George Eliot Part IV

Marian’s work was admired as serious fiction, and when her identity became known, there was an increasing tolerance of her situation.  Mrs Gaskell wrote to her and said that she wished that she really WAS Mrs Lewes…. but she admired her fellow novelist’s work. (However as a proper Victorian and a minister's wife she could not tolerate Marian's transgression).

Princess Louise, the most liberal minded of the Royal Family, who had artistic friends, visited her.

Marian’s masterpiece is Middlemarch, a novel of “provincial life”, set mainly in the Midlands.  Victorian fiction had developed greatly since the days of Jane Austen.  Austen's works were comedies of manners, set in a stable world of the upper and upper middle classes, with the main focus on the romance of the hero and heroine.  There were a few middle class merchants in her books but there was nothing about their work.

Victorian fiction tended to be much longer and to cover a very wide canvas.  Elizabeth Gaskell-  like Eliot - wrote about the social changes that had taken place in England over the years since the Regency.  
She covered events such as the coming of the railways, which improved and speeded up transport and mobility, the development of medicine and surgery, industrialisation.  She also wrote about religious conflicts and problems.  Trollope’s novels were set in the world of politics and the higher echelons of the Church of England, but Eliot went further, writing about Methodism and other Dissenting churches… as in Silas Marner.

She did have nostalgia for the old fashioned England of her childhood, which was disappearing as the country became industrialised, people moved into cities... New social problems of poverty and slums came into being. In Silas Marner, she set it in the years of the Regency.  She was still critical of the upper classes, yet she also seemed to prefer the rural life of Raveloe, where Silas lives -working as a home based weaver, together with his foster child Eppie.  She sees it as healthier and more decent than the life in towns and cities where people worked in factories. In spite of her radical views in some respects, she had a deeply conservative streak in her nature... which tended to romanticise the older rural England….

Eliot’s novels were more about a whole society than the “romantic couple” such as Austen wrote about.  In Middlemarch, the heroine, Dorothea, marries in the early part of the book... Her marriage is a mistake, caused by her naïve belief that Casaubon, her husband is a “great soul” and an intellectual... who can give her life a meaning.   She comes to realise that he is not as learned or intelligent as he beleives, and that his work is already outdated...and meaningless. 

Tertius Lydgate, a radical minded, reformist doctor and the main male character, marries Rosamond Vincy, a lightweight, silly butterfly female of the kind that Eliot seems to have disliked particularly.  His marriage is also an unhappy one and unlike Dorothea, he is not released from it to make a happier one.  This sort of “slice of life” novel, which studies marriage in detail and does not end at the altar, was typical of Victorian fiction. Middlemarch is a study of marriage, as well as of courtship.  Some of the plot also revolves around political action, church issues, and Lydgate’s attempts to reform medical practices in the town. (He finally has to give in to his wife, give up his research and become a fashionable practitioner). 
 Eliot did a lot of studying on scientific and political issues, to write the book. 

In some of her works, such as Romola, the heavy duty studying tends to result in the book’s feeling overly researched, rather than natural.  However in Middlemarch, she gets the balance right....

George Eliot (Marian Evans)

Marian used a pen name for a few reasons.  One was that she wanted to use a masculine name, because women novelists, while there were many of them… were often thought of poorly by serious critics and thinkers.  

She herself had written a critical article entitled “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists”, decrying the “Silver Fork” genre, which was very popular.  These novels were a picture of “high life’ among the glamorous upper classes... Rather like the sillier sort of costume dramas nowadays.  Since Marian thought of herself as much better educated and capable of writing more intelligent fiction...she didn’t want to be classed with the silly lady novelists.  
Another reason was her ambiguous status.  Many people thought of her as a “bad woman”, because of her living with Lewes openly.  However Marian Evans thought of herself as a very serious and highly moral woman.  She believed that her relationship with Lewes was  equivalent to a marriage, and she herself did not believe in casual affairs, or easily broken ties.
  She assumed the role of “mother” to his sons by his wife, and felt that she could justify her behaviour as regards getting involved with him.  She said that there were women who engaged in liaisons, within the confines of respectable marriage, which helped to cover their infidelities... These women were accepted in society and were still “invited to dinner” in society..but she was not interested in that sort of life...

