![](https://heavenali.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/20240104_1120394444710220159762485.jpg?w=768)
My first post of 2024 – It suddenly felt like a long time since my last post, my twelve books of 2023. It’s perhaps only about ten days but I had intended to start my year of blogging a little sooner.
At the end of the year I decided I would spend 2024 reading the novels and short stories of Margaret Drabble. I doubt very much I will read them all, but I am aiming initially for one a month and I am starting to read chronologically. So, I began my 2024 reading with A Summer Bird-Cage.
A Summer Bird-Cage was Margaret Drabble’s first novel, published in 1963 and as a debut novel it is really rather impressive. I had wondered about the title, I suspected it was a quote but I didn’t know where from, but according to Wikipoedia it is a quote from a play by John Webster called The White Devil.
“Tis just like a summer bird-cage in a garden: the birds that are without despair to get in, and the birds within despair and are in a consumption for fear they shall never get out.”
The novel is not a plot driven piece at all, it is much more about character and the relationships between various characters, in particular that between two sisters, Sarah and Louise. Here Drabble paints a portrait of a complex fractious relationship between these two sisters, Sarah the narrator is the younger sister. Once, when she was a young child she had adored her older sister, waited anxiously for her to arrive home from boarding school, proud of her sister’s beauty and elegance. However, that wasn’t to last, as Louise had grown older she had developed into a cool, proud beauty, used to attention but quick to shrug off her younger sister.
“…there had been a time when, happily oblivious of my own undesirability, I had pursued her and waited on her and yearned for the crumb of her company that never fell my way. This had lasted from the age of eight until I was thirteen or so: before I was eight she used to play with me quite often, and after the age of thirteen I learned at least superficially to ignore her and to get on with my own life. But the humiliating period after she had cast me off and before I learned to appear to have cast her off I remember very clearly.”
Both sisters have been well educated, they both have degrees from Oxford – this is very much a novel of the early sixties, there’s a sense of things starting to change for women. Sarah is aware that she could do all sorts of things with her life, though she has little real idea of what that might look like. She is in love with a young historian called Francis who is away at Harvard – they write letters and Sarah assumes when he returns she may at some point marry him. Women’s lives haven’t changed so very much though from that earlier generation, there is still a feeling that although women could have careers if they are clever enough, they would no doubt give all that up for a husband and home to run.
As the novel opens Sarah is returning from Paris where she went after leaving Oxford – she’s been wasting time essentially, waiting to see what comes next. Sarah is returning home for her sister’s wedding. A wedding she is astonished is happening at all, Louise the traffic stopping beauty is marrying a rather dull, serious author called Stephen Halifax. Sarah can’t understand what Louise would see in him. Once she is back at home, Sarah remembers why she dislikes being there so much. Relations with Louise become strained almost immediately, her mother irritates her and she is itching to get away as soon as the wedding is over.
Sarah then moves to London, gets a flat share and begins a job at the BBC, she attends a lot of parties, and everywhere people seem to be talking about Louise. Sarah starts to wonder all the more about why Louise married Stephen, little bits of gossip begin to find their way to her and there comes a time when all Sarah can do is confront Louise about what is really going on in her life.
I suppose the bird-cage of the title refers to marriage – and it’s a striking image – there are a couple of relationships in the novel that could be explored and compared. I have very much enjoyed my first Margaret Drabble novel of the year – and I am very keen to read more soon.
This sounds so appealing! So much of its time and that period in women’s lives. You’ve definitely encouraged me to read Drabble already – I think your project this year will cause my TBR to grow further!
Oh yes, it is very much of its time, which always interests me. I hope I can inspire your reading too. 😉
Excellent review. I’ve never read Drabble but I have a lovely Penguin Modern Classic edition of The Needle’s Eye, so I must dig this out for a read.
The Needle’s Eye is one of the 3 Drabble novels I had read prior to starting this project. I remember enjoying it, so I hope you do too.
