Miss Mole

This is quintessential domestic fiction, but with a slight difference. Miss Mole is not married to the head of household Robert Corder. She is merely (perhaps invisibly) an employee, a spinster hired to be his housekeeper. Her cousin engineers the arrangement, as she doesn’t choose to have it be known that Miss Mole is a relative of hers anymore than she wants to have to take in a superfluous woman as a member of her own household.. Lilla wants Miss Hannah Mole to be self-sufficient, quite as much as Miss Mole herself wishes it. It’s just that Hannah has a mischievous streak in her that inevitably seems to create problems. She creates fictions, and she has an unfortunate tendency to burst out of the approved social grooves.

Before show more you’ve completed the first four chapters of this book, you understand that Hannah Mole appreciates the natural rhythms of the seasons. You know she has the on-going resilience of the competent optimist. Virago’s marketing blurb refers to her as “indomitable” and the word fits. Despite the difficulties of her situation, Miss Mole doesn’t accept the disdain or the snubs of the world around her. Hannah has an internal strength. She has a sense of fun, a sense of irony, a passionate love of beauty, and “the power to drag it from its hidden places”. She maintains a careful face to the adults who employ her, but there are those observant neighbors who see her for who she truly is. Miss Mole is a heroine though few about her understand that. She is, after all, an unmarried woman and she is therefore a superfluous woman.

“...she was as feminine as anyone else and she had suffered too much from being treated as a machine, but she was a human being more abundantly than she was a woman…”

Hannah does well, caring for Reverend Corder’s family -- Ethel, a fretful and repressed teenager, Ruth, a too-thin and too-sensitive child, and Wilfred -- a nephew with a spirit equal to the mischief of Miss Mole’s brain. She offers sound counsel to both Ethel and Ruth. One such bit -- entirely indicative of the lesson women at the time were finding they needed -- is “...Be anything you like, but be something. Simply being a useful woman like me isn’t enough…”

But Hannah Mole also has a past. A secret that we don’t even suspect until about two-thirds of the way through the novel. It may not strike today’s young women as being much of either a secret or a scandal, but at the time of the novel’s publication (1934), in that cultural framework, it would have been more than sufficient to lose Miss Mole her position in the polite society of Radstowe.

This is wonderful domestic fiction, but it’s also a surprisingly satisfying character study. Young renders family dynamics and tensions very well. Miss Mole isn’t a magical Mary Poppins figure and not everyone in the story accepts her advice or warmth. I had a quibble with the final resolution, but I would still recommend this book. (So good!) There is a feminist undertone to it, but again, it's well-handled and doesn't overwhelm the characterization. show less

"Be anything you like, but be something. Simply being a useful woman like me isn't good enough." (p. 223)

This is the advice housekeeper Hannah Mole gives to Ruth Corder, daughter of Hannah's employer. Miss Hannah Mole came to Reverend Corder's household after a series of positions as housekeeper and/or companion. At 40, Hannah is well aware that her frank communications have gotten her in trouble with employers before. Her weatlhy, status-conscious cousin Lilla is instrumental in finding Hannah's new position, on the condition that their relationship be kept secret.

The Corder household is somewhat in shambles after the death of Mrs. Corder. Reverend Corder is unable to meet his daughters' emotional needs, and is unaware of his own. show more Miss Mole simply goes about her business, slowly winning over daughters Ruth and Ethel, to their father's amazement. She befriends people in the community, including those shunned by others. She is, despite her acid tongue, a very good person, and this rubs off on those around her. But Miss Mole harbors secrets from her own past, which are threatened when she is recognized by another clergyman in the town.

