39) A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
I had to read this for
The Girl in the Book, and
while finding the ideas about women's independence interesting, I found it a bit hard to get through, especially since it's an extended essay rather than a novel, and I find it hard to engage with non-fiction. I definitely wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't been studying it, but I'm glad that I did have to read it, as it's a very influential piece of writing, and (to my slight shame) it's the first time I've read anything by Virginia Woolf. I really want to go on to read her novel Orlando, of which I have already seen the film adaptation, as I think that it has some interesting things to say about the fluidity of gender.
40) Frost in May by Antonia White
I will be studying this book for the aforementioned module in January, and I will be interested to see what my lecturer has to say about it, as I found it to be very engaging and enjoyable to read. Having previously read a couple of novels about life in monasteries (
The Hawk and the Dove and
Sucking Sherbet Lemons), I believe this to be my first novel about life in a convent (I'm not counting Madeline :p), and I find it intriguing in its exploration of the rigidity of convent school life. This very rigidity (the girls are not even allowed to bathe naked) lends itself to small acts of rebellion which bubbles beneath the strict timetable and rules. Nanda has "particular friendships" with other girls despite the fact that it is forbidden, and these friendships seem to hover on the edge between platonic and romantic, as the girls' need for love is met in each other. The shocking denouement of the novel is actually disappointingly under-dramatised and abrupt, leaving us rather dissatisfied, however there are three "sequels" (I put "sequels" in quotation marks, as White changed the name of the main character from Nanda to Clara) to
Frost in May, and it would be interesting to see where life outside the convent would take Nanda/ Clara.
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