The Way Things Are

One of the most tragic books I've ever read, though I haven't quite decided which interpretation of the last few paragraphs is the "right" one, if any. Perhaps it really isn't tragic at all. Deceptively simple and domestic at first, like its protagonist, this book becomes something quite unexpected as our heroine, the product of a conventional late-Victorian upbringing, begins to look more deeply into herself and to consider the possibilities apparently on offer to women in the larger world of t [...]

The Way Things Are has several elements in common with Diary of a Provincial Lady: both are about a wife and mother struggling to balance her domestic life with her emotional life and her literary aspirations. I was startled in reading the Introduction (after I read the book, in case of spoilers) to find that it's considered one of Delafield's funniest books, because although I certainly found it witty, I didn't find it nearly as funny as the Provincial Lady books. Perhaps I was simply too overc [...]

Parts of this were funny, in the same style as Diary of a Provincial Lady. Parts of it, especially toward the end, were sad. The heroine--whose last name was Fairfield--made me wonder how much of the book was autobiographical. The story was about a woman who was fond of, but not in love with, her husband. She meets someone with whom she falls in love, but can neither leave her husband and children nor give up on the romance she's finally encountered. A very common story, but moving none the less [...]

Spoiler Alert: If you don't want to know what occurs in the novel, please don't read this review as it is a review of the entire book.Laura is the bored wife of an English gentleman, also mother of two boys, who struggles on a daily basis with things she's not very good at, i.e running a household including servants, ordering meals and other minutiae of daily life in early 20th century Britain. Much of this is strange to an American reader although I can see that dealing with servants (imagine!) [...]

Laura Temple is not particularly happy with her life. She has a nice house, big, but not quite big enough. She has servants who are always quitting and are hard to replace, but even then not as many servants as she would like. She has two sons - one whom she adores, the other whom she is fairly certain she loves. She writes when she has time, but there is never enough time. There is never enough money so writing is more of a necessity than a driving passion or pleasure. She hasn't many friends w [...]

This is one of the early feminist novels, written in the 20s. The heroine, Laura Temple, spends her days dealing with the million practical details of home and family, and when she can, sneaking some time to write short stories. This wasn't how she thought her life would go. And when she falls in love, it looks like maybe there's another option for her. Or is there?

More poignant than the "provincial lady" diaries, but worth reading.

Beautifully observed if a bit of a downer (though I don't think anything of hers is ever as much a downer as Consequences).

One of only 5 Viragos I kept.

Fantastic!! And quite modern. Dealing with the same issues we have always dealt with no matter what time we live in-- Stay married to someone you like or give up everything for someone who love??