📚 'Rather Dated' January: E.M. Delafield's 'The Messalina of the Suburbs' 📚

[MotherofPearl]

Welcome to the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' book club. This month we are reading and discussing E.M. Delafield’s ‘The Messalina of the Suburbs’. Please do add your thoughts when you are ready.

About the threads:

We are reading and discussing fiction from the 1930s to the 1990s that would have been described as 'contemporary' in its day. We are reading one book a month. Spoilers are permitted!

We started the chat thanks to a thread where we kicked off with a discussion of Penelope Lively, The Road to Lichfield.

Currently we have these separate threads:
November: Anita Brookner, A Start in Life
December: Margaret Drabble: A Summer Bird-Cage
January: Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Beautiful Visit.
March: Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.
April: R.C. Sheriff, The Fortnight in September.
May: Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.
June: Margaret Kennedy, The Feast.
July: Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day.
August: Elizabeth Von Arnim, The Enchanted April.
September: Barbara Pym, An Academic Question.
October: Dorothy Whipple, High Wages.
November: Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September.
December: Monica Dickens, The Fancy.

Link to the main thread:

📚The Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group - All welcome to join📚 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/4624300-the-mumsnet-rather-dated-book-group-all-welcome-to-join

I’ve only just finished this and blimey, it was a bit Take a Break wasn’t it? Classist penny dreadful that worked itself to a standstill. Absolutely not up to EM Delafield’s usual standard at all. Was she short of cash at the time? I’ve read the Rector’s Daughter and really enjoyed it but am not sure I’m strong enough for The Bookshop - can someone suggest a jolly romp for April/May please?

@olderbutwiser i don’t think there have been any suggestions yet. But I might lob in an idea - imho Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons fulfils your requirements!

Just a suggestion…. Are American authors allowed? I’d love to read Diary of a Mad Housewife by Sue Kaufman. I think it was probably published in about 1970, if that qualifies as rather dated.

No reason why not, @StellaOlivetti - It’s a good book and very funny, I read it years ago. Would you like to suggest these on the main page?