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The Three Sisters
Author, poet, critic, and suffragist Mary Amelia St. Clair was a contemporary of and acquainted with Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Ford Madox Ford, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Rebecca West, among others. She served as an ambulance driver in World War I, and produced poetry and fiction based on it. Her novel "Mr. Waddington of Wyk" was a social comedy. "The Three Sisters" is a study in female frustration, as the three sisters of the title try to come to terms with an isolated existence in a remote spot on the moors. It's Sinclair's first psychological novel, drawing upon her interest in the work of Sigmund Freud. It an early example of the transition from classic realism to modernism, Influenced by Imagism, and structured around epiphanies, images and symbols. It's also considered a precursor to her later novels "Mary Oliver" and "Harriet Frean," using knowledge of psychoanalysis and acknowledging the importance of the character's internal reality.
388 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1914
About the author
May Sinclair
162 books55 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair, a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. May Sinclair was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose and she is attributed with first using the term stream of consciousness) in a literary context, when reviewing the first volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915–67), in The Egoist, April 1918.
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August 1, 2022
“I really can’t wait any longer,” said Mary, “for a man who doesn’t come.”
First published in 1914, this strange novel starts off with gothic characterizations – the youngest daughter banging away on the piano, while the dictatorial father, sitting in his study, simmers and stews as he waits for his punctual, mandatory family prayer-time. I was at first reminded of a Monty Python sketch, or even the Saturday Night Live skit about Jane Austen’s Dashwood sisters; but it quickly becomes clear that this is a serious novel, not a parody at all.
Superficially a tussle of sorts over the one eligible man in the area, the young doctor of the alternating condemning-accepting village (a character in its own right), the novel turns into an indictment of the irrational limitations society puts upon young women, especially those of a certain class.
Near the end, a motor-car is heard on the moors by one sister for whom time seems to have stopped: a jarring, forceful image, since, contrary to appearances, this novel is not set in the time of the Brontes.
First published in 1914, this strange novel starts off with gothic characterizations – the youngest daughter banging away on the piano, while the dictatorial father, sitting in his study, simmers and stews as he waits for his punctual, mandatory family prayer-time. I was at first reminded of a Monty Python sketch, or even the Saturday Night Live skit about Jane Austen’s Dashwood sisters; but it quickly becomes clear that this is a serious novel, not a parody at all.
Superficially a tussle of sorts over the one eligible man in the area, the young doctor of the alternating condemning-accepting village (a character in its own right), the novel turns into an indictment of the irrational limitations society puts upon young women, especially those of a certain class.
Near the end, a motor-car is heard on the moors by one sister for whom time seems to have stopped: a jarring, forceful image, since, contrary to appearances, this novel is not set in the time of the Brontes.
April 18, 2020
It was May Sinclair who coined the term “stream of consciousness” when reviewing Dorothy Richardson. Sinclair was a suffragist and modernist who also was influenced by Freud and psychoanalysis. This novel was published in 1914 just as war started. This novel is set in Yorkshire. The three sisters of the title are the three daughters of a vicar. They have moved to a parsonage on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. Sound familiar? Well Sinclair had just completed writing introductions to the Bronte novels and written about the sisters in The Three Brontes.
This is a sharp look at the role of women in the late Victorian era and a critique of marriage. There are no Byronic heroes here to rescue maidens and the role of men is also under scrutiny. The Vicar of Garth is a patriarchal bully who tries to control his daughters. Their reaction and revolt make up the central thrust of the novel. There is a contrast between the one eligible male, the local doctor, Rowcliffe and Jim Greatorex who seems to be a combination of Heathcliff and Branwell Bronte. The novel looks at the struggle for self-development that Victorian women. The reader can see Sinclair struggling with how to represent the conscious and unconscious and female sexuality. This is a tension she later resolves when she adopts the stream of consciousness mode of writing.
There are some issues, the dialect being one. The Yorkshire accent of the local villagers is very heavy and not easy to understand. The focus on trying to make sense of the storms of inner life can feel a little clunky at times, but there is a clear commitment to exploring the lives of women and the breakdown of Victorian social and moral certainty. The interplay between the classes is interesting as are the reactions to the marriage across the class divide. All three sisters are looking for a space of their own and all three have to face the reality that they have to get that through a male, be that a husband or father. The picture of religion is pleasantly unflattering and Sinclair even manages to add the Church of England/Methodist rivalry and the tensions in the Established Church when a high church curate arrives from the Additional Curates Society.
This is an interesting early modernist novel which deserves to be better known and raises some interesting talking points. It almost feels suspended between the Victorian classic novels and modernism.
This is a sharp look at the role of women in the late Victorian era and a critique of marriage. There are no Byronic heroes here to rescue maidens and the role of men is also under scrutiny. The Vicar of Garth is a patriarchal bully who tries to control his daughters. Their reaction and revolt make up the central thrust of the novel. There is a contrast between the one eligible male, the local doctor, Rowcliffe and Jim Greatorex who seems to be a combination of Heathcliff and Branwell Bronte. The novel looks at the struggle for self-development that Victorian women. The reader can see Sinclair struggling with how to represent the conscious and unconscious and female sexuality. This is a tension she later resolves when she adopts the stream of consciousness mode of writing.
There are some issues, the dialect being one. The Yorkshire accent of the local villagers is very heavy and not easy to understand. The focus on trying to make sense of the storms of inner life can feel a little clunky at times, but there is a clear commitment to exploring the lives of women and the breakdown of Victorian social and moral certainty. The interplay between the classes is interesting as are the reactions to the marriage across the class divide. All three sisters are looking for a space of their own and all three have to face the reality that they have to get that through a male, be that a husband or father. The picture of religion is pleasantly unflattering and Sinclair even manages to add the Church of England/Methodist rivalry and the tensions in the Established Church when a high church curate arrives from the Additional Curates Society.
This is an interesting early modernist novel which deserves to be better known and raises some interesting talking points. It almost feels suspended between the Victorian classic novels and modernism.
June 2, 2022
I very much liked this book. I whizzed through it in two days... 4.5 stars for me. 🙂 🙃
It is another one of those books which shows the lack of choices young women had back in the day in many countries in this world (and still exists today in some countries). Only option was to marry or become a spinster and then an old maid. In fact, when Gwenda tells another person that she wants to leave the village and ‘earn my living as other women do’, he thinks such a plan is absurd, and says “you poor child, you don’t want to earn your own living.”
Three sisters, Mary (the oldest, 27), Gwenda (25), and Alice (Ally, 23) live with their a+shole (sorry, but he is) father who is a Vicar. The setting is a small village in England, Garth. I reckon the time period is early 1900s (the book was published in 1914). A young doctor, Rowcliffe, comes to the village, and sooner or later in the novel all three sisters have feelings for him.
I think it was the lack of predictability that I liked about the novel. Things didn’t happen as I expected them too, or at least not always. The book dragged maybe just a bit near the end but by then I had already formed a very good feeling about this book and was willing to overlook it. The chapters were on the short side, and I liked that. It made the story move along... There were 66 chapters in all.
The book had characters that I cared about and a character that I hated. I was rooting for the good girls to win...whether they did or not I shan’t tell. Read the book. 😊
Oh, yeah, there was another thing about the book I could have done without but I made up my mind early on in the novel to overlook that too. It was the way some of the characters, those from a lower class than the Vicar and his daughter, spoke. Here is an example....and whenever I came to such verbiage I went into hyperspeed and glossed over such verbiage:
• “Wall—yo may thank Gawd yo’re laayin’ safe un yore bed, Jim Greatorex. It’s sarve yo right ef Daaisy ‘d lat yo coom hoam oopside down wi yore ‘ead draggin’ in t’ road. Soom dday yo’ll bae laayin’ there with yore nack brawken.”
• “Ay, yo may well scuttle oonder t’ sheets, though there’s nawbody but mae t’ look at yo. Yo’d navver tooch another drop o’thot felthy stoof, Jimmy, ef yo could sea yoreselfwhat a sight yo bae. Naw wonder Assy Gaale wouldn’t’ave yo, for all yo’ve laft her wi’ t’ lil baby.”
My spell-checker on my computer went into overdrive with the above text, let me tell you! 🧐
Reviews:
• https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...
• https://fleurinherworld.com/2013/08/1...
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
It is another one of those books which shows the lack of choices young women had back in the day in many countries in this world (and still exists today in some countries). Only option was to marry or become a spinster and then an old maid. In fact, when Gwenda tells another person that she wants to leave the village and ‘earn my living as other women do’, he thinks such a plan is absurd, and says “you poor child, you don’t want to earn your own living.”
Three sisters, Mary (the oldest, 27), Gwenda (25), and Alice (Ally, 23) live with their a+shole (sorry, but he is) father who is a Vicar. The setting is a small village in England, Garth. I reckon the time period is early 1900s (the book was published in 1914). A young doctor, Rowcliffe, comes to the village, and sooner or later in the novel all three sisters have feelings for him.
I think it was the lack of predictability that I liked about the novel. Things didn’t happen as I expected them too, or at least not always. The book dragged maybe just a bit near the end but by then I had already formed a very good feeling about this book and was willing to overlook it. The chapters were on the short side, and I liked that. It made the story move along... There were 66 chapters in all.
The book had characters that I cared about and a character that I hated. I was rooting for the good girls to win...whether they did or not I shan’t tell. Read the book. 😊
Oh, yeah, there was another thing about the book I could have done without but I made up my mind early on in the novel to overlook that too. It was the way some of the characters, those from a lower class than the Vicar and his daughter, spoke. Here is an example....and whenever I came to such verbiage I went into hyperspeed and glossed over such verbiage:
• “Wall—yo may thank Gawd yo’re laayin’ safe un yore bed, Jim Greatorex. It’s sarve yo right ef Daaisy ‘d lat yo coom hoam oopside down wi yore ‘ead draggin’ in t’ road. Soom dday yo’ll bae laayin’ there with yore nack brawken.”
