Musings: Diary of a Provincial Lady

One of my favorite things about reading Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield was the number of references to other books that showed up in the story.  From what I can tell, the following books (many of which are now on my wish list) were referenced:

American Tragedy
High Wind in Jamaica
The Exciting Family
The Edwardians
Bulldog Drummond
Little Dorritt
The Daisy Chain
Jane Eyre
A Brass Hat in No Man's Land
Life of Sir Edward Marshall-Hall
Life of Disraeli
The Good Companions 
Elizabeth and Her German Garden

Some of those books are hard to find, particularly as authors are not always listed with the titles, but definitely on my to-read list now are High Wind in Jamaica, Bulldog Drummond and The Edwardians.

But what were my thoughts on Provincial Lady?  I don't really know.  So many people have read this book over the past couple of years in blogosphere.  The first reviewers raved about so, so then many more people had high expectations regarding it, and then they read it, too, but didn't enjoy it quite so much as the earlier reviewers.  I am in the second camp, not only because I was in the second wave of people reading this book, but also because I didn't love it the way so many before me did.

The narrator of this book was a lot of fun.  She loves her children, cares about her friends and sometimes talks to her husband (who doesn't seem intimately involved in her life).  She has a great appreciation for the ridiculous, too, which I appreciated.  But considering that so much of the book is about how she is pinching pennies and can't afford good meals for her family and is forever receiving letters from her creditors, she seems to spend a lot of time buying clothing for herself.  I am pretty biased about things like this- I really don't love buying clothes that much, and I have a pretty strict view of falling into debt by purchasing unnecessary things.  So I didn't have too much sympathy for the Provincial Lady and all her dresses.  That said, I have a feeling that in her social circles, it's very important to keep up with the Joneses, and it was impossible for her to do so.  Her husband seemed pretty unlikely to help out.

I've mentioned before that I really like this inter-war period in English literature, especially when it focuses on the upper class, because it's so fascinating to see how the social strata are breaking down and the rich are trying so desperately hard to keep up their lifestyles.  The Provincial Lady talks about the difficulties of keeping servants, of hearing about long visits to the South of France by her acquaintance, the speaking tours she goes on for the Women's Institutes, etc.  At the same time, she's pawning her jewelry to pay the heating bill and the milk man.  It's such an interesting juxtaposition, and I loved how Delafield approached this difficulty with a light and sympathetic hand.

This was a really fun book to read- just what I needed on a long flight!- and while I didn't love it, I did appreciate it for adding to my TBR list and for being such a fun way to learn more about the societal changes happening at the time.