Dorothy Whipple (1893–1966)
Author of Someone at a Distance
About the Author
Works by Dorothy Whipple
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Stirrup, Dorothy (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1893-02-26
- Date of death
- 1966-09-14
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- fiction writer
novelist
memoirist
children's book author - Short biography
- Dorothy Whipple, née Stirrup, grew up in Blackburn, England, in the large, close-knit family of Walter Stirrup, an architect, and his wife Ada. She worked as a secretary to Henry Whipple, an educational administrator who was a widower 24 years her senior; they married in 1917 and moved to Nottingham. Here she wrote Young Anne (1927), the first of nine successful novels that included High Wages (1930), Greenbanks (1932), The Priory (1939) and Because of the Lockwoods (1949). Two of them, They Knew Mr. Knight (1934) and They Were Sisters (1943) were adapted into British films. She also published collections of short stories, including The Closed Door and Other Stories and Every Good Deed and Other Stories, several children's books, and two volumes of memoirs. Someone at a Distance (1953) was her final novel. Random Commentary: Books and Journals Kept from 1925 Onwards, was published in 1966 after her death, and provides glimpses of her earliest successes as an author and her impressions of life during World War II.
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Blackburn, Lancashire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Blackburn, Lancashire, England, UK
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK - Place of death
- Blackburn, Lancashire, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
I belong to a Facebook group called First Edition, run by the Times Literary Supplement (London, that is). They often link to articles in that section, and one was about Dorothy Whipple, the "1930s Jane Austen." This was the recommended book to begin with and I'm so glad I had a chance to read this work by an author I had never previously known about.
They Were Sisters is the story of three sisters (they have brothers who figure very little in the story). Lucy, the eldest, ends up essentially show more raising the younger two after their mother dies young. Charlotte marries young, to a man the other two instantly despise, and with good reason as it turns out. Vera, the beauty of the family, marries a rich man and lives a Bright Young Thing life with lots of admirers. Both Charlotte and Vera have children; Lucy, ironically, does not, although she alone is happy in her marriage. The book follows their lives and troubles with emphasis on how Lucy, still trying to mother her sisters and, eventually, their children, deals with her sisters' bad choices.
As an eldest sister myself, though with far less responsibility, I resonated to Lucy's challenges and her essentially good heart. I see why Whipple is compared to Austen -- her powers of observation are equal to Austen's although the society she observes has changed a great deal since Regency days. If you like Jane Austen or are not prejudiced against domestic fiction, I recommend this book very highly. I plan to explore more of Dorothy Whipple's books. show less
They Were Sisters is the story of three sisters (they have brothers who figure very little in the story). Lucy, the eldest, ends up essentially show more raising the younger two after their mother dies young. Charlotte marries young, to a man the other two instantly despise, and with good reason as it turns out. Vera, the beauty of the family, marries a rich man and lives a Bright Young Thing life with lots of admirers. Both Charlotte and Vera have children; Lucy, ironically, does not, although she alone is happy in her marriage. The book follows their lives and troubles with emphasis on how Lucy, still trying to mother her sisters and, eventually, their children, deals with her sisters' bad choices.
As an eldest sister myself, though with far less responsibility, I resonated to Lucy's challenges and her essentially good heart. I see why Whipple is compared to Austen -- her powers of observation are equal to Austen's although the society she observes has changed a great deal since Regency days. If you like Jane Austen or are not prejudiced against domestic fiction, I recommend this book very highly. I plan to explore more of Dorothy Whipple's books. show less
4.5 stars
Madame north, Avery North's mother, answers an ad in the paper for someone to speak French with and do light domestic duties. Louise Lanier is ecstatic, when she shows her parents the picture of the house that Madame North has sent her.
" 'what does this Madame North wish you to do?' asked Madame lanier.
'Speak French with her,' said louise. She said nothing of her offer to undertake domestic duties. She was so anxious to go to England that she had presented herself as attractively show more as possible. But she avoided domestic duties so successfully at home that she didn't want them to know that she would undertake them abroad."