• “Ay, yo may well scuttle oonder t’ sheets, though there’s nawbody but mae t’ look at yo. Yo’d navver tooch another drop o’thot felthy stoof, Jimmy, ef yo could sea yoreselfwhat a sight yo bae. Naw wonder Assy Gaale wouldn’t’ave yo, for all yo’ve laft her wi’ t’ lil baby.”
My spell-checker on my computer went into overdrive with the above text, let me tell you! 🧐
Reviews:
• https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...
• https://fleurinherworld.com/2013/08/1...
• http://agirlwalksintoabookstore.blogs...
September 26, 2021
Free download at Librivox: https://librivox.org/the-three-sister...
Read by Expatriate.
Thank you, Sandy, for telling me of this!
*****************
Set on the English moors at the start of the 20th century, this novel by May Sinclair, the pseudonym of the British suffragist and author Mary Amelia St. Clair (1862 - 1946), revolves around the three daughters of a vicar who rigidly follows the rules and conventions of society. It is a study of their relationships with each other, the social constraints of the era and life on the moors.
The three girls are vey different. At the start their ages are twenty-three, twenty-five and twenty-seven. The eldest is obedient, placable and domestically oriented. The youngest has let herself be seduced by a man and leans toward hysteria. The middle sister, Gwenda is the strong one—active, a lover of nature, independent and free in spirit. She is the sole one of the three to love their recent move from London to the small village of Garthdale. She is devoted to her sisters. We watch how they interact. We observe their relationships with men. The ambiance of the moors pervades the telling of the tale. The story covers a period of a bit more than yen years.
I listened to the free download available at Librivox, where it is read by Expatriate. Read a paper version instead. The download did not work properly and caused me no end of grief. I had to reload it several times! Expatriate’s reading is clear but monotonous. Two stars for the narration is the highest I can go.
*****************
*The Romantic 4 stars
*The Three Sisters 4 stars
Read by Expatriate.
Thank you, Sandy, for telling me of this!
*****************
Set on the English moors at the start of the 20th century, this novel by May Sinclair, the pseudonym of the British suffragist and author Mary Amelia St. Clair (1862 - 1946), revolves around the three daughters of a vicar who rigidly follows the rules and conventions of society. It is a study of their relationships with each other, the social constraints of the era and life on the moors.
The three girls are vey different. At the start their ages are twenty-three, twenty-five and twenty-seven. The eldest is obedient, placable and domestically oriented. The youngest has let herself be seduced by a man and leans toward hysteria. The middle sister, Gwenda is the strong one—active, a lover of nature, independent and free in spirit. She is the sole one of the three to love their recent move from London to the small village of Garthdale. She is devoted to her sisters. We watch how they interact. We observe their relationships with men. The ambiance of the moors pervades the telling of the tale. The story covers a period of a bit more than yen years.
I listened to the free download available at Librivox, where it is read by Expatriate. Read a paper version instead. The download did not work properly and caused me no end of grief. I had to reload it several times! Expatriate’s reading is clear but monotonous. Two stars for the narration is the highest I can go.
*****************
*The Romantic 4 stars
*The Three Sisters 4 stars
September 4, 2023
May Sinclair is another of the many talented women writers who have been too long forgotten. In her own time, according to an article in The Guardian (dated August 1, 2013),
Sinclair was not only a critically-respected, popular and extremely prolific novelist, but also a poet, philosopher, translator, and critic. Her career, spanning from the late 1880s all the way to the late 1920s, produced 23 novels, 39 short stories, two philosophical treatises, one biography of the Brontës and several poetry collections.
Although some of Sinclair's work was published in the 1980's by Virago Press, only one of her novels is readily available at present. The reading public is the poorer for this sad situation.
In 2014, I listened to a wonderful recording (by Librivox volunteer "Expatriate") of her novel The Tysons: Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson. In honour of her August birthday, I have just finished this novel, The Three Sisters (also capably read by the same Librivox reader).
The story is told of the family of Mr. Cartaret, the vicar in a country parish and a tyrannical father to his three daughters -- Mary, Gwenda, and Alice. These young women, while sharing a hint of physical resemblance to each other, have very different personalities. Their father is a vindictive character who relishes misery and resents the happiness of any other person. As we hear often in the words of his daughters, his mission in life has always been to interfere in their lives and spoil any budding happiness.
In the behaviour of Mr. Cartaret, we see the impact that a negative spirit can have on the lives of those around him. The vicar's legacy in marriage is of three unhappy wives -- two of them deceased and one (still living) who had fled the matrimonial home in fear. Her three stepdaughters were left behind to be badgered and bullied into adulthood by their father. The story speaks vividly of the cascade of hopelessness and tragedy which can emanate from one mean-spirited person.
Mary, Gwenda, and Alice have developed strategies for surviving life with the vicar and each other. They manage some semblance of equilibrium within the walls of the vicarage until the new doctor, Steven Rowcliffe, takes over the medical practice in the nearby village. When all three sisters fall in love with Dr. Rowcliffe, the structure which had sustained the family begins to unravel. Each of the sisters has a secret scheme for luring him into marriage. The dynamics within the family change and the precarious balance is disturbed. For the reader, the twists and turns in their lives are sometimes laudable, sometimes devastating, but always surprising.
May Sinclair was not only an accomplished storyteller. She was an intelligent and independent woman whose many interests included (among other topics) Spiritualism and Freudian psychoanalysis, interests evidenced in this story in the realistic multi-faceted characters and the subtle undercurrent of awe and wonder. In my opinion, this is a novel which can be appreciated on many levels and could be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers.
The Tysons: Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson (15/12/14) ★★★★
The Three Sisters (07/08/16) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Romantic (12/10/19) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Life and Death of Harriett Frean (11/05/19) ★ ★ ★
The Flaw in the Crystal (20/03/20) ★ ★ ★
Anne Severn and the Fieldings (12/08/21) ★ ★ ★ ★
Far End (22/01/22) ★ ★
Audrey Craven (25/03/22) ★ ★ ★ ★
Mr. Waddington of Wyck (14/11/22) ★ ★
The Tree of Heaven (02/09/23) ★ ★ ★ ★
Sinclair was not only a critically-respected, popular and extremely prolific novelist, but also a poet, philosopher, translator, and critic. Her career, spanning from the late 1880s all the way to the late 1920s, produced 23 novels, 39 short stories, two philosophical treatises, one biography of the Brontës and several poetry collections.
Although some of Sinclair's work was published in the 1980's by Virago Press, only one of her novels is readily available at present. The reading public is the poorer for this sad situation.
In 2014, I listened to a wonderful recording (by Librivox volunteer "Expatriate") of her novel The Tysons: Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson. In honour of her August birthday, I have just finished this novel, The Three Sisters (also capably read by the same Librivox reader).
The story is told of the family of Mr. Cartaret, the vicar in a country parish and a tyrannical father to his three daughters -- Mary, Gwenda, and Alice. These young women, while sharing a hint of physical resemblance to each other, have very different personalities. Their father is a vindictive character who relishes misery and resents the happiness of any other person. As we hear often in the words of his daughters, his mission in life has always been to interfere in their lives and spoil any budding happiness.
In the behaviour of Mr. Cartaret, we see the impact that a negative spirit can have on the lives of those around him. The vicar's legacy in marriage is of three unhappy wives -- two of them deceased and one (still living) who had fled the matrimonial home in fear. Her three stepdaughters were left behind to be badgered and bullied into adulthood by their father. The story speaks vividly of the cascade of hopelessness and tragedy which can emanate from one mean-spirited person.
Mary, Gwenda, and Alice have developed strategies for surviving life with the vicar and each other. They manage some semblance of equilibrium within the walls of the vicarage until the new doctor, Steven Rowcliffe, takes over the medical practice in the nearby village. When all three sisters fall in love with Dr. Rowcliffe, the structure which had sustained the family begins to unravel. Each of the sisters has a secret scheme for luring him into marriage. The dynamics within the family change and the precarious balance is disturbed. For the reader, the twists and turns in their lives are sometimes laudable, sometimes devastating, but always surprising.
May Sinclair was not only an accomplished storyteller. She was an intelligent and independent woman whose many interests included (among other topics) Spiritualism and Freudian psychoanalysis, interests evidenced in this story in the realistic multi-faceted characters and the subtle undercurrent of awe and wonder. In my opinion, this is a novel which can be appreciated on many levels and could be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers.
The Tysons: Mr. and Mrs. Nevill Tyson (15/12/14) ★★★★
The Three Sisters (07/08/16) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Romantic (12/10/19) ★ ★ ★ ★
The Life and Death of Harriett Frean (11/05/19) ★ ★ ★
The Flaw in the Crystal (20/03/20) ★ ★ ★
Anne Severn and the Fieldings (12/08/21) ★ ★ ★ ★
Far End (22/01/22) ★ ★
Audrey Craven (25/03/22) ★ ★ ★ ★
Mr. Waddington of Wyck (14/11/22) ★ ★
The Tree of Heaven (02/09/23) ★ ★ ★ ★
August 24, 2013
This is the story of the three daughters of a clergyman, living lives that are terribly constrained, in a vicarage in a small town on the Yorkshire moors. You might think, particularly if you looked at the cover of the Virago edition, that those sisters were named Charlotte, Anne and Emily. But they weren’t.
These three sisters were named Mary, Gwenda and Alice, they lived in the early twentieth century, but the parallels that May Sinclair draws make it obvious that their lives were not so very different to the lives of the Bronte sisters nearly a century earlier.
At first I thought that it would be a simple story. Mary was the sensible, home-loving sister. Gwenda was the free-spirited sister, who loved to walk on the moors. And Alice was the wilful, headstrong youngest sister. I was inclined to draw parallels with Meg, Jo and Amy, but as the story developed I came to appreciate these three sisters for themselves. And to find out that they were more complex creatures than they had first appeared.
