Group Read: Pilgrimage by Dorothy Richardson, vol 2 (The Tunnel, Interim)

In 2016 we are reading Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage, published by Virago in 4 volumes. Below, from the cover blurb:

The thirteen magnificent novels that comprise Pilgrimage are the first expression in English of what was to be called 'stream of consciousness' technique, predating the work of both Joyce and Woolf, echoing that of Proust with whom Dorothy Richardson stands as one of the great innovatory figures of our time. These four volumes record in detail the life of Miriam Henderson. Through her experience - personal, spiritual, intellectual - Dorothy Richardson explores intensely what it means to be a woman, presenting feminine consciousness with a new voice, a new identity.

We began in December, 2015 and will read one novella per month through 2016. This thread will cover the two novellas that make up Pilgrimage v.2 in the Virago Modern Classics edition:
* March: The Tunnel
* April: Interim

Thanks for putting the thread up Laura! I'm looking forward to the next book - I remembered almost nothing about the first volume but I suspect I'll have more recall of the later ones!

I flipped through the book the other day and noticed that The Tunnel is nearly 300 pages, longer than the typical novella in this series. I need to keep that in mind because I can zip through a 150-page novella but need to think of The Tunnel more like a full-length book in its own right.

I have a few books ahead in my personal reading queue: I'm finishing up the first of Trollope's Palliser novels, I want to read the third Elena Ferrante, and I am also expecting a library book to come my way in the next week or so. With all that, it will probably be mid-March before I dive into The Tunnel.

>3 lauralkeet: I noticed that too, Laura, and I have quite a few book commitments coming up, so I shan't be getting to The Tunnel that early in March - but I *will* get there!

I suspect that this book is longer because it Miriam is a little more independent, and we will see more of her out in the world and be party to more of her relationships and dialogues with other people.

This week is going to be busy, but I may make a start at the weekend.

And I've spotted an article about Richardson and this particular book:

http://www.londonfictions.com/dorothy-richardson-the-tunnel.html

I started The Tunnel over the weekend and read the first 3 chapters. After chapter 3, all I can say is thank goodness for the advances in dentistry since that time.

I'm also interested in thoughts from others on one aspect of these novels. I will use the spoiler tag but anyone who has read Pilgrimage vol 1 can safely click on it. These novels are known to be quite autobiographical, and we also know (from the Introduction) that Richardson tragically lost her mother during the period when she was working as a governess. Miriam's mother was definitely going through a rough patch at the end of Honeycomb but did she actually die? I feel pretty silly saying this, but I read the relevant section a couple of times and wasn't sure. So far there has been no mention of Miriam's mother in The Tunnel. I find it odd that her passing was barely addressed.

I don't know how to do that spoilery thing, but my assumption was the same as yours Laura - I think perhaps that Richardson was not able to deal with the matter you mention more specifically - maybe just too painful?

I don't know how do the spoilery thing either, but that was my assumption. My understanding came from the words of Miriam's mother before and their landlady after, as well as being told how Richardson wrote - or couldn't write - about that change in her life.

I'm given to understand that there are more gaps in the narrative as Richardson moves forward, which may make reading more difficult but may also make us think, talk and interpret more.

That Miriam has taken a very different path at the start of The Tunnel l may be the result of what happened at the end of Honeycomb.

>7 kaggsy:, >8 BeyondEdenRock: Thank you Karen & Jane. That makes complete sense.

Also:
Here's how to hide spoilers. It's easy to do!

>9 lauralkeet: Thanks Laura - I'll get the hang of this HTML thingy one day...

I've now read through Chapter VII. I'm finding this book harder going than the earlier ones, I think largely due to the stream of consciousness style. Characters are not fully developed and the setting is often unclear to me. For example:
* Chapter V: Miriam is in the company of a group of women, but who are they? Where are they? Do they all live in the same boarding house or whatever you'd call her lodgings?
* Chapter VI: Miriam goes to visit an old school friend, Alma, now married. She seems very uncomfortable there but other than that I found most of this chapter difficult to follow.
* Chapter VII: is this referring to her mother?

I would appreciate any insights!!

>11 lauralkeet: I haven't started yet, Laura, but when I get to this point I'll see if I can offer any help....

I'm approaching the end of The House on Clewe Street, which I'm enjoying but the pace is stately to say the least, and when I'm done with that I'll be picking up The Tunnel.

>12 kaggsy:, >13 BeyondEdenRock: Thanks, Karen & Jane. I will await your thoughts as you get into the book.

I might read something else concurrent with this one so I don't make myself grumpy.

