Thank Heaven Fasting E M Delafield

I haven’t read all of Delafield’s novels. I am not a fan of her most famous work “the Provincial Lady”. I have read some of her novels about married ladies of the middle to upper class, such as “The Way Things Are”, and I haven’t greatly liked them. They seem to be about well-off women complaining about their servants, their husbands etc. and it is hard to have any sympathy. In these books, she seems snobbish. But I loved “Thank Heaven Fasting". It is about a young woman -Monica, who is just about to make her come out in Society, in the Edwardian era. The year isn’t given, but it’s clearly in the time of Women’s Suffrage, and strict chaperonage of young girls. It is the world of Delafield’s girlhood, with all the rigid customs that ended with World War One. Monica is pretty, pleasant and conventional, and eager to please her parents by getting married soon. There are no money problems, she does not need to marry in order to live comfortably...She knows that it is every woman’s duty to get married as soon as possible... It is important to marry someone of suitable birth, who has the means to support a wife. But in the end, it's considered important just to get married, regardless of how rich the husband is. Girls settle for "finding a husband of any kind”. At first, Monica has an admirer who seems suitable, Claud. He is well bred, has a career and is comfortably off... and she likes him. But before long, she knows that her parents will be glad of any man of the right class, even if he does not have much money… or is older...or in some other way not all that desirable. Monica has hopes of Claud, but her friends Frederica and Cecily, the daughters of a hard selfish society woman, have a much tougher time. They are shy and plain, and they cling to each other obsessively because they know that their chances of marriage are slim. Lady Marlow, their selfish mother, despises them for being lacking in charm and sex appeal. But Monica makes a disastrous mistake. In her first Season, after a good start, she gets into a flirtation with a soldier, Christopher, who is only interested in a bit of fun. Her parents discourage the relationship, because he has no money and is soon to be shipped off to India. But he arouses Monica’s desires and she is eager to marry him... even if her parents disapprove. He encourages her to disobey the rules, to sneak out and meet him... Finally, they meet at a dance, and she allows him to take her out from the ballroom. They sit out kissing on the rooftop of the ballroom. Word gets out about the “disappearance”. Although Monica has done nothing more than kissing, there is gossip about her. Christopher has treated her, a lady, like a shop girl... who is not good enough to marry. Monica realises that she has lost her “freshness”. She begins to slide into a half world of “almost spinsterhood”. She has another Season and another, and her friends (apart from Frederica and Cecily) get married. She is left behind. Cecily has a sad episode when she falls in love with a doctor who has been called in to look after Lady Marlowe. He wants to marry her, but Frederica, afraid of losing Cecily, talks her out of the marriage. Lady Marlowe washes her hands of her daughters and leaves them in the country while she goes about in Society. Monica knows she is less attractive to men. She meets Claud but he clearly has lost interest in her. But she keeps on hoping. Some readers get annoyed with this book because Monica’s only goal is to marry; she has no interest in a career... or agitating for the Vote, or even charity work. She knows that to take up full time charity work is a confession of failure for a girl of her class. But I can understand.. Monica is not different to most other girls of her kind. Some readers want Monica to be ahead of her time, to give up "wasting her time looking for a man" and find a job, or for Delafield to rescue her by producing a husband that she can love. Monica develops a friendship for a time with a young man called Carol, who is quite suitable. But she finds that he's not really interested in her as a possible wife. He has convinced himself that he is in love with a married woman who is unavailable, and he just wants to fantasise about her and his own "great love" for her. He wants to use Monica as a sympathetic ear and she lets him pour out about his love and his own brilliant qualities all the time. She knows he won't ask her to marry him but she keeps hoping. Delafield is just being realistic about Monica's situation. She is not a girl who wants to be unconventional… she wants a suitable marriage and to be the same as other girls. And when a suitable man comes along, even though years ago, she would probably have rejected him as too old and not romantic, Monica is relieved and happy. Mr Pelham is dull, gossipy, plain and a lot older than her.. and most debutantes laugh at him for being old and dull. But he proposes, and she eagerly accepts him, even though she is not in love. She is very glad to take him and terrified that something will go wrong. It's real life, not "romantic novel life".