Her novels were very much “moral” ones where sin was punished for the most part. In particular, she was strict with her female characters.  Some critics have complained that although she herself broke with many conventions and led a very independent life for a woman… she didn’t allow any of her women characters to do anything like that. 
In “Adam Bede”, the heroine, Dinah starts out as a Methodist woman preacher, but when she marries and the Methodists decide that women should not be allowed to preach, she  conforms.

Another example is Dorothea Brooke, the heroine of Middlemarch.  Dorothea is intelligent but very naive, makes an unhappy first marriage to a dry and dull clergyman, and finds that he is narrow minded, not very intelligent and incapable of warmth.  In her next marriage, she chooses a young man, Will Ladislaw, who goes into parliament as a reformer, and we’re told that she found fulfilment in being a helper to him, supporting him in his work etc.  In short subsuming her life in his.

 It’s very different to the way that Marian’s partner, Lewes, supported her, helped her get published, encouraged her to write and protected her from bad reviews etc. 

Even during her lifetime, many women writers who knew Marian -women who were single or widowed and who wrote for a living-  were a little irritated at the “goddess” airs they felt that she assumed and at how her partner protected and supported her greatly. They often had to write hard and fast to provide for children or other impoverished relatives, and could not spend years researching and coming up with intellectual projects as she was able to do…

It’s probable that her intellectual snobbery alienated many people almost as much as her “being an immoral woman” in a sexual sense, did…

 Because of her ambiguous status, not many women at first would visit her.  However she was devoted to her work and she was able to receive male friends.. As time passed and her novels became highly admired and respected, she did become more socially acceptable and had a salon of male and female visitors.

George Eliot Part II

After the trip to Switzerland Marian came back to London and began to seek work as a writer and journalist. It was very unusual work for a woman but she was highly intelligent,well read and educated.  She moved into the home of Chapman - a radical publisher… and began to write. She supported revolution in Europe as did most radicals of the time, though she did favour a more gradualist reform movement, in England.

She fell in love with Chapman, but he already had a wife and a mistress and wasn’t interested. She wrote for the Westminster Review and continued her reading and studies.  Then she fell in love with George Lewes, a novelist and journalist... who was also married. He and his wife Agnes had agreed to an open marriage.  However over time, Agnes had become very seriously involved with Thornton Leigh Hunt a newspaper editor and the son of the famous literary critic Leigh Hunt.   Lewes was unhappy with the affair..
 Over time, Agnes had produced 3 children by her lover, and because Lewes had tolerated her adultery, he was unable to get a divorce when he had grown apart from her and wanted to end the marriage. 

So Marian and Lewes were not able to marry.  It was a sacrifice for her, to accept being his mistress, but they decided to openly live together and referred to each other as husband and wife.  Literary men and upper class men had traditionally had mistresses but they usually did not live with them publicly or treat them as if they were married...

Lewes was devoted to her and much more supportive than many men would have been. He encouraged her to write fiction.  She was in her late 30s when she wrote her first novel….She published it anonymously… then wrote another Novel, Adam Bede, with the pen name George Eliot…Adam Bede was a great success and was enjoyed even by the queen….

George Eliot Part I

George Eliot is not one of my favourite novelists. I like her best novel, Middlemarch.. but generally I find her work has a very heavy quality… overly moralistic and rather dull.  I have never much liked her as a person either.  She seems to have been an uneasy combination of a woman who was insecure and over sensitive, but also very egoistical.  She is also a  fore runner of the modern “social justice warriors”.

She was born in Nuneaton – in provincial Midlands England, in 1819... to Robert Evans, who was an estate manager to a landed family.  Her family were comfortably off but not rich or upper class.   She was named Mary Ann, which became Marian or sometimes Pollyann..

She was devoted to her father, who was a very conservative, old fashioned man.  However because his daughter was not very beautiful, he gave her a good education since her chances of marriage seemed slim. She was sent to a school where the prevailing atmosphere was Low Church Evangelical Anglican and she became very religious…

She also had access to her father’s employer’s library and read a good deal on her own.  At 16, she left school to keep house for her father.  At 21, she and Robert Evans moved to Coventry, where she came under the influence of more liberal thinkers.  She began to doubt the literal truth of the bible and to lose her religious belief which had been very important to her.  Her father was very angry with her over this, and they quarrelled.  However to placate him, she went on attending church and keeping house. She continued her studies especially about religious issues... studying the new Bible Criticism.

