Diary of a Provincial Lady

by E. M. Delafield

Overview

Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautifully bound pocket-sized gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

E. M. Delafield's largely autobiographical novel is written as the journal of an upper-middle class lady living in a Devonshire village. Full of the peculiarities of daily life, the Provincial Lady attempts to avoid disaster and prevent chaos from descending upon her household, including a husband reluctant to do anything but doze behind The Times, mischievous children and trying servants, all the while keeping up appearances to society-at-large, and most particularly to the patronising Lady Boxe, with whom the Provincial Lady is eternally competing.

As witty and delightful today as upon first publication in 1930, Diary of a Provincial Lady is a brilliantly observed comic novel and an acknowledged classic. Introduced by Christina Hardyment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781909621381
Publisher:	Macmillan Collector's Library
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	3.80(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

E. M. Delafield (1890-1943) was born in Steyning, Sussex, the elder daughter of Count Henry Philip Ducarel de la Pasture, of Llandogo Priory, Monmouthshire, and Elizabeth Lydia Rosabelle, daughter of Edward William Bonham. Her mother was also a well-known novelist, writing as Mrs Henry de la Pasture.

In 1911, Delafield was accepted as a postulant by a French religious order but left upon learning her sister was planning to join another enclosed order, so as to avoid the separation. Her account of her experience, The Brides of Heaven, was written in 1931 and eventually published in her biography.

Delafield worked as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment in Exeter at the outbreak of World War I and her first novel, Zella Sees Herself, was published in 1917. She continued to publish one or two novels every year until nearly the end of her life.

Editorial Reviews

"You will laugh out lout very often, and smile to yourself even more, for it is an extremely amusing book."

Chicago Tribune

"At home I yell and I also yell afield for this elegant book by EM Delafield."

Herald Tribune New York

"It is unique and priceless and no substitutes will do."

Oakland Tribune

And so begins one of the funniest, smartest and most lovable books I have ever read—Kathryn Hughes, Guardian

She converts the small and familiar dullness of life into laughter—The Times

I finished the book in one sitting, leaving the children unbathed, dogs unwalked, a husband unfed—Jilly Cooper

Before there was Bridget Jones, there was Delafield's provincial lady, cataloguing her struggles with supercilious neighbours, a distracted husband and unforthcoming hyacinth bulbs. The home counties domesticity may be a creation of the 1930s, but some things are eternal, from the mixture of joy and tedium that is parenting, to the jolt of horror when you catch your reflection unawares in the mirror of a changing room—Independent

I reread, for the nth time, E. M. Delafield's dry, caustic Diary of a Provincial Lady, and howled with laughter—India Knight

Glorious, simply glorious—Daily Telegraph

I finished the book in one sitting, leaving the children unbathed, dogs unwalked, a husband unfed, and giving alternate cries of joy and recognition throughout—Jully Cooper

I reread, for the nth time, E. M. Delafield's dry, caustic Diary of a Provincial Lady, and howled with laughter—India Knight

Glorious, simply glorious—DAILY TELEGRAPH

She converts the small and familiar dullness of life into laughter—The TIMES

From the Publisher