The Building of Jalna by Mazo de la Roche (1944)

Next is a series of reviews of the Jalna novels by Canadian Mazo de la Roche. There are 16 novels in the Jalna series, published from 1927 to 1960, which follow the fortunes of the Whiteoak family and their eponymous rural Ontario estate over a 100-year period. de la Roche won the prestigious $10,000 Atlantic … Continue reading →

Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins (1918)

There have been a few blog reviews of this novel recently. See Stuck-in-a-Book Review by Thecla W: Patricia Brent is 24, secretary to an MP, Arthur Bonsor, and living in the Galvin House Residential Hotel. One day she overhears two of the older ladies who live there talking about her. They are pitying her because she … Continue reading →

Bindle by Herbert Jenkins (1916) and Adventures of Bindle (1919)

We’re now on to some novels that have not been reprinted in recent times (as far as I know!) and I think have been pretty much forgotten. Herbert Jenkins will be a familiar name to some as a publisher, most famously for publishing P. G. Wodehouse. I’ve mentioned him before as the publisher of Willie … Continue reading →

A Heritage and its History by Ivy Compton-Burnett (1959)

Review by Sylvia D: I have read several of Elizabeth Taylor’s novels with a growing respect for her ability as a writer, so I chose an Ivy Compton-Burnett instead as I have never tried her before.   Initially I wished I hadn’t as I found A Heritage and its History rather boring at first but as … Continue reading →

Palladian by Elizabeth Taylor (1946)

Here’s the rather lovely cover of the first edition of Palladian (very kindly given to me by Nicolas Hawkes). It was ‘produced in conformity with the authorised economy standards’ but still looks great. I think Palladian is a fascinating novel and wrote about it in Comedy and the Feminine Middlebrow Novel: Elizabeth von Arnim and Elizabeth … Continue reading →