Louise lanier, who seduces the weak -spined Avery away from his wife, is an ingrata. She treats her loving parents like doormats. When her mother signs her up to tabling at a charity event, she lets her mother know what she thinks about that in cruel terms:
" 'louise,' Said her mother humbly, 'I'm so sorry. You must forgive me. I thought you would like it darling.'
'you were wrong,' said louise. 'A stupid provincial sale of work... All those stupid people. Oh, it is always the same,' she said in disgust. 'I wish I'd never come home.'
They were silent, their heads bowed over the empty cream pots. They did not look at each other.
'I shall go to bed,' said Louise harshly. 'I am very tired.'
She went round the table and laid her lips without warmth to her father's brow. 'Good night, papa...'
'Good night, maman,' she said, doing the same for her mother.
'Oh, louise. I am so sorry... '
Louise flapped a hand.
'No more,' she said. 'I've had enough.' "
Ellen, Avery's long-suffering wife, makes the supreme mistake of treating a man she loves nicely. Not realizing that men only take such women for granted, she sets herself up for failure when she asks Avery to be nice to louise. Ellen believes the best of everybody, to her own detriment.
Madame north, having died, has left Louise a large inheritance of money. Louise decides that she'll stay in England to make sure she leaves with the cash. Instead of setting Louise up in a hotel, Ellen, the supreme fool, invites her to stay in their own home.
At first, Avery does not like Louise, because her ugly personality is so obvious. Ellen urges him to be nice to her, as their daughter Anne needs help in French, and Louise reluctantly has agreed to conversate with her in french:
" 'But if she stays,' Ellen began again after a time, 'you will be nicer to her, won't you? You've been rather distant so far. I don't suppose she's noticed, because she doesn't know what you're usually like. But I could see that you didn't like her being always with us. Still, if she's going to help Anne with her french, you'll be a bit more friendly, won't you?'
.. "on the way home Ellen had been busy building up Louise into a friend of the family. But face-to-face with her now, she saw that she was as before - cold and self-centred.
Besides, she hadn't even set the table for supper. Only a woman and a housewife, perhaps, would have judged Louise on this point. But she was right; it was an indication of character.
If we could be seen thinking, we would show blown bright one moment, dark the next, like embers; subject to every passing word and thought of our own or other people's, mostly other people's.
'I don't think I shall ask her to stay,' thought ellen, preceding Louise to the house."
but she does.
Anne and Ellen are going out one afternoon. But Ellen has forgotten something and tells Anne they must go back to retrieve it.
Walking across the grass, their feet make no noise, and they step in through the open French doors.
Avery and Louise are entwined on the sofa. Avery runs away like the coward he is, and only telephones Ellen to say that he's not coming back.
" 'Anne,' called her mother from the garden. 'Will you come to breakfast?'
'I'm coming,' Anne called back.
Their voices had changed and the things they said. They spoke levelly now and kept to the point. No happy squeakings and exaggerations from anne, no prolonged fits of laughter.
Ellen didn't wait for Anne now, as she would once have done, because she knew Anne didn't want her to. SHe walked across the lawn, indifferent to the neglected riot of the garden.
Signs of neglect were not so patent in the house, but they were there. Everything to do with the house seemed to have lost meaning and reason. A family is like a jigsaw puzzle. If a piece is lost, the rest no longer makes a pattern.
'He would actually marry her,' thought Ellen, reaching the breakfast table, her hand on the letter in her pocket.
He was cruel. He was callous.
'Let him go,' she thought, all at once blazing with anger."
Ellen has a dear little cat, called moppet. In her saddest moments, moppet is there to comfort her:
".. suddenly the little cat was there, purring and rubbing around her bare feet.
'Hello' said ellen, wonderfully cured by this arrival. 'Did you hear me? Would you like a drink too?'
.. Ellen was glad of her, but sleep was still out of the question. She picked up the book again. it was one Mrs brockington had given her, one of Evelyn Underhill's [inspirational]. She hadn't read it, and opened it at random now. It was just something to drive her eyes over, to keep them going until they closed.
'selfless endurance of pain and failure,' she read. 'The destruction of one's old universe, the brave treading of deep gloomy and miserable paths--all this is as essential to the growth of man's "top story" as the joyous consciousness of the presence of god.'