When she was 30, her father died and she was free to travel and to pursue her intellectual interests, and to become a free thinker.  The first thing she did was to travel to Switzerland with her friends the Brays who were the lynch pin of her group of intellectual friends in Coventry….

Desiree Clary Part II

Desiree then moved to Rome, with her sister Julie and Julie’s husband Joseph Bonaparte.  In 1797, she got engaged to Leonard Duphot, a French soldier, also from Lyons, but he was killed. 

 She returned to France and received another proposal from General Junot, one of Napoleon’s friends.  The Bonaparte family  had liked her, and disliked Josephine… She did not like her ex fiancé’s new wife, but was polite to her… unlike some of the Bonapartes. Then in 1798, she married Jean Charles Bernadotte, another French soldier and one of the Bonaparte circle.  In 1799, she gave birth to their only child, a son called Oscar.  The name was suggested by Napoleon, because he liked the Ossianic poetry of McPherson, and Oscar was the name of Ossian’s son…

Napoleon retained some affection for her, but at times used her to keep an eye on Bernadotte, whom he suspected of being overly ambitious.

Desiree was a simple not very clever woman who enjoyed private life and was not interested in politics or high society.  However, her marriage to one of the Napoleonic marshals meant that she had to engage in social activities when she would have preferred to spend her time with her own family….

Bernadotte’s ambitious nature meant that he took up military and political postings which kept him away from Paris and his wife.

 In 1810 however, Bernadotte was offered the chance to become heir to the throne of Sweden. He was eager to take this up but Desiree did not want to live away from Paris.  In later years, she had to move to Sweden, as Crown Princess and later as queen.....

Desiree Clary Napoleon’s first fiancée

Desiree was born Eugenie Bernadine Clary in 1777 to a well to do middle class family in Lyons.  She and Napoleon became engaged…when he was a young army officer.  He was fond of her and wanted a wife with a dowry.  His brother Joseph had married Desiree’s older sister Julie… 

Desiree had been named Eugenie, but it seems that Napoleon suggested the new name to her.  However her father was not so keen on allowing the engagement as the Bonapartes had lost all their money and were struggling to make a living…

They had had to flee Corsica and Napoleon had his way to make in his army career.  M. Clary is reputed to have said that one Bonaparte in the family was enough. 

The young couple were informally engaged, but Napoleon was extremely ambitious.  He was intelligent, ruthless and hardworking and determined to get on.   The Revolution gave opportunities for ambitious middle class men and low ranking impoverished nobles to rise much higher than they would have under the old regime. The new republic was at war, and the young Bonaparte became a general very young. 

However in 1795, he refused a command which he regarded as a demotion, and his career prospects declined. Then he became famous for putting down a Royalist rebellion.  He met Josephine de Beauharnais, a socialite and the mistress of Paul Barras, one of the virtual rulers of France.  He fell madly in love with her.  She was elegant and charming, and while far from rich, she had influential friends.  But Napoleon was fascinated by her sophistication, her charm and become involved in a passionate affair with her.  Her connection with Barras helped him to gain command of the Army of Italy.  He jilted Desiree, who was far simpler and less sophisticated than his new love... and he married Josephine…

But Fate had other plans for Desiree Clary.....

Beds and Blue Jeans Story in Present Day Nashville

Beds and Blue Jeans.  This is a realistic romance about a young man and woman who find they have to get to know each other, after they have got together.  They have a baby, then then grow to love each other.  They come to learn that love is about learning to compromise, working out the best way to do things and growing to love each other.

http://www.amazon.com/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443265304&sr=8-2&keywords=nadine+sutton

Rough Music story

This is a "band” story set in the US, in the late 1970s.   It is a work related story more than a love story.  It does not have a happy ending. 

