Diary of a Provincial Lady

Hardback

Main Details

Title Diary of a Provincial Lady
Authors and Contributors      By (author) E. M. Delafield
Introduction by Christina Hardyment
SeriesMacmillan Collector's Library
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:216
Dimensions(mm): Height 157,Width 102
Category/GenreClassic fiction (pre c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9781909621381
ClassificationsDewey:823.912
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Pan Macmillan
Imprint Macmillan Collector's Library
Publication Date 8 September 2016
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

E. M. Delafield's largely autobiographical novel takes the form of a journal written by an upper-middle-class lady living in a Devonshire village. Written with humour, this charming novel is full of the peculiarities of daily life. The Provincial Lady of the title attempts to avoid disaster and prevent chaos from descending upon her household. But with a husband reluctant to do anything but doze behind The Times, mischievous children and trying servants, it's a challenge keeping up appearances on an inadequate income, particularly in front of the infuriating and haughty Lady Boxe. As witty and delightful today as when it was first published in 1930, Diary of a Provincial Lady is a brilliantly observed comic novel and an acknowledged classic. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an introduction by author and journalist Christina Hardyment. Designed to appeal to the book lover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift-editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Author Biography

E. M. Delafield (1890-1943) was born in Sussex. Her mother was also a well-known novelist, writing as Mrs Henry de la Pasture, and Delafield chose her pen name based on a suggestion by her sister Yoe. A debutante in 1909, Delafield was accepted as a postulant by a French religious order in 1911 but decided against joining, a topic she explores in her novel Consequences (1919). Delafield worked as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment following the outbreak of the First World War, and her first novel Zella Sees Herself was written during this time and published in 1917. Diary of a Provincial Lady, her most successful novel, inspired several sequels and is a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Delafield herself, written after a request by the editor of Time and Tide for some 'light middles' in serial form.