Ellen read it again. 'The destruction of one's old universe.' hers was destroyed. 'The selfless endurance of pain and failure.' She had to endure, but she wasn't doing it selflessly. 'The brave treading of a deep gloomy and miserable past.' she was treading them, but not bravely.
It was as if someone has spoken to her out of the silence, someone who knew, and her spirit, which had been thrashing about in resentment, anger, jealousy, self-pity, quietened itself to listen."
What utter b*******. One thing I did not appreciate in this book was the idea that all of this pain is "God's plan," and yet Ellen does take Avery back in the end, which cost this book one star. All this suffering and she's willing to do it all over again, for a MAN.
Although I was disappointed in the ending, I was much impressed by this author's writing. How delicately and thoughtfully and thoroughly she treats her characters' thoughts, emotions, their lives. I particularly loved the way Ellen was friends with all the old women living in the hotel, where she ends up going to live and work. Ellen was her supreme creation.
I will be reading more of this author, soon. show less
Madame north, Avery North's mother, answers an ad in the paper for someone to speak French with and do light domestic duties. Louise Lanier is ecstatic, when she shows her parents the picture of the house that Madame North has sent her.
" 'what does this Madame North wish you to do?' asked Madame lanier.
'Speak French with her,' said louise. She said nothing of her offer to undertake domestic duties. She was so anxious to go to England that she had presented herself as attractively show more as possible. But she avoided domestic duties so successfully at home that she didn't want them to know that she would undertake them abroad."
Louise lanier, who seduces the weak -spined Avery away from his wife, is an ingrata. She treats her loving parents like doormats. When her mother signs her up to tabling at a charity event, she lets her mother know what she thinks about that in cruel terms:
" 'louise,' Said her mother humbly, 'I'm so sorry. You must forgive me. I thought you would like it darling.'
'you were wrong,' said louise. 'A stupid provincial sale of work... All those stupid people. Oh, it is always the same,' she said in disgust. 'I wish I'd never come home.'
They were silent, their heads bowed over the empty cream pots. They did not look at each other.
'I shall go to bed,' said Louise harshly. 'I am very tired.'
She went round the table and laid her lips without warmth to her father's brow. 'Good night, papa...'
'Good night, maman,' she said, doing the same for her mother.
'Oh, louise. I am so sorry... '
Louise flapped a hand.
'No more,' she said. 'I've had enough.' "
Ellen, Avery's long-suffering wife, makes the supreme mistake of treating a man she loves nicely. Not realizing that men only take such women for granted, she sets herself up for failure when she asks Avery to be nice to louise. Ellen believes the best of everybody, to her own detriment.
Madame north, having died, has left Louise a large inheritance of money. Louise decides that she'll stay in England to make sure she leaves with the cash. Instead of setting Louise up in a hotel, Ellen, the supreme fool, invites her to stay in their own home.
At first, Avery does not like Louise, because her ugly personality is so obvious. Ellen urges him to be nice to her, as their daughter Anne needs help in French, and Louise reluctantly has agreed to conversate with her in french:
" 'But if she stays,' Ellen began again after a time, 'you will be nicer to her, won't you? You've been rather distant so far. I don't suppose she's noticed, because she doesn't know what you're usually like. But I could see that you didn't like her being always with us. Still, if she's going to help Anne with her french, you'll be a bit more friendly, won't you?'
.. "on the way home Ellen had been busy building up Louise into a friend of the family. But face-to-face with her now, she saw that she was as before - cold and self-centred.
Besides, she hadn't even set the table for supper. Only a woman and a housewife, perhaps, would have judged Louise on this point. But she was right; it was an indication of character.
If we could be seen thinking, we would show blown bright one moment, dark the next, like embers; subject to every passing word and thought of our own or other people's, mostly other people's.
'I don't think I shall ask her to stay,' thought ellen, preceding Louise to the house."
but she does.
Anne and Ellen are going out one afternoon. But Ellen has forgotten something and tells Anne they must go back to retrieve it.
Walking across the grass, their feet make no noise, and they step in through the open French doors.
Avery and Louise are entwined on the sofa. Avery runs away like the coward he is, and only telephones Ellen to say that he's not coming back.
