The Rector's Daughter by F M Mayor

Posted by James on July 12, 2010 at 3:32pm
First broadcast from 20100628 to 20100709. Much loved by those who have discovered it, it now comes to Radio 4 as one of the Open Book listeners' Neglected Classics. Juliet Stevenson reads F M Mayor's unfairly Neglected Classic, the story of a plain, reliable parson's daughter whose life of duty and service is thrown into confusion by an unexpected and unsought love affair.

Dedmayne Rectory is quietly decaying, its striped chintz and darkened rooms are a bastion of outmoded Victorian values. Here Mary has spent thirty-five years, devoting herself to her sister, now dead, and to her father, Canon Jocelyn. Although she is pitied by her neighbours for this muted existence, Mary is content. But when she meets Robert Herbert, Mary's ease is destroyed and years of suppressed emotion surface through her desire for him. First published in 1924 this novel is an impressive exploration of Mary's relationship with her father, of her need for Robert and the way in which, through each, she comes to a clearer understanding of love. "Mary Jocelyn is the Rector’s daughter of the title. She is in her thirties, stuck at home with her querulous, fiercely intelligent, impatient, yet well meaning elderly father, and watching other people’s lives go on around her. She exists to be of use to her family; first of all, she cares for her mentally deficient sister, who then dies, and after that, her increasingly aged father. She is so used to being alone, and to having few friends, that despite a rich and interesting imagination and remarkable intelligence, she struggles in social situations and is frequently misunderstood. The local villagers adore her, but those of her own set dismiss her as dull and odd. She longs for affection, for someone to bare her soul to, but even her closest friend Dora, also a spinster, is unable to offer this to her. Her father, Canon Jocelyn, treats her like a child, and though he loves her dearly, he is unable to express his feelings and instead comes across as cold and criticising. Despite all of this, Mary is a cheerful, undemanding, gentle soul who is happy with her life. She doesn’t ask for much more than she has, and she has taught herself to be content with her lot. She doesn’t begrudge other people the happiness she so desires, and she is generous, kind, and compassionate to all. Then, one day, her world is rocked when a new curate, Mr Herbert, comes to Dedmayne, the small dreary village in which they live. Without realising it, Mary falls head over heels in love, and at last it seems her dreams are about to come true. But then they are suddenly, heartbreakingly, devastatingly dashed, and Mary’s life of gentle content is ruined forever. How can she ever now be content with the greyness of her life, when she, for a brief moment, lived in a rainbow of glorious colour? Pushed about from pillar to post, belonging to no one, Mary’s life appears a shadow next to those of the married, busy, fulfilled women she is surrounded with. The quiet, desperate sadness that fills her days is amplified by the fact that everyone around her is so busy with their own happy and exciting lives that Mary is all but forgotten, and her unhappiness goes unnoticed. Worst of all, she must watch Mr Herbert and his wife’s unconventional, explosive, yet happy marriage unfold before her, forever wishing she were the one he had loved enough to marry." "Flora Mary Mayor's The Rector's Daughter, first published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press in 1924, is one of the great lost novels of the twentieth century - an immensely subtle portrait of a faded thirty-something spinster, sat upon by her Olympian father, whose solitary admirer marries someone else. The relationship between Mary Jocelyn Mayor's heroine, and her clerical admirer Mr Herbert, is snuffed out almost at birth, but the book fairly seethes with suppressed passion while conveying a dreadful sense of lives going to waste under the bleak East Anglian sky. I can't recommend it highly enough."

Book at Bedtime Neglected Classics The Rector's Daughter Episode 1 28-06-10.mp3

Book at Bedtime Neglected Classics The Rector's Daughter Episode 2 29-06-10.mp3

Book at Bedtime Neglected Classics The Rector's Daughter Episode 3 30-06-10.mp3

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