The Tunnel is the fourth novella in Dorothy Richardson's semi-autobiographical work, Pilgrimage. Miriam Henderson is now in her early 20s and has left teaching behind for an administrative position in, of all places, a dental surgery. She manages appointments, keeps the books, and even performs duties that would fall to a trained dental hygienist today. My first reaction to these scenes was, "thank goodness for advances in dentistry during the 20th century!” And yet Miriam finds community in this setting, and greatly enjoys her new-found independence. She enjoys the company of women friends, and ventures into “adventuresome” new territory by learning to ride a bicycle. And wearing knickers!

This was a period of significant growth for Miriam, and many times I reveled in her happiness. But I also struggled more with the stream of consciousness style than in the earlier novellas. The reader is so deep inside Miriam’s head that external details are often not described. New characters appear on the scene with little introduction. We can infer she has feelings for a certain gentleman, and that the relationship ends, but there's little “story arc” associated with this -- just breadcrumbs left along the way. Likewise changes in setting receive little explanation. Miriam might be in London one moment and the countryside the next, but the narrative does not include the journey or her reason for taking it.

Towards the end of this book I found myself longing for more traditional narrative structure. I think it will work better for me to read the remaining novellas in small doses. ( )