Rose Macaulay (1881–1958)
Author of The Towers of Trebizond
About the Author
Works by Rose Macaulay
Roloff Beny interprets in photographs Pleasure of ruins by Rose Macaulay (1977) 171 copies, 1 review
The Secret River 3 copies
The valley captives 3 copies
Book-Building after a Blitz 2 copies
Rose Macaulay 2 copies
Miss Anstruther's Letters 1 copy
Simfonije u kamenu 1 copy
What not, a prophetic comedy 1 copy
Potterism 1 copy
Associated Works
British Women Writers: An Anthology from the Fourteenth Century to the Present (1989) — Contributor — 61 copies, 1 review
Strange Relics: Stories of Archaeology and the Supernatural, 1895-1954 (Handheld Weirds, 7) (2022) — Contributor — 31 copies
Ladies of Horror: Two Centuries of Supernatural Stories by the Gentle Sex (1971) — Contributor — 29 copies
Gender in Modernism: New Geographies, Complex Intersections (2007) — Contributor — 12 copies, 1 review
Modern books and writers: The catalogue of an exhibition held at 7 Albemarle Street, April to September 1951 (1951) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Macaulay, Emilie Rose
- Birthdate
- 1881-08-01
- Date of death
- 1958-10-30
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Oxford(Somerville College)
Oxford High School for Girls - Occupations
- novelist
travel writer
literary critic - Organizations
- Peace Pledge Union
- Awards and honors
- Order of the British Empire (Dame Commander, 1958)
- Agent
- Caroline Dawnay (PFD)
- Relationships
- Bowen, Elizabeth (friend)
Conybeare, William John (grandfather) - Short biography
- Emilie Rose Macaulay was one of six children of a classical scholar at Cambridge. She lived near Genoa, Italy during her childhood, and finished her education at home in England in Oxford. Rose Macaulay never married and devoted her life to her writing. She had a secret affair from about 1918 to 1942 with Gerald O'Donovan, a former priest, himself a novelist. She travelled extensively and some of her popular works inspired by her trips include The Pleasure of Ruins (1953). She was awarded the DBE shortly before her death in 1958. Her private correspondence was published posthumously in the trilogy Letters to a Friend (1961), Last Letters to a Friend (1962) and Letters to a Sister (1964).
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Rugby, Warwickshire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Varezze, Italy
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Great Shelford, England, UK - Place of death
- London, Middlesex, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
An odd book that is equally concerned with High Church attitudes, the tradeoff between ethics and fulfillment in adultery, the pleasures of leisurely travel, and our relationship with our animal companions. Most frequently quite funny but veering occasionally and unexpectedly into piquant observations on the dissatisfactions of essential compromises.
This book is a marvel. Unless you are extremely learned in the Classics, Middle Eastern geography and history, Literature in general, the history and practices of the extremely high end of Anglicanism, fishing and the Soviet Union you will not understand everything in this book - I certainly don't. But it's like meeting someone charming, funny, urbane and a LOT smarter than you who nevertheless grabs your loyalty instantly because they're just so interesting. It's very funny, wistfully sad show more in parts, incredibly observant and thought provoking. It isn't long but it packs a huge amount in. Look out in particular for Mr Yorum Yorum, absinthe-fueled visions of Hittites, spontaneous singing when the BBC recording van rolls past and British spies strolling in the distance. A feast! show less
They found paradise there, and a stimulus for endless complaints. Such have been the poles of experience among British travelers in Portugal, some smitten with the views from Sintra, others aghast at all the Roman Catholics. Macaulay, a master travel writer in her own right, is our witty guide to eight centuries of Anglo-Portuguese exchange, puncturing the pretensions of Brits abroad, but never without a touch of sympathy.
I began ‘The World My Wilderness’ feeling rather lukewarm about it, as the opening pages confused me with descriptions of two women without making it clear which was which. Once the plot moved from rural France to London, though, it became very compelling. The setting and themes have a curious similarity to [b:Space Below My Feet|18595791|Space Below My Feet|Gwen Moffat|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398035623s/18595791.jpg|26342413], the memoir of a young woman who deserted from show more the ATS immediately after WWII to live rough and climb mountains. The main character of ‘The World My Wilderness’ is Barbary, a young woman who lived with her family in occupied France during WWII and struggles to adjust to postwar London. Her piratical name is indicative of her nature; helping the marquis fight the Nazis during wartime has traumatised and hardened her. Despite the comfort of living with her father (who divorced her mother and remarried), she camps in ruins and steals whenever possible. I appreciated Macaulay’s depiction of the Second World War’s legacy in England as the absolute opposite of ennobling. Instead, rationing and privation has made everyone dishonest and suspicious, most criminal, and some violent. The book’s main message seems to be that the war smashed the veneer of civilisation, not just in the places most obviously occupied and destroyed, but more fundamentally. The social contract was ripped up and seemingly well brought up young ladies like Barbary got mixed up in sabotage and murder.
