In my previous blog on Clemence Dane and her novel of the theatre of 1931 ‘Broome Stages’ I had intended to blog about some other books published in the early 1930s but Dane proved so interesting that this post is about an earlier novel of her ‘Legend’ written between 1917 and 1919 and published in 1919.
The date is both significant and not. I think it may explain the supernatural elements of the book especially the appearance of an apparition of the central character whose life and character has been the whole substance of the book. An interest in Spritualism and a longing for connection in the last years of the First World War may well have played a part here.
But in many other ways the novel has a very modern feel. It’s short, my 1928 edition has 198 pages and has no subdivisions or chapters. This gives the book a growing intensity as there is no break in the rising and tightening atmosphere. It’s also about celebrity, the rise of sudden success and all it brings with it and about literary biography and the idea of legacy.
The novel is an account of two hours at a literary at home held by a biographer Anita Serle and is narrated by her 18 year cousin employed as her secretary.
Madala Grey is the subject, the obsession and the idea of all those present though she is not present. She has written a runaway bestseller of a first book and a more questionable second. She has married and is about to give birth. Is she the discovery and product of literary hostess Anita Serle who is writing her biography as Serle insists? Would she have succeeded regardless? Are biographies the truth or just a truth?
An interesting read.
The Solitary Reader 