The vicar was a bitter man, whose faith had been twisted out of shape. His first wife had died giving birth to his third daughter, his second wife had been unable to cope with the hardness of her life and died, and his third wife had told him some home truths and left him. Left wifeless, and unable to marry again, he believed that his daughters should keep house, do good works in the parish and live lives that were beyond reproach.
But all three dreamed of other lives, of marriage, of children, but most of all they dreamed of escape.
When an eligible young man, a new doctor, arrives in the town, he draws the attention of all three sisters. One is so desperate for his attention that she makes herself physically ill; one is so fearful for that sister that she withdraws and leaves hoe, even though her own feelings run deep and our reciprocated; and one pushes another towards another man so that she can seize the prize.
But a prize seized – a relationship founded – like that may not bring happiness and security. Independence is hard to hang on to when you know that your family needs you. And a second choice, a less obvious choice, can sometimes be the right choice.
May Sinclair spins a compelling story, full of rich descriptions of people and places, and with a wonderful understanding of her characters and their relationships. Her writing was clear, lucid, and terribly, terribly readable. The three sisters and their world came to life, and I turned the pages quickly because I so wanted to find out what would happen, what would become of them.
There are echoes of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, but I thought more of Thomas Hardy – who I understand May Sinclair knew.
My understanding of the three sisters grew as the story progressed and more of their characters were revealed. I found a sister to love and admire, a sister to dislike, and a sister who made my feelings turn around completely several times. Their stories were in the foreground but I saw the authors concern about the position of women in society, in the world, in the background.
The characters and the stories of the three men – the vicar, the doctor and the farmer – are well developed, but they are secondary.
The only thing that didn’t quite work was the author’s attempt to catch the subconscious as well and the conscious thoughts of her characters. It felt awkward; it really didn’t work.
But as a whole the story worked: Mary, Gwenda and Alice spoke to me, and their stories speak profoundly for many of their generation. And that is what will stay with me.
These three sisters were named Mary, Gwenda and Alice, they lived in the early twentieth century, but the parallels that May Sinclair draws make it obvious that their lives were not so very different to the lives of the Bronte sisters nearly a century earlier.
At first I thought that it would be a simple story. Mary was the sensible, home-loving sister. Gwenda was the free-spirited sister, who loved to walk on the moors. And Alice was the wilful, headstrong youngest sister. I was inclined to draw parallels with Meg, Jo and Amy, but as the story developed I came to appreciate these three sisters for themselves. And to find out that they were more complex creatures than they had first appeared.
The vicar was a bitter man, whose faith had been twisted out of shape. His first wife had died giving birth to his third daughter, his second wife had been unable to cope with the hardness of her life and died, and his third wife had told him some home truths and left him. Left wifeless, and unable to marry again, he believed that his daughters should keep house, do good works in the parish and live lives that were beyond reproach.
But all three dreamed of other lives, of marriage, of children, but most of all they dreamed of escape.
When an eligible young man, a new doctor, arrives in the town, he draws the attention of all three sisters. One is so desperate for his attention that she makes herself physically ill; one is so fearful for that sister that she withdraws and leaves hoe, even though her own feelings run deep and our reciprocated; and one pushes another towards another man so that she can seize the prize.
But a prize seized – a relationship founded – like that may not bring happiness and security. Independence is hard to hang on to when you know that your family needs you. And a second choice, a less obvious choice, can sometimes be the right choice.
May Sinclair spins a compelling story, full of rich descriptions of people and places, and with a wonderful understanding of her characters and their relationships. Her writing was clear, lucid, and terribly, terribly readable. The three sisters and their world came to life, and I turned the pages quickly because I so wanted to find out what would happen, what would become of them.
There are echoes of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, but I thought more of Thomas Hardy – who I understand May Sinclair knew.
My understanding of the three sisters grew as the story progressed and more of their characters were revealed. I found a sister to love and admire, a sister to dislike, and a sister who made my feelings turn around completely several times. Their stories were in the foreground but I saw the authors concern about the position of women in society, in the world, in the background.
The characters and the stories of the three men – the vicar, the doctor and the farmer – are well developed, but they are secondary.
The only thing that didn’t quite work was the author’s attempt to catch the subconscious as well and the conscious thoughts of her characters. It felt awkward; it really didn’t work.
But as a whole the story worked: Mary, Gwenda and Alice spoke to me, and their stories speak profoundly for many of their generation. And that is what will stay with me.
September 16, 2017
Tre sorelle, un padre-vicario, una casa-canonica, la vastità della brughiera; pochi semplici elementi che concorrono a creare una storia apparentemente semplice ma in realtà molto complessa.
Già dall'incipit si percepisce, trovandoci in un tipico paesaggio brontiano, che il tributo alle sorelle Bronte non si limita alla sola scelta del titolo. Veniamo condotti all'interno della loro umile e triste dimora e le troviamo silenziosamente sedute intorno al tavolo.
Il paese, sperduto nella brughiera dello Yorkshire, potrebbe tranquillamente essere Howorth, e loro Charlotte, Emily e Anne.
Il romanzo, scritto nel 1914, a soli due anni di distanza dalla biografia dedicata alle Bronte, ne porta con sè il ricordo, una sorta di palpabile presenza fisica, come se il vento della brughiera sussurrasse perpetuamente il loro nome. Ritroviamo in Gwenda, in particolare, lo spirito ribelle di Emily, il suo amore smisurato per la natura e la brughiera, il suo desiderio di indipendenza.
Ciò che più colpisce è la forte presenza della casa, una casa che inquieta con i suoi corridoi e i suoi silenzi, con lo studio del padre-padrone che sembra esser stato scelto appositamente per controllare le figlie in ogni spostamento.
Emblema della loro prigionia, tomba fra le tombe, sembra essere viva, così carica di tensioni e segreti la si sente quasi respirare e mormorare.
Tre sorelle che un padre ha voluto allontanare dal mondo e dagli uomini nella speranza di tenere lontano da loro tentazioni e peccati.
Tre sorelle e un medico, unico uomo a cui sia concesso il privilegio di varcare la soglia di casa.
Ecco, la storia sembra essere tutta qui.
Inizialmente gli eventi sono pochi e metodicamente pianificati dal vicario, un maniaco del controllo. È come se il costante ticchettio di un immenso orologio scandisse ogni secondo della giornata, ogni momento uguale all'altro, senza un minimo mutamento.
Sono le pulsioni delle tre sorelle a scuotere gli equilibri, a far vacillare le certezze del padre, a generare il cambiamento.
Con una scrittura sorprendentemente moderna, la classica figura della donna vittoriana destinata al sacrificio per amore filiale, si riscopre qui una donna passionale che esprime e vive emozioni che superano i confini del contesto storico in cui è imprigionata.
Ci svegliamo dal torpore generato dalla quotidianità, da un tempo che sembra estendersi all'infinito e ci ritroviamo a leggere della speranza e degli espedienti escogitati da queste tre sorelle per conquistare l'unico uomo disponibile, un uomo visto come possibile via di fuga da un destino che le vede legate alla figura paterna fino alla morte.
Già dall'incipit si percepisce, trovandoci in un tipico paesaggio brontiano, che il tributo alle sorelle Bronte non si limita alla sola scelta del titolo. Veniamo condotti all'interno della loro umile e triste dimora e le troviamo silenziosamente sedute intorno al tavolo.
Il paese, sperduto nella brughiera dello Yorkshire, potrebbe tranquillamente essere Howorth, e loro Charlotte, Emily e Anne.
Il romanzo, scritto nel 1914, a soli due anni di distanza dalla biografia dedicata alle Bronte, ne porta con sè il ricordo, una sorta di palpabile presenza fisica, come se il vento della brughiera sussurrasse perpetuamente il loro nome. Ritroviamo in Gwenda, in particolare, lo spirito ribelle di Emily, il suo amore smisurato per la natura e la brughiera, il suo desiderio di indipendenza.
Ciò che più colpisce è la forte presenza della casa, una casa che inquieta con i suoi corridoi e i suoi silenzi, con lo studio del padre-padrone che sembra esser stato scelto appositamente per controllare le figlie in ogni spostamento.
Emblema della loro prigionia, tomba fra le tombe, sembra essere viva, così carica di tensioni e segreti la si sente quasi respirare e mormorare.
Tre sorelle che un padre ha voluto allontanare dal mondo e dagli uomini nella speranza di tenere lontano da loro tentazioni e peccati.
Tre sorelle e un medico, unico uomo a cui sia concesso il privilegio di varcare la soglia di casa.
Ecco, la storia sembra essere tutta qui.
Inizialmente gli eventi sono pochi e metodicamente pianificati dal vicario, un maniaco del controllo. È come se il costante ticchettio di un immenso orologio scandisse ogni secondo della giornata, ogni momento uguale all'altro, senza un minimo mutamento.
Sono le pulsioni delle tre sorelle a scuotere gli equilibri, a far vacillare le certezze del padre, a generare il cambiamento.
Con una scrittura sorprendentemente moderna, la classica figura della donna vittoriana destinata al sacrificio per amore filiale, si riscopre qui una donna passionale che esprime e vive emozioni che superano i confini del contesto storico in cui è imprigionata.
Ci svegliamo dal torpore generato dalla quotidianità, da un tempo che sembra estendersi all'infinito e ci ritroviamo a leggere della speranza e degli espedienti escogitati da queste tre sorelle per conquistare l'unico uomo disponibile, un uomo visto come possibile via di fuga da un destino che le vede legate alla figura paterna fino alla morte.
December 31, 2007
A weird, powerful novel with a flavour of the Brontes or Hardy - this got me hooked on May Sinclair and keen to read as much by her as possible.
September 24, 2013
The eponymous three sisters, Mary, Gwenda, and Alice Carteret, live with unbearable father at the vicarage in a tiny rural village in Yorkshire. Their life stretches on endlessly and bleakly before them - their entire day is spent waiting for prayer time, as it is the only event that happens all day long.
