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Intricate webs

Rachel Trethewey’s triple-headed study
by
April 2024, no. 463

Mothers of the Mind: The remarkable women who shaped Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath by Rachel Trethewey

The History Press, £25 hb, 368 pp

Intricate webs

Rachel Trethewey’s triple-headed study
by
April 2024, no. 463

Reading for this review I came across some apposite words by Jacqueline Rose, biographer of Sylvia Plath, cultural analyst and explorer of the lives and roles of women:

I have never met a single mother (myself included) who is not far more complex, critical, at odds with the set of clichés she is meant effortlessly to embody, than she is being encouraged – or rather instructed – to think.

(Mothers: An essay on love and cruelty, 2018)

It is a virtue of Rachel Trethewey’s triple-headed study of three fascinating women, Julia Jackson/Stephen, Clara Boehmer/Miller and Aurelia Schober/Plath, that one never underestimates their complexity and power (or impotence) – as agents, lovers, wives, writers, teachers, and mothers. Their stories – as Trethewey tells them – intricate webs of family and social history, make for compelling reading, and would even if the three had not been the mothers of Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, and Sylvia Plath. But whether these women were the singular shapers, the ‘mothers of the minds’ of their famous daughters – that is another question.

Mothers of the Mind: The remarkable women who shaped Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath

Mothers of the Mind: The remarkable women who shaped Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath

by Rachel Trethewey

The History Press, £25 hb, 368 pp

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Comment (1)

  • I'm reminded of the many instances where the intellectual qualities of a mother have been the formative influences of extraordinary sons. T.E. Lawrence (Sarah Junner) or our own Henry Lawson (Louisa Lawson) come to mind, to name just two.
    Posted by Patrick Hockey
    09 April 2024

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