{"product_id":"lettice-delmer","title":"Lettice Delmer","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 320px;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/Lettice_Delmer_Susan_Miles_copy_2.jpg?v=1593034989\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWITH A PUBLISHER'S NOTE AND PLOT SUMMARY\u003cbr\u003e196pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155219\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe first discovered \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLettice Delmer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e when we were in the British Library reading another, less good book that came out the same year and on the back of the jacket a novel in verse was announced with a 'puff' from T.S.Eliot. We ordered it up and it turned out to have that unputdownable quality that is, we hope, the hallmark of a Persephone book. It was also in an unusual genre that began with wandering minstrels round the fire, continued with Chaucer and \u003cem\u003eDon Juan\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEugene Onegin\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eAurora Leigh\u003c\/em\u003e and more recently culminated in Vikram Seth's \u003cem\u003eThe Golden Gate\u003c\/em\u003e (1986) and Sarah Crossan's \u003cem\u003eOne\u003c\/em\u003e (2015) – a novel, i.e. a narrative with plot, characterisation and psychological insight, where the verse form is readable, not too intrusive, but essential.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLettice Delmer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e begins in 1912 when Mrs Delmer visits a hospital for unmarried mothers and invites one of them, Flora Tort (flower wronged), and her five-year-old boy to come and live with the Delmer family in Highgate. The experiment is not a success; the main victim is eighteen-year-old Lettice, the pampered daughter of the house who, as so often at that time, has been given nothing to do with her life except wait for marriage, who is innocent, egocentric and bored, not even interested in the outbreak of the First World War because 'I can't enter into it: pin flags, study the papers and the maps each day.' Her parents both die, she moves in to a women's hostel, she is raped by a friend of her brother's and has an abortion, she gets a job in a guest-house and falls in love with one of the men living there who gives her a venereal disease, but eventually – and by now it is the late 1920s and she is living in Bloomsbury – finds spiritual redemption.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eLettice Delmer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e is by no means an uplifting or easy book, but it is a brave, moving and highly original one. It was first published in 1958 and we cannot recommend it highly enough. We believe it will be admired and enjoyed by people who would never normally dream of reading a novel in verse. It was a great favourite of T.S. Eliot's, who considered it 'a very poignant story', while according to Storme Jameson, 'Its simplicities are at a profound level. The theme is a great one and the characters are superb'. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSusan Miles's real name was Ursula Roberts: she was married to the Rector of St George's, Bloomsbury and was a published novelist and poet. In 1920 Harold Monro singled her out in\u003cem\u003e Contemporary Poets\u003c\/em\u003e as one of the fifty most important poets then writing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor more on \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLettice Delmer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, take a look at the \u003cem\u003ePersephone Perspective\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003ePrato Cathedral, 15th century fresco\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eThe fabric is 'Plantation', a 1958 design by Lucienne Day. It is modernist, yet the squares of umber and grey have a timeless quality and are in keeping with the novel's 1920s setting. Image © Victoria and Albert Museum, London\/ Design © Robin and Lucienne Day Foundation\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Susan Miles","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098768527667,"sku":"yeu1789694513196","price":30.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098768560435,"sku":"gah1789694513197","price":32.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098768593203,"sku":"ewx1789694513198","price":38.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098768625971,"sku":"tqa1789694513199","price":41.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/lettice-delmer_1.png?v=1789694517","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/lettice-delmer","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}