Enter Dr. Rowcliffe, a young country doctor who similarly has difficulty finding any companionship amongst the hayseeds of Garthdale. Dr. Rowcliffe is immediately drawn to the intelligent and independent Gwenda, whom he initially sees roaming around the moors, but both Alice and Mary have designs on the young doctor, since he is basically the only eligible man around. Gwenda is interested in Dr. Rowcliffe as well, but decides to move to London, even though she is the only sister who truly adores Garthdale, when she learns her younger sister Alice has made herself sick over Dr. Rowcliffe. She leaves, annoyingly not telling Rowcliffe the true reason behind her departure. HOWEVER, Mary turns out to be the worst person ever (but self-deluded into believing she is all sweetness and light) and marries Dr. Rowcliffe herself. Alice - who though young and a bit stupid, turns out to be the most decent person in the family after Gwenda - is terrified of staying behind with her father, and also thinks Mary is the worst because she knows what Gwenda did. In her loneliness, Alice turns to kind but drunk Jim Greatorex, a local farmer, and ends up pregnant. The outrage causes the Vicar to have a literal stroke and Gwenda ends up at home, caring for him, since both of her sisters are now married with families of their own.
This book was difficult to read in that Thomas Hardy-life-is-pain type of way. Happy endings there are not. Poor Gwenda ends up bleak and unhappy, with no relief in sight, through a series of unfortunate circumstances. Just as when I read Tess, I wanted to shake Gwenda - stop being so annoyingly noble and self-sacrificing! - but at the same time, Dr. Rowcliffe proves his utter unworthiness, so she was really too good for a loser like him.
"Gwenda had no feeling in her as she left Rowcliffe's house. Her heart hid in her breast. It was so mortally wounded as to be unaware it was hurt.
She came to the drop of the road under karva where she had seen Rowcliffe for the first time. She thought, "I shall never get away from it."
ET FIN.
Enter Dr. Rowcliffe, a young country doctor who similarly has difficulty finding any companionship amongst the hayseeds of Garthdale. Dr. Rowcliffe is immediately drawn to the intelligent and independent Gwenda, whom he initially sees roaming around the moors, but both Alice and Mary have designs on the young doctor, since he is basically the only eligible man around. Gwenda is interested in Dr. Rowcliffe as well, but decides to move to London, even though she is the only sister who truly adores Garthdale, when she learns her younger sister Alice has made herself sick over Dr. Rowcliffe. She leaves, annoyingly not telling Rowcliffe the true reason behind her departure. HOWEVER, Mary turns out to be the worst person ever (but self-deluded into believing she is all sweetness and light) and marries Dr. Rowcliffe herself. Alice - who though young and a bit stupid, turns out to be the most decent person in the family after Gwenda - is terrified of staying behind with her father, and also thinks Mary is the worst because she knows what Gwenda did. In her loneliness, Alice turns to kind but drunk Jim Greatorex, a local farmer, and ends up pregnant. The outrage causes the Vicar to have a literal stroke and Gwenda ends up at home, caring for him, since both of her sisters are now married with families of their own.
This book was difficult to read in that Thomas Hardy-life-is-pain type of way. Happy endings there are not. Poor Gwenda ends up bleak and unhappy, with no relief in sight, through a series of unfortunate circumstances. Just as when I read Tess, I wanted to shake Gwenda - stop being so annoyingly noble and self-sacrificing! - but at the same time, Dr. Rowcliffe proves his utter unworthiness, so she was really too good for a loser like him.
"Gwenda had no feeling in her as she left Rowcliffe's house. Her heart hid in her breast. It was so mortally wounded as to be unaware it was hurt.
She came to the drop of the road under karva where she had seen Rowcliffe for the first time. She thought, "I shall never get away from it."
ET FIN.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 28, 2017
Read a few years ago as part of an MA along with a couple of other May Sinclair works. Highly enjoyable and very well written.
May 20, 2018
For my full review: http://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/2...
I have distinctly mixed feelings about the cover to this book. On the one hand, it points to the book's inspiration, but on the other it threatens to overshadow the plot itself. Despite the fact that Anne, Emily and Charlotte gaze blankly out, they are not the titular Three Sisters. May Sinclair has taken the detail of the Brontë family's isolated situation and transmuted it into a story of her own. Her characters are Mary, Gwenda and Alice Cartaret, living with their dictatorial vicar father in the wilds of Garthdale. Rather than the early Victorian era, Sinclair has brought the action forward to then-contemporary 1913, yet the situation for women is little different. The Three Sisters is an exercise in female frustration; with the creative release which poured from the Brontë women absent, the Cartaret sisters have no escape from the suffocating atmosphere of the vicarage. The arrival of the new village doctor, the only eligible man in the area, catches the attention of all three in different ways as each tries to claw her towards liberation.
The parallels between each of the Cartarets and their Brontë counterparts are easy to see. Sinclair introduces Mary as the dutiful daughter, 'shorter than her sisters, but [...] the one that had the colour. And with it a stillness that was not theirs'. Charlotte then. Gwenda is introduced while reading, 'the tallest and the darkest of the three. Her face followed the type obscurely, and vividly and emphatically it left it.' Later Sinclair also notes that Gwenda's 'very supineness was alive. It had distinction, the savage grace of a creature utterly abandoned to a sane fatigue'. She is the Emily of the story. Alice has a looser relationship with her Brontë original, described as 'slender and small boned', the delicate one. Given that The Three Sisters was first published in 1914, it is unsurprising that Sinclair's vision of the Brontës was heavily influenced by the falsehoods and fictions fabricated by Mrs Gaskell.
Still, the Brontës do indeed have little to do with the novel's plot and Sinclair plays free and easy with the family circumstances. The Cartarets have no wastrel brother, nor indeed any other siblings who died in infancy. They have only their authoritarian father. His first wife was their mother, who passed away giving birth to Alice. Then there was 'Mamma', who 'turned into a nervous invalid on his hands before she died of that obscure internal trouble which he had so wisely and patiently ignored.' Then there was Robina, known to the girls as 'Mummy', who told him some home truths and left him after five years of marriage, sending bright and cheery messages of support back to his daughters while pleading with the vicar for a divorce. Mr Cartaret silently longs for Robina's death, her unfaithfulness having 'condemned him to a celibacy for which, as she knew, he was utterly unsuited'. It is Mr Cartaret's sexual frustration which is the undercurrent to his conduct towards his daughters and indeed his loathing for womankind as a whole.
Mr Cartaret's vitriol is particularly focused on youngest daughter Alice, she who is responsible for her mother's death, who drew the attention of men at his previous parish and so he has moved his family out to Garthdale, where there will be nobody for her to attract. In despair at her situation, Alice falls ill and young Dr Steven Rowcliffe is eventually summoned to attend her. Each sister responds to the young doctor differently and yet each becomes transfixed by him. Sinclair portrays powerfully how it is not about Rowcliffe as a man but rather about the sisters' stifling situation. When there is only one possible outlet, it becomes all-consuming. For Rowcliffe, it is the free-spirited Gwenda who catches his eye but while the novel hinges on a marriage plot, this is not a love story.
The Three Sisters is a gloomy story that keeps its eyes firmly on all that is grim and grey and grubby about Yorkshire. What was more confusing was the transcribed dialect and accents of the Yorkshire characters, which as a reader came across as more akin to Birmingham. It was difficult to take these characters seriously when one had to concentrate carefully to keep track of what they were actually saying. Essy the maid is thrown out of the vicarage for being pregnant and I had a feeling that her character should have seemed more interesting - she has fallen victim to the passion which the Cartaret sisters crave - but yet she could only ever be a figure of ridicule.
Of the three sisters, it is Gwenda who is the most sympathetic. Her compassion for Alice makes her hesitant to accept the offer of love from Steven, it makes her willing to sacrifice her own happiness. Alice's hysteria makes her a difficult character to warm to and her inability to look after herself irritated me even while her father's very particular cruelty made me feel so sorry for her. For the first section of the novel, Mary seems so very sweet and good, carrying out parish duties and being the 'good' daughter and sister. When we realise what Mary is capable of, it is too late but yet via Robina, Sinclair warns us that we should not have been surprised.
The Three Sisters is understated but truly savage. For all that they have grown up together, lived together, shared blood, these women cannot rely on each other's loyalty. The viciousness with which Alice is picked apart and then harangued for being in tatters was truly affecting. Throughout, Sinclair maintains a wry style of narration, never outright condemning her characters but quietly illustrating how they grind each other down. I hoped so much for some kind of happy conclusion and realised only belatedly that none would be forthcoming.
It was interesting to reflect on the Cartarets in connection with their Brontë counterparts. Sinclair had a strong interest in psychology and it was obviously this which she had responded to while researching a non-fiction book on the Brontës. Neither Charlotte, Emily or Anne ever seem to have been particularly driven towards finding husbands. Charlotte is known to have rejected three different suitors before finally, after protracted consideration, deciding to marry Arthur Bell Nicholls. Emily and Anne have no known suitors, although biographers have long tried to cook up a supposed flirtation that Anne had with William Weightman, one of her father's curates. The way in which all three sisters returned like homing birds to Haworth with such regularity suggest that it was not the nightmare situation imagined by Sinclair. When they struggled, it seemed to be a result of the loneliness and lack of self-expression typical to the low-status governess roles to which they were confined. They were treated with contempt by employers, not by family.
The Three Sisters depicts three women who want space of their own with Sinclair describing the lengths gone to, and the compromises and sacrifices made in the search of this. Sinclair suggests that marriage is less of a prize than earlier writers might have had it, that it is a trap very difficult to escape once entered into with the wrong partner. Sinclair is a thought-provoking novelist, her characters are compelling and her writing is richly descriptive. She has taken one point of inspiration and made something entirely her own, a story well worth the reading and one that lingers long in the mind. Unlike the Brontës, Sinclair makes her point quietly; this is a novel with few major incidents, but which nonetheless makes a bold statement about the situation of women.
