H.D. (1) (1886–1961)

Re-reading this book was magical, and one can see H. D.'s growth as a female writer among mostly male counterparts—her characterization of George Lowndes (Ezra Pound) is particularly scathing in a lovingly oppressive way only H. D. can mange to convey; one can also see her emerging into a voice entirely her own, one more grounded in nature and indebted to Greek sources.

The real treasure in reading HERmione is that those who try to nicely pigeonhole H. D. into the category of "Imagist poet" will find this overturned, not only because her prose is so beautiful and bewitching, but because she is one of the most overlooked writers in literary modernism when it comes to prose.

Sadly, her prose is often overlooked in favor of her fine poetry, but HERmione is one of the best modernist novels of the mid-1920s and rightfully deserves to be on lists of major novels from this period alongside other giants like Woolf and Joyce.… (altro)

I bought a used copy of this book a couple of years ago when the 1920s author kept popping up in book related discussion. H.D. was an American author, mainly of poetry, who is often spoken of with Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and Dorthoy Richardson. H.D. also wrote a couple novels, [Asphodel] being one of them. It is a stream of consciousness work that I was a bit apprehensive of reading because I thought it might be hard to read and comprehend. Actually, though, I really loved this book and I'm glad I made time for it.

In [Asphodel], H.D. writes a flowing, colorful, autobiographical novel about her experience before, during, and just after WWI. Her love life is central to the book and frames the action. Pre-WWI, her love is her female friend Fayne Rabb; during the war it's Jerrol Darrington, who she has a stillborn baby with; and then Cyril Vane, who is less a love and more a diversion, but who she does have a child with.

The book doesn't necessarily have much forward motion, it sort of swirls around the plot, but I liked that. I was happy to dwell in the descriptions of the main character's experiences, feelings, and observations. You can tell that H.D. wrote a lot of poetry when you read this novel. She has a beautiful way of using color in her writing.

I highly recommend this for readers interested in the 1920s era of British and American writing. I think this book deserves to be more widely read!

A note also that the edition I could get my hands on, edited by Robert Spoo, has an incredibly helpful appendix that gives background info on the real people that the fictional characters are based on. It really helped me understand what was going on.… (altro)