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THE LIFE and WORK of MARY WEBB ROSALIND DAVIE a Thesis ‘THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE’: THE LIFE AND WORK OF MARY WEBB ROSALIND DAVIE A thesis submitted to The University of Gloucestershire in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the faculty of Media, Arts and Technology March / 2018 80,000 words Abstract Erika Duncan has commented that ‘because of the intangible sentimental quality of Mary Webb’s special genius, there has been a general reluctance to acknowledge her as a major writer.’1 This thesis argues against such dismissive approaches to Webb and makes a case for a re-evaluation of Webb as an unusual writer of pantheist spirituality and nature mysticism and one who can now be appreciated for the ecopoetics of her work. Within this framework the study charts the stylistic qualities of her writing and its mutative shifts through a chronological examination of her work which also includes a biographical account of her life and the major influences which shaped her ideas and writing. Aspects of inter-textuality with other writers will be considered throughout and will underscore the value of Webb’s work whilst emphasising the unique and beautiful quality of her voice. The first chapter, ‘Early Responses’, considers her formative experiences and her earliest essays and poems. ‘Mythological Motifs’ then reviews the mythopoeic nature of Webb’s first two novels and her use of myth in furthering her themes. The ensuing chapter, ‘Preceptive Perception’, evaluates both the didacticism in authorial style and the pertinence of Webb’s vision which are features of her third book. Chapter Four discusses her final two completed volumes as ‘A Dyad’ for they represent, respectively, her weakest and her finest writing. The final chapter, ‘A Medieval Message’, focuses on Webb’s last, incomplete, work, analysing its experimental qualities and its potential to reveal Webb’s last efforts to leave a parting missive for her readers before her death. Central critical concepts are that: in the development of Webb’s religious views from conventional Christianity to pantheism she anticipated modern feminist spirituality; and, in her insistence upon the supreme value of nature and its continual risk from human exploitation in connection with the oppression of women and their need for spiritual freedom, Webb is an unrecognised ecofeminist who was reflecting early twentieth-century issues. In addition, I attempt to discover reasons for Webb’s neglect and positively propose a place for her in literary studies. A Conclusion will summarise the main arguments and indicate possible further avenues of research. 1 Erika Duncan, ‘Rediscovering Mary Webb’, Book Forum, 4 (1978), 326-328, (p. 327). Author’s Declaration I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations of the University of Gloucestershire and is original except where indicated by specific reference in the text. No part of the thesis has been submitted to any other education institution in the United Kingdom or overseas. Any views expressed in the thesis are those of the author and in no way represent those of the University. Signed ………… Date ……03.03.18…….. Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my supervisors, John Hughes and Hilary Weeks, for their wisdom, support and enthusiasm throughout the preparation of this thesis. I would also like to thank Ros Jennings and John Hockey for the postgraduate development sessions and research degree student workshops they provided. Along with the opportunities for conferences and summer schools, these occasions were all invaluable in fostering my skills and confidence. The services offered by the University Library and Information centres, along with the Research Office, have also been vital and much appreciated. Finally, I am indebted to my husband, Anthony, and my children, Nathaniel and Amber, for their stoic endurance and cheerful encouragement during the lengthy and time-consuming processes of research, writing and re-writing that this thesis has entailed. i Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: 1881-1914 Early Responses: The Spring of Joy 31 Chapter Two: 1914-1918 Mythological Motifs: The Golden Arrow and Gone to Earth 61 Chapter Three: 1918-1920 Preceptive Perception: The House in Dormer Forest 95 Chapter Four: 1921-1926 A Dyad: Seven For a Secret and Precious Bane 123 Chapter Five: 1926-1927 A Medieval Message: Armour Wherein He Trusted 176 Conclusion 194 Bibliography 199 ii Abbreviations AWHT - Armour Wherein He Trusted: A Novel and Some Stories 51 – Fifty One Poems: Hitherto unpublished in Book Form GA – The Golden Arrow GE – Gone to Earth HDF – The House in Dormer Forest CPP – Mary Webb: Collected Prose and Poems PB – Precious Bane SFS – Seven for a Secret EMW – The Essential Mary Webb SJ: Healing – The Spring of Joy: A Little Book of Healing SJ: Poems – The Spring of Joy: Poems 1 Introduction In a genial after-dinner address to an