I have distinctly mixed feelings about the cover to this book. On the one hand, it points to the book's inspiration, but on the other it threatens to overshadow the plot itself. Despite the fact that Anne, Emily and Charlotte gaze blankly out, they are not the titular Three Sisters. May Sinclair has taken the detail of the Brontë family's isolated situation and transmuted it into a story of her own. Her characters are Mary, Gwenda and Alice Cartaret, living with their dictatorial vicar father in the wilds of Garthdale. Rather than the early Victorian era, Sinclair has brought the action forward to then-contemporary 1913, yet the situation for women is little different. The Three Sisters is an exercise in female frustration; with the creative release which poured from the Brontë women absent, the Cartaret sisters have no escape from the suffocating atmosphere of the vicarage. The arrival of the new village doctor, the only eligible man in the area, catches the attention of all three in different ways as each tries to claw her towards liberation.
The parallels between each of the Cartarets and their Brontë counterparts are easy to see. Sinclair introduces Mary as the dutiful daughter, 'shorter than her sisters, but [...] the one that had the colour. And with it a stillness that was not theirs'. Charlotte then. Gwenda is introduced while reading, 'the tallest and the darkest of the three. Her face followed the type obscurely, and vividly and emphatically it left it.' Later Sinclair also notes that Gwenda's 'very supineness was alive. It had distinction, the savage grace of a creature utterly abandoned to a sane fatigue'. She is the Emily of the story. Alice has a looser relationship with her Brontë original, described as 'slender and small boned', the delicate one. Given that The Three Sisters was first published in 1914, it is unsurprising that Sinclair's vision of the Brontës was heavily influenced by the falsehoods and fictions fabricated by Mrs Gaskell.
Still, the Brontës do indeed have little to do with the novel's plot and Sinclair plays free and easy with the family circumstances. The Cartarets have no wastrel brother, nor indeed any other siblings who died in infancy. They have only their authoritarian father. His first wife was their mother, who passed away giving birth to Alice. Then there was 'Mamma', who 'turned into a nervous invalid on his hands before she died of that obscure internal trouble which he had so wisely and patiently ignored.' Then there was Robina, known to the girls as 'Mummy', who told him some home truths and left him after five years of marriage, sending bright and cheery messages of support back to his daughters while pleading with the vicar for a divorce. Mr Cartaret silently longs for Robina's death, her unfaithfulness having 'condemned him to a celibacy for which, as she knew, he was utterly unsuited'. It is Mr Cartaret's sexual frustration which is the undercurrent to his conduct towards his daughters and indeed his loathing for womankind as a whole.
Mr Cartaret's vitriol is particularly focused on youngest daughter Alice, she who is responsible for her mother's death, who drew the attention of men at his previous parish and so he has moved his family out to Garthdale, where there will be nobody for her to attract. In despair at her situation, Alice falls ill and young Dr Steven Rowcliffe is eventually summoned to attend her. Each sister responds to the young doctor differently and yet each becomes transfixed by him. Sinclair portrays powerfully how it is not about Rowcliffe as a man but rather about the sisters' stifling situation. When there is only one possible outlet, it becomes all-consuming. For Rowcliffe, it is the free-spirited Gwenda who catches his eye but while the novel hinges on a marriage plot, this is not a love story.
The Three Sisters is a gloomy story that keeps its eyes firmly on all that is grim and grey and grubby about Yorkshire. What was more confusing was the transcribed dialect and accents of the Yorkshire characters, which as a reader came across as more akin to Birmingham. It was difficult to take these characters seriously when one had to concentrate carefully to keep track of what they were actually saying. Essy the maid is thrown out of the vicarage for being pregnant and I had a feeling that her character should have seemed more interesting - she has fallen victim to the passion which the Cartaret sisters crave - but yet she could only ever be a figure of ridicule.
Of the three sisters, it is Gwenda who is the most sympathetic. Her compassion for Alice makes her hesitant to accept the offer of love from Steven, it makes her willing to sacrifice her own happiness. Alice's hysteria makes her a difficult character to warm to and her inability to look after herself irritated me even while her father's very particular cruelty made me feel so sorry for her. For the first section of the novel, Mary seems so very sweet and good, carrying out parish duties and being the 'good' daughter and sister. When we realise what Mary is capable of, it is too late but yet via Robina, Sinclair warns us that we should not have been surprised.
The Three Sisters is understated but truly savage. For all that they have grown up together, lived together, shared blood, these women cannot rely on each other's loyalty. The viciousness with which Alice is picked apart and then harangued for being in tatters was truly affecting. Throughout, Sinclair maintains a wry style of narration, never outright condemning her characters but quietly illustrating how they grind each other down. I hoped so much for some kind of happy conclusion and realised only belatedly that none would be forthcoming.
It was interesting to reflect on the Cartarets in connection with their Brontë counterparts. Sinclair had a strong interest in psychology and it was obviously this which she had responded to while researching a non-fiction book on the Brontës. Neither Charlotte, Emily or Anne ever seem to have been particularly driven towards finding husbands. Charlotte is known to have rejected three different suitors before finally, after protracted consideration, deciding to marry Arthur Bell Nicholls. Emily and Anne have no known suitors, although biographers have long tried to cook up a supposed flirtation that Anne had with William Weightman, one of her father's curates. The way in which all three sisters returned like homing birds to Haworth with such regularity suggest that it was not the nightmare situation imagined by Sinclair. When they struggled, it seemed to be a result of the loneliness and lack of self-expression typical to the low-status governess roles to which they were confined. They were treated with contempt by employers, not by family.
The Three Sisters depicts three women who want space of their own with Sinclair describing the lengths gone to, and the compromises and sacrifices made in the search of this. Sinclair suggests that marriage is less of a prize than earlier writers might have had it, that it is a trap very difficult to escape once entered into with the wrong partner. Sinclair is a thought-provoking novelist, her characters are compelling and her writing is richly descriptive. She has taken one point of inspiration and made something entirely her own, a story well worth the reading and one that lingers long in the mind. Unlike the Brontës, Sinclair makes her point quietly; this is a novel with few major incidents, but which nonetheless makes a bold statement about the situation of women.
April 20, 2019
Je ne connaissais pas du tout cette auteure et j'étais curieuse de découvrir ce roman "dans la lignée des sœurs Bronté". On y reconnait du reste la patte des romans classiques anglais avec un petit village bucolique, des sentiments retenus et étouffés par les conventions ainsi que trois soeurs qui s'efforcent tant bien que mal de rester éloignées de leur père avec qui elles sont forcées de vivre... Mary, l'ainée semble la plus gentille et la plus sage : au final, je trouve que c'est la plus fourbe des trois, prête à tout pour fuir le père ... Gwenda, celle du milieu est ma favorite ! Mais c'est aussi celle qui, en raison de son côté rêveur, de son altruisme et de son indécision va connaitre le sort le moins enviable de tous. Quand à Alice, la cadette, elle est à la limite de l'hystérie et le docteur a raison depuis le début : si elle ne se trouve pas un homme, elle va étouffer de désir retenu.
Le désir est en effet omniprésent dans ce roman en dépit des tonnes de conventions et de pseudo sentiments religieux ( dans le cas du père) qui cherchent à l'étouffer. Les personnages sont originaux et j'aime la manière dont leurs relations sont décrites. J'ai beaucoup apprécié les personnages de Jim et de Steven ainsi que leurs relations avec les sœurs. La fin, à l'instar du roman est à la fois mélancolique et emplit d'une beauté éthérée.
Ce que j'aime : le personnage de Gwenda, la relation entre Gwenda et Steven, la fourberie de Mary, l'hypocrisie du pasteur
Ce que j'aime moins : le destin de Gwenda
En bref : Un beau roman classique anglais, dans la lignée de Jane Austen et des sœurs Bronté
Ma note
8/10
Le désir est en effet omniprésent dans ce roman en dépit des tonnes de conventions et de pseudo sentiments religieux ( dans le cas du père) qui cherchent à l'étouffer. Les personnages sont originaux et j'aime la manière dont leurs relations sont décrites. J'ai beaucoup apprécié les personnages de Jim et de Steven ainsi que leurs relations avec les sœurs. La fin, à l'instar du roman est à la fois mélancolique et emplit d'une beauté éthérée.
Ce que j'aime : le personnage de Gwenda, la relation entre Gwenda et Steven, la fourberie de Mary, l'hypocrisie du pasteur
Ce que j'aime moins : le destin de Gwenda
En bref : Un beau roman classique anglais, dans la lignée de Jane Austen et des sœurs Bronté
Ma note
8/10
March 29, 2020
It starts out rather unassumingly (god was I afraid it is some rehash à la Jane Eyre!), but turns out to be some minor masterpiece that reveals some hints (rather crudely at points, with characters’ thoughts expostulated in quotation marks) of modernist tendencies that are to come. Unfortunately this novel is publish at a time when representing dialects on the printed page was in the vogue, and the reader is sometimes treated to a full-page of words written to imitate some Yorkshire accent.
Rather sad story of unfulfilled love, and it strikes close to home sometimes. Sinclair obviously had quite a grasp on human psychology.
Rather sad story of unfulfilled love, and it strikes close to home sometimes. Sinclair obviously had quite a grasp on human psychology.
June 5, 2022
One star off because there were pages and pages of Yorkshire dialect I had to wade through. Good story, though. Delectable whiffs of Hardy and Eliot.
February 6, 2024
Pourquoi n’y-t-il pas plus de traductions des romans de May Sinclair ? C’est le 2ème roman de cette auteure que je lis et franchement, c’est fort.