  I’ve based it on what I’ve read about country singers in the days when touring was a constant part of their lives.  It was hard work and took its toll on the marriages of many singers.   But I love the music of the 1960s and 70’s.  I love country pop, people like Glen Campbell... and I also love the Williamses… especially Hank Junior.  I enjoy Lynrd Skynrd.  So my story is all about that sort of life…   

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Buddy Holly Part II

Buddy was eager to do more with his talents, and his songs were doing well in the charts.  He was happy in his marriage.  1n 1959, he set off on a winter “Dance Party” tour, playing all over the country.  Because his tour bus was unheated and had broken down, he decided to charter a small plane, to fly to the next gig, because of the cold on the bus and because he and others wanted to get to their next gig and have time to have their stage clothes cleaned.  
Waylon Jennings agreed to give up his seat to the Big Bopper who was travelling with Buddy - because the Bopper had the flu.    Richie Valens and Tommy Allsup, the guitar player, flipped a coin for a seat on the plane and Valens won the toss….

 But the weather was bad and the pilot was not qualified to fly on instruments only.  They crashed shortly after take-off, and all 4 – Buddy, Valens, the Big Bopper and the pilot were killed.  He is buried in Lubbock, Texas.  

Buddy had a sweet voice and a singing style that used falsetto.  In spite of the shortness of his career, he was a major influence on rock and roll.  The Beatles were big fans.  But to me, he always seems to belong very much to the 1950s America....He is memorialised in Don Mclean’s song American Pie, which refers to the “day the Music died…”

Buddy Holly Part I

Buddy Holly was born in Lubbock Texas, in 1936.   He was named Charles Hardin but the nickname Buddy stuck.   Being born in Texas, he heard country music and it was an influence on him…  He listened to the Grand Old Opry and the Louisiana Hayride on radio.  At school, he learned to play guitar and began to take part in talent contexts.  When he left High School, he was determined to pursue a career in music.  He was beginning to mingle his country style with Rhythm and Blues.  

In 1956, he got a contract with Decca Records... He was moving towards Rock and Roll.  He was less than happy with Decca.  He recorded a demo of That’ll be the Day, and formed a new band, with the name “The Crickets”.   In 1957, “That’ll be the Day” was released and began to climb the charts. Buddy began to make TV appearances and had another hit with “Peggy Sue”. 

In 1958, he and the Crickets were becoming more and more successful, and toured Hawaii, Australia and the UK.   He met Maria Elena Santiago, whom he asked to marry him on their first date.  Norman Petty, his manager didn’t like Buddy’s getting married as it was felt that this would put off his female fans.  So the marriage was kept secret.  Buddy also had ambitions to work in films and wanted to study acting with the Lee Strasberg Studio.

Buddy had problems with his manager, over royalties and money issues, and over his marriage.   He became friends with Waylon Jennings, who was then a DJ in Lubbock and who wanted to go into music production.

London Belle another snippet

The ball was much like others, in spite of the grandeur of the occasion.  Mary did not enjoy it as much as she had hoped.  Mrs Grant did not make any effort.  She looked glum, and Mary herself did not have as many partners as usual. 

Emily came and told her about some young captain she had fallen in love with, and Mary tried to seem interested.  They did not stay as long as usual and were at home and in bed by 3 o’clock…

The following morning, in spite of her late night, Mary went out riding early.  She returned to the house for breakfast.  Her sister had not left her room, but had written a note to remind her younger sister that she would not be in for dinner. 

Mary sat down to breakfast alone. She wondered again why it seemed so important to Catherine to go and dine with Mrs Brinsley, her friend’s mother.   She herself had no invitation for the evening, and would have to dine alone.  The only engagement she had was to walk in the Park later with her friend Sophie. 

Miss Sophia Lawrence was still unwed… She was also the daughter of a family whose country estate was only a few miles away from Mansfield Park.  She and Mary had become friends a few years ago, when she had gone to live with Dr and Mrs Grant.  Sophie had been amongst the Bertrams’ social circle.  Mary had never found the Bertrams’ set of country friends interesting.  However, Sophie had been an exception.  She was light hearted and an amusing talker.  She enjoyed private theatricals, which was one of Mary’s favourite divertissements. Naturally, she was more sophisticated than an innocent chit like Emily - it was more fun to talk to her.

