Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
G. B. Stern
-
Standard Name: Stern, G. B.
Birth Name: Gladys Bertha Stern
Self-constructed Name: Bronwyn
Indexed Name: G. B. Stern
Pseudonym: G. B. Stern
Nickname: Peter
Nickname: Tynx
GBS
, who was writing through a large stretch of the twentieth century, published over forty novels of a middle-brow character, as well as light plays, short stories, informal criticism, and haphazard autobiographical memoirs. Her high reputation has somewhat declined, but her family saga about the cosmopolitan Jewish Rakonitz family is still remembered.
Soon after the appearance of this novel G. B. Stern
wrote that she would find its emotionally painful scenes almost too hard to read again, were it not for the triumphant-after-pain solution with which it...
Literary responses
Rumer Godden
Its first readers loved this book: these included retiring literary agent Curtis Brown
, his son Spencer Curtis Brown
, and the publishers Peter
and Nico Davies
(who called it without doubt a masterpiece and...
Literary responses
Sheila Kaye-Smith
Critics, wrote her friend G. B. Stern
years later, took her writing to be masculine in its picaresque gusto and boldness. Some enjoyed this tendency in her first novel, but some were shocked.
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery.
79
Walker, Dorothea. Sheila Kaye-Smith. Twayne.
23
Literary responses
Sheila Kaye-Smith
This novel brought critical and popular acclaim. SKS
said that the weeks following its appearance were some of the happiest of her life.
Walker, Dorothea. Sheila Kaye-Smith. Twayne.
85
The Times Literary Supplement notice began: No matter what fine work...
Literary responses
Maria Callcott
This time MC
succeeded in rivalling A History of England by Mrs. Markham (Elizabeth Penrose
). The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography sees Little Arthur's History of England as proto-Victorian in offering to children...
Literary responses
Sheila Kaye-Smith
G. B. Stern
mentions that this book made an impression on the public comparable to that of SKS
's Sussex Gorse or Joanna Godden; its popularity stemmed largely from those who sympathised with its...
Material Conditions of Writing
Sheila Kaye-Smith
SKS
's novel Little England, written during the First World War, is, says G. B. Stern
, infused with . . . maternal brooding tenderness.
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery.
Following her death, G. K. Chesterton
in a laudatory (if sexist) review classed LMA
with Austen
as an early realist, and praised her apt depictions of human truths.
Chesterton, G. K. “Louisa Alcott”. Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott, edited by Madeleine B. Stern, G. K. Hall, pp. 212-14.
213-14
She was a favourite writer...
Residence
Georgette Heyer
The following year they moved to a haunted house in Macedonia. In 1930 they returned to England, where they occupied various homes. Their first was near Horsham; the second, where they stayed...
Textual Features
Berta Ruck
This, like her previous volume of memoirs, is deliberately non-monologic and non-chronological, rather like the similar books of BR
's near-contemporary G. B. Stern
, but giving perhaps even more space to the voices of other people.
Textual Production
Pamela Frankau
PF
published Shaken in the Wind, the novel with which her friend G. B. Stern
felt she first reached her potential.
The title comes from St Matthew's gospel: Christ asks people why they went...
Textual Production
Flora Macdonald Mayor
This novel sold reasonably well and FMM
was again lauded by several contemporary critics, including E. M. Forster
, G. B. Stern
, and Rebecca West
.
Williams, Merryn. Six Women Novelists, Macmillan.
45
Keith, Rhonda. British Novelists 1890-1929: Modernists. Editor Staley, Thomas F., Gale Research Company, pp. 169-71.
After she finished this adaptation, G. B. Stern
introduced her to Max Beerbohm. At this meeting the idea of casting Ivor Novello
in The Happy Hypocrite first came up, suggested by Beerbohm's niece Viola Tree
Travel
Pamela Frankau
PF
was in the USA during the period of collapse described by Stern
, but she returned to England in November 1940, as the bombs were falling most thickly.
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery.
123
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Stern, G. B., and John Van Druten. The Rakonitz Chronicles. Chapman and Hall, 1932.
Stern, G. B. The Way it Worked Out. Sheed and Ward, 1956.
