South Riding

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She would have remained what she was, conscientious, energetic, efficient, compassionate, with a justifiable confidence in herself and her powers. Lydia Holly, the scholarship girl from the shacks, is the most brilliant student Sarah has ever taught, but when her mother's health fails, her education must be sacrificed. The history of Robert Carne’s wife and her internment in an asylum is very much the way the middle classes dealt with mental ill health. And it is chance that makes progressive, idealistic Burton fall in love with the local squire Robert Carne, a symbolic figure of reaction, who opposes the expansion of local government and the widespread benefits it would bring.

Original quarter vellum, ruled in gilt, sea-green linen boards, green morocco title label lettered in gilt to spine.By contrast, Davies, presumably to present Joe as a clueless socialist, gives him a speech to his fellow councilmen of how they should pay attention to the social programs abroad "like Chancellor Hitler's in Germany", which isn't in the novel at all. The major obstacle she faced was the indomitable figure of Holtby's mother, Alice, the first woman alderman of the East Riding. I could go on to describe most of the cast, because they are all excellently-realized characters drawn with exceptional psychological insight, but nothing I say will do Holtby's writing justice. How in the world would I give a book 5 stars to a book that had these titles for the 8 parts of it (49 chapters in all)?

Kiplington, the coastal town where Sarah Burton is headmistress, is an amalgam of Hornsea and Withernsea, the seaside towns where Holtby lodged while writing the book.In truth, Sarah Burton would like to replace Miss Sigglesthwaite with a better role model for her pupils; her only hope is that the Sig will resign, freeing up the position for a more dynamic teacher to join the staff.

Internally also very good, with a period gift inscription and a small number in ink on the front free endpaper (please see scans).The feminist themes are nicely done and delivered with a real sense of energy – much of which stems from Sarah’s natural drive for advancement.

There are so many characters in this book Winifred Holtby at the beginning had a list of their names and how they figured into the book (maybe they were a student at the school or the tom-cat owned by Alderman Snaith).It reveals a facinating world of the 1930s, of local government, and of rural England and its social structure. She lectured extensively for the League of Nations Union and was a member of the feminist Six Point Group. Central to Holtby’s story is Sarah Burton, a forty-year-old unmarried woman, newly appointed to the role of headmistress at the local girls’ school. The book is set in the fictional South Riding of Yorkshire: the inspiration being the East Riding rather than the modern South Yorkshire; Holtby's mother, Alice, was the first alderwoman on the East Riding County Council.