>14 lauralkeet: I was thinking of doing that too, as it's a bit longer than the others..... :)

I started another book (Phoebe Junior, the last of the Chronicles of Carlingford), and that relieved my grumpiness. I'm trying to read a bit of each book every day, and am up to chapter XVII in The Tunnel. Knickers and bicycles are now a thing. Does that inspire any of you to start reading? :)

Knickers and bicycles was one of the things I recall from my first reading of these books back in the day, and it seems to me that was when I thought the books really took off. I'll start soon (I'm a bit bogged down with review books and deadlines at the moment).

I've just read the first chapter, and I loved the way that Dorothy Richardson held me in the moment with Miriam as she settled into her new lodgings. I noticed that the 'jumbled thoughts' in the ellipses seemed a little more impressionistic than they have before, and that names were introduced without any explanation. Maybe that's a way of representing Miriam's life without distracting from its central thread; I don't really know at this stage, but I'm still eager to follow her progress.

I've now started, and I'm a couple of chapters in and remembering how much I love this. The sequences of Miriam juggling tasks at the dentists is wonderfully vivid. I definitely recall more about reading this volume than the first!

>16 lauralkeet: Without wanting to give anything away, I've just hit chapter VII - - did you read this as referring to her mother, Laura?

>16 lauralkeet: Ah - I just saw your comment above! Yes, I do read this as being about her mother.

Chapter V - group of women - I think you mean the chapter before? She's visiting women who I assume are friends and lodge in a house owned by a woman of ill repute. There's no introduction to them but I guess they're friends as she seems familiar with them! There's no hint I can see of where they met.

VI - the houseparty - if I recall correctly Hypo and Alma Wilson are based on H.G. Wells and his wife. The discomfort I think comes from Miriam's general unease in society she doesn't know, the new ideas she's being exposed to and her awareness of her poverty. She spends a weekend with the Wilsons and meets a number of new people, so that would unsettle her enough without having to deal with all the discussions they're having. I believe there was a scandal about Wells and his wife - she was his second wife and he divorced his first to marry her. I think that Miriam here is moving in a very different social set from the one she's used to.

I think the secret is just to accept that there are things that don't obviously make sense - there will be characters that flit in and out, that don't have a backstory like a conventional novel - and just go with the prose!

Thank you Karen. I really appreciate your take on this, and the context about the Wilsons. I finished the book yesterday and you are so right about having to accept things that don't make sense. It frustrated me in this book but I will approach the next one expecting it and hopefully appreciating other aspects of the novel.

Here's my review of The Tunnel.

Nice review Laura! And I do know what you mean about the constant shifts in location and action being hard to follow sometimes. The Tunnel is longer than we've had before and I've read a lot of it today, but felt the need to teak a break and actually read some non-fiction. Being inside another person's head is fascinating and stimulating but a little exhausting!

I wonder whether the social and class anxieties she experiences are perhaps not obvious to a modern reader and/or a non-English one? The class structure was still very rigid in the period about which Richardson was writing, and although things were starting to crumble a little, there were still expectations. There is the money aspect; the conventional bourgeois aspect; the feminist aspect which is creeping in with Miriam's frustration when dealing with men's attitudes. All of these subtexts and background issues would have been more obvious to contemporary readers of the book than they perhaps are to us. It's as if Miriam has the different elements of her life in different boxes, some of which we get to see, and all these boxes have different social restrictions and don't necessarily have any meeting points.

I got really confused at the beginning then bogged down in the dentist stuff, but now she's having her tea at the Corner House and I seem to have got the hang of it. I'm glad everyone noticed with concern that this one is longer - I thought I was being a bit pathetic thinking, "Oopsie, this is going to take longer than I thought ..."

A further thought about knickers - they're not what a modern woman would think of with that term, but if you Google "Rational Dress Society" you'll find lots of pictures of ladies in cycling wear!

>24 LyzzyBee: I actually enjoyed all the dentist stuff and Miriam making her way in the world. Once this one gets going it's really good! But yes, it's going to take a bit longer than the others!

You're right Karen, I probably don't fully appreciate the class differences. I'm aware on an intellectual level that they existed, but it's from a sort of "outside" view where I expect it's different for you (hard to find the right words to express this!)

I wasn't intimidated by the length initially. I thought well, it's more like a full-length novel so maybe I should read it all in one go, as I generally do. WRONG!

I also had quite a chuckle about the idea of cycling in modern day knickers! The "rational dress" term was helpful, a bit of googling confirmed my mental picture (which I would call "bloomers" ...)

>26 lauralkeet: I know what you mean and I can't quite express it either, except to say that I can probably pick up the social nuances she's expressing better than you can, having lived in English society for so long (!) Yes, bloomers (from a lady of that name, I believe) is a better term than knickers - the latter brings to mind ladies cycling in very small pieces of underwear...... =:o

knickers = knickerbockers, if that helps?

