Virago Monthly Reads: September 2018: Stevie Smith

Source: Wikipedia
Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith (20 September 1902 – 7 March 1971), was an English poet and novelist.

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Smith wrote three novels, the first of which, Novel on Yellow Paper, was published in 1936. Apart from death, common subjects in her writing include loneliness; myth and legend; absurd vignettes, usually drawn from middle-class British life; war; human cruelty; and religion. All her novels are lightly fictionalised accounts of her own life, which got her into trouble at times as people recognised themselves. Smith said that two of the male characters in her last book are different aspects of George Orwell, who was close to Smith. There were rumours that they were lovers; he was married to his first wife at the time.

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Smith's first volume of poetry, the self-illustrated A Good Time Was Had By All, was published in 1937 and established her as a poet. Soon her poems were found in periodicals. Her style was often very dark; her characters were perpetually saying "goodbye" to their friends or welcoming death. At the same time her work has an eerie levity and can be very funny though it is neither light nor whimsical. "Stevie Smith often uses the word 'peculiar' and it is the best word to describe her effects" (Hermione Lee). She was never sentimental, undercutting any pathetic effects with the ruthless honesty of her humour.

"A good time was had by all" itself became a catch phrase, still occasionally used to this day. Smith said she got the phrase from parish magazines, where descriptions of church picnics often included this phrase. This saying has become so familiar that it is recognised even by those who are unaware of its origin. Variations appear in pop culture, including "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" by the Beatles.

I'm planning to read Novel on Yellow Paper.

Her other novels are The Holiday and Over the Frontier, and all three have been published as Virago Modern Classics. Her poetry has not but of course anyone interested can read another edition.

Who else will be reading Stevie Smith in September?

I plan to - I’ve had all her Viragos since they came out but haven’t read them for decades. But I don’t know which one yet - or maybe the poetry?? Decisions, decisions! 🤣

I have all three of her novels in VMC editions. They seem to have a main character in common but I'm not sure if it matters which order they are read in. I plan to start with The Holiday, but probably later in the month due to library reading commitments.

I have her collected poems in a place I can put my fingers right onto, along with Frances Spalding's biography, but I don't want to read the bio until I've read the novel. I think I've got the three novels around somewhere, but considering the condition I'm in now after my surgery for prostate cancer, I'm not in a mood to go looking for them. To keep up with the Virago Monthly Read, though, and get at least one book in each month, I'm going to have a spin at her poetry and count that toward the read even though it's not a VMC. If I can find the novels around somewhere, then so much the better.

I plan to read Novel on Yellow Paper, something else I've been meaning to get round to for ages.

I'm ready to start reading Novel on Yellow Paper. Last night I was leafing through my copy, and found a card inside. LT tells me I added this book to my catalog in July, 2008, and the card is from Patricia (mrspenny), a member of this group (but sadly one we haven't heard from in a while). Her message reads:

Hi Laura -
Here is "Novel on Yellow Paper" for your collection. I hope you enjoy it. I am reading it at present and must admit it takes quite a lot of concentration. Its description as a masterpiece is somewhat overrated (my opinion). I sometimes think poets don't make good novelists.
Best wishes,
Patricia

Oh dear! And I brought this book with me on holiday!

How is everyone else getting on with Ms. Smith?

Well, I had planned to read Novel on Yellow Paper too, but just pulled it off the shelf and was vaguely uncomfortable with some references in the first few pages. How are you finding it, Laura???

Well Karen, I'm sorry to say I just couldn't get into this one. I felt the same discomfort but kept going for about 45 pages. Last night I decided to abandon it.

Novel on Yellow Paper is written in the first person, in a stream of consciousness style. Imagine a flighty young woman breathlessly telling you a story, but one that zigs and zags all over the place, and you have this novel. Probably beloved by many, but just not my thing. Funny though, the narrator gives readers permission to abandon the book early on, saying there is a certain type of person who will get on with this story and another type that won't, and if you're struggling you might as well stop now. And for that paragraph, I am eternally grateful.

