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cloudmercury's review against another edition
3.0
This book is very centered around the protagonist and is often confusing in its abrupt passings of time. The story covers Harriett's entire unsignificant life and teaches the reader to never be too dependent upon their parents, or to sacrifice other things for the sake of selfish gratification that you did the 'right' thing. It also suggests that what may appear to be the right course of action isn't always.
The book was interesting because it gives an insight into the lives of Victorian women, who 'belonged' to their parents and then a husband (or if they were not married, as in Harriett's case, become a lonely and bitter spinster). However, the book is also a more modernistic piece in that Harriett almost becomes insane due to the path her life takes (a mundane one) and questions her belief in very outdated Victorian values such as the family and 'beautiful behaviour'.
The book was interesting because it gives an insight into the lives of Victorian women, who 'belonged' to their parents and then a husband (or if they were not married, as in Harriett's case, become a lonely and bitter spinster). However, the book is also a more modernistic piece in that Harriett almost becomes insane due to the path her life takes (a mundane one) and questions her belief in very outdated Victorian values such as the family and 'beautiful behaviour'.
glyptodonsneeze's review against another edition
4.0
What if you don't get out enough? You will die wondering if it is better not to have lived at all, that's what. Nobody could live a duller life than Harriet Frean of The Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair. Sinclair was a suffragist and Harriet Frean is the opposite, a woman who is raised to be "nothing but beautifully behaved." Harriet never tries to be anything but beautifully behaved and chugs along dutifully and self-sacrificingly until, at the end of her life, she's gained an inkling that maybe her parents didn't want her to be beautifully behaved so that they could admire her across the breakfast table when she was forty. She does fall in love with her best friend's fiancee, but nobly refuses him as an act of self-abnegation, which makes all three of them utterly miserable for decades, but when her niece says, "Would you do it again?" Harriet insists she would. How could she act selfishly, even if the consequences would save her best friend's life? The Life and Death of Harriet Frean is an apropos manifesto for the elevation of women to the rank of humans. I was reading Kate Chopin's The Awakening before I started Harriet Frean and HF is way better. The Awakening reads like a smoking gun forgery by English teachers, or a long form Jeopardy question: "What is dissatisfaction?" Harriet Frean nails the limited lack of expectations predicated by Victorian mores; the only trouble is that May Sinclair did it a bit too well. Every generation has its slow-witted children who live at home for decades. Nowadays Harriet would have the opportunity to drop out of community college before she moved back to her parents' couch, but she never would be Interim Department Manager Harriet Frean.
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/04/four-stories-of-outdoors-and-one_23.html
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/04/four-stories-of-outdoors-and-one_23.html
flowerbob's review against another edition
3.0
What an odd little book this is. I wonder how much this is because it describes a world that seems unreal, it is so long ago and so different. It is not obviously satire but it has no particular love for that world, I would say. It's poignant and sad, but having read the introduction I was surprised that the writer has a certain affection for her main character, or at least a sympathetic understanding. There are very many views you could take away from this book, and it's rather uncomfortable reading, but I felt the writing was expertly crafted. There are a few more modern writers who could learn a thing or two about the art of brevity.
emma_probett's review
3.0
"When she remembered how she used to love it she felt that she had done something cruel and iniquitous, but necessary to the soul."
Beginning with the birth of Harriet and ending with her death, this novel enacts in fifteen chapters the uncomfortable transition from Victorian values to the early C20th. Harriet's entire life is constructed around "behaving beautifully" and following her parent's moral code, the punishment being their disappointment; as a result, Harriet is exalted every time she practises self-restraint and self-sacrifice. Although she always intends on her actions doing the best possible good, she ignores the plethora of negative effects that come with repression and compromise.
The first half of this book I found very compelling but as Harriet ages (just after the middle-aged mark) and her personal concerns drop away, so did my interest. Predominantly because it isn't replaced with any real concern or reflection after this point, which is definitely in keeping with Sinclair's motivation and artistic expectations of the novel, but I felt it left something lacking.
Beginning with the birth of Harriet and ending with her death, this novel enacts in fifteen chapters the uncomfortable transition from Victorian values to the early C20th. Harriet's entire life is constructed around "behaving beautifully" and following her parent's moral code, the punishment being their disappointment; as a result, Harriet is exalted every time she practises self-restraint and self-sacrifice. Although she always intends on her actions doing the best possible good, she ignores the plethora of negative effects that come with repression and compromise.
The first half of this book I found very compelling but as Harriet ages (just after the middle-aged mark) and her personal concerns drop away, so did my interest. Predominantly because it isn't replaced with any real concern or reflection after this point, which is definitely in keeping with Sinclair's motivation and artistic expectations of the novel, but I felt it left something lacking.
tapsandtomes's review against another edition
4.0
See full review here: http://ilayreading.com/2016/06/17/the-life-and-death-of-harriett-frean/
I was most intrigued by Prissy and Harriett’s relationship. There are declarations of love–they say they will never marry for love of one another. It seems very gay. And then strangely…they fall in love with the same man? What a weird love triangle. Love quadrangle? It was all very tragic, indeed.
I was most intrigued by Prissy and Harriett’s relationship. There are declarations of love–they say they will never marry for love of one another. It seems very gay. And then strangely…they fall in love with the same man? What a weird love triangle. Love quadrangle? It was all very tragic, indeed.
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