Picture of author.

Mary Cholmondeley (1859–1925)

Author of Red Pottage

19+ Works 324 Members 14 Reviews

About the Author

Works by Mary Cholmondeley

Associated Works

Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories (2010) — Contributor — 302 copies, 37 reviews
Victorian Ghost Stories: By Eminent Women Writers (1988) — Contributor — 140 copies
The Vampire Omnibus (1995) — Contributor — 83 copies, 2 reviews
Women's Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940 (Handheld Classics) (2019) — Contributor — 74 copies, 1 review
The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women (2012) — Contributor — 73 copies, 3 reviews
The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume One (2016) — Contributor — 65 copies, 5 reviews
The Rivals of Dracula: Stories from the Golden Age of Gothic Horror (2016) — Contributor — 22 copies, 3 reviews
Racconti gialli (1992) — Author — 20 copies
The Wimbourne Book of Victorian Ghost Stories: Volume 6 (2020) — Contributor — 6 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1859-06-08
Date of death
1925-07-15
Gender
female
Nationality
UK
Birthplace
Hodnet, Shropshire, England, UK
Place of death
4 Argyll Road, Kensington, London, England, UK
Places of residence
Hodnet, Shropshire, England, UK
London, England, UK
Condover, Shropshire, England, UK
Education
privately educated
Occupations
novelist
essayist
short story writer
Relationships
Benson, Stella (niece)
Short biography
Mary Cholmondeley was the daughter of a rural clergyman. She was educated privately and remained unmarried. After her father retired in 1896, Mary moved with him to London. Ahough largely forgotten today, Mary Cholmondeley was one of the bestselling authors of late 19th century England. She overcame shyness, ill health, and a lack of formal education to begin writing seriously in her teens. She became friends with other famous writers and was a celebrity of literary London.

Members

Discussions

THE DEEP ONES: "Let Loose" by Mary Cholmondeley in The Weird Tradition (April 2021)

Reviews

I'm too sad right now, from my brother dying from covid-19, to write a review. You have my strong rating: 4/5. I liked it very much for the strong feminist themes in it, especially for the time when it was written, and for its showing of hypocrisy of the clergy and religion in general. Here's a synopsis from wikipedia:
Red Pottage follows a period in the lives of two friends, Rachel West and Hester Gresley. Rachel is a wealthy heiress who falls in love with the weak-willed Hugh Scarlett after he has broken off an affair with Lady Newhaven (which he does not originally realize has been discovered by her husband). Hester, a novelist, lives with her judgmental brother, the pompous vicar of the fictional village of Warpington. Hester's brother disapproves of her writing and eventually burns the manuscript of a novel she has been writing. This leads Hester into a prolonged nervous illness. Scarlett who has not been entirely frank with Rachel about his past commits suicide when his dishonourable behaviour is revealed to her and she breaks off their engagement.

Here's a couple of quotes that spoke especially to me.
Doughty Library Hardcover edition 1968
Rachel's ex-fiance:
P.135-6:
" 'we shall never meet again,' he said, holding her hand and looking very much the same without his illusions as he did when he had them on. he had read somewhere a little poem about 'a woman's no', which at the last moment meant 'yes.' and then there was another which chronicled how after several stanzas of upgrading 'we rushed into each other's arms.' Both recurred to him now. He had often thought how true they were.
'I do not think we shall meet again,' said Rachel who apparently had an un poetic nature; 'but I am glad for my own sake that we have met this once, and have had this conversation. I think we owed it to each other and to our - former attachment.'
'Well, goodbye,' he still held her hand. if she was not careful she would lose him.
'goodbye.'
'You understand it is for always?'
'I do.'
he became suddenly livid. He loved her more than ever. would she really let him go?
'I am not the kind of man to be whistled back,' he said fiercely. It was an appeal and a defiance for he was just the kind of man, and they both knew it.
'of course not.'
'that is your last word?'
'my last word.'
He dropped her hand, and half turned to go.
She made no sign.
then he strode violently out of the wood without looking behind him. at the little gate he stopped a moment listening intently. No recalling voice reached him. Poets did not know what they were talking about. What a trembling hand he slammed the gate and departed."

Weak little men who let faithful dogs drown, plague Rachel.
P.143:
"...Hugh put out his whole strength in the Endeavor to raise himself somewhat out of the ice-cold water. But the upturned boat sideled away from him like a skittish horse and after grappling with it he only slipped back again exhausted, and had to clutch it as best he could.
As he clung to the gunwaly he heard a faint coughing and gasping close to his ear. Someone was drowning. Hugh realized that it must be Crack, under the boat. He called to him, he chirruped as if all were well. He stretched one hand as far as he could under the boat feeling for him. But he could not reach him. Presently the faint difficult sound ceased, began again, stopped, and was heard no more."

