Published anonymously in 1929 as a promise of something salacious, Ursula Parrott's Ex-Wife has contemporary readers struck by its “painful familiarity.”
How sad that both Parrott and Fitzgerald died destitute and forgotten.
Both alcoholics, but Parrott sounds like a very different kind of person/writer than Fitzgerald, who was concerned with literary glory.
Parrott never wrote an "Afternoon of a Writer." Or did she?
Reading this fine review I was thinking of Edith Wharton and where Parrott might fit in that lineage of female writers writing about the place of women in society, money, and romantic entanglements, who wins and who loses. The pursuit of pleasure that for some is the pursuit of love or beauty that then becomes doomed in a way. Something like that! The category of ex-wife seems one that was just waiting to be given a literary life and Parrott it sounds like did the job more than admirably. I will read this book! Thank you!
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment! I happened just to be listening to a podcast (called "Backlisted," and the title was "The Tortoise and the Hare") talking with Carmen Callil, a legendary UK editor who started a series called Virago that republished 800 (!) out-of-print works by women. She was very interesting on how the experiences of being a patronized and minimized person among their fellow writers was reflected in their work...
Love that podcast! Great discussions about books and reading and fascinating guests, like Callil. I have done some reading from the Virago backlist, haven't been disappointed yet!
How sad that both Parrott and Fitzgerald died destitute and forgotten.
Both alcoholics, but Parrott sounds like a very different kind of person/writer than Fitzgerald, who was concerned with literary glory.
Parrott never wrote an "Afternoon of a Writer." Or did she?
Reading this fine review I was thinking of Edith Wharton and where Parrott might fit in that lineage of female writers writing about the place of women in society, money, and romantic entanglements, who wins and who loses. The pursuit of pleasure that for some is the pursuit of love or beauty that then becomes doomed in a way. Something like that! The category of ex-wife seems one that was just waiting to be given a literary life and Parrott it sounds like did the job more than admirably. I will read this book! Thank you!
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment! I happened just to be listening to a podcast (called "Backlisted," and the title was "The Tortoise and the Hare") talking with Carmen Callil, a legendary UK editor who started a series called Virago that republished 800 (!) out-of-print works by women. She was very interesting on how the experiences of being a patronized and minimized person among their fellow writers was reflected in their work...
Love that podcast! Great discussions about books and reading and fascinating guests, like Callil. I have done some reading from the Virago backlist, haven't been disappointed yet!