Unlike [b:Space Below My Feet|18595791|Space Below My Feet|Gwen Moffat|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398035623s/18595791.jpg|26342413], which is fundamentally an optimistic account of female freedom, ‘The World My Wilderness’ is pessimistic about Barbary’s future. It’s clear to her family that she had some intensely traumatic experiences during the war, which the reader finds out included being raped and tortured. Subsequently running away from her family and shoplifting don’t make her happy, because she cannot escape what she went through. The narrative examines this, and the responses of her family, with considerable subtlety. The characters are all very well observed and their moods and awkwardness entirely convincing. Two other notable features are the treatment of religion and of the built environment. In the former case, I was reminded of [b:Brideshead Revisited|111620|Brideshead Revisited|Evelyn Waugh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393880521s/111620.jpg|2952196] as Catholicism is seen as a comforting way to turn against the frightening present and hark back to the golden-hued past. Various characters seem ready to believe in hell but disinterested in other Christian doctrine, including a traumatised priest. The tradition and ritual of religion seem to offer only limited comfort in the wake of world war, yet for some this is better than nothing.
As for the built environment, Macaulay’s most beguiling writing is reserved for the haunted ruins of bombed-out London, where Barbary and her disreputable pals lurk all day. The lyrical, effusive descriptions of an urban fabric being reclaimed by nature bring to mind [b:After London: or, Wild England|2220037|After London or, Wild England|Richard Jefferies|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348221574s/2220037.jpg|905982]. These sequences also reminded me that London was so denuded of people during WWII that it only returned to its pre-war population level about five years ago.
I found this novel to be a surprising and thought-provoking reflection on the war’s domestic legacy. Barbary and her family are fascinating characters and it is notable that no soldiers appear, other than a few deserters. The war’s impact on civilians and society is examined in a clever, original way. It is made clear that individuals and society cannot return to their happier pre-war state, although Macaulay does not suggest that recovery is impossible. When the book was first published in 1950, though, it must still have seemed a long way away. show less
Unlike [b:Space Below My Feet|18595791|Space Below My Feet|Gwen Moffat|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398035623s/18595791.jpg|26342413], which is fundamentally an optimistic account of female freedom, ‘The World My Wilderness’ is pessimistic about Barbary’s future. It’s clear to her family that she had some intensely traumatic experiences during the war, which the reader finds out included being raped and tortured. Subsequently running away from her family and shoplifting don’t make her happy, because she cannot escape what she went through. The narrative examines this, and the responses of her family, with considerable subtlety. The characters are all very well observed and their moods and awkwardness entirely convincing. Two other notable features are the treatment of religion and of the built environment. In the former case, I was reminded of [b:Brideshead Revisited|111620|Brideshead Revisited|Evelyn Waugh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393880521s/111620.jpg|2952196] as Catholicism is seen as a comforting way to turn against the frightening present and hark back to the golden-hued past. Various characters seem ready to believe in hell but disinterested in other Christian doctrine, including a traumatised priest. The tradition and ritual of religion seem to offer only limited comfort in the wake of world war, yet for some this is better than nothing.
As for the built environment, Macaulay’s most beguiling writing is reserved for the haunted ruins of bombed-out London, where Barbary and her disreputable pals lurk all day. The lyrical, effusive descriptions of an urban fabric being reclaimed by nature bring to mind [b:After London: or, Wild England|2220037|After London or, Wild England|Richard Jefferies|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348221574s/2220037.jpg|905982]. These sequences also reminded me that London was so denuded of people during WWII that it only returned to its pre-war population level about five years ago.
Still the ghosts of the centuries-old merchant cunning crept and murmured among weeds and broken stones, flitted like bats about dust-heaped, gaping rooms. But their companion ghosts, ghosts of ancient probity, honourable and mercantile and proud and tough, that had lived side by side with cunning in the stone ways, and in the great blocks of warehouses and offices and halls, had deserted and fled without trace, leaving their broken dwellings to the creeping jungle and the crafty shades.
I found this novel to be a surprising and thought-provoking reflection on the war’s domestic legacy. Barbary and her family are fascinating characters and it is notable that no soldiers appear, other than a few deserters. The war’s impact on civilians and society is examined in a clever, original way. It is made clear that individuals and society cannot return to their happier pre-war state, although Macaulay does not suggest that recovery is impossible. When the book was first published in 1950, though, it must still have seemed a long way away. show less
Lists
Women in War (1)
Best First Lines (1)
Backlisted (1)
Nifty Fifties (1)
Folio Society (1)
A Novel Cure (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 54
- Also by
- 17
- Members
- 3,877
- Popularity
- #6,536
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 83
- ISBNs
- 228
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 16
