Not the emotional powerhouse I thought it might be, but touching, thoughtful and psychologically astute. Perhaps a precursor to some of Barbara Pym's "excellent women," it's a sympathetic study of an ordinary woman, far enough past youth to be thought of as a "spinster," only daughter of a rector, who (as is often still the case) is the one left at home to take care of the aging parent. Mary is kind-hearted, intelligent, sensitive, and self-denying, but with a few embers of something more glowing deep inside. Everyone admires her, finds her useful and pleasant, but not much more. Until a new rector arrives, who actually seems to enjoy talking to her, thinks she has lovely eyes, and feels she would be the sort of woman he ought to marry. Until he is smiled upon by a worldly and beautiful hot young thing, and the letter Mary receives, expecting a proposal, instead contains the news that he's going to be married to Hot Young Thing, Kathy. Kathy appears atrocious: uneducated, loud-mouthed, brash. And yet...

This novel is not exactly Jane Austen. Set in the mid 1920s, English society is reeling from the upheaval of the Great War (which is barely acknowledged except for the existence of a few fellows in Kathy's set known as "Captain [Nickname]." Women pack off to the Riviera in gangs to smoke and drink and dance and play cards and have affairs. Aging clergy are shocked, or choose to ignore the sea changes, or (like Mary's would-be lover) are seduced by it, even against their will. The novel is more about what these social changes wreak on men, women, parents, children, and their relationships. And these people can be complicated: the abominable Kathy truly loves her "top-hole" husband even as she stands up to him; upright and serious, he's actually more than a bit of a prig with a nasty streak; and even meek Mary comes to realize that with her sensitivity, she might well have ended up quite unhappy with him.

An engaging examination of mostly women, what they want - or used to want, what they settle for, how they are seen by others and by themselves - and how it can all change whether they like it or not. ( )

I'm not sure what I feel about this book really. I didn't particularly warm to Mary, the heroine, and there was no real plot, but something kept me reading. The author did a good job of showing the contrasts between Mary and Kathy through the manner of their speech, and this showed how Mary lived in an almost Victorian world with her father, while Kathy and her friends lived in the real/modern world. ( )

'In her eyes Mary by her plainness was as cut off from men as a nun by her cloister'
By sally tarbox on 6 Jun. 2012
Format: Paperback
Virago Classics at its best in this engrossing tale of the plain middle-aged daughter of a stern but loving clergyman. Mary's spinster friend Dora is cheerfully resigned to her lot of church and charity work. But Mary secretly yearns for more:
'"I have longed for it"... "I have sometimes thought", Mary said with feeling, "the kisses-"
And then Mary's life seems to be changing...
Interesting to compare the different kinds of lives available to young people when this was written (1924)- the Victorian upbringing of Mary compared to the fast-living young set who crop up later in the book, with their slangy talk and affairs.
A heartily reccommended read; and the ending is so beautifully written. ( )

No one could accuse F M Mayor of writing a cheerful story, but she certainly wrote a beautifully poignant one, and one I found very readable. I have been circling around this novel and The Third Miss Symons for some time, knowing already that there would be a degree of sadness to the stories of stagnant lives that Mayor appears to have particularly written about. I have Simon and Karen’s 1924 club to thank for giving me the nudge to read The Rector’s Daughter my first F M Mayor novel.

Flora M Mayor, like the woman she created in this novel was the daughter of a clergyman. However according to Janet Morgan in her introduction to this edition, Flora was nothing like her heroine Mary Jocelyn. I was rather delighted to learn that Flora seemed to have had quite a bit of spirit about her.

Mary Jocelyn is in her mid-thirties and already fading, her life has been one of quiet, respectful duty. Living in the home of her father Canon Jocelyn, Dedmayne Rectory a house as faded as its occupants, Mary is pitied by her neighbours for the reduced life she is living. Having devoted herself to her father, her recently deceased, disabled sister, and the few wants of the villagers Mary has little to look forward to. An occasional visit from her childhood friend Dora, a short holiday to Broadstairs with her Aunt, is what her life has become. Her father is an octogenarian of Victorian values, a man of cold reserve, he has no idea of Mary’s inner life, and he takes her and her continual presence for granted.