Thanks for a lovely review. It has whetted my appetite and increased my longing to read this even more! Which Drabble will you pick next?
I think I will be reading The Garrick Year, as that was her second novel. I am trying to read chronologically where I can, missing out the ones I have read before.
Thanks for the heads up. I hope you enjoy that one just as much.
Lovely review Ali – this is the Drabble I have on the TBR and it does sound brilliant. Can’t wait to get to it!
Oh good, yes it’s such an impressive first novel, hope you enjoy it.
I read this last year as one of my ’20 Books of Summer’ and enjoyed it very much. It does have a very 60s feel to it, doesn’t it? For the 2022 ’20 Books’ I read The Garrick Year, which I think I liked even more. (My review of A Summer Bird-cage is here: https://sconesandchaiseslongues.blogspot.com/2023/06/20-books-of-summer-summer-bird-cage-by.htmlI do recommend the Slightly Foxed podcast interview with Drabble, she was fascinating. )
Thanks for recommending that podcast.
I will probably be reading The Garrick Year soon, glad to hear you liked it so much.
It’s really lovely to read your thoughts on this one, Ali, As you know it was one of my favourite reads last year, and I’m delighted to see how well it landed with you! The contrasts between the sisters are subtly drawn, aren’t they? There’s a lot going on, but it never feels too crowded. At times, it also reminded me a little of Olivia Manning’s The Doves of Venus, especially the bohemian feel of Sarah’s life in London.
The sisters are so well drawn, Drabble portrays their relationship brilliantly. There is more going on than you might think, lots of subtleties.
I wonder how much her relationship with her sister, A.S. Byatt influenced the story. I did a search and there were a lot of results about them.
This was just a lovely review.
Yes, I only heard recently about Drabble and her sister not having a good relationship, that is so sad. With both of them being writers you would think they had that in common at least. I suppose it meant though that she perfectly understood the complexity of the sister relationship.
I’m beginning it tonight. I’m very happy to finally be reading these Drabbles th
Ooh excellent, I really hope you enjoy it.
Lovely review, Ali! I’ve never read any Drabble before and now am quite tempted to pick up one of her books. I have The Sea Lady with me, might give that a try!
Ooh lovely, I would be interested in your thoughts on that one. I may be reading it myself later in the year.
Your project has got off to a great start! I wonder if Drabble based the sisters are based on herself and A S Byatt as I believe Byatt’s The Game was. I know they didn’t get on.
It was an excellent start yes. I hadn’t realised till recently how the two sisters didn’t get on, that must have influenced part of her writing I suppose.
I’m thrilled to be joining you in your Reading Margaret Drabble project. At last my copy of her debut novel, A Summer Birdcage (Canongate Books, 2022) arrived in the post this week and I was able to make a start. For many years, I devoured her novels, not at first realising that this was because they were the first I’d read that focused on the lives and thoughts of middle class (or ordinary educated) females as they matured. (Spoiler warning!!)
Margaret Drabble depicts realistically the quandary of intelligent young women leaving university and starting their new lives. Sarah reflects on „the classlessness and social dislocation that girls of my age and lack of commitments feel“ (p. 96). What was open to such women at that time? In Sarah’s words/thoughts (p.72) „The days are over, thank God, when a woman justifies her existence by marrying. At least that is true until she has children“ . She has spent time in Paris and does not expect to find interesting employment – she’d like to write a book with humour.
The novel’s main focus is, however, on marriage, and includes motherhood, from its beginning when Sarah returns from Paris to be her sister Louise’s bridesmaid. We learn eventually that Louise married Stephen Halifax because he was rich and she imagined a wonderful life being able to buy whatever she wished. The marriage does not last.
Sarah’s friend from university, Gill, married Tony for love (and without money) and recently separated from him because she feels humiliated and degraded (pp. 33-35) and is no longer willing just to be her artist husband’s model.
