Women Against Men is a collection of three novels published in 1932, 1933, and 1937. Delicate Monster is the story of a writer and her many husbands, told from the point of view of a family friend; The Single Heart is the story of a young woman’s marriage and subsequent reconnection with an old flame; and A Day Off is the story of a middle-aged fallen on hard times woman who looks back on her life.

The theme is as the title states, about the relationships and sometimes conflicts between women and men. But it’s also about the conflicts between women, particularly as seen in Delicate Monster (you get a sense of jealousy from the narrator over her friend’s exploits). Other than that theme, though, there’s not much to connect these three novellas. They don’t work either as short stories or longer-length books, so I got the feeling that these are somewhat unfinished. I wasn’t nearly as interested as I wanted to be in the stories of the characters in these novellas. By the time I got to the third story, I was so disinterested that I started skipping just to get to the end. I normally really like Storm Jameson’s writing; I enjoyed Company Parade; but I just didn’t like Women Against Men. ( )

16 Aug 2011 - from Elaine at the LibraryThing Virago Group

I started this in All Virago All August, hence reading it out of turn.

2 novellas: "Delicate Monster" is a tale of rivalry between two writers that reminded me of Graham Greene's "The End of the Affair" in both tone and content; "The Single Heart" was a brave and forthright portrayal of the visceral effects of love and jealousy'; and "A Day Off" a single day in the life of an ageing kept woman - with flashbacks - which reminded me of Patrick Hamilton's "20,000 Streets Under The Sky". All were atmospheric and featured strong woman carving out their own lives, if not exactly cosy reads! ( )

This is the first Virago selection that disappointed me. Not that the writing was bad, but the subject matter didn't engage me and the reading dragged. Perhaps I should begin by explaining that this book is a collection of three novellas, all with women as the main characters, and the stories focus on their relationships with men and other women. The first novella, actually, I liked. The narrator was a writer, who could be in turn generous or cruel, but was self-centered throughout. Not a lovable protagonist, certainly, but I could relate to her and her flaws. Her strained relationship with her best friend, an extroverted philandering best-selling novelist, was the center of the story, and I liked the dynamic there. Despite all the mean actions these two women took, they were balanced by moments of self-revelation and understanding. They weren't always bad. Also, I liked the best friend's daughter, and the new dimension she brought into the relationships.

Then I began reading the next two novellas, and the whole work fell apart for me. The next story is about the love between a rich daughter of a self-made man, and the poor clerk that works for him. Even though she marries the wealthy socialite her family picks for her, the original lovers are reunited and a love affair begins; she eventually divorces, marries her lover, and he rises to political power. I didn't like this for the simple fact that I didn't like the two main characters. At all. It's not just that they are doing bad actions - the previous novella's characters were much worse. It was that I couldn't relate to them, and began to despise them. She cheats on her husband, overlooks all of her lover's infidelity, and tells herself that she is strong for doing so. He, on the other hand, claims to love her passionately, but is constantly having affairs and is consumed with ambition. Meh. When the jilted husband is the best and most likable character in the story, you have a problem. The next novella was worse. This one tells a day in the life of a kept women, who is afraid that her lover is tiring of her and about to throw her over. You would think that you could sympathize with such a pathetic creature, but you can't. She is so self-centered, and mean and petty towards others. When she stole money from the sweet old lady, who was the first person to be kind to her all day, and then justifies herself, I was done with her.

To be fair, the author was conveying themes about self-preservation, love and its futility and many apparitions, and the destructive potential of relationships, and the writing was always clear, interesting, and easy to read. Yet when I can't enjoy the stories at all, I stop caring about the messages or the writing. The only redeeming quality about this novel was the first novella, and for that reason I was generous and gave it two and a half stars. ( )

The title is deceptive. The three long novellas that comprise Women Against Men-- "Delicate Monster," The Single Heart," and "A Day Off" might be better titled "Women against Women." The stories take place before, during, & after WWI (but before WWII); they were originally published in 1932 & 1933.

The first story, "Delicate Monster," features a narrator who is a novelist & literary agent who has had a love-hate friendship with another woman who is also a novelist since childhood. Her friend writes popular, successful, "gushing" novels exploiting her own sexual adventures, novels that the narrator despises; but then the narrator pretty much despises all novelists. (Except herself? It's not really clear.) She suffers agonies of jealousy (that she does not spare the reader) when she discovers that her friend has had casual sex with her husband. The story, in short, is all about what a "delicate monster" the friend is. The high point of "Delicate Monster" is the narrator's relationship with her friend's daughter, but I kept having the sneaking suspicion that the narrator's interest in her friend's daughter was due more to her delight in understanding the young girl/woman, knowing that her friend did not, than to genuine affection. (I suppose it's the narrator's sometimes smug & always grudging attitude toward the world that makes me question her motives.)

The second novella, "The Single Heart," relates the tale of a woman's love for a man and all that she sacrifices to allow him to be who he wants to be. One of those sacrifices ends up being herself, of course: her heart literally wears out & stops before she's even 40. Stories of singe-minded self-sacrifice for love tend to leave me cold. Love, in this case, functions as a kind of monomania that lasts all this woman's adult life & drains her dry, while the object of her love remains largely oblivious to the price she is paying. (But then he has to remain oblivious, to be the man he wants to be...)

The third story, "A Day Off," is of another kind of monster, an aging woman who began as a mill girl working an industrial loom, then ran away to London where she worked first as a hotel maid & then in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but who has mainly lived off her sexual relationships with men for most of her life & is facing middle age alone & broke except for what she can steal from women weaker than she is.

Sometimes the writing is interesting, flashing with an occasional insight or turn of phrase, & without doubt it offers many well-observed details along the way that make even passing characters come alive. But the effect is uneven, & the narration fairly steadily conveys a bleak sense of a world populated by individuals wrapped in lonely isolation. All the women in these stories accept the patriarchal system as an unquestioned given & play it cynically. I came away thinking that Storm Jameson didn't much like women-- & maybe not men, either. Early in "Delicate Monster" the narrator remarks "The truth is I dislike extremely your *healthy* school of novel-writing. I like a novel to be sharp and bitter, or else so artificial that the manner is everything and the matter nothing." Sharp & bitter is exactly what these novellas are. ( )