The Squire

by Enid Bagnold

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102 103 104

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PREFACE BY ANNE SEBBA
200pp
ISBN 9781903155936

‘Imagine To the Lighthouse written by Mrs Ramsay expecting her fifth child, and you get something of the spirit of this intense and passionate novel, which is so unlike anything else ever written about pregnancy.' - Margaret Drabble.

Published nearly eighty-five years ago, The Squire remains one of the only novels ever written about having a baby. Of course other novels focus on pregnancy, birth and motherhood but there isn’t another about the last few days before birth and the first few days afterwards. ‘I thought if I could get it right they might read it in China or India,’ Enid Bagnold wrote. ‘I wanted to pin down the quality of the pain and the love and the surprise and the effect of the birth on the mother, on the other children, on the nurse and on the servants.’

Margaret Drabble continued, 'This is maternity and childbirth twenty years before Sylvia Plath. The eponymous “squire”, whose husband is abroad on business, happily awaits the arrival of the Unborn in a country house; sensuous descriptions of her own body, her garden, her greed for food and port wine, and her sharply differentiated children, merge with her thoughts about the new baby, about middle age and pain, about her quarrelling staff, and about the waning of the sexual imperative. The arrival of the midwife, an old and tested friend and a dedicated professional, initiates some extraordinary conversations about babies, gender, vocation and the maternal impulse. The relationship of these two women, as they go through one of the most ordinary yet astonishing rituals of life, is portrayed with a tender affectionate care and a deep respect. This is a very surprising book for its time, for any time.’

And as Anne Sebba wrote in her biography of Enid Bagnold: ‘What the book lacks in construction it makes up in its poetic vision of motherhood. Plotless, it meanders gently along until the reader is brought up sharply by a highly original turn of thought or the acute characterization of the children. Enid’s open discussion of a taboo subject was courageous.’ In her Persephone Preface she observes that ‘although always described as a novel, the serious effort to discover the motivations of a mother and the instincts of children leads The Squire close to the realms of documentary.’ It was not for nothing that the feminist weekly Time and Tide called The Squire ‘a really important book, a mark in feminist history as well as a fine literary feat.’

Endpaper

The pink and blue endpaper for The Squire is 'Magnolia', designed by Marion Dorn for Edinburgh weavers in 1936 © V and A

Read What Readers Say

Book Hugger (blogger)

Enid Bagnold’s writing in ‘The Squire’ is beautiful and full of power. Sometimes it is haunting. The novel’s strength lies in her writing and characters, as well as the way in which she portrays relationships so well, particularly between the young siblings: an incredibly perceptive author.

Book Snob (blogger)

There is much that can irk the modern day reader within the pages of ‘The Squire’: the petty worries that fill her otherwise leisurely days are a far cry from the all consuming demands of modern motherhood. However, this shouldn’t detract from the essential power of the novel, which is in its beautiful and sensitive exploration of the emotional and physical connection between mothers and their children.

Madame J-Mo (blogger)

There is so much detail in ‘The Squire’ that you feel almost claustrophobic within the pages. This is surely intentional, to mirror the building pressure the squire of the title must be feeling in the final days of her pregnancy when she wants everything to be just so. What struck me as particularly interesting is the way the novel approaches the intricacies of household management between the wars.

Categories: Mothers Woman and Home Working Women