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Cicely Hamilton (1872–1952)

Autor(a) de William: An Englishman

18+ Works 284 Membros 21 Reviews

About the Author

Obras de Cicely Hamilton

Associated Works

Masters of British Literature, Volume B (2007) — Contribuinte — 16 cópias
Gender in Modernism: New Geographies, Complex Intersections (2007) — Contribuinte — 12 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome de batismo
Hamilton, Cicely Mary
Outros nomes
Hammill, Cicely (birth)
Data de nascimento
1872-06-15
Data de falecimento
1952-12-06
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
UK
Local de nascimento
Paddington, London, England, UK
Local de falecimento
Portugal
Locais de residência
Paddington, London, England, UK
Malvern, Worcestershire, England, UK
Bad Homburg, Germany
Ocupação
journalist
novelist
actor
suffragist
nurse
Relacionamentos
Delafield, E. M. (friend)
Organizações
Women Writers' Suffrage League(co-founder)
Women's Social and Political Union
Women's Freedom League
Birmingham Repertory Company
Time and Tide
Pequena biografia
Cicely Hamilton was born Cicely Hammill in London, the daughter of Danzil Hammill, a British army officer, and Maude Piers. When Cicely was 10 years old, her mother disappeared from her life. Although Cicely always refused to talk about it, it is believed that her mother was committed to a psychiatric institution. While her father was serving abroad, Cicely was brought up by foster parents. She first worked as a teacher, but wanted to go on the stage. She got a job as an actress with a touring company and changed her name to Hamilton. When she could not get leading roles in London, Cicely Hamilton turned to writing plays, novels, and nonfiction. One of her first plays, Diana of Dobsons, was an immediate success. In 1908, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union, but after a few months left to join the breakaway Women's Freedom League. She also became a co-founder with Bessie Hatton of the Women Writers' Suffrage League. At the outbreak of World War I, she became one of the first to join the new Scottish Women's Hospitals Committee and helped establish a hospital at Royaumont Abbey in France. During the summer of 1916, she nursed soldiers wounded at the Battle of the Somme. In 1917, she left the organization and soon afterwards was asked to form a repertory company at the Somme. For the rest of the war, the company performed for Allied soldiers fighting on the Western Front. After the war, Cicely Hamilton became a freelance journalist, writing for newspapers such as the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express, and as a playwright for the Birmingham Repertory Company. She also was a regular contributor to the feminist journal Time and Tide. Her war novel William: An Englishman was awarded the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse-Anglais in 1920. Her autobiography, entitled Life Errant, was published in 1935.

Membros

Resenhas

Persephone book #1. Another excellent book from Persephone that I would never have found otherwise. One thing I love about the Persephone publications is that they don't really do a book summary on the book jacket, so unless you dig a little, as a reader you really don't know what you're getting into. That worked really well for this novel.

In [William - An Englishman], William is sort of floundering as an adult. His domineering mother has died and left him enough money to live on. He falls into a political group dedicated to pacifism and women's suffrage. There he meets Griselda and the two fall in love. For their honeymoon they travel to Belgium. Before they leave they hear that "some Archduke" has been assassinated, but it feels remote and they continue their honeymoon travels. While there, on a secluded farm in the countryside, they start to hear distant "thunder" and the family hosting them disappears. It becomes violently clear that they are trapped in the middle of a world war. The rest of the book details their war experience, and I won't give away any additional plot.

I really liked this. The plot was exciting and the character development and insights into WWI were well-written.
… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
japaul22 | outras 18 resenhas | Feb 4, 2024 |
"What he termed public life-a ferment of protestation and grievance...with all the extremist's contempt for those who balance"
By sally tarbox on 23 March 2018
Format: Paperback
William Tully is a quiet little clerk in pre-WW1 London, described as 'painstaking and obedient...unobtrusive and diffident. To his colleagues, he is 'a negligible quantity. He was not unpopular- it was merely that he did not matter.'
Cowed by his redoubtable mother, William finds himself - following her unexpected death- a free agent, possessed of a small income. But what to do now? "His life had been so ordered, so bound down and directed by others, that even his desires were tamed to the wishes of others and left to himself he could not tell what he desired."
By chance, he latches on to colleague Faraday, whose private life is entirely dedicated to social activism; under his tutelage, William becomes a regular at meetings promoting women's suffrage, pacifism and other causes. And here he meets his future wife Griselda; their shallow, ignorant outlook focussing on protests and struggles.
"They believed (quite rightly) in the purity of their own intentions; and concluded (quite wrongly) that the intentions of all persons who did not agree with them must therefore be evil and impure...They read newspapers written by persons who wholly agreed with their views...From these they quoted, in public and imposingly, with absolute faith in their statements."

Paying no heed to the greater world affairs of 1914, they spend their honeymoon in the Belgian Ardennes...and find themselves in the middle of hideous war. Slowly, as he witnesses the atrocities, William's mindset changes; a realisation that the trivial complaints they made about British society were as nothing compared with this:
"He remembered -quite plainly, he remembered - a letter writte to the daily Press to point out with indignation that one of the Leaders of the Movement had been hurt in the ankle in the course of the Great Civil War."

With experience, William renounces pacifism for militarism, but even here he is doomed to disappointment...

A very well-written novel; the author herself was both a suffragette and a nurse in WW1 France. Comic at times, as we follow the committed but narrow-minded young couple in their efforts to redeem society, the descriptions of the war are vivid and shocking. I'm not sure we really get to know William; written in the 3rd person, he is brought to us through Hamilton's eyes, and perhaps it loses a little immediacy through that. But an unusual and interesting work.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
starbox | outras 18 resenhas | Mar 23, 2018 |
"When you live in a crowd," he said at last, "you can always make excuses for yourself. Most likely you don't need to. If you're a fool or a coward you herd with a lot of other fools and cowards, and you all back each other up. So you never come face to face with yourself."
 
Marcado
augustgarage | outras 18 resenhas | Sep 26, 2017 |
This Peresphone classic tells the story of William Tully, a very mild-mannered, somewhat weakling of a man. Once his mother dies and he comes into a comfortable fortune he decides to give up work and go into politics. As an activist he meets the lovely Griselda who is supporting the cause of suffragettes. Convinced he's met his match they marry and plan their idealistic life together.



While William and Griselda are on honeymoon in rural Belgium they literally walk right into World War I. To say this was a rude-awakening for them is an understatement. The brutality of war is vividly eye opening for this extremely naïve couple and brings question to everything they once believed.



This book starts off light and airy and then leads you down a gritty path of reality. Beautifully written yet equally heartbreaking.



How I acquired this book: First book Peresphone "Book-a-month" subscription, birthday gift from my husband.

Shelf life: One month
… (mais)
 
Marcado
missjomarch | outras 18 resenhas | Nov 21, 2014 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
18
Also by
4
Membros
284
Popularidade
#82,067
Avaliação
3.8
Resenhas
21
ISBNs
32

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