Novel on Yellow Paper; Stevie Smith

State of the Nation

So. Stevie Smith's Novel on Yellow Paper is the first of many, many, books that I will be reading and reviewing. A bit of background is necessary, I think. The original had a sort of subtitle, or alternative title - "Work it out for yourself", which is charming, don't you think? The sentence appears on the first page of the novel:

"Beginning this book (not as they say 'book' in our trade - they mean magazine), beginning this book, I should like if I may, I should like, if I may (that is the way Sir Phoebus writes), I should like then to say: Good-bye to all my friends, my beautiful and lovely friends.
And for why?
Read on, Reader, read on and work it out for yourself."

What was that? It sounds like a pretty weird book? You've got a point there.
Novel on Yellow Paper was first published in 1936, after Smith attempted to get her poetry published, at which time she was "told by a publisher to go away and write a novel". And so voilà - here it is. It rocketed Smith to celebrity, and she wrote two more novels afterwards. Well done Stevie Smith, well played. Clearly, as a novel set and written in pre-war Europe, there is great concern with Nazism, Judaism and all things war. But this novel really is a truly unique way of looking at an old and well-visited subject. 

So back to that weirdness. This is not your ordinary 'beginning-middle-end' plot novel. Not by a long shot. At its simplest, Novel on Yellow Paper seems to be the ramblings of an extraordinarily over-qualified receptionist who writes down her philosophical thoughts throughout the book. She talks about Euripides, sex education, Nazism and the Catholic Church, to name but a few of the topics that she explores and tears apart. There is perhaps a sense that Smith herself can be found in the narrator, Pompey, in the parallels in their writing for a magazine magnate. There are parallels, too, between Stevie Smith's writing style and Virginia Woolf's, in its rambling, roving conscious style. Pompey borders upon anti-Semitism, until her visit to Germany shows her the utter madness of such universal hatred.

There's something to be said for a book that so perfectly captures the pre-World War Two mindset. It gives us some insight into the uncertain world of Europe at this time - a world where the soon-to-be Allied countries looked with trepidation at the workings of Hitler's Nazi Germany, rising from the ashes of their hyperinflation struck economy. There's certainly a fear behind the narrator's voice that comes through her bravado - the back-story of her mother and her 'Lion' of an aunt really highlight these insecurities where you'd otherwise perhaps ignore them.

It was a strange one to start with, though, that's for sure. 

Novel on Yellow Paper acts as a fascinating insight into novel writing during the period - and although it won't be for everyone, it's definitely worth a read.

Next up is Jack London's Martin Eden, so by all means start reading. I'm sure you'll be faster than me.

Please, if you have any comments on my reviews, I welcome them. Consider this a book group, rather than a book review - debate, discuss and shout me down, by all means. Thanks for reading.