" 'Anne,' called her mother from the garden. 'Will you come to breakfast?'
'I'm coming,' Anne called back.
Their voices had changed and the things they said. They spoke levelly now and kept to the point. No happy squeakings and exaggerations from anne, no prolonged fits of laughter.
Ellen didn't wait for Anne now, as she would once have done, because she knew Anne didn't want her to. SHe walked across the lawn, indifferent to the neglected riot of the garden.
Signs of neglect were not so patent in the house, but they were there. Everything to do with the house seemed to have lost meaning and reason. A family is like a jigsaw puzzle. If a piece is lost, the rest no longer makes a pattern.
'He would actually marry her,' thought Ellen, reaching the breakfast table, her hand on the letter in her pocket.
He was cruel. He was callous.
'Let him go,' she thought, all at once blazing with anger."
Ellen has a dear little cat, called moppet. In her saddest moments, moppet is there to comfort her:
".. suddenly the little cat was there, purring and rubbing around her bare feet.
'Hello' said ellen, wonderfully cured by this arrival. 'Did you hear me? Would you like a drink too?'
.. Ellen was glad of her, but sleep was still out of the question. She picked up the book again. it was one Mrs brockington had given her, one of Evelyn Underhill's [inspirational]. She hadn't read it, and opened it at random now. It was just something to drive her eyes over, to keep them going until they closed.
'selfless endurance of pain and failure,' she read. 'The destruction of one's old universe, the brave treading of deep gloomy and miserable paths--all this is as essential to the growth of man's "top story" as the joyous consciousness of the presence of god.'
Ellen read it again. 'The destruction of one's old universe.' hers was destroyed. 'The selfless endurance of pain and failure.' She had to endure, but she wasn't doing it selflessly. 'The brave treading of a deep gloomy and miserable past.' she was treading them, but not bravely.
It was as if someone has spoken to her out of the silence, someone who knew, and her spirit, which had been thrashing about in resentment, anger, jealousy, self-pity, quietened itself to listen."
What utter b*******. One thing I did not appreciate in this book was the idea that all of this pain is "God's plan," and yet Ellen does take Avery back in the end, which cost this book one star. All this suffering and she's willing to do it all over again, for a MAN.
Although I was disappointed in the ending, I was much impressed by this author's writing. How delicately and thoughtfully and thoroughly she treats her characters' thoughts, emotions, their lives. I particularly loved the way Ellen was friends with all the old women living in the hotel, where she ends up going to live and work. Ellen was her supreme creation.
I will be reading more of this author, soon. show less
Of all of the authors I thought about when I was compiling my Birthday Book of Underappreciated Lady Authors, I think that Dorothy Whipple is the one whose long neglect is most inexplicable and the one I would be most confident in putting in the hands of a devoted reader who doesn't know how wonderful books from the recent past can be.
She wrote such absorbing and compelling novels, filled with beautiful writing, with characters who live and breathe and happenings that ring so very true. Her show more books are so alive that it impossible to put one down without spending a great deal of time thinking about what had happened and what might be happening in the world that she brought to life after her story ended.
In this book, she tells the story of the Hunters and the Lockwoods, who are neighbours in a Northern mill town. They had been peers, with children of similar ages, but that changed after the sudden death of Richard Hunter. His practice as an architect had suffered during the war, he had hoped that business would improve when peace came, but he didn't live long enough to find out; and so Mrs Hunter and her three children must adapt to much humbler circumstances, and the relationship between the two families must change.
The situation would always be difficult and it was exacerbated by the characters of the two women, who were friends but not close enough to be anything other than Mrs Lockwood and Mrs Hunter to each other; the former inclined to be grand and gracious and the latter inclined to be accepting and appreciative ...
Mrs Lockwood asked her husband, a solicitor, to help Mrs Hunter to deal with her late husband's papers. He was reluctant to get involved, and utterly graceless, but after relying on her husband to deal with everything and having no idea what to do, Mrs Hunter was so grateful for his advice, and accepted it all without a moment's hesitation.
