Paul's Reviews > The Rector's Daughter

Another unexpected surprise by a relatively unknown female writer. I read the penguin modern classics edition; it is also published by virago.
Flora Mayor was a remarkable woman; she read history at Cambridge in the early 1890s; a great achievement. She then became an actress before turning to literature. She wrote short stories and several novels, which were well regarded. She was a writer of ghost stories which were greatly admired by M R James (the greatest writer of ghost stories ever!). Again I wonder why she is so little known. There is no individual biography of her. There is a joint biography of Mayor and her friend Mary Sheepshanks published in the 1980s by virago, called Spinsters of This Parish: The Life and Times of F.M.Mayor and Mary Sheepshanks

This is again one of those novels where not a great deal actually happens, but it is a sharp and perceptive analysis of the human heart, human relationships; loss, love, friendship and loneliness. The story is a simple one. Mary Jocelyn lives with her father a clergyman in a small isolated village in East Anglia in the early twentieth century. It is a quiet life; she nurses her sister Ruth until her death, visits locals and manages the household. Mary is in her 30s and there is no thought of marriage. Mary reads, writes occasional poetry and is thoughtful and Mayor portrays her as quiet, introverted with strong passions beneath the surface, but most of all as the intellectual equal of any man. Into her life comes another clergyman, just moved into the area, Robert Herbert. Herbert’s father was a close friend of Mary’s father and he begins to visit regularly. They begin to spend time together and a friendship based on mutual intellectual interests, a love of nature and general steadiness develops. They fall in love in a slow steady sort of way and become to all intents and purposes engaged.
Then Mr Herbert goes to visit relatives and suddenly he is engaged to a much younger and prettier woman (Kathy). Mary is heartbroken, but tells no one. She continues to be isolated and awkward in company, whilst Robert and Kathy marry. After some happy months they both become disillusioned and Kathy goes to stay on the Riviera with a “fast set” of whom Mr Herbert does not approve. Mary and Robert begin to see a little more of each other and it is clear they do have strong feelings for each other. One day Robert suddenly kisses her (her one and only kiss); they are both shocked and Mary leaves very quickly. She is tortured by this for the rest of her life and turns to writing poetry and caring for her aging father. At this time Kathy has to return home as she becomes partially disfigured as the result of a medical issue. This brings Robert and Kathy closer together and Robert soon forgets Mary. Kathy is mow isolated, lonely and bitter and turns to Mary for support, which Mary provides. When Kathy recovers she no longer needs Mary. The rest of the book follows Mary and her inner life over the next few years as she nurses her father and has to move out of the Rectory after his death.
It is all beautifully written and the characterisation is superb. None of the characters are one-dimensional. It would have been easy to make Robert Herbert unsympathetic, but he isn’t. It would also have been easy to make Kathy empty headed and entirely frivolous, but she is not. The minor characters are also strong. Mary herself is a tremendously complex and interesting character; there is a lot of repressed feelings and emotions between her and her father, which are barely spoken of. But Mary is so very believable and one does feel great sympathy for her; this is what makes the novel so devastating. Susan Hill is a strong advocate of this book, calling it one of the best of the neglected classics. She is right; it is a masterpiece.
There are few laughs (but there is a light ironic humour), no action, it is rather sad; but it is an exceptional novel about human relationships which should be on everyone’s reading list.