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.
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...
Literary responses
Sheila Kaye-Smith
G. B. Stern
felt that among SKS
's postwar novels, this one and the next, The View from the Parsonage, 1954, are even superior to her earlier books in humor, shrewdness and mental breadth...
Literary responses
Sheila Kaye-Smith
G. B. Stern
calls this book Kaye-Smith's most important contribution to Catholic literature.
Stern, G. B. . And did he stop and speak to you?. Henry Regnery.
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...
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...
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...
Family and Intimate relationships
Pamela Frankau
Her father, Gilbert Frankau
, novelist and womaniser, came from a gifted family full of writers. He was divorced from his wife, and (in G. B. Stern
's words) nonchalantly strolled out of [Pamela's] existence...
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/.
Literary responses
Pamela Frankau
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...
Textual Production
Clemence Dane
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
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...
Friends, Associates
Mary Butts
A party at MB
's flat at 43 Belsize Park Gardens in London was attended by Evelyn Waugh
, G. B. Stern
, and Rebecca West
.
Blaser, Robin et al. “Afterword”. Imaginary Letters, Talonbooks, pp. 61-80.
65
Reception
Louisa May Alcott
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...
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.
