Tension

E. M. Delafield

ISBN 10: 0712353933 / ISBN 13: 9780712353939

Published by British Library Publishing, GB, 2021

About this Item

"I know that things of that kind always are known, and the people I've been thrown with, sooner or later, always turned out to have heard the story. Or if they hadn't," said Miss Marchrose in a voice of calm despair, "someone took the trouble to tell them." Miss Marchrose is about to discover that she cannot escape her past when she takes up a new position at a secretarial college in the south west of England. Following insinuations dropped by the director's wife, she becomes the subject of a whispering campaign which threatens her professional career and personal happiness. Tension examines reputation and the persistence of gossip in relation to a woman's choice of work and domestic arrangements with a light touch of humour. The two main female characters represent the different roles of women in public life: Lady Rossiter uses her social position to influence college matters, while Miss Marchrose is a professional woman who brings qualifications and experience to her role.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780712353939

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Tension
• Publisher: British Library Publishing, GB
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0712353933
• ISBN 13: 9780712353939
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Miss Pauline Marchrose arrives at the Commercial and Technical College of South-West England as the new Lady Superintendent. But Lady Edna Rossiter, the wife of the college director, Sir Julian, recognizes her name as the woman who broke off an engagement with her cousin. She starts a whispering campaign against Miss Marchrose that casts doubt on her character and undermines her position at the college, which is further fueled by Miss Marchrose’s growing attachment to Sir Julian’s agent, Mark Easter, who is married. Tension examines reputation and the persistence of gossip in relation to a woman’s choice of work and domestic arrangements with a light touch of humor. The two main female characters represent the different roles of women in public life. Lady Rossiter uses her social position to influence college matters, while Miss Marchrose is a professional woman who brings qualifications and experience to her role.

British Library Women Writers 1920's.

Part of a curated collection of forgotten works by early to mid-century women writers, the British Library Women Writers series highlights the best middlebrow fiction from the 1910s to the 1960s, offering escapism, popular appeal, and plenty of period detail to amuse, surprise, and inform.

About the Author

E. M. Delafield (1890–1943) was a prolific British writer best known for the largely autobiographical Diary of a Provincial Lady. At the outbreak of the First World War Delafield worked as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment and published The War Workers in 1918. Tension was published in 1920.