Indeed! Or bloomers as Laura says - I am old enough to remember women wearing bloomers - my granny did, and also a surprisingly young teacher when I was at primary school - in the 1960s!!

In the 1960s, here in the states, we called them "petty-pants".

I have finished! I actually loved this one, after being a bit apprehensive at the beginning. I will get my thoughts together into a review soon. There is plenty of stuff that's obscure but the overall effect is dazzling!

Just squeezing my review in before the end of the month and here it is:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/light-at-the-end/

>32 kaggsy: I loved this description: the occasional opacity of the narrative -- so true! -- as well as your footnote about personal dental woes which I hope have cleared up by now.

Here's a question for you (and anyone else who finished The Tunnel): Was there a romantic element to Miriam's relationship with Mr Hancock? He certainly expanded her horizons through the lectures, and as Karen said in her review her attending these unchaperoned was shocking to others, but I also had the impression she had feelings for him.
And that there was a point in the book where she realized those feelings were either not reciprocated, or that he just wasn't looking for a relationship.

Interested in your thoughts on this!

>33 lauralkeet: I think the teeth are fine now (fingers crossed) - root canal is something I'm not in a hurry to go through again...

As for your question, I think possibly is the answer, Laura. It seemed to me nebulous - that we could read that into it, but it wasn't spelled out. If it wasn't romantic, it was perhaps a kind of hero worship and certainly a favouritism. Nothing is ever really clear cut in Richardson apart from Miriam's need for her own space! :)

Oh, how interesting, Karen, I didn't consciously remember your comment about "opacity" but mentioned it was opaque in my review.

I wasn't a big fan of this one, unfortunately, too opaque and I couldn't work out what was going on or who half the people were. I think Laura you are correct, maybe a crush (although she still describes women in far greater detail and seems to have crushes there, too) and then he was rude to her about something and it all crumbled into anger. Anyway, my review, as it is, here https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/book-reviews-the-tunnel-harold-ni...

>35 LyzzyBee: Opaque is our word of the day!

I read the rudeness as being a change of tone in his relationship with her. Because of the family connection and the fact that the whole business was a bit family like, I took it that their day to day dealings had been on a friendly basis. After the visit of his relatives, and their rather disapproving of his casual friendliness with Miriam, I think he was being more business-like and treating her like an employee - that's how I read it, anyway!

>35 LyzzyBee: I think my level of "fandom" was on par with yours, Liz. Karen's perspective helps me appreciate it more. I wonder though if we are in for more opacity or if that will vary in future volumes. Well, I will probably start Interim in a week or two.

Thanks to both of you for thoughts on my spoilerish question. I wasn't sure if I was interpreting the opacity correctly!

>37 lauralkeet: it's good to know you struggled with it a bit but I also found Karen's perspective helped. I am going to try to start Interim soon so I don't put it off!

>38 LyzzyBee: Always glad to be of assistance ;)

I'll try to start the next one soon I think, too, to keep the momentum going.

I started reading Interim today. This is earlier than I originally planned, but I decided to bring it to work as lunchtime reading, which means I only read a little bit at a time. This one has started out well for me (okay, I've only read 10 pages, but still ...) I refrained from shouting "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE" and just tried to go with the flow, and it was sort of making sense. Again, only 10 pages. But so far so good.

>40 lauralkeet: 😀 I'm not sure we ever know who all the people are! I shall start this one soon I think.

I finished Interim today and rather enjoyed it -- it was less opaque than The Tunnel, thank goodness. The focus on the varied characters in Mrs Bailey's boarding house was a nice diversion from the dental surgery.

I'm curious about the distinction between a lodger and a boarder. Is it that a boarder receives meals as well as a room? Miriam began as lodger in the previous book, and in this book she began paying for meals at her discretion. It seems the boarders were "regulars" at the dining table.

>42 lauralkeet: I think the meals are the clincher, here Laura - if you lodge you simply rent the room and anything else you provide for yourself. There was a bit at the end of The Tunnel I think where Mrs. Bailey was switching to having boarders and here they would pay for meals to be taken presumably at a set time. I guess the cost would be more and you would also lose a bit of your independence, so she was offering Miriam the chance to remain as a lodger. I'll be happy to to read about dental surgery for a while...

As the end of the month is approaching, I thought I'd ask: are people planning to continue with volume 3? I'd like to keep reading and it's so much more pleasurable when the experience is shared with others.

I certainly will try to - I haven't actually started Interim yet, but hope to in the next day or so. I'd like to carry on and complete the whole sequence (having fallen off the wagon a bit with Proust!)

