Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Rose Macaulay
-
Standard Name: Macaulay, Rose
Birth Name: Emilie Rose Macaulay
RM
was highly prolific, publishing during the earlier half of the twentieth century twenty-three novels and two volumes of poetry, as well as three books of short stories, several historical and travel narratives, and works of literary criticism. Several volumes of her personal letters have been printed. She made many appearances on the BBC
and published scores of articles. Valued perhaps chiefly for its satire and wit, her writing shows impressive political complexity and understanding, and her skill at characterisation is noteworthy. In her early works one may feel that her satire is defensive: that she uses mockery to hold off painful involvement. Her treatment of religious issues and characters demonstrates her long struggle with and engagement in established religion. She continually pokes fun at people heavily invested in causes or movements; but the choice of a cause is one of her favourite topics, sometimes handled with poignancy rather than burlesque.
Reviewer Lara Feigel
found that PB
's allusions to actual, historical people (Paul sharing sentiments, his place of work, the circumstances of his falling in love, with Graham Greene
; Elinor owing something to Elizabeth Bowen
Literary responses
Rumer Godden
One reviewer wrote, [t]here is not enough meat on this book for the library cat,
Chisholm, Anne. Rumer Godden, A Storyteller’s Life. Pan Books.
200
but Una Pope Hennessy
and Rose Macaulay
told RG
that it ought to have won the Hawthornden Prize.
Chisholm, Anne. Rumer Godden, A Storyteller’s Life. Pan Books.
201
Literary responses
Stella Benson
Forty-six years after Benson's death, Naomi Mitchison
acknowledged that her work had ceased being read, that her fantasy was misunderstood as whimsy. She felt, however, that in 1979 a revival was due.
Mitchison, Naomi. You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940. Gollancz.
After Flower of Youth first appeared in The Spectator, KT
began receiving letters from mourners. In 1919 she wrote, I believe I have written better poems of the War, or as good, but nothing...
Literary responses
Nina Hamnett
The first Times reviewer of her exhibition at the Claridge Gallery
in Brook Street, London in 1926 wrote that her art resembled Rose Macaulay
's writing in showing no illusions and but few prejudices, and...
Literary responses
Katherine Mansfield
After Mansfield's death, Woolf
wrote in her diary: it seemed to me there was no point in writing. Katherine won't read it.
Gunn, Kirsty. “How the Laundry Basket Squeaked”. London Review of Books, Vol.
35
, No. 7, pp. 25-6.
25
KM
appears in episodes in more than one novel by her friend...
The novel was criticised by some for its exclusively upper-middle-class reach—a view which was energetically countered by Rose Macaulay
on a radio programme.
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson.
107
The Times Literary Supplement welcomed with joy a novel where the...
Intertextuality and Influence
Susan Tweedsmuir
She introduces these essays with a reminder from Rose Macaulay
that the Edwardians were a mixed lot . . . . merely a set of individuals, not to be lumped together under generalising adjectives.
Tweedsmuir, Susan. The Edwardian Lady. G. Duckworth.
prelims
Friends, Associates
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Friendship did not blossom with Woolf, whom years later ICB
described to Nathalie Sarraute
as a terrible snob.
Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. Hodder and Stoughton.
40
This was the period when Compton-Burnett was lionised after the publication of Brothers and Sisters...