Mary Gwenda et Alice sont les 3 filles de 21, 23 et 27 ans environ? du vicaire d’un village du Yorkshire. Ce père est despotique, injuste, acariâtre, hypocrite, frustré, incapable d’amour. Lutin d’merle! à chaque fois qu’il apparaît dans le roman, j’ai envie de l’étrangler.
Le vicaire a déjà eu 2 épouses qui sont mortes et la 3ème l’a quitté. Elle a demandé le divorce mais refus total de l’obstiné bonhomme: un vicaire ne divorce pas. Du coup, le voilà forcé de rester un mari célibataire et méga frustré sexuellement, parce que monsieur a des "besoins" journaliers, d’où la nécessité d’une épouse! Voyez le genre.
Seulement voilà, ses filles, les femmes en général, en ont aussi, des désirs. Mais contrairement à leur père, elles doivent prétendre qu’ils n’existent pas, les nier, les taire. Autant dire: mission impossible! Seules dans les landes sauvages façon Les Hauts de Hurlevent, chacune survit à sa façon, selon son caractère quand arrive un jeune et beau docteur…
Alors, non, on n’est pas, mais pas du tout dans une gentille romance. Le but de May Sinclair est de mettre à jour le désir et la sexualité féminine soumis à l’emprise des hommes dans une société patriarcale et religieuse. Et c’est violent, terrible, poignant, beau aussi…
Mary Gwenda et Alice sont les 3 filles de 21, 23 et 27 ans environ? du vicaire d’un village du Yorkshire. Ce père est despotique, injuste, acariâtre, hypocrite, frustré, incapable d’amour. Lutin d’merle! à chaque fois qu’il apparaît dans le roman, j’ai envie de l’étrangler.
Le vicaire a déjà eu 2 épouses qui sont mortes et la 3ème l’a quitté. Elle a demandé le divorce mais refus total de l’obstiné bonhomme: un vicaire ne divorce pas. Du coup, le voilà forcé de rester un mari célibataire et méga frustré sexuellement, parce que monsieur a des "besoins" journaliers, d’où la nécessité d’une épouse! Voyez le genre.
Seulement voilà, ses filles, les femmes en général, en ont aussi, des désirs. Mais contrairement à leur père, elles doivent prétendre qu’ils n’existent pas, les nier, les taire. Autant dire: mission impossible! Seules dans les landes sauvages façon Les Hauts de Hurlevent, chacune survit à sa façon, selon son caractère quand arrive un jeune et beau docteur…
Alors, non, on n’est pas, mais pas du tout dans une gentille romance. Le but de May Sinclair est de mettre à jour le désir et la sexualité féminine soumis à l’emprise des hommes dans une société patriarcale et religieuse. Et c’est violent, terrible, poignant, beau aussi…
June 21, 2021
4,25/5
Une autrice qui gagne à être plus connue ! Suffragette du début du XXe siècle, militant pour le droit des femmes, son œuvre semble s’axer dans la lignée de ses pensées. Si l’ouvrage n’est pas entièrement novateur, j’ai aimé sa plume simple, sans prétention, mais toutefois si poétique et lyrique. Le livre fonctionne presque en huit-clos tant nos heroines évoluent dans un lieu reclus, avec très peu de personnages venant vers elles. Ce lieu de solitude sert à une expérience sociale et à de nombreuses pensées sur notre place dans le monde, notamment en tant que femme à cette période.
Toutefois, j’ai été déçue de la fin, qui a un aspect très pathétique et tragique - ce n’était pas spécialement ce que j’attendais.
Une autrice qui gagne à être plus connue ! Suffragette du début du XXe siècle, militant pour le droit des femmes, son œuvre semble s’axer dans la lignée de ses pensées. Si l’ouvrage n’est pas entièrement novateur, j’ai aimé sa plume simple, sans prétention, mais toutefois si poétique et lyrique. Le livre fonctionne presque en huit-clos tant nos heroines évoluent dans un lieu reclus, avec très peu de personnages venant vers elles. Ce lieu de solitude sert à une expérience sociale et à de nombreuses pensées sur notre place dans le monde, notamment en tant que femme à cette période.
Toutefois, j’ai été déçue de la fin, qui a un aspect très pathétique et tragique - ce n’était pas spécialement ce que j’attendais.
April 28, 2021
A friend loaned me this. A story of three sisters with themes of isolation, sexual repression, an oppressive patriarchal father and larger society - with much psychoanalysis of characters - all wrapped up in the story of a doomed love affair. (Inspired by the three Bronte sisters, but not their story despite the picture of them on the cover.) Warning: there are some hard to plod through phonetically spelled out rural dialects included in dialogue. Felt like 3.5 stars? But 4 for the insightful writing of the inner worlds of each character and historical relevance of the book. Fun fact: May Sinclair coined the term "stream of consciousness".
July 29, 2013
Interesting that some have referred to the Bronte sisters when talking about this book, yes they are living in a vicarage near the moors. However this is more a book about decisions which you can make and how they can affect the rest of your life. How you may have one chance of happiness and how choosing to sacrifice yourself for someone can be the worse decision if you don't know as much as you think you do.
There wasn't really a character I liked, and I imagine that I'd have liked at least one of the Bronte sisters if not two.
There wasn't really a character I liked, and I imagine that I'd have liked at least one of the Bronte sisters if not two.
April 12, 2021
This was better than I expected because it wasn't another rehashing of the actual Bronte sisters but a whole new story. Oldest sister Mary is domestic and "good," Gwenda is a bit wild but loves the moors, and young Amy is willful, making herself sick to get what she wants. Her latest episode interrupts love in the making between Gwenda and Dr Rowcliffe, the only eligible bachelor for the three women. The interruption leads to disruption. Will any of the sisters find love and happiness? Not if their thwarted father has anything to do with it. Quite a feisty family!
April 3, 2019
This book has made me soooooooooooooo sad...
that i should really give it at least 4 stars--the fact that it can make a reader so emotional, the fact that one is so moved, must count for something!--but i just wish it had been different! i can say nothing else, for anything i say might be a spoiler...
May Sinclair, where were you all life?
that i should really give it at least 4 stars--the fact that it can make a reader so emotional, the fact that one is so moved, must count for something!--but i just wish it had been different! i can say nothing else, for anything i say might be a spoiler...
May Sinclair, where were you all life?
June 2, 2022
So many unforeseen happenings. So much character depth. So much subtlety. I do not understand every shade of meaning, but what I comprehended I greatly enjoyed. This is a refreshing, extraordinary novel that delves into problematic family dynamics and complex romantic relationships. Additionally, it provoked thought and splintered my heart.
November 9, 2020
This was an interesting book. The characters were all pretty complex, if mostly kept at arms length. To imagine the strength both Essy and Ally drew on, though Ally was saved... And to not have thier action condemned either...
The characters were well developed, and most of them had some sort of redeeming feature at some point. I would recommend this to anyone who likes classics.
The characters were well developed, and most of them had some sort of redeeming feature at some point. I would recommend this to anyone who likes classics.
April 29, 2021
May Sinclair is a good writer. The Three Sisters was very well written. I love the scenery, the characters, the main story, everything. I truly recommend it if you liked "Pride and Prejudice" (Jane Austen) or "Wuthering Heights" (Emily Brontë).
December 26, 2018
Real Victorian Classic. Loved it.
February 21, 2024
Rounding up from 3.5 stars. It took me a bit to get into this story, but I found it (and the characters) very engrossing once I did. Mixed feelings about it overall. Loved the setting and some aspects of the plot, but I found some aspects of Sinclair’s style a bit melodramatic/over-the-top, especially when describing the interior lives of her characters. I am motivated to read more about her, though, to understand what influences are represented in her writing and to understand her influence on modernist literary circles. I expect I might appreciate her style more if I better understood what she was “doing” with the genre.
June 12, 2022
Ratings:
Writing 3
Story line 2
Characters 3
Impact 2
Overall rating 2.5
Writing 3
Story line 2
Characters 3
Impact 2
Overall rating 2.5
July 29, 2019
Les trois soeurs est un classique du début du XXème siècle que je suis ravie d'avoir découvert. Il est évident que May Sinclair, autrice de talent que je ne connaissais pas, s'est inspirée du courant de la psychanalyse de l'époque pour l'écrire. Elle explore les mobiles inconscients du comportement humain et la sublimation du désir.
L'autrice venait de se consacrer à une étude pointilleuse des soeurs Brontë dont elle s'est également inspirée pour les personnages principaux du roman. Ainsi, on retrouve trois soeurs de 23 à 27 ans (Alice, Gwenda et Mary) dont le père, James Carteret, est un vicaire despotique venu les "cloisonner" dans un petit village de la Haute-Lande anglaise. le cadre idéal pour mettre en scène les frustrations des membres de cette famille et de leur entourage dans le contexte puritain de la société victorien. A commencer par le vicaire lui-même dont la troisième femme s'est enfuie. Il ne veut pas divorcer car sa qualité d'ecclésiastique le lui défend. Condamner au célibat car sinon il serait infidèle, il vit un véritable supplice qu'il fait peser sur ses filles. Ainsi, chacune des trois femmes appréhendent une interdiction latente de se marier selon son caractère et la capacité à défier cet homme rigide. Car lorsque débarque dans la paroisse le jeune et beau docteur Rowcliffe, celui-ci apparaît comme le sauveur qui pourrait bien les sortir de leur désolation déclenchant une passion décuplée par une sensualité bridée.
Le déroulement de l'intrigue m'a étonnée et surprise plus d'une fois car le récit se veut réaliste et motivé par la psychologie des personnages. Je n'ai pas toujours totalement adhéré à la tournure des événements mais cela m'a paru très intéressant et original. J'ai beaucoup apprécié le style avec lequel l'autrice relate ce qui se passe en chacun des personnages, les tumultes qui les agitent et l'interprétation qu'ils font de ce qui les traverse ou de ce qu'ils ressentent et la compréhension qu'ils peuvent avoir des actions ou de ce qui se passe pour les autres.