I have totally fallen off the Proust wagon also. Made it through 3 volumes and it's been nearly a year now I think. PIlgrimage is more manageable.

I'm a few chapters into Interim, liking it very much, and appreciating the change of pace from the last book. Life, work and reading events have distracted me, but I still want to read a book a month until we reach the end.

I'm so glad Jane. I will create a new thread before the end of the month.

Thanks Laura - I am just about to start Interim.

I will join you all for Interim, as you've reached the point I'm up to in my read of Pilgrimage.

That's wonderful news! Welcome Claire!

I'm trying with Interim, I'm really trying, but I think the wheels are falling off my Pilgrimage wagon. I'm confused and a bit lost STILL and I'm not sure I can face another 8 months of this.

Oddly enough I'm whizzing through Interim and loving it. But you're not enjoying it Liz I wouldn't persevere - life is just too short!

I raced through the early part of the book, but just as there was some clarity at the end things became muddled with a gorgeous but maybe misplaced burst of stream of consciousness about weather, seasons and the passage of time swiftly followed by a quite unnecessary - to my way of thinking - reappearance by Miss Dear.

I do wonder at times if Dorothy Richardson was making things difficult for her readers on purpose.

I'm glad that I could see this was one book in the context of a long series, and not entirely surprised that it was around this point that contemporary readers and critics began to drift away.

>52 LyzzyBee: I'm nowhere near giving up, because the good things are still so good, but I am more apprehensive about the road ahead than I was. Could it be time to look on one of the many books about Dorothy Richardson to get some context? I recall Louisa Treger recommending the one by Gloria Fromm, and I see others in the my library's catalogue.

>54 BeyondEdenRock: I, too, thought Miss Dear's reappearance was strange. Unless she becomes a character whose reappearances become a somewhat comic element, like Widmerpool in Dance to the Music of Time.

not entirely surprised that it was around this point that contemporary readers and critics began to drift away. so that happened, eh? I'd like to complete the series just to say I did read the entire thing. But it's not knocking my socks off. I'm very susceptible to drifting, and that's why I keep checking in here asking if others are still planning to keep going. I need the moral support!

>54 BeyondEdenRock: "I do wonder at times if Dorothy Richardson was making things difficult for her readers on purpose."

Ha! You might well have hit it on the head there, Jane! I was finding the book lovely and comprehensible till I hit the really dense stream of consciousness bit, and it did seem to sit a little oddly there. It's all very well capturing a new way of writing but there has to be some way for the reader to latch on and understand *something*.

Nevertheless I shall continue - the plus points outweigh the rest. I shall finish the book tonight and hopefully get my review up by the end of the week!

Incidentally, am I correct in thinking this book contained the first direct reference to the death of her mother? I don't think I'd seen anything before this.

>57 kaggsy: Yes, I think you're right.

I loved that stream of consciousness bit, and wish the book had ended with that and Miriam's understanding of the things her landlady had told her rather than going on for a few pages more with Miss Dear. I found it easy to forgive her for my not understanding that Miriam was visiting rather than from returning to a new home after time away at the beginning of the book, and for bringing Eve to London and then losing sight of her, but much less easy to forgive the muddle at the end.

>55 lauralkeet: That could be but I hope not!

My review is written and volume 2 is back on the shelf.

https://beyondedenrock.com/2016/04/27/interim-by-dorothy-richardson-1920/

When I look back I realise that there was a great deal that I loved and only the end of the book that I didn't.

Great review Jane and I so agree about the end - it seemed rushed with too much crammed in too short a number of pages. If she wanted to reintroduce Miss Dear with her sub plot she should have done it differently and for longer.

I have pushed on with it and enjoying it more again. Nearly done, about 30p to go. I find I love the sections where she's wandering around London, so I'll hold on to that.

That's a great review, Jane. I've found reviewing these books to be difficult.

I'm glad you're hanging in there Liz.

>62 lauralkeet: I agree! What can you say apart from repeating that it's wonderful to see things from Miriam's perspective and what great writing there is?!?!? My review will be up tomorrow and I'll link here! :)

>60 kaggsy: >62 lauralkeet: Thank you. I'm finding it difficult to know what to say, hence the extended quotations.

My review, such as it is, is now up here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/04/29/differing-standards/

WHO IS ELEANOR???? Arghhhhhh. Sorry. Finished Interim. Hm ... review to come when I can!

Miss Dear!

Oh! Doh!!

:)))

Well, I have posted my Deep Thoughts about this one - haven't read everyone else's reviews yet, sorry! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2016/04/29/book-review-interim-virago/

I've linked to your review Liz!