She didn't know that Mr Lockwood had taken advantage of her ignorance, and let her believe that her husband repaid a loan that he had granted after seeing that his receipt was missing. The way he suggested he should recoup the loan cost her a great deal, and his advice, which was inadequate but authoritative, would cost her a great deal more over the years.
Mrs Lockwood continued her to visit Mrs Hunter, even after she moved to a less desirable part of town. She enjoyed having someone who was always ready to listen to stories of her family and what they had been doing, who she could make presents of clothing that she had been seen in enough times, and somebody who would always be grateful for an invitation. Mrs Lockwood thought that she was being kind, and Mrs hunter was grateful.
Thea, the youngest of Mrs Hunter's three children, came to bitterly resent the family that she saw was patronising hers, the family that had so many things she would have loved and took them for granted.
Her feelings grew stronger when Mr Lockwood arranged for her older siblings, Martin and Molly, to leave school at the earliest opportunity and take uncongenial jobs because he didn't want the trouble of helping to find a way for them to follow the career paths that they wanted. She wanted to make sure that the same thing wouldn't happen to her, but she didn't know how.
When Thea found out that the Lockwood girls were going to school in France for a year she was desperate to find a way to go to. It seemed impossible, but a teacher who saw that she had a great deal of potential found a way for her to go to the same school and work for her keep. The Lockwoods were horrified that she didn't know her place, that she should think that she could have the same advantages as their daughters; but she took to the new school and life in France in a way that they never would.
Thea's sojourn in France ended in tears, but an unexpected find in the lining of her father’s old bag and the generosity of spirit of a new neighbour would be a catalyst for change for the Hunters and that Lockwoods ...
I felt so much as I read about them.
I was angry at the Lockwoods completely unjustified sense of superiority, but at the same time I could see that they were oblivious and that they really did think that they were doing the right thing.
I was moved when Mrs Hunter was shattered by the loss of her husband and unable to face the future, but there were times when I thought that she really could have, should have, done a little more to help herself and her children.
Thea was a joy to read about. I loved her spirit and her ambition for herself and her family. I worried when she made mistakes, when she wouldn't listen to anyone, but I appreciated that her heart was in the right place and that she would learn.
I appreciated the intelligence of the writing, the very real complexity of the characters and the relationships, and the wonderful emotional understanding of everything she wrote about that Dorothy Whipple had.
There is so much more than I have written about, but I can only - I should only - say so much.
I loved what the author had to say.
She said that families who looked in on themselves - and both the Lockwoods and the Hunters were guilty of this - would not thrive and grow as families who looked out to the world could and would.
She spoke of social injustice and of how society was changing after the war.
And she wove this into her story quite beautifully, so that you could think about how cleverly she wrote or you could simply enjoy the drama, the romance, the suspense ....
Mr Lockwood's misdeeds hang over this story, until it comes to a dark and dramatic conclusion.
I loved all of the book but I think I loved the final act most of all, because it was so profound and so emotional.
The ending was sudden, I was left wondering what happened next. I would have loved to have been told, but I think I know, and sometimes it is nice to be able to speculate ... show less
She wrote such absorbing and compelling novels, filled with beautiful writing, with characters who live and breathe and happenings that ring so very true. Her show more books are so alive that it impossible to put one down without spending a great deal of time thinking about what had happened and what might be happening in the world that she brought to life after her story ended.
In this book, she tells the story of the Hunters and the Lockwoods, who are neighbours in a Northern mill town. They had been peers, with children of similar ages, but that changed after the sudden death of Richard Hunter. His practice as an architect had suffered during the war, he had hoped that business would improve when peace came, but he didn't live long enough to find out; and so Mrs Hunter and her three children must adapt to much humbler circumstances, and the relationship between the two families must change.
The situation would always be difficult and it was exacerbated by the characters of the two women, who were friends but not close enough to be anything other than Mrs Lockwood and Mrs Hunter to each other; the former inclined to be grand and gracious and the latter inclined to be accepting and appreciative ...
Mrs Lockwood asked her husband, a solicitor, to help Mrs Hunter to deal with her late husband's papers. He was reluctant to get involved, and utterly graceless, but after relying on her husband to deal with everything and having no idea what to do, Mrs Hunter was so grateful for his advice, and accepted it all without a moment's hesitation.