May Sinclair ne s'embarrassant pas d'appartenir à un courant littéraire quelconque écrit selon ses inspirations et ses convictions se laissant influencer volontiers par la psychanalyse. Et que pouvait mieux l'inspirer suite à ses recherches que la famille Brontë pour écrire un roman touchant et poignant sur le désir et les mystères de la psyché féminine au tournant du xxème siècle...
Un autrice classique à découvrir si cela n'est déjà fait !
L'autrice venait de se consacrer à une étude pointilleuse des soeurs Brontë dont elle s'est également inspirée pour les personnages principaux du roman. Ainsi, on retrouve trois soeurs de 23 à 27 ans (Alice, Gwenda et Mary) dont le père, James Carteret, est un vicaire despotique venu les "cloisonner" dans un petit village de la Haute-Lande anglaise. le cadre idéal pour mettre en scène les frustrations des membres de cette famille et de leur entourage dans le contexte puritain de la société victorien. A commencer par le vicaire lui-même dont la troisième femme s'est enfuie. Il ne veut pas divorcer car sa qualité d'ecclésiastique le lui défend. Condamner au célibat car sinon il serait infidèle, il vit un véritable supplice qu'il fait peser sur ses filles. Ainsi, chacune des trois femmes appréhendent une interdiction latente de se marier selon son caractère et la capacité à défier cet homme rigide. Car lorsque débarque dans la paroisse le jeune et beau docteur Rowcliffe, celui-ci apparaît comme le sauveur qui pourrait bien les sortir de leur désolation déclenchant une passion décuplée par une sensualité bridée.
Le déroulement de l'intrigue m'a étonnée et surprise plus d'une fois car le récit se veut réaliste et motivé par la psychologie des personnages. Je n'ai pas toujours totalement adhéré à la tournure des événements mais cela m'a paru très intéressant et original. J'ai beaucoup apprécié le style avec lequel l'autrice relate ce qui se passe en chacun des personnages, les tumultes qui les agitent et l'interprétation qu'ils font de ce qui les traverse ou de ce qu'ils ressentent et la compréhension qu'ils peuvent avoir des actions ou de ce qui se passe pour les autres.
May Sinclair ne s'embarrassant pas d'appartenir à un courant littéraire quelconque écrit selon ses inspirations et ses convictions se laissant influencer volontiers par la psychanalyse. Et que pouvait mieux l'inspirer suite à ses recherches que la famille Brontë pour écrire un roman touchant et poignant sur le désir et les mystères de la psyché féminine au tournant du xxème siècle...
Un autrice classique à découvrir si cela n'est déjà fait !
December 30, 2023
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair aka Mary Amelia St Clair – one of her novels was highly praised by critics, including George Orwell, while Agatha Christie considered it one of the greatest English novels of its time
10 out of 10
This wonderful novel was published in 1914, it is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, and makes one wonder about how standards have changed, or they haven’t, at least in parts of the world, where women are still struggling to gain equal rights, and their having extramarital affairs is punishable, at times by death, which is called ‘honor killing’, because in this manner, the reputation of the males is ‘restored’
This is a very complex, rewarding novel, which you can get for free, either in eBook format, with the Gutenberg Project, or as an audiobook, at https://librivox.org/ where you can also volunteer, if you have the gift (alas, there have been some instances, one that comes to mind is The Home and The World by Tagore, where we have someone kind enough to offer his skill, only he does not have it) and help with generous proposals
The favorite in all the book might well be Gwenda Carteret, one of The Three Sisters – but she is the incentive to place the needed spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer – these lines are biased, they express a subjective point of view, and furthermore, they lack substance, authority and so much (everything possibly) else besides…
There are two other sisters, Mary and Alice, daughters of the vicar who has had to move to a remote parish, where only Gwenda seems to be enjoying the countryside, the walks, which she would at one point take with doctor Steven Rowcliffe (remember you have had your spoiler, warning) but alas, she might become the Lost Lady
Alice thinks she loves the doctor, but she could just prove how elusive the feeling is, this reader always thinks of Thomas Mann http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/l... and a short story read in adolescence, in which the Magician speaks of love – there are so many who boast that their love is beyond words, but when it comes to the test, that is just infatuation
Alice tries to impress upon the doctor, she gets ill, in that she pretends to be, so that she gets the attention, but her condition is also serious, to the point where Steven Rowcliffe talks to the vicar and Gwenda about the alternatives, either the young woman gets mad, or she dies if she is not married soon, or immediately
Gwenda and the doctor had been going out on walks and the man was sure he loves her – but looking at the paragraph above, we could question this, especially with the hindsight obtained at the end of the narrative – and tries to enlighten the subject of his desire, without much success, until the crisis
The generous, altruistic woman decides to sacrifice her wellbeing for her sister, sure that if she departs, then the ‘coast will be clear’, Alice will be able to get married to the only suitable, indeed, available man in those remote parts, and thus she writes to her step mother, the third wife of the vicar…
This is the spouse that had left him, making the clergy, a morose, often unbearable man, oppressive to his three daughters, stubborn and determined to prevent his daughter from going to London, another to marry, all concerned with his own felicity, but all will prove impervious, rejecting his bullying
Nevertheless, Gwenda talks to Mary about the reason for her departure, the need to save Alice, give her a surviving chance by eliminating the only competition for the attention of the doctor, only the latter, after some disillusionment, the doctor becomes aware of the attractiveness of…Mary, and the latter surprises everyone
She knew of the reason why Gwenda left the ‘battlefield’, and yet, she will be the beneficiary, soon becoming Mrs. Rowcliffe, and worse, she will confront Alice in a memorable scene (well, there are many, not just this one) after she is a married, ‘respectable’ woman, they find that Alice was consorting with the wrong sort
It was a time of separation between classes, the rich versus the poor, educated and the lower groups, mainly aligned along the wealth barriers – as Hernan Diaz says in his Pulitzer Prize Winner for Literature Trust ‘money is, potentially, everything’- and the fact that Alice becomes the girlfriend of a man from a lower class is anathema
When the family finds out, they have what today would be called ‘an intervention’, the man in question had had an affair with the girl who worked as servant in the vicar’s household, until the latter, in his pernicious fury, send the pregnant woman out, with disregard to her condition, and the request to stay through Christmas, which was more concerned with the service she would provide to the sisters
This is another instance when the ‘man of God’ shows such abominable lack of charity, in the name of defending the church, morals, honor, standing against fornication and all that, but the clergy will soon have a heart attack, just after Alice comes to the conclusion that she will marry the man that had left her pregnant, not before having a clash with Mary, the former telling the latter that she has stolen the doctor from Gwenda
Gwenda has returned, she is the one to nurse the vicar, who has lost his memory and much else, and the only solace might be…the same doctor, who walks out at nights, with his sister-in-law, making the village talk about it…
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
10 out of 10
This wonderful novel was published in 1914, it is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, and makes one wonder about how standards have changed, or they haven’t, at least in parts of the world, where women are still struggling to gain equal rights, and their having extramarital affairs is punishable, at times by death, which is called ‘honor killing’, because in this manner, the reputation of the males is ‘restored’
This is a very complex, rewarding novel, which you can get for free, either in eBook format, with the Gutenberg Project, or as an audiobook, at https://librivox.org/ where you can also volunteer, if you have the gift (alas, there have been some instances, one that comes to mind is The Home and The World by Tagore, where we have someone kind enough to offer his skill, only he does not have it) and help with generous proposals
The favorite in all the book might well be Gwenda Carteret, one of The Three Sisters – but she is the incentive to place the needed spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer – these lines are biased, they express a subjective point of view, and furthermore, they lack substance, authority and so much (everything possibly) else besides…
There are two other sisters, Mary and Alice, daughters of the vicar who has had to move to a remote parish, where only Gwenda seems to be enjoying the countryside, the walks, which she would at one point take with doctor Steven Rowcliffe (remember you have had your spoiler, warning) but alas, she might become the Lost Lady
Alice thinks she loves the doctor, but she could just prove how elusive the feeling is, this reader always thinks of Thomas Mann http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/l... and a short story read in adolescence, in which the Magician speaks of love – there are so many who boast that their love is beyond words, but when it comes to the test, that is just infatuation
Alice tries to impress upon the doctor, she gets ill, in that she pretends to be, so that she gets the attention, but her condition is also serious, to the point where Steven Rowcliffe talks to the vicar and Gwenda about the alternatives, either the young woman gets mad, or she dies if she is not married soon, or immediately
Gwenda and the doctor had been going out on walks and the man was sure he loves her – but looking at the paragraph above, we could question this, especially with the hindsight obtained at the end of the narrative – and tries to enlighten the subject of his desire, without much success, until the crisis
The generous, altruistic woman decides to sacrifice her wellbeing for her sister, sure that if she departs, then the ‘coast will be clear’, Alice will be able to get married to the only suitable, indeed, available man in those remote parts, and thus she writes to her step mother, the third wife of the vicar…
This is the spouse that had left him, making the clergy, a morose, often unbearable man, oppressive to his three daughters, stubborn and determined to prevent his daughter from going to London, another to marry, all concerned with his own felicity, but all will prove impervious, rejecting his bullying
Nevertheless, Gwenda talks to Mary about the reason for her departure, the need to save Alice, give her a surviving chance by eliminating the only competition for the attention of the doctor, only the latter, after some disillusionment, the doctor becomes aware of the attractiveness of…Mary, and the latter surprises everyone
She knew of the reason why Gwenda left the ‘battlefield’, and yet, she will be the beneficiary, soon becoming Mrs. Rowcliffe, and worse, she will confront Alice in a memorable scene (well, there are many, not just this one) after she is a married, ‘respectable’ woman, they find that Alice was consorting with the wrong sort
It was a time of separation between classes, the rich versus the poor, educated and the lower groups, mainly aligned along the wealth barriers – as Hernan Diaz says in his Pulitzer Prize Winner for Literature Trust ‘money is, potentially, everything’- and the fact that Alice becomes the girlfriend of a man from a lower class is anathema
When the family finds out, they have what today would be called ‘an intervention’, the man in question had had an affair with the girl who worked as servant in the vicar’s household, until the latter, in his pernicious fury, send the pregnant woman out, with disregard to her condition, and the request to stay through Christmas, which was more concerned with the service she would provide to the sisters
This is another instance when the ‘man of God’ shows such abominable lack of charity, in the name of defending the church, morals, honor, standing against fornication and all that, but the clergy will soon have a heart attack, just after Alice comes to the conclusion that she will marry the man that had left her pregnant, not before having a clash with Mary, the former telling the latter that she has stolen the doctor from Gwenda
Gwenda has returned, she is the one to nurse the vicar, who has lost his memory and much else, and the only solace might be…the same doctor, who walks out at nights, with his sister-in-law, making the village talk about it…
Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
April 30, 2019
Une auteur que je ne connaissais pas, considérée comme une héritière des sœurs Bronté.