P.156:
" 'if I were given another,' said Hugh. 'if I might only be given another now in this life, I should take it.'
he was thinking if only he might be let off this dreadful, self-inflicted death. She thought that he meant that he repented of his sin, and would Fain do better.
There was a sound of voices near at hand. Sybell and Mr gresley came down the grass walk towards them....
...that night as Rachel sat in her room she went over that half-made, ruthlessly interrupted confidence.
'he does repent,' she said to herself, recalling the Careworn face. 'if he does, can I overlook the past? Can I help him to make a fresh start? if he had not done this one dishonorable action, I could have cared for him. can I now?' "
… (more)
 
Flagged
burritapal | 7 other reviews | Oct 23, 2022 |
I truly wish Mary Cholmondeley had given this book another name. It might have enticed more people to read it now, when the phrase “red pottage” has literally no meaning to our society, and it is a book that well-deserves to be read.

I became completely engrossed in these characters and the moral quagmire of their time. Talk about a cross-section of society, we have the very wealthy and shallow, the very wealthy and titled, the rather poor and ordinary, the rather poor but exceptional, the finest kind of moral beacon in the guise of a bishop, and the very worst of a sniveling, narrow-mindedness in a clergyman. In truth, Cholmondeley makes it clear that where you are born or what profession you choose is not what determines your value in the least.

I felt the punishment did not fit the crime in the case of Hugh Scarlet. He is guilty of cuckolding a gentleman and, in the days when a duel was a matter of honor, he is called to a duel of a kind, but in my view much worse. In a book that is replete with the need for redemption, he desperately tries to find his so that he can measure up to Rachel West, the woman he comes to love. What I found especially moving is that Rachel, while a very decent person, is not a paragon of virtue herself, as she judges men too harshly based on one past experience.

In a parallel story, we become acquainted with Hester Gresley, Rachel’s best friend, and a woman who has her own crosses to bear. She is a spinster living with her brother, a low-ranking clergyman. This pious pontificator made my blood boil. He is everything that causes people to question religion and its worth and the kind of man whose example might well push anyone farther from God if they considered for one instance that he might be God’s chosen representative. Hester, of course, is kinder in her thought of him than I am, but I am proved right.

In fact there are a few characters who cannot be loved, they are just too horrid, but the three main characters are unerringly human and I felt greatly for each of them. Cholmondeley addresses many important themes in this work, not the least of them being the position of unmarried women in society and the struggle for independence they are forced to constantly battle. I felt her writing was reminiscent of George Eliot...and I do not compare anyone to George Eliot lightly.

If you have not read this book, and you have any affinity for 19th Century classics, please do yourself the favor of putting it on your TBR toward the top.
… (more)
 
Flagged
mattorsara | 7 other reviews | Aug 11, 2022 |
Un libro que a pesar de su modernidad y su feminismo, o el de su autora, bien asentado por mucho que haya sido escrito a finales del siglo XIX, no se sumerge en los estándares por los que, a veces, navegan determinadas historias que sólo quieren cubrir la agenda del momento. Hasta las citas iniciales de cada uno de los capítulos están bastante bien elegidas.
En fin, una maravilla de la que no voy a repetir todo lo que ha comentado antes Marta Sanz en esta reseña:
rel="nofollow" _target="_top">https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/07/04/babelia/1562258329_435539.html… (more)
 
Flagged
Orellana_Souto | 7 other reviews | Jul 27, 2021 |
The Tempest family estate was long-established, it was exceedingly rich, and it had passed from father to son through many generations; but late in the nineteenth century there were complications. Those complications and what they led to are set out in this marvelous story, which has elements of the sensation novel and elements of a ‘new woman novel, mixed with a dash of family saga and romance.

It begins with an estrangement between two brothers, which was quite understandable, given that the younger brother ran away with the elder brother’s fiancee. Their marriage was not a happy one and the lady died young leaving as son, Archie, who would grow up in his father’s care and become a reckless spendthrift just like him; and a beautiful daughter, Diana, who was taken away by her grieving grandmother, who wanted to make sure that she had a happier life than her unfortunate mother. It has to be said that she did a wonderful job, and Diana grew into a beautiful, accomplished and compassionate young woman.

The characters of the two women are drawn so very well; they had such depth, they had such life, and the relationship between them, the loved and the understanding, was conveyed quite beautifully.

Their conversations were a joy to read.

