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A review by flappermyrtle
The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby
4.0
As so many of Persephone's reprints, this book deals with the pressure of society on young women to get married, and what happens if they fail to procure a husband and therefore - directly connected - respectability. The Crowded Street might be called outdated, as we are no more truly of the opinion that an unmarried woman is a sad spinster, and we start acknowledging there are other ways for women to find fulfilment outside marriage and motherhood. I would argue it is still very relevant though, as marriage is still seen as the road to take and an unmarried woman ought to be very successful in all other aspects of life in order for people to think she has done well for herself. Mothers perhaps do not prepare their daughters for matrimony only, anymore, teaching them to play the courtship game, but it might be said magazines definitely have that goal in mind still with all their beauty, sex, and relationship tips.
The novel drags at times, it must be added. But so does Muriel's life, so it is appropriate, really. There are several climactic moments, pivotal points in which something changes in Muriel's life, and these stand out the more. I absolutely loved the ending, as it shows how far Muriel has come, how much she now respects herself and is her own person, while Godfrey truly is still in the same place. Muriel might not be as revolutionary as Delia, but she is a new woman.
The Connie arc is terrible, showing Muriel's sister as a foil to Muriel, and displaying the catastrophic results of girls who try to break through the mold. Delia is another example, being a fierce campaigner for women's rights and the likes. In a sense, Muriel manages to find a middle ground - but only after she has spent several bitter years in Marshington, realising life has absolutely nothing more to offer her.
The Crowded Street is not an easy novel to read, but it does reflect starkly on the WW1 period and interwar years and their effects not on men, but on the women who had to stay behind - the emptiness of their lives, the lack of men, the search for suitable husbands, and the testing attempt at finding other ways to make oneself live a respectable and enjoyable life.
The novel drags at times, it must be added. But so does Muriel's life, so it is appropriate, really. There are several climactic moments, pivotal points in which something changes in Muriel's life, and these stand out the more. I absolutely loved the ending, as it shows how far Muriel has come, how much she now respects herself and is her own person, while Godfrey truly is still in the same place. Muriel might not be as revolutionary as Delia, but she is a new woman.
The Connie arc is terrible, showing Muriel's sister as a foil to Muriel, and displaying the catastrophic results of girls who try to break through the mold. Delia is another example, being a fierce campaigner for women's rights and the likes. In a sense, Muriel manages to find a middle ground - but only after she has spent several bitter years in Marshington, realising life has absolutely nothing more to offer her.
The Crowded Street is not an easy novel to read, but it does reflect starkly on the WW1 period and interwar years and their effects not on men, but on the women who had to stay behind - the emptiness of their lives, the lack of men, the search for suitable husbands, and the testing attempt at finding other ways to make oneself live a respectable and enjoyable life.