Même si je n'ai pas détesté le roman, je ne pense pas en relire un autre d'elle.
J'ai trouvé ça très conventionnel et assez classique dans sa construction et vu l'ambiance assez morose, on se doute que ça sera pas tout rose pour tout le monde et ça plombe un peu tout le roman qui l'est déjà rien que dans les descriptions de leur vie fade et sans saveur.
J'ai eu du mal en plus de ça à avoir de l'empathie pour les personnages, je ne me suis attachée à aucun d'eux (par contre, j'ai eu envie d'en gifler plus d'un)
En résumé, c'est l'histoire d'un vicaire et de ses trois filles qui viennent s'installer à Garth. Le père est un vrai despote qui cache derrière ses allures de bon chrétien, un homme frustré dans ses désirs, sa troisième femme l'a en effet quitté et refuse le divorce l'obligeant à un célibat qu'il exècre.
Alice, la cadette est la raison de cette installation, elle s'enflamme très vite pour les hommes qu'elle croise. Gwenda, est la fille du milieu, celle qui tente de maintenir tout ce beau monde en cohésion et puis il y a Mary, l'aînée, calme et rêveuse. Arrive, le médecin Stephen Rowcliffe et chacun voit en lui un moyen d'échapper à l'oppression paternelle et à ce petit jeu-là, Mary va sortir gagnante (au final, c'est juste la plus fourbe de toute et un perso que j'ai profondément détesté)
Ce roman, c'est l'analyse de la condition féminine mise en avant avec cette espèce de torpeur et d'assouvissement dans lesquelles elles sont élevées. le tout sous la coupe masculine. C'est un roman dit "féministe" et je suis passée totalement à côté du sujet (en même temps le féminisme et moi on n'est pas pote), les héroïnes m'ont toutes d'une manière ou d'une autre tapé sur le système. Les trois sœurs, c'est du Austeen, la légèreté et la sarcasme en moins. On comprend leur besoin de fuir la maison paternelle, on comprend moins leur besoin de se jeter dans les bras du premier homme venu pour le faire (alors que Gwenda à la possibilité de pouvoir vivre sa vie loin de tout cela mais finit par céder aussi et en plus à quel prix)...
Bref, lecture en demi teinte. Je suppose que les amoureux des sœurs Bronté devraient aimer ce roman mais les scènes contemplatives à répétition, les désirs refoulés ressassés mille fois etc...ce n'est pas trop mon truc...
Même si je n'ai pas détesté le roman, je ne pense pas en relire un autre d'elle.
J'ai trouvé ça très conventionnel et assez classique dans sa construction et vu l'ambiance assez morose, on se doute que ça sera pas tout rose pour tout le monde et ça plombe un peu tout le roman qui l'est déjà rien que dans les descriptions de leur vie fade et sans saveur.
J'ai eu du mal en plus de ça à avoir de l'empathie pour les personnages, je ne me suis attachée à aucun d'eux (par contre, j'ai eu envie d'en gifler plus d'un)
En résumé, c'est l'histoire d'un vicaire et de ses trois filles qui viennent s'installer à Garth. Le père est un vrai despote qui cache derrière ses allures de bon chrétien, un homme frustré dans ses désirs, sa troisième femme l'a en effet quitté et refuse le divorce l'obligeant à un célibat qu'il exècre.
Alice, la cadette est la raison de cette installation, elle s'enflamme très vite pour les hommes qu'elle croise. Gwenda, est la fille du milieu, celle qui tente de maintenir tout ce beau monde en cohésion et puis il y a Mary, l'aînée, calme et rêveuse. Arrive, le médecin Stephen Rowcliffe et chacun voit en lui un moyen d'échapper à l'oppression paternelle et à ce petit jeu-là, Mary va sortir gagnante (au final, c'est juste la plus fourbe de toute et un perso que j'ai profondément détesté)
Ce roman, c'est l'analyse de la condition féminine mise en avant avec cette espèce de torpeur et d'assouvissement dans lesquelles elles sont élevées. le tout sous la coupe masculine. C'est un roman dit "féministe" et je suis passée totalement à côté du sujet (en même temps le féminisme et moi on n'est pas pote), les héroïnes m'ont toutes d'une manière ou d'une autre tapé sur le système. Les trois sœurs, c'est du Austeen, la légèreté et la sarcasme en moins. On comprend leur besoin de fuir la maison paternelle, on comprend moins leur besoin de se jeter dans les bras du premier homme venu pour le faire (alors que Gwenda à la possibilité de pouvoir vivre sa vie loin de tout cela mais finit par céder aussi et en plus à quel prix)...
Bref, lecture en demi teinte. Je suppose que les amoureux des sœurs Bronté devraient aimer ce roman mais les scènes contemplatives à répétition, les désirs refoulés ressassés mille fois etc...ce n'est pas trop mon truc...
April 2, 2021
Vous n’avez probablement jamais entendu parler de May Sinclair, qui a pourtant été l’une des plus célèbre romancière de Grande-Bretagne durant la première moitié du 20e siècle. Elle a même été surnommée "la quatrième soeur Brontë", et ce n’est pas un vain compliment. Alors comment expliquer sa quasi-disparition aujourd’hui, en particulier la rareté criante de ses traductions ? A notre connaissance, il s’agit du seul de ses romans disponible en français. Femme libre, elle a vécu de sa plume, n’a eu -à l’instar d’une Jane Austen moderne- ni mari ni enfant.
Dans Les Trois soeurs, elle met en scène le thème de la sensibilité féminine, pour ne pas dire de la sensualité, ou plus exactement, l’étouffement de cette part secrète qui propulse le sexe dit faible sur le fil du rasoir. Appelons cela mélancolie, frustration, ou plus vulgairement hystérie, mais pour May Sinclair, il semble essentiel de montrer à travers ce récit que c’est le non-épanouissement des femmes qui est la cause de tous leurs malheurs. Mary, Gwenda et Alice représentent chacune une énigme, un archétype féminin.
On pense inévitablement aux soeurs Brontë elles-mêmes, jusque dans leur description physique, étrangement identique, mais également dans celle de leur presbyt��re. Pour quiconque a déjà été à Haworth, dans le Yorkshire, il est facile de deviner derrière les mots de May Sinclair un parfait compte-rendu des lieux de vie des trois romancières. L’analogie s’arrête là. Des indices nous disent clairement que l’on n’évolue pas dans la même temporalité. Là, il y a un téléphone, ici une voiture. Le siècle n’est donc -apparemment- pas si obscur. Et pourtant.
Qu’est-ce donc qu’être une femme en ce début de 20e siècle ? Quand on est fille de pasteur ? Quand on vit dans un petit village ? Et que le seul homme correct du coin prend l’apparence d’un jeune médecin -assez séduisant- et forcément mystérieux aux yeux de ces jeunes filles qui n’ont guère d’autre point de comparaison ? Le drame se joue au fil des pages, chacune des soeurs, à la manière des sirènes, tentant d’attirer le mâle dans ses filets.
May Sinclair sonde le coeur féminin, raconte admirablement et sans juger, l’amour tant espéré, rêvé, déçu, inassouvi. Magnifique.
Dans Les Trois soeurs, elle met en scène le thème de la sensibilité féminine, pour ne pas dire de la sensualité, ou plus exactement, l’étouffement de cette part secrète qui propulse le sexe dit faible sur le fil du rasoir. Appelons cela mélancolie, frustration, ou plus vulgairement hystérie, mais pour May Sinclair, il semble essentiel de montrer à travers ce récit que c’est le non-épanouissement des femmes qui est la cause de tous leurs malheurs. Mary, Gwenda et Alice représentent chacune une énigme, un archétype féminin.
On pense inévitablement aux soeurs Brontë elles-mêmes, jusque dans leur description physique, étrangement identique, mais également dans celle de leur presbyt��re. Pour quiconque a déjà été à Haworth, dans le Yorkshire, il est facile de deviner derrière les mots de May Sinclair un parfait compte-rendu des lieux de vie des trois romancières. L’analogie s’arrête là. Des indices nous disent clairement que l’on n’évolue pas dans la même temporalité. Là, il y a un téléphone, ici une voiture. Le siècle n’est donc -apparemment- pas si obscur. Et pourtant.
Qu’est-ce donc qu’être une femme en ce début de 20e siècle ? Quand on est fille de pasteur ? Quand on vit dans un petit village ? Et que le seul homme correct du coin prend l’apparence d’un jeune médecin -assez séduisant- et forcément mystérieux aux yeux de ces jeunes filles qui n’ont guère d’autre point de comparaison ? Le drame se joue au fil des pages, chacune des soeurs, à la manière des sirènes, tentant d’attirer le mâle dans ses filets.
May Sinclair sonde le coeur féminin, raconte admirablement et sans juger, l’amour tant espéré, rêvé, déçu, inassouvi. Magnifique.
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