{"product_id":"the-priory","title":"The Priory","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"picright\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 500px;\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"\u003e\n\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/elwell.jpg?v=1593035304\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"redtext\"\u003eAFTERWORD BY DAVID CONVILLE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e536pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155301\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe setting for \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Priory\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is Saunby Priory, a large house somewhere in England which has seen better times: its 'West Front, built in the thirteenth century for the service of God and the poor, towered above the house that had been raised alongside from its ruins, from its very stones. And because no light showed from any window here, the stranger, visiting Saunby at this hour, would have concluded that the house was empty. But he would have been wrong. There were many people within.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis sentence is typical of the opening of a Dorothy Whipple novel. Gently, deceptively gently, but straightforwardly, it sets the scene and draws the reader in. We are shown the two Marwood girls, who are nearly grown-up, their father, the widower Major Marwood, and their aunt; then, as soon as their lives have been described, the Major proposes marriage to a woman much younger than himself - and huge change ensues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a classic plot (albeit the stepmother is more disinterested than wicked) and the book has many classic qualities; yet there are no clichés either in situation or outlook, just an extraordinarily well-written and deeply transportative novel by the writer who has been called the twentieth-century Mrs Gaskell.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAbove all, \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Priory\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is a very subtle novel, so subtle that, as with all Dorothy Whipple’s books, it is very easy to miss what an excellent writer she is. As \u003cem\u003eBooks\u003c\/em\u003e magazine wrote in August 1939: 'Because it is so unaffectedly and well written, and because it conveys very effectively a sense of the old house and what is meant to be the various persons connected with it, \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Priory\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e carries a punch out of proportion to its otherwise artless-seeming content.’ Meanwhile Forrest Reid, the Irish novelist and friend of EM Forster, described it in the \u003cem\u003eSpectator\u003c\/em\u003e as being ‘brilliantly original and convincing. It is fresh, delightful, absorbing, and one accepts it with gratitude as one did the novels read in boyhood.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Priory\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e makes an interesting companion piece to PB no. 39 \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eManja\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, which is also a long novel about families in the inter-war period, also a wonderful, unforgettable read, and also first published in the late summer of 1939 – but set against the background of a changing society in Germany, rather than rural Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlso available as a Persephone eBook\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eThe endpapers are taken from 'Wychwood', a 1939 screen-printed satin furnishing fabric designed by Noldi Soland for Helios; the pattern has an appropriately rural simplicity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e'Kitchen Scene in the Beverley Arms' 1929, FW Elwell ©  FW Elwell Estate\/National Trust, Nunnington Hall\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dorothy Whipple","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098761548083,"sku":"ebq1789694451651","price":29.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098761580851,"sku":"qfx1789694451652","price":32.64,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098761613619,"sku":"ulz1789694451653","price":38.76,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098761646387,"sku":"jap1789694451654","price":48.91,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/the-priory_1.jpg?v=1789694457","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/the-priory","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}