audience of archbishops, ambassadors and the literati of the day, Stanley Baldwin may have surprised his celebrated listeners by speaking enthusiastically about a little-known author. The Prime Minister spoke ardently of the ‘absolutely first-class quality’ of this writer, of her works as ‘the creation of a beautiful and almost inspired mind’ and identified her as ‘one of about the three best writers of English today’.1 Baldwin was addressing the Royal Literary Fund on April 25th 1928 but Mary Webb, the author he championed, had, in fact, already been dead for six months, a little- documented fact of which even Baldwin was unaware until the evening before. This accolade prompted some posthumous success for Webb but her work was to sink once more into obscurity until fifty years later a further clarion call sought to re-establish her worth with the publication of The Flower of Light (1978), the first really comprehensive biography of her life. Its author, Gladys Mary Coles, optimistically concluded her account with the remark that ‘the time is right for Mary Webb “to be looked at with fresher eyes”, for the long overdue revaluation of her work and her place in English Literature’.2 This is a poignant point, since Webb herself was aiming for a fresh approach to the relationship between environment and humanity. This approach is centred upon nature’s capacity to refresh, its power to regenerate the self and the spirit, and it is her articulation of this which makes her work of ongoing value: As a novelist of country life, Mary Webb holds a special place, uniquely combining mystical and regional elements […] her central concerns – the individual’s search for self, inner awakening and growth to re-birth, to wholeness, the importance and influence of the unconscious, the herd instinct and pressure of society on the individual, the spiritual nature of love – are of immediate contemporary relevance.3 1 Reported in ‘Royal Literary Fund 138th Anniversary Dinner. Mr Baldwin’s Speech’, The Times, 26 April 1928, p. 18. 2 Gladys Mary Coles, The Flower of Light: A Biography of Mary Webb (London: Duckworth, 1978), p. 330. 3 ibid., p. 329. 2 Webb’s work was of ‘contemporary relevance’ to the early twentieth- century age in which she was writing, but also to the later twentieth-century era to which Coles refers, and is still of on-going and important significance to our twenty-first-century world. And in order to establish the context of Webb’s work, this study will consider the ways in which Webb engages with cultural, ethical, philosophical and mystical thought during her own lifetime. This period (1881- 1927) was one of great historical and social change, encompassing the growth of technological innovation, the establishment of the Independent Labour Party, the end of the settled Victorian period, the Arts and Crafts Movement, the campaign for women’s suffrage, the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the General Strike. The Industrial Revolution had already depopulated the countryside and a great age of invention had ushered in a technological revolution bringing photography, the 1840s railway boom, telephones, trams and wireless radios. The Wright brothers first took flight in 1903, whilst 1912 brought the production of the first cheap motor car so within a short space of time the world had changed dramatically. The period between the 1870s and the 1920s has been described as ‘an age of demand, economy of abundance, democratization of luxury, retail revolution, consumer capitalism’4 and Webb was responding to this more materialistic society. In Jonathan Bate’s seminal work, The Song of the Earth (2000), he comments that the Victorians were proud of their progress but ‘they also worried profoundly about their loss of “place.”’5 It is worth noting that The National Trust was founded in 1895, illustrating that conservation of the landscape was already a developing concern. Seeking to explore ‘modern Western man’s alienation from nature’ and ‘the capacity of the writer to restore us to the earth which is our home,’6 Bate examines the work of writers such as Thomas Hardy, William Wordsworth and John Clare and their responses to their changing worlds as urbanisation and technological innovation increasingly alienated people from nature. Although these authors are also of important relevance to the study of Webb, it is, perhaps, more significant to consider her work in relation to other 4 David Trotter, The English Novel in History: 1895-1920 (London: Routledge, 2006), p. 11. 5 Jonathan Bate, The Song of the Earth (London: Picador, 2011), p. 13. 6 ibid., Preface. 3 women writers of the interwar period, such as Elizabeth Von Armin, Winifred Holtby, Vera Brittain, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend-Warner, Daphne du Maurier, and Elizabeth Bowen. These female authors all represent and explore the society of their day and the constraints upon women’s lives within that society.
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