Mary found it hard to settle to any occupation that morning.  She tried to read, or sew, but nothing entertained her for long.  She was glad when Miss Lawrence arrived with her maid.  They set off for the Park together.  As they walked, she told her friend of Catherine’s odd behavior.

“It is very strange, Mary dear. Perhaps it is her age?  She is not so young and she may be too old for social events such as balls that go on till the morning.”

“I can’t understand her wanting to visit old Mrs Brinsley.”

“No indeed.  But I must tell you, my dear, that I have news from home.  My aunt Dorothy has written from Garfield House…”

Mary bit back an impatient noise…

 “Mrs Edmund Bertram, that Missish creature that was Fanny Price...”

Mary stiffened and her hands gripped hard on the strings of her reticule.  Oh no, it wasn’t that she still had tender feelings for Edmund. All that had passed. Yet still, it was hard to hear the name of the shy country mouse who had supplanted her...

“Aunt Dorothy wrote me, that last week, Miss Fanny – or as she is now Mrs Edmund Bertram, has been brought to bed of a boy…”

Mary felt a pang.  It wasn’t that Edmund had a son, by another woman.  It was the sadness of knowing herself to be still unwed…

She forced a smile.

“Why, that is good news.  Edmund will have a little clergyman to bring up. I am sure that he will want all his sons to enter the church.”
Sophie giggled.  She had never cared for the serious minded younger son of Sir Thomas Bertram.  She went on with a smile, “Yes and I should say that the Reverend Edmund will be a bishop one day, indeed.”

Mary gave an answering grin. 

“Still it is good to hear that he and his little wife are happy. They must be, with a fine young son and having moved to the Mansfield Rectory when Dr Grant died.  The living at Thornton Lacy was not a rich one.  He now has a decent income, and he and Fanny will be close to Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram.  They will like that.”

Sophie patted her friend’s hand.  “I cannot imagine how he chose Fanny Price over you, Mary.”

“Oh I was not meant to be a parson’s wife, Sophie.”

RIP Ray Sawyer

Ray Sawyer has just died after a short illness.  He did a farewell tour a few years ago because his health was declining - and his voice had roughened a good deal.  However he was still a wonderful performer and a real trouper….

Ray was born in Alabama, and always wanted to be a singer and musician.  He went to blues clubs as a kid and in the 1960s, he and a couple of other Southerners put together a band, the Chocolate Papers, which was a sort of precursor of Doctor Hook.   He had a serious road accident which caused him to lose an eye and suffer other injuries.  But he returned to singing and became the “face” of Dr Hook, because the eyepatch made him noticeable.   The name of the band was chosen because of Ray’s resemblance to Captain Hook.

Ray was not the lead singer, but his voice was good, it had a country twang and he had a Southern accent.  He supported Dennis Locorriere… He also sang lead on some songs, particularly their hit “Cover of the Rolling Stone”.

The band had a good deal of success in the 1970s but they ended up bankrupt.  They continued to work and tour.  However their songs changed  from rock and country style rock, and also a lot of novelty songs penned by Shel Silverstein….to a more commercial sound, mainly pop ballads.  These records were best sellers and solved their financial problems...
Dr Hook had always had an image of doing crazy things.  They enjoyed antics  like dressing up as their own support band, and only revealing it at the end of a concert - or dressing as the Bay City Rollers when playing in Britain...   Their surreal banter between songs and on chat shows made them popular.
  Dennis has a melodious and excellent voice which was well suited to love songs.

Some years later,  in 1983 - Ray decided to leave the band, to embark on a country singing career.   He moved to Nashville...
By then, he was married... He brought out a country LP, called Ray.  He also returned to his boyhood love of the Blues...

Later, he began to tour as Ray Sawyer of Dr Hook, performing some of the band’s big hits.  He was supported by his son Cayce who was a drummer and for a time he worked with Billy Francis, who had been the keyboard player in Hook, and did some amazing and bizarre dancing…

Ray was a fun eccentric performer, often holding a drink or cigarette during his singing…He kept on working until his late 70s, and while his voice had roughened, he was still fun to watch…

Its sad to hear of his death, and I wish I could see him perform again….