Discussion - Week One - Pointed Roofs, Chapter I - III

[Jim]

This discussion covers Chapters I – III


Miriam prepares to leave home for a position as governess (teacher?) in Germany. She and her Pater arrive by boat in Holland and board the train for Germany. During the trip, doubts and fears crowd Miriam’s mind and she questions herself and her family. Arrived at her new home, Miriam has many tense moments and fears she may not be able to remain, but slowly, she finds her way and is delighted to rediscover her music amongst her new German companions.

First impressions? Is there a clear sense of space and time? Or are there ambiguous passages? Do you feel the peaks and valleys of Miriam’s shifting moods and emotions?

To avoid spoilers, please limit your comments to Chapters I - III

[Casceil]

There are ambiguous passages, but mostly there is a clear sense of space and time. The author paints vivid pictures of the scene, but the sounds are also described very clearly. She uses a lot of onimatopeia. For example: Out in the road beyond the invisible lime-trees came the rumble of wheels. The gate creaked and the wheels crunched up the drive, slurring and stopping under the dining-room window.

Richardson, Dorothy Miller, 1873-1957. Pointed roofs (Kindle Locations 58-59). London : Duckworth.

[Casceil]

I'm not sure why, but this book reminds me of Villette. I was very pleased when Villette turned up on the bookshelf as one character sang names of books.

[Jim]

Casceil wrote: "There are ambiguous passages, but mostly there is a clear sense of space and time. The author paints vivid pictures of the scene, but the sounds are also described very clearly. She uses a lot of..."

Re: ambiguous passages, what do you think about this quote from Richardson's wikipedia page:

Richardson is also an important feminist writer, because of the way her work assumes the validity and importance of female experiences as a subject for literature. Her wariness of the conventions of language, her bending of the normal rules of punctuation, sentence length, and so on, are used to create a feminine prose, which Richardson saw as necessary for the expression of female experience. Virginia Woolf in 1923 noted, that Richardson ‘has invented, or, if she has not invented, developed and applied to her own uses, a sentence which we might call the psychological sentence of the feminine gender.’

Do you think there is something to this characterization of the writing using "the psychological sentence of the feminine gender"? I see some of that here. And not to jump the gun for our week three discussion, but the interior monologues for Mrs. Ramsay and Lily Briscoe in To the Lighthouse certainly seem to fit this idea of writing that better expresses female experience.

[Ellen]

For me, the experience of starting PR was a sense of "coming home." As much as I've loved the previous books we've read, the style of this (and in To The Lighthouse) was much easier for me to enter into-almost the sense of it echoing my own voice even though it's not actually my voice at all. Could that have to do with a "psychological sentence of the feminine gender"?

[Linda]

My first impressions. It took me three days to get past the first two chapters. I found it tedious reading, not very interesting at all in the beginning. DR's energy seems to increase as a writer in future chapters. Her use of punctuation throws me off sometimes. I'm not sure that it was necessary or even points to a "psychological sentence of the feminine gender" so much as it takes the reader away from the usual and into her quirky-ness.

[Casceil]

I remember some speaker years ago talking about how men were more goal-oriented and women were more process-oriented. Most of the traditional women's homemaking tasks are about a continuous process where the work is never done. Do all the laundry? Well, whatever you were wearing while you did it still needs washing, so there is always more laundry. Cook a good meal, clean up after it, guess what? It's almost time to start working on the next meal. I think this "psychological sentence of the feminine gender" reflects that difference, by focusing on process. The story is not just a matter of getting from the beginning to the end, but of how you keep all the balls in the air at all times.

[Casceil]

I'm very glad I read Villette by Charlotte Brontë back before Christmas. It was obviously an influence on this author. At one point her character compares herself to the teacher in Villette. Villette contains a lot more interior monologue than would be expected for the time it was written. I feel like, in Pointed Roofs, I have found the missing link between Villette and To the Lighthouse.

[Simone]

I read the first three chapters in about 3-4 hours on Sunday. I was hooked. I love books about adolescence, because it is one of the most important and confusing times in a person's life. And it's hard to see it well portrayed, without condescendence or intolerance towards the feelings we all had to deal with at some degree during this time of our lives.

I loved the sense of awkwardness, the feeling of not belonging in a traditional aristocratic world anymore, of changing social status without really being prepared for it (who is ever?).

To answer Jim's questions, I thought it was ambiguous at first. I thought she was the eldest, because she decided to go away from home to live in a different country and be responsible for her own education. But in fact, she is the third daughter. That was surprising for me, and it emphasises her maturity and independence when compared to her sisters.

And there are also the ramblings in Chapter three. Events are described out of order, and in a way that creates a crescendo to her belonging, to feeling at home and at ease after a fortnight and not wanting to write back home (maybe not to spoil the moment).

It really has a feeling of being written by a woman, and showing her most intimate thoughts, but in this situation there's the added bonus of being a misanthropic and maladjusted teenager in a bankrupt aristocratic family.

[Jim]

Ellie wrote: "For me, the experience of starting PR was a sense of "coming home." As much as I've loved the previous books we've read, the style of this (and in To The Lighthouse) was much easier for me to enter..."

I don't know exactly how to express this, but here goes. When reading Richardson and Woolf, I know I'm reading something not written by a man. I don't know what it's like to live in a woman's psyche and can only guess what that experience is like. And so, I'm glad to hear you confirming that Richardson (and Woolf) are accurately and successfully representing female experience in their writing. Off topic, but I'm re-reading Anna Karenina and as great as the book is, I'm realizing that Tolstoy is not representing Anna the way Richardson or Woolf would. He does a good job, generally, but Anna is no Mrs. Ramsay (in terms of representation, not specifics).

@Casceil - I like your point about "women's homemaking tasks are about a continuous process" and the attention to daily cycles and rhythms. Later in Pointed Roofs, Miriam will complain about the stress caused by interrupted or irregular daily processes/cycles/routines.

@Simone - I'm curious how Miriam's misanthropy is developed in the later volumes of Pilgrimage. (Our schedule is overflowing right now, but maybe we could look at volume 2 later this year if anyone is interested.)

[Simone]

Jim wrote: "(Our schedule is overflowing right now, but maybe we could look at volume 2 later this year if anyone is interested.) "

I'm in. I have a lot going on right now, but as I said I loved it and got curious about the other volumes too. Later this year (maybe after we've finished Faustus) is fine by me.

[Jim]

Simone wrote: "Jim wrote: "(Our schedule is overflowing right now, but maybe we could look at volume 2 later this year if anyone is interested.) "

I'm in. I have a lot going on right now, but as I said I loved i..."

OK. The Faust project ends the first week of June. We can return to Richardson, maybe late June, for a summer read.

[Ellen]

I'm in. If the next book reads as quickly as this one, it won't even be a sacrifice. I really enjoyed this book.

I've read complaints that "nothing happens" & yet my sensation while reading is that something is always happening, the way it does for us in our lives because as the center of the (our) world, we are deluged with information/data/experiences constantly & I think Richardson comes close to capturing that experience. It's interesting that even in stream-of-consciousness so much must by necessity be left out.