Emily Hilda Young lived and wrote in Britain around the turn of the 20th century. Her writing style is delightful and witty, and she portrays Miss Mole as a strong woman unusual for her time:
If she asserted her personality before she had established herself firmly, even Lilla's patronage would not save her. She had to persuade Robert Corder that she was useful before she let him suspect her of a mind quicker than his own ... (p. 67) Hannah Mole turns out to be far more than just "useful," making Miss Mole a memorable book. show less

A LibraryThing recommendation that I wish I had discovered years ago. Hannah Mole is one of the many single women struggling to support themselves in respectable careers between the two World Wars. By the age of 40, she has spent many years looking after other people's children and houses, and as companion to disagreeable old ladies. Outwardly, she is a rather plain, drab woman, but we soon discover that she has a rich inner life, full of imagination and optimism. She also has a quick wit, an unruly tongue, and a deep love of beauty and nature. She is what Anne Shirley would have become, had she been left to fend for herself. The bleakness of Hannah's situation is balanced by her buoyant personality and her outrageous comments. We show more gradually learn Hannah's history as she settles into her new job as housekeeper to a minister's family. Although things get darker as the story progresses, there is a happy ending. show less

Miss Hannah Mole is a thin spinster of 40 who has ended up in service to others through the circumstances of her life (circumstances which are revealed as the story progresses...no spoilers here). But within that thin frame beats the heart of a rebel, one who has a strong sense of her self (and of her feet...watch for the good shoes!). Armed with a quick wit and a keen intelligence, Miss Mole frequently finds herself unemployed because she won't take life (or wealthy employers) lying down.

When she joins the household of the Reverend Robert Corder, a non-conformist minister of a chapel in Radstowe, she finds herself in the role of an ersatz Mary Poppins figure to his two young daughters, Ethel and Ruth. This reader wanted to bop Ethel show more over the head quite frequently but came to love the character of Ruth. Miss Mole injects decent meals, a sense of stability and humour into their stultified lives. She finds an unlikely ally in Rev. Corder's nephew Wilfrid, who sees the spark of life in Miss Mole and loves it.

A temporary stop at Mrs. Gibson's boarding house introduces her to Mr. Samuel Blenkinsop, a serious banker whom Miss Mole attempts to cheer up and loosen up, in her indomitable style.

It all comes together in the most satisfying of endings, all loose knots tied together, all conundrums sorted out. Several people will get their just desserts and Miss Mole will at last find her life progressing in a manner which satisfies both her mind and heart. A wonderful, quirky, come at you sideways book which delighted this reader immensely. Highly recommended. show less

Confessional: In the beginning, I didn't care for Hannah Mole. In the beginning I was questioning myself, was I supposed to like Hannah Mole? Possibly not, since this was included in the More Book Lust chapter called "Viragos." After finishing the book and with careful consideration, I think I am supposed to see Hannah as an independent, plucky, middle aged woman who barges through life with integrity, wit and humor. She had a prejudice against nonconformist ministers, tells small lies (don't we all?), and keeps secrets. The more Miss Mole's personality blossomed, the more I admired her. Plucky! As my grandmother used to say.

"She was grateful to Fortune who, in making her a servant, had remembered to give her freedom and happiness in herself.", 15 April 2016

This review is from: MISS MOLE (Timeless Wisdom Collection Book 1576) (Kindle Edition)
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Miss Hannah Mole is a spinster nearing forty who earns her living as a companion/ housekeeper. But while some might become quashed and depressed in such circumstances, the outspoken and humourous Miss Mole's personality shines through on every page:
"In nearly twenty years of earning her living...she had lost all illusions except those she created for herself, but these appeared at her command and stirred by her late adventure, she was ready to find another in the approach of each person show more she met." Whether it's savouring the beauties of the world around her or teasing her stuck-up cousin Lilla, she finds delights and interest in her rather mundane life.
The novel follows her new situation working for the family of a pompous widowed minister. And then it seems a past love might be catching up on her...
Quite a densely written book, but an extremely memorable one. show less

Miss Hannah Mole is a single woman of a certain age who earns her living as a housekeeper, companion or governess. But this isn't the usual story of such a person. Miss Mole is witty, outspoken, with a unique sense of fashion. It becomes obvious that there is more to tell about Hannah's life. Is it her sense of fun that leads us astray? There is definitely a secret. Little by little, crumbs of information are revealed but Young keeps the reader - and her characters - guessing to the final pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Virago Modern Classic and will be on the lookout for more by E.H. Young who had an interesting life herself.