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Loading... Keeping Up Appearances (original 1928; edition 1986)73 | None | 360,843 |
(3.78) | 12 | Part of a curated collection of forgotten works by early to mid-century women writers, the British Library Women Writers series highlights the best middlebrow fiction from the 1910s to the 1960s, offering escapism, popular appeal, and plenty of period detail to amuse, surprise, and inform. Lying awake after a hotel party on holiday in the Mediterranean, Daisy Simpson reflects on her lackluster social performance and muses on the impression her confident and graceful half-sister Daphne may have made on the other guests. What is it that makes Daphne, Daphne and Daisy, Daisy? And which of the two will attract the attentions of one of their hosts, Raymond, whom they have both fallen for? Returning to London, Daisy's life is strained by the efforts of presenting the right elements of her personality to the right people, resulting in embarrassments, difficulties and deceits as she navigates her relationships and social standing. Rose Macaulay's novel, first published in 1928, offers a sharp and witty commentary on how we twist our identities to fit, delivered in an intelligent and innovative style.… (more) |
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Daisy Simpson, having retired to bed at one o'clock in febrile and semi-intoxicated gaiety, woke in the dark yet glimmering grey of some late hour, and lay listening to the conversations that occurred in the streets of that town throughout the night and day. ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/transdot.gif) | |
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"When they [newspapers] used a word the word meant what they chose that it should mean; they were the masters, never the slaves, of language. As to that. . .they were but one with the rest of mankind. What, after all, is language, that it should dominate and hamper man who made it? And what right have any of us to demand that the meanings of words should be, what in point of fact they seldom are, static? Words move, turning over like tumbling clowns; like certain books and like fleas, they possess activity. All men equally have the right to say: 'This word shall bear this meaning,' and see if they can get it across. It is a sporting game, which all can play, only all cannot win. 'He altered the meaning of a word': is this a noble epitaph or the reverse? 'He refused to acknowledge a new meaning to a word': is this to be a hero or merely a linguistic backwoodsman? Still, why be coerced by Fleet Street? If words are changing their meanings, as assuredly they are, let each user of language make such change as please himself, put up his own suggestion, and let the beast win. It is unfair that, just because they have a staff of printers and a large supply of paper, newspapers should have it all their own way." ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/transdot.gif) | |
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The original American title was Daisy and Daphne. ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/transdot.gif) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions Part of a curated collection of forgotten works by early to mid-century women writers, the British Library Women Writers series highlights the best middlebrow fiction from the 1910s to the 1960s, offering escapism, popular appeal, and plenty of period detail to amuse, surprise, and inform. Lying awake after a hotel party on holiday in the Mediterranean, Daisy Simpson reflects on her lackluster social performance and muses on the impression her confident and graceful half-sister Daphne may have made on the other guests. What is it that makes Daphne, Daphne and Daisy, Daisy? And which of the two will attract the attentions of one of their hosts, Raymond, whom they have both fallen for? Returning to London, Daisy's life is strained by the efforts of presenting the right elements of her personality to the right people, resulting in embarrassments, difficulties and deceits as she navigates her relationships and social standing. Rose Macaulay's novel, first published in 1928, offers a sharp and witty commentary on how we twist our identities to fit, delivered in an intelligent and innovative style. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
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‘In the society in which Daphne moved, spinsterhood was merely the feminine counterpart of bachelordom, and no more discreditable, but in Daisy’s simple and homely circle it savoured of disgrace, of having tried and failed.’
Though from very different backgrounds, Daphne and Daisy move as one – living in the same apartment, pursuing writing careers and attracted to the same man. Rose Macaulay brings her customary satirical wit to a novel about identity and deceit, drawing on sharp observations of the print press’s attitude to women, and prefiguring the age of social media with our fixation on how we appear to others. ![](https://image.librarything.com/pics/transdot.gif) | |
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