Years and years ago I saw a wonderful film with Glenda Jackson playing Stevie Smith. It was so funny and charming I bought her books to read and then let them just sit. Couldn't get into any of the novels but I did like the poetry.

That film is wonderful and I must revisit it! But I may have to go for the poetry too...

I didn't want to put anyone else off, but as several of you seemed to have bounced off Smith's novels, I will comment that I'm sitting out this month because I disliked Novel on yellow paper so much when I read it a few years ago! I'm glad I'm not alone! Good luck with the poetry.

The Holiday didn't really appeal to me. It took me a while to read because I could only take it in small doses and preferred to read other things, mostly non-fiction. It was written from one character's point of view in monologue/reported speech which was full of digressions and non-sequiturs. I also had trouble remembering who all the characters were but I didn't really care about them either.

I was planning to start Novel on Yellow Paper next but I'm not sure I will now. I have finally obtained Angela Thirkell's Before Lunch from the library so I could now revert to last month's author read instead.

I read The Holiday a few years ago and was disappointed with it and after reading all of your

comments on Novel on Yellow Paper I don't think I'll read it.

Stevie Smith seems to now hold the dubious distinction of being our least popular monthly author. I'm rather amused by this, since I know we all chose her through some sort of democratic process and now we're all avoiding her like the plague.

October will be here soon ... 😀

I know! I was really keen to read her again (it’s been over 30 years...) but those first few pages were so offputting that I lost the will...😟

Stevie Smith, whose Not Waving but Drowning Muriel had reviewed favourably in 1957, was at last able to pay her respects: 'Muriel Spark has a real genius for being gruesome and hilarious in practical circumstances, gay in city graveyards, gothic in factories. [...] But this hero-scourge, Dougal Douglas? Who is he? Well, he is Eulenspiegel, if you like, or he is the Goethian Mephistopheles, the spirit who denies and disturbs.'

Martin Stannard, Muriel Spark: The Biography (quoting from Smith's review of The Ballad of Peckham Rye). So for the sake of Dame Muriel, I'll give The Collected Poems of Stevie Smith 2** rather than a bit less.

Smith's poems do have something in common with Spark – Spark's preoccupation with death, Spark's love for cats, and (in poetry) a combination of post-modernism with (sometimes) traditional verse forms. This did make The Collected Poems of Stevie Smith an interesting read in conjunction with the current Spark centenary read-a-thon.

If I could conveniently put my hands on my copies of Smith's novels, I might try them out with what little's left of this month, but I'm not quite sure where they are right now and (considering everyone else's opinion of them) I'm not going to go out of my way looking. Having read the Collected Poems, I've done my duty by this month's Virago author read (and I really have been trying, obsessively compulsively, to get at least one book done for each monthly author).

For another Virago to finish the month with, I think I'll go with Rumer Godden's The River (a recent hardcover Virago reprint).

She is certainly not easy reading is she? I read Novel on Yellow Paper a few years ago and didn't expect to read any more of her novels. Then last year I went to a literary conference where an academic from Oxford spoke enthusiastically about her writing and inspired me to try Over the Frontier. Unsuccessfully. I might re-read Novel on Yellow Paper one day as I did get something out of it but don't think I will ever get anywhere with Over the Frontier (unless the woman from Oxford offers to sit down beside me and go through every page)!

I think I would like to read more of her poetry though ( I had intended to this month). It would be easy to dip in and out of and she did write Not Waving but Drowning.

I approached Novel on Yellow Paper with some trepidation after reading some of the responses to it. I surprised myself by enjoying it quite a lot. I enjoyed the narrator's voice and her musings on life and love. I could visualise the sort of character Pompey was, forthright and slightly eccentric. Would I read another Stevie Smith novel - not for a while, but I wouldn't rule it out

>19 vestafan: Well it's nice to know at least one person enjoyed this author!