She didn't know that Mr Lockwood had taken advantage of her ignorance, and let her believe that her husband repaid a loan that he had granted after seeing that his receipt was missing. The way he suggested he should recoup the loan cost her a great deal, and his advice, which was inadequate but authoritative, would cost her a great deal more over the years.
Mrs Lockwood continued her to visit Mrs Hunter, even after she moved to a less desirable part of town. She enjoyed having someone who was always ready to listen to stories of her family and what they had been doing, who she could make presents of clothing that she had been seen in enough times, and somebody who would always be grateful for an invitation. Mrs Lockwood thought that she was being kind, and Mrs hunter was grateful.
Thea, the youngest of Mrs Hunter's three children, came to bitterly resent the family that she saw was patronising hers, the family that had so many things she would have loved and took them for granted.
Her feelings grew stronger when Mr Lockwood arranged for her older siblings, Martin and Molly, to leave school at the earliest opportunity and take uncongenial jobs because he didn't want the trouble of helping to find a way for them to follow the career paths that they wanted. She wanted to make sure that the same thing wouldn't happen to her, but she didn't know how.
When Thea found out that the Lockwood girls were going to school in France for a year she was desperate to find a way to go to. It seemed impossible, but a teacher who saw that she had a great deal of potential found a way for her to go to the same school and work for her keep. The Lockwoods were horrified that she didn't know her place, that she should think that she could have the same advantages as their daughters; but she took to the new school and life in France in a way that they never would.
Thea's sojourn in France ended in tears, but an unexpected find in the lining of her father’s old bag and the generosity of spirit of a new neighbour would be a catalyst for change for the Hunters and that Lockwoods ...
I felt so much as I read about them.
I was angry at the Lockwoods completely unjustified sense of superiority, but at the same time I could see that they were oblivious and that they really did think that they were doing the right thing.
I was moved when Mrs Hunter was shattered by the loss of her husband and unable to face the future, but there were times when I thought that she really could have, should have, done a little more to help herself and her children.
Thea was a joy to read about. I loved her spirit and her ambition for herself and her family. I worried when she made mistakes, when she wouldn't listen to anyone, but I appreciated that her heart was in the right place and that she would learn.
I appreciated the intelligence of the writing, the very real complexity of the characters and the relationships, and the wonderful emotional understanding of everything she wrote about that Dorothy Whipple had.
There is so much more than I have written about, but I can only - I should only - say so much.
I loved what the author had to say.
She said that families who looked in on themselves - and both the Lockwoods and the Hunters were guilty of this - would not thrive and grow as families who looked out to the world could and would.
She spoke of social injustice and of how society was changing after the war.
And she wove this into her story quite beautifully, so that you could think about how cleverly she wrote or you could simply enjoy the drama, the romance, the suspense ....
Mr Lockwood's misdeeds hang over this story, until it comes to a dark and dramatic conclusion.
I loved all of the book but I think I loved the final act most of all, because it was so profound and so emotional.
The ending was sudden, I was left wondering what happened next. I would have loved to have been told, but I think I know, and sometimes it is nice to be able to speculate ... show less
22 Jan 2011 (bought with Bridget's token for 2010 birthday)
You know where you are with a Whipple, as I've probably said before: you know you're going to get realistic family situations, the theatre of the domestic, nothing too violent or overt but a delicate portrayal of the smallest emotions and conflicts - which can of course involve huge emotional violence. The title story is the longest, and encapsulates the common themes - difficult parents, difficult marriages, the redemptive nature show more of frendships and the small pleasures and triumphs in life. Whipple roots for her heroines, however stuck in their situations, and leads, rather than tells, us to do so too. show less
You know where you are with a Whipple, as I've probably said before: you know you're going to get realistic family situations, the theatre of the domestic, nothing too violent or overt but a delicate portrayal of the smallest emotions and conflicts - which can of course involve huge emotional violence. The title story is the longest, and encapsulates the common themes - difficult parents, difficult marriages, the redemptive nature show more of frendships and the small pleasures and triumphs in life. Whipple roots for her heroines, however stuck in their situations, and leads, rather than tells, us to do so too. show less
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