Louise visits a college friend who is pregnant with her second child, whose husband is out at work, and who lives in chaos at home, without any intellectual challenge.
Sarah herself is also considering marriage to Francis, currently in America, and learning from others’ experiences and mistakes, will only marry for love. Whether this will happen is left open, as only when Francis returns will they know if they still feel the same.
„So you’re going to be a don’s wife?“ Wilfred Smee asks her. „No, I’m going to marry a don“ is her reply (p. 138) . „I will be what I become, I suppose“. She would certainly like to be „high-powered“ (p. 96).
The author herself said that she started writing because „writing was such a convenient career to combine with having a family“. As the mother of three children, I can’t imagine this as an option, unless a lot of help at home is available to an aspiring female writer.
While the focus is on the women, a variety of male characters play their roles. Stephen Halifax is boring, nasty, snobbish and cruel, according to his wife. John Connell, a he-man, is, it seems, in love with Louise but plays an awkward role. Gill’s husband Tony is inconsiderate, self-centred, attracted during his separation to „silly girls“, while Gill was „the traditional university woman, badly dressed, censorious and chaotic“ (p. 76). There are a couple of more chivalrous and kind men (Jackie Almond, Wilfred Smee). It will be interesting to see how men are portrayed in the following novels.
Questioning educated women’s role in society, considering their options, describing unhappy circumstances following early marriage all point to Drabble being associated with the “fledgling years of feminism, as she was one of the most assiduous chroniclers of female experience in Britain during that time” (as Lisa Allardice writes in The Guardian, June 2011).
Thank you so much for your excellent review of the novel. I am delighted you got so much from it. I was struck by your assessment of the men in the novel, they were all pretty awful in various ways. I too will be interested in how Drabble chooses to present her male characters going forward. I am definitely looking forward to what comes next.
I found an excuse to write an essay about this book so that I could take time to read it several years ago and I was so impressed that everything else she wrote promptly landed hard on my TBR (and, since, she’s written much more…lovely for us readers). I’ve pulled off my copy from the shelf but haven’t yet started to reread. Like you, 2024 is starting very slowly for me in some ways!
I am delighted to hear at how impressed you were with Drabble’s writing. I enjoyed this so much I might start my second Drabble novel before the end of this month. If you do get chance to reread this I hope you enjoy it just as much.
This does sound enticing! Maybe I will borrow them all from you next year! I immediately thought of her and Byatt and Byatt’s own “The Game” too. Well done for such a good start on your project.
Yes, I think you would probably enjoy this one too. I have only read one A S Byatt, Possession, a long time ago.
I read this last week and enjoyed it very much. I agree that the novel is reflective of the early 60s and shows the slowly changing status of women, using an engaging protagonist with an appealing voice. Thank you for suggesting reading Drabble this year. I feel like I’m off to a good start. Grier
I’m delighted you enjoyed this too. It was an excellent start to my reading year and to my Drabble year.
Hi again Ali,
I made it – I managed to finish A Summer Bird Cage before the end of January! I’ve just been rereading your review and the comments. I very much enjoyed reading this; it was also thought provoking and very interesting to learn more about the early sixties and the issues facing educated women at that time. So much has changed and yet so much is the same as it ever was. I felt very engaged with Sarah’s inner monologues. I appreciated journeying with her as she gained self-awareness and awareness of the developing dynamics between her and her sister Louise. Doing some googling revealed how much was actually reflective of A S Byatt and Margaret Drabble’s relationship!
I definitely want to read more Drabble. My library does not have The Garrick Year and I am trying to limit book buying this year but they do have The Needle’s Eye which I have not read, and see that you also enjoyed so I might try to get to that one soon.
Thanks again for your inspiration. Hope you are enjoying the Garrick Year.
I am enjoying The Garrick Year.
I am so pleased you liked A Summer Bird Cage so much. Thank you for posting your thoughts here.
[…] You can read Ali’s wonderful review of this novel here. […]