‘ “You would make a good wife, Di, but I sometimes think you will never marry,” said Mrs. Courtenay, sadly. She felt the heat.

“Well, granny, I won’t say I feel sure I shall never marry, because all girls say that, and it generally means nothing. But still that is what I feel without saying it. Do you remember poor old Aunt Belle when she was dying, and how nothing pleased her, and how she said at last: ‘I want—I want—I don’t know what I want’? Well, when I come to think of it, I really don’t know what I want. I know what I don’t want. I don’t want a kind, indulgent husband, and a large income, and good horses, and pretty little frilled children with their mother’s eyes, that one shows to people and is proud of. It is all very nice. I am glad when I see other people happy like that. I should like to see you pleased; but for myself—really—I think I should find them rather in the way. I dare say I might make a good wife, as you say. I believe I could be rather a cheerful companion, and affectionate if it was not exacted of me. But somehow all that does not hit the mark. The men who have cared for me have never seemed to like me for myself, or to understand the something behind the chatter and the fun which is the real part of me—which, if I married one of them, would never be brought into play, and would die of starvation. The only kind of marriage I have ever had a chance of seems to me like a sort of suicide—seems as if it would be one’s best self that would be killed, while the other self, the well-dressed, society-loving, ball-going, easy-going self, would be all that was left of me, and would dance upon my grave.”

Mrs. Courtenay was silent. She never ridiculed any thought, however crude and young, if it were genuine. She was one of the few people who knew whether Di was in fun or in earnest, and she knew she was in earnest now.’


Di and Mrs. Courtenay were far from wealthy, but they appreciated that they had enough to meet their needs and for Di to go out in the world if they were sensible and lived simply. Colonel Tempest and Archie were less happy with their lots, and any money that came into their hands would be frittered away. The Colonel was bitterly resentful because he knew that when his brother died, the family fortune and estate pass to his son, John, whom everyone except John himself knows to be illegitimate. He visited his brother as he lay dying but it was to no avail.

John Tempest had a difficult start in life. His mother died when he was an infant, his putative father retired and took no interest in him, and so he was a solitary child whose only friends were servants and teachers, who were kind but always had to be deferential. In consequence he grew up to be a man who was set in his ways and opinions; solitary and yet desperately in need of the good opinion and high regard of others.

The poignancy of the telling of John’s story, the understanding of how his circumstances made him the man he became, and the complexity of his characterisation were quite brilliantly done.

When John meets Di he is smitten; and though Diana, strong and independent, has declared that she will never marry her sentiments start to waver. but as she becomes closer with her cousin.

Their marriage would ensure that future heirs were true Tempests, but there is a problem that is shared with the reader at the very start of the story.

One night, in a drunken stupor, Colonel Tempest agrees to a bet, by which he will pay £10,000 if he should ever succeed to the Tempest estate. By the time he realizes that the effect of this wager was to place a bounty on John’s head, it is too late. He is unable to trace everyone who has an interest in the matter, he lacks the means to pay off those he can trace, and serious attempts are made on John’s life.

One of those attempts leads to John discovering his illegitimacy, and that leads to him taking serious action of his own ….

I was swept through this books because Mary Cholmondeley plotted her story so cleverly and because her telling of that story was so very vivid, making my heart rise and fall so many times as I followed the fortunes of John and Di.

The set pieces were glorious – especially the ice fair – and I loved the way that the big house and the natural world were portrayed.

The supporting cast is not quite so well drawn and the subplots are not as well told as the central story. That did no real harm to the telling of the tale; but I was aware that the author had refined her craft by the time she published her masterpiece – ‘Red Pottage’ – at the turn of the century. There are themes and devices here that readers of that book will recognise. She uses them well here but better in that book; but while there are similarities they are very different stories, and I think that each book stands up and is well worth reading on its own merits.

One of this books greatest strengths is its youthful energy and fervour.

There is passionate advocacy of a woman’s right to set the course of her own life; and a very clear light is shone on the unhappy consequences of marriages contracted for reasons other than real love. There is righteous anger at social injustice, at moral weakness, and most of all at men – and women – who stand in the way of what the author has the wisdom and foresight to advocate.

I had an idea how the story would be resolved I really didn’t know how it would get there until it did.

That story, the characters I met and what the author had to say will stay with me.
… (more)
½
2 vote
Flagged
BeyondEdenRock | 2 other reviews | Oct 30, 2018 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Statistics

Works
19
Also by
15
Members
324
Popularity
#73,085
Rating
3.8
Reviews
14
ISBNs
121
Languages
4

Charts & Graphs