Dorset Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Four stories from Sylvia Townsend Warner's Dorset Stories were explored...

The four stories chosen were:

Love Green
Over The Hill
Folk Cookery
Dieu et Mon Droit 

These four stories form the first one of two sessions considering 'Village Life: Permanence and Change':

Whether written about in either the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, or lived in, in the twenty first century, the villages which lie below the slopes of the Ridgeway have encountered similar challenges – the disintegration of village life, the imposition of new orders, the arrival of incomers, falling incomes, the isolation of the agricultural labourer and the problems of old age in rural England. Sylvia Townsend Warner and Hardy address these issues with humour and irony, but the hardship of life in rural Dorset is never far from the page. 

Comments from the group included:

• satirical, funny, unexpected. A sly subversion – starting a sentence leading you to a supposition, then cleverly twisting the meaning.
• Influence of T F Powys
• Was Sylvia Townsend Warner class conscious, the stories appear to be very class conscious and describe a class ridden society
• Is she being unkind and patronising with a lack of respect for the village characters or is she just writing a good story and thinking of her audience? (Both Folk Cookery and Dieu et mon Droit were written for the American magazine New Yorker)
• Is it just that she can be a dispassionate onlooker and commentator as she is a temporary incomer? (The Sturmeys and Pinneys are still prominent Dorset families.)
• It is unlikely that many of the people of East Chaldon read her stories
• She portrays men and women differently – much kinder to men – working hard all day, relax in pub in the evening. Women, with much more time on their hands, have time to scheme and gossip and are the ones involved in the day to day running and planning of village events. Within Love Green there is a comment that the women are rather narrow minded and suspicious of their neighbours
• She is taking a serious look at social problems at the same time as writing very wittily.
• Permanence and change – lots of change – again today, similar changes still going on. Is this an ongoing theme – every generation looks back rather nostalgically to the imagined good old days?
• Huge amount of relevance to today – could be describing life in small communities, social groups today. The different characters can still be recognised.

• This selection of stories does not get across STW’s range – biography, literary criticism, story writer – all brilliant. 
• Much more warmth and compassion in some of her other writing. Maiden Newton stories have a different flavour – cosmopolitan, richer, more humour. (moved to Maiden Newton with Valentine Ackland when she 37)
• Similarities with Hardy but Hardy kind to characters although awful things happen to them, STW disparaging towards characters, although sharp insightful, acute comments on characters and relationships
• 1920’s and 30’s concept of pastoral – STW satirises this idyll.

• Some felt there was a real tough honesty about how we choose to live and our values.  Final sentence of Love Green profound comment on village not really grasping its identity.  Others irritated and felt STW aloof and disparaging.

 Landscape

• The opening paragraph of Love Green is an excellent description of a village in decline with poverty increasing with reference to the chalk downs.
• Landscape in Over the Hill – the shepherd, when he had been working, knew the hill and the sky above like he knew the back of his hand. The view of the hill from his window in the new house is the sight he saw everyday, it was a sign that he was nearly home. The hill is seen not as a view but as a reminder; not a landmark now but a barrier
• Lovely Reynold Stone woodcuts in the book
• Sylvia's love of the landscape of East Chaldon not apparent in the stories discussed

Love Green

• What is a village? 
• More of an essay – reflective and detached – written for a periodical, but less satisfying as a story. 
• Cerebral – interested in larger issues
• Whist drive – pulls rugs out from under our feet – all prizes useless, but human nature v materialistic.

Over the Hill

• Many found it a really moving, sensitive story – others found it humorous in a black way.
• Brilliant opening line.  Hill changed from a positive part of his life to a barrier. 
• Lovely image of seeing things upside down. 
• Waiting room imagery. 
• Tragedy of being moved away from ‘home’ because of grand daughter’s social aspirations and irony of new house being ‘damp in a grand manner’.
• Sadness and deception of packing him off, or was it justified because he was getting very difficult (dementia or bad arthritris?) Some felt sympathy for the women. Real sense of his isolation (and deaf), weeping as he sees his hill for the last time.
• Old Dorchester workhouse (infirmary) was in Damers Road

Folk Cookery

• Written for American audience – lots of humour, lovely names, last 2 sentences humorous irony.
•  Ladies on committees with no understanding of life – satirical but with a light touch.  
• Laughing at women with pretensions but not patronising. 
• Women far too busy organising things to notice what is really happening.
• Every word counts.

Dieu Et Mon Droit

• Affectionate but sharp.
•  Superbly written short story with acute observation of village life and whole range of humanity.
•  Modern language and tone – STW had to write stories quickly for magazines – needed income.
• STW a musicologist – believes in and is a master of form and structure. Not a modernist is style. Brevity and perfection. Beginning, middle and end, no wasted words, cliff hangers, anti climax

Works that members felt had some flavour of Dorset Stories:

• The William stories by Richmal Crompton
• Mapp and Lucia stories by EF Benson
• Our Village by Mary Russel Mitford
• Cranford by Mary Gaskell
• Alan Coren

Other Works by or about Sylvia Townsend Warner

• Lolly Willowes: A satirical comedy that takes a turn towards the fantastic. Her first novel. It was discussed on BBC Radio 4 A Good Read in late October, and at the time of writing, could still be accessed on www.bbc.co.uk
• The Corner That Held Them. A recreation of life in a medieval convent
• Mr Fortune’s Maggot – about faith and loss of faith.  Good parallel to Sailor’s Return. Daring, profound and beautifully written
• Sylvia Townsend Warner: A Biography by Claire Harman
• The Sylvia Townsend Warner Society has a full list and many other points of interest: www.townsendwarner.com
• Dorset County Museum holds a Sylvia Townsend Warner collection 

Do add your own thoughts and comments below