration of Two — 2 stars

Reviews:
• https://literariness.org/2022/09/23/a...
• https://eafitzsimons.wordpress.com/20...
• a journal article (in: ” Victorian Popular Fictions,” 3.1 (Spring): 68-82) written by Isobel Sigley about two stories in Keynotes. “A Cross Line” and “The Spell of the White Elf,” https://victorianpopularfiction.org/w...
• interesting biography on the author: https://1890s.ca/egerton_bio/

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written collection, which is really two separate collections gathered together, by the female writer Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright who went under the pen name of George Egerton. These stories, some almost novella length are chock full of the female experience and the very different way that manifests in the late Victorian period. There are women who suffer abusive husbands, women who have bad marriages they have been pushed into, and some where the women are just bored and dissatisfied with their lot in life, who crave adventure or at least independence. There are women who suffer societies disdain for their actions and women who disdain society in turn, admiring those of their sex who don’t lead a conventional life.

Mary Bright belongs to the New Woman Writers of the later nineteenth and early twentieth century and there is something very modern about her writing. She has more similarities with someone like Virginia Woolf in some of these stories than other Victorian female writers. Some of her writing seems to have come straight out of a feminist manifesto but is so eloquently and beautifully written that it doesn’t feel like simple protest statements. Only one is narrated by a man, A Little Gray Glove and this wasn’t my favorite, but there are good men in these stories though often the female characters feel that they are with the wrong man or that any man is the wrong one.

It is writing of its time so marriage and children are still the central subjects although women earning their own living and being independent are also in there. On occasion it can verge on melodrama as in the longest story Under Northern Sky which has a Tenant of Wildfell Hall vibe but overall, the writing is so strong that it carries the lesser stories through. Well worth a read and a book that has inspired me to read more New Woman writers in the future.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely essential reading for those looking to understand the "New Woman", fin de siécle literature, and the socio-historic context of women in the 1890s. Some of the stories are, of course, easier to read than others, and it requires some previous knowledge about the period in order to fully enjoy it, I believe (I wrote my MA thesis on fin de siécle literature so I absolutely loved it). But the visceral humanity written out in these pages has me still thinking about it days after reading each story.

Should you start with these short story collections if you've never read Victorian literature before? Absolutely not. But if you know what you're getting into with modernist writers of the late 19th century? This should definitely be your next read.

[Traducarmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

lo pongo como que lo he leído porque me lo he leído entero pa el tfm pero de verdad que pereza, solo merecen la pena algunos relatos. el qje me ha tocado a mi traducir es una basura

[Lulu]

1893 keynotes
1894 discord