Group Read: Pilgrimage by Dorothy Richardson, vol 3 (Deadlock, Revolving Lights, The Trap)

In 2016 we are reading Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage, published by Virago in 4 volumes. Below, from the cover blurb:

The thirteen magnificent novels that comprise Pilgrimage are the first expression in English of what was to be called 'stream of consciousness' technique, predating the work of both Joyce and Woolf, echoing that of Proust with whom Dorothy Richardson stands as one of the great innovatory figures of our time. These four volumes record in detail the life of Miriam Henderson. Through her experience - personal, spiritual, intellectual - Dorothy Richardson explores intensely what it means to be a woman, presenting feminine consciousness with a new voice, a new identity.

We began in December, 2015, reading one novella per month through 2016. And now we have passed the halfway point! For most of us, this reading experience has had its ups and downs. The conversations about each book have been enormously helpful, and I hope this will continue as we take on volume 3.

This thread will cover the two novellas that make up Pilgrimage v.3 in the Virago Modern Classics edition:
* May: Deadlock
* June: Revolving Lights
* July: The Trap

Let's do this!

Thanks Laura! I'm up for this, though I will leave a few days from my reading of Interim!

This thread has gone a bit quiet hasn't it? I've read several other books this month, but finally started volume 3 (Deadlock) last night. I may read it alongside something else. We'll see.

It has - I confess I haven't started yet (been somewhat bogged down with review books and Russians). I have half term break coming up so may end up starting it then! :)

Russians? Well then you'll be pleased to know Miriam has a new pupil, a Russian man boarding at Mrs Bailey's, and while she is teaching him English, he is educating her on Russian literature.

So you see, you really need to start reading Deadlock. :)

😁 I certainly do!

I've started reading Deadlock, I did think of you Kaggsy as there's a very definite Russian in it! I'm enjoying this one a bit more as it's more understandable, even though we appear to have leapt forward and missed out some actual action!

>7 LyzzyBee: even though we appear to have leapt forward
I can't say I'm getting used to it, but it's not entirely unexpected. I'm doing okay with this one, too. I have "WTF moments" but if I just keep going it usually clears up.

So, I'm ready to start reading this tonight! :)

>9 kaggsy: woo hoo!

And ... I just finished Deadlock last night. Although there were passages that dragged (long discourses on philosophy between Miriam and Mr. Shatov), I ended up liking it quite a lot.

That's good to know!!

I didn't mind those passages, I think I'm used to that stuff with Iris Murdoch. I positively enjoyed it quite a lot, too!

I'm two chapters in and loving it!

Update - finished Deadlock this morning and loved it much more than the last one and also got on with the prose better - maybe it's all to do with frame of mind? Will get my thoughts together for a review asap....

I'm glad to hear it Karen! You also reminded me to share my review.

Nice review Laura! Here's mine:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/men-are-from-mars/

Karen, that's a superb review. You have a way of picking up on details that went right over my head. If there's something I don't understand I now tend to assume Richardson just didn't explain it. But then your review enlightens me.

And I lived your "Men are from Mars..." title!

Thanks Laura! I'm sure there's loads I've missed too - there are so many throwaway lines and nuances! But I thought the way she explored the differences between Miriam and Michael's outlooks was fascinating - and I'd love to know if he's based on anyone in her life!

I'm reading Woolf's Night and Day - published at almost the same time and so NON-experimental, however they go to the BM and read Emerson like in Deadlock. Fascinating, and I'm planning to review them together.

Ooh, that's interesting Liz! Look forward to your review!

Came across this dialogue with Kate MacDonald on Pilgrimage.

http://neglectedbooks.com/?p=4158

Thanks Cate - that's a really interesting page! You could probably analyse these books until the cows come home! :)

I've reviewed Deadlock along with Night and Day now here https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/book-reivews-deadlock-and-night-a...

I finished Revolving Lights before the middle of the month! Go me! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2016/06/16/book-reviews-woolfalong-mrs-dallo... I don't think there are particular spoilers so feel free to read!

I've finished Deadlock and am proceeding straight into Revolving lights. I thought Deadlock was very good, although I found Shatov and Miriam's philosophical conversations rather wearing. Reading Karen's review beforehand definitely helped me to pick up on a few things I might otherwise have missed!

>25 Sakerfalcon: I agree with you, Claire!

I found Revolving Lights difficult to get into -- too much inside Miriam's head -- but it's picked up a bit. Still, with about 90 pages to go, I've set a 10 page/day reading goal. I can read more if I feel like it, but I like having "permission" to read something more appealing if it suits my mood. Which it does. :)

I've yet to start - I'm stuck in a review book that I'm not sure I like but I'm somehow finding compelling... But I will get onto the Richardson soon!

>26 lauralkeet: I've just looked ahead at how long the first chapter of Revolving lights is - yikes! But I shall persevere ....

Revolving Lights does improve ...

>9 kaggsy: yes, thank God.

Revolving lights was hard work, and only a few passages truly absorbed me. Its division into three long sections, instead of several shorter chapters, didn't help, although the structure did make sense. The first part centred on Michael, the second upon the Lintoffs (Jewish friends of Michael's) and the last upon Alma and Hypo Wilson. It's even more inward-looking than previous volumes, with lots of Miriam's mental ramblings on social and political theories and the few external events being difficult for me to interpret.

