The Priory by Dorothy Whipple

For Jane Austen fans!

Although not as subtle as dear Jane’s works, The Priory, published in 1939, will appeal to many Austen fans.

Christine and Penelope Marwood live with their widowed father, the Major, and a few indolent servants in the family’s historic, crumbling home, Saunby. Like the Austen heroines before them, with no formal education and no marketable skills, the girls’ opportunities are limited to marriage.  

With his naïve girls now young women, even the self-absorbed Major– whose sole interest is cricket– realizes he must get them out of the house, if only to reduce expenses at Saunby. His solution — marriage—His!

We pity the poor girl who accepts him, Anthea, a no longer young woman whose family is thrilled to unload her.  The Major doesn’t love her, and her step-daughters resent her.

But the stolid if slightly tedious Anthea is made of sterner stuff than the Marwoods appreciate. Despite a complete lack of support from the residents, she is determined to make changes at Saunby. With her surprising pregnancy, an unlikely ally arrives in Nurse Pye. 

Soon the girls do marry, but an Austen-like, fairy tale ending eludes them–at least initially. 

Change comes to Saunby and the Marwood family—not what they imagined and not without pain– but the Marwoods eventually get a happily ever after.

WHO WROTE IT

A resident of Nottingham, England, Dorothy Whipple (1893-1966) was the author of nine popular novels published in the 1930’s and 40’s. Almost all of her books were Book Society Recommendations or Choices. (Like our Book of the Month Club.  Diary of a Provincial Lady was also a Book Society Recommendation.)  Whipple’s novels They Knew Mr. Knight (1934) and They Were Sisters (1943) were made into successful films.  Whipple’s popularity declined after the war, but several of her novels including The Priory and Someone at a Distance have been republished recently by Persephone Books, London.