National Provincial
by Lettice Cooper
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Description
National Provincial (1938) is first and foremost 'a social-political novel, a sprawling panorama of West Riding life and politics in the mid 1930s' as Rachel Reeves, currently the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as MP for Leeds West, writes in the Preface. This 600-page book begins with an enticing description of the central character's arrival home (Lettice Cooper draws us so inexorably into the Aire world that we are gripped from the first line). Mary has left her job as a show more journalist in London to take up a position on the Yorkshire Guardian close to her childhood home, mostly so she can help care for her mother, who has rheumatoid arthritis, when her sister marries a well-known local cricket star. Just like Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters (1866) and Winifred Holtby's South Riding (1936), the novel evokes Yorkshire life in all its facets, as well as the everyday experience of a young woman living there. The climax of the book is a strike. But the main focus throughout is on... show lessTags
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- National Provincial
- Original publication date
- 1938
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Statistics
- Members
- 61
- Popularity
- 505,344
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.40)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 2