I read on and have finished volume 3, but will withhold my thoughts on The trap until others have got that far.

I'm struggling with Revolving Lights and won't finish or review it this month. I feel better about it now I've taken the pressure off myself - I wrote about that here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/reading-pilgrimage-an-u...

I think you're spot on Claire - this is very inward looking and so unstructured that it's sometimes hard to engage with - which is a shame as I liked Deadlock very much.

I had more of a dip with Revolving Lights again - I think I only coped OK with it because I started it fairly soon after finishing Deadlock, otherwise I would have Become Confused. We can do it. Everything else must be really short, for a start, right???

I'm glad I wasn't the only one. What helped me through Revolving Lights was deciding to read 10 pages per day. If it was going well, I read more, but reading 10 was manageable. I realized one day that I worked my way through a couple volumes of Proust using this method, and Revolving Lights was perhaps the most Proustian volume so far in its style.

I didn't review this one; I just couldn't. I have to agree with Karen's comment in her blog post:
at the end of the day writing a book is about communicating *something* and there are times I wish she’d made things a little easier for the reader….

There were long passages ranting about women, their rights, their role in society, etc. but many other passages where I just didn't get what Richardson was trying to do.

>34 lauralkeet: Laura, I took your hint for the 10 pages a day and I think that should work for me - thank you! I do want to finish the series (I mean, I did read them 30 odd years ago, but obviously in less depth and with less understanding!) - but it's frustration I feel some of the time. I find myself wondering how she expected to communicate with the reader - she just needed to have a few more signposts there and a bit more structure. However, she's certainly made me appreciate Woolf even more!!

>33 LyzzyBee: "Everything else must be really short, for a start, right???"

I sure hope so...

>36 kaggsy: The last one is TINY! Yes, I looked.

>37 LyzzyBee: :)))))

>37 LyzzyBee: Yay! I took a look at vol 4 on my shelves and noticed it was rather thicker than the others but then consoled myself by the fact that it contains 5 novellas, not 3 or 4. But yes, I'm going to take a closer look and get a page count for each.

The trap is indeed short, and a much, much easier read. I found it so much more engaging than Revolving lights.

>40 Sakerfalcon: *breathes a sigh of relief* summer reading, this is not.

I finished The Trap this week. It was certainly easier than Revolving Lights, but just as odd in places. There's one bit I really want to talk about but only once others have read it.

I'm very behind at the moment owing to busy time at work and thick review books... But I intend to catch up asap and when I can get onto the books I'll try to read both Revolving Lights and The Trap in one go.

>42 lauralkeet: Ooh, ooh, which bit? Now I'm on tenterhooks!
>43 kaggsy: Good plan and perfectly possible

After falling behind I am nearly up to date, and I have to say that I did like Revolving Lights. It may have helped that I read a 1923 edition from the library, so I was only holding the one book and there was not quite so much to take in on each page.

I'll get to The Trap before then end of the month, maybe even this weekend.

>42 lauralkeet: okay, I"ll use the spoiler thingy!

This is on page 485 of the VMC edition and refers to Eve:

And ever since, a year ago, she had first appeared in the house, she had come punctually, at bad moments, into the room. And had grown shyly and quite silently to know how near she was and how precious. She had come so unobtrusively, replacing the jaunty careless Ellen, gone away with the Orlys. It was strange, one of those strange hints life brought, that she should have appeared at the very time of the other Eve's unbearable death, bearing not only her name, but her gentle certainties. And her way of gathering all spears to her own breast.

Richardson drops a bombshell in this paragraph and then moves swiftly on. It is unclear just when the bombshell event occurred, whether it was during the timeframe of The Trap, or between novellas. Most of The Trap is quite cheery -- Miriam is enjoying her independence and her living arrangement with Miss Holland. Richardson's casual mention of major life events drives me batty and makes me want to fling the book across the room!

Oh yes! She does that so often - arghhhh! Maybe she's saying that the effects of things last more than the moment of the thing happening, but honestly, a bigger clue now and then wouldn't come amiss.

I caught what I think was the first reference to a pilgrimage but it made little sense to me!

>45 BeyondEdenRock: I love that - did you see I had someone comment on my review "Why are you all reading these books?"!!

>47 LyzzyBee: I totally agree with you, Liz! Unless you're reading closely (and let's face it, I'm not able to do that most of the time), it's possible to completely miss things like this. I caught the pilgrimage reference as well. I wonder if Richardson saw it as a "pilgrimage" when she started, or if the metaphor took shape for her only when she was several novellas in?

>46 lauralkeet: I know just what you mean, and I can't help feeling sometimes that Miriam's subconscious has a habit of shutting certain things away in cupboards.

>48 LyzzyBee: I missed that, but I've had encounters with comment leavers of a similar school of thought.

Review of Revolving Lights and The Trap here:

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/all-viragoall-august-ca...

I'm back up to speed with Richardson!

Whoo hoo well done! Will catch up with all the book blogs in time ...

I've finally finished The Trap and hope to pick up volume 4 tonight and stay on track now until the end.

>53 BeyondEdenRock: we're all getting there and the books are getting shorter!

I've written about The Trap:

https://beyondedenrock.com/2016/08/22/the-trap-by-dorothy-richardson-1925/

That allowed me to put volume 3 back on the shelf and pull out volume 4.

>55 BeyondEdenRock: That's a satisfying feeling, isn't it? :)