“She supposed her winter was passing as ordinary winters passed, but she was changing. She began to have longings she never had before. Her mind frequently recurred to the question which occupied Shakespeare’s heroines, ‘what is love?’

Lady Meryton is fond of poor Mary, and invites her to her garden party. Dora accompanies Mary – but it appears that although Mary is viewed as a little dull she is acceptable in a way that Dora never can be – the difference in their social standing perhaps inexplicable to us in 2015 is clear enough to Lady Meryton’s guests. One of these guests is Kathy, captivatingly beautiful, young, and blessed with all the effervescent fun and sarcastic wit of the age.

“Dora came from that section of the middle class which is so good and kind it cannot be rude. (Mary came from the section immediately above it which can)…”

When another parson, Robert Herbert comes back to the area, the son of an old friend of Canon Jocelyn; Mary’s suppressed emotional life is rocked. Mary falls in love with Mr Herbert, it would seem her feelings are returned, the two get along very well, and Mary recognises something of his feelings in the look he gives her when they are walking together. Mary allows herself briefly to dream, to wonder, and to hope. In a moment of rash confidence Mary writes to Dora of her hopes, and Dora’s reply only helps to encourage her. Nothing however is destined to be so happily straightforward for Mary.

“Each felt drawn to the other. It struck him how beautifully her eyes shone when the tears were in them. She seemed easy to talk to. As a clergyman he had sometimes been called on to console women, but he had never considered himself an adept with them; he had not liked them, shrinking in repulsion from the too patent fact how much some liked him.”

the 1924 clubMary is quietly shattered when Robert Herbert suddenly announces his engagement to the much younger Kathy. Hiding her devastation, she must congratulate him, and get ready to welcome his new bride to the area. Robert and Kathy are fairly obviously mismatched; they are carried away by the bliss of new love during the first year of their marriage. The focus of the novel switches a little now, in the story of the Herbert’s marriage, Mary is a visitor and friend of the couple, awkwardly positioned, when the cracks begin to appear. Kathy’s friends (of the cynical, witty bright young things type) are now frequently to be found at the Herbert’s home, Robert finds his middle-age quiet shattered by their shenanigans, they embarrass him in church while he is in the midst of preaching, and spirit Kathy away to the South of France on a holiday without her husband.

F M Mayor‘s story is that of a heart-breaking love triangle, it is also the story of the unfolding of a woman’s emotional life. Mary is ill-equipped to pursue her dreams; her life has been one of duty and Victorian values. The jazz-age is a world she is little prepared for; so often she seems like a woman out of time.

If you absolutely insist on a happy ever after, then F M Mayor might not be for you – thankfully I don’t insist on that. F M Mayor writes about quiet, unremarkable people and their quiet, disappointed, unfulfilled lives, the poignancy of this is obvious but Mayor’s writing is lovely and her characters so well drawn that I was hooked by their story. ( )

Un romanzo che sembra uscito dalla mano di Jane Austen: la giovane Mary figlia del reverendo Jocelyn vive una monotona esistenza in un villaggio inglese, isolato e privo di attrattive. Le sue giornate opache vengono turbate dall'arrivo di un uomo che accende in Mary la speranza di una nuova esistenza.
Cosa accade ad una donna colta e amabile ma scialba, poco attraente, intrappolata dai doveri familiari? Mary una cara ragazza dagli "occhi tristi" vive un'esistenza senza sbocco proprio come il sentiero vicino alla sua canonica, che "non portava da nessuna parte". Pubblicato nel 1924, il romanzo meritò il giudizio positivo di Virginia Woolf e della sua cerchia, pur non regalando all'autrice una fama immediata. ( )