Stella Benson was an English feminist, travel writer, and novelist whose works explored social issues and the female experience. Her prose, often informed by her own journeys and personal struggles, was noted for its compassionate portrayal of marginalized characters and a keen eye for societal critique. Benson's style was both intimate and descriptive, capturing the complexities of human relationships and broader cultural and geographical landscapes. Through her writing, she sought to champion female agency and challenge patriarchal structures, leaving a legacy as an author unafraid to confront uncomfortable truths.
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Exploring themes of ennui, romance, and the complexities of modern life, this poetry collection captures the reflections of a young woman navigating a rapidly changing world. Stella Benson expresses her fatigue with societal expectations and embraces her individuality, seeking her own path amidst the pressures of youth. The verses convey a poignant sense of longing and introspection, inviting readers to resonate with her journey of self-discovery.
Jory Berg Alexander is beautiful, talented, cultured, refined and well educated--a sophisticated young San Francisco socialite and a recent graduate of the oldest and most prestigious all-girls boarding school in the Maryland hunt country. She is also an accomplished equestrian who received national recognition at a young age. Her passion for riding consumes every aspect of her life, and nothing can derail her plans for success--until she meets Nat. He is unlike anyone she has ever known--undisciplined and arrogant, with a volatile temper and a southern accent nearly incomprehensible to her ear. He is handsome, charismatic, and charming when it suits him, but his charm hides a darker side of insecurity and ignorance. He is the product of a small rural town, rife with suspicion and steeped in a tradition of intolerance and prejudice. As their passion for each other grows, the differences between them intensifies; until betrayal and deceit finally creep in to poison and possibly destroy their relationship. Opposites may attract, but for how long, and to what end? In this novel, a San Francisco socialite unwittingly becomes involved with a rakish young man from the rural South while searching for ideal love.
The oddest book you may ever read, both fantastic autobiography and ground-breaking autofictionCount Nicolas de Toulouse Lautrec de Savine was a hero in battle and a legendary lover in bed. A daring adventurer and a shameless swindler. A gambler ready to place the riskiest bets and a coward apt to flee his creditors in the middle of the night. Tsar of Bulgaria and a Chicago streetcar conductor. A racist, a chauvinist, and an antisemite. Was he all of these -- or none of them? This is the question Stella Benson struggled with as she tried to shape the Count's wild recollections into a coherent story. Which mattered more: the factual truth or the fictional truth? Her answer anticipates today's field of creative nonfiction -- while telling a wild, funny, and unique tale.
In the spring of 1916, we meet orphaned sister and brother Jay and Kew Martin in London. Jay (real name Jane Elizabeth) has run away from her strange, claustrophobic, interfering, well-heeled family to the simplicities of the 'Brown Borough' (otherwise Hackney), to live amongst its working-class people, to a job as a bus conductor, and to discover her own wild self. Kew is on recuperative leave from the War, and manages to find Jay in her humble new abode. She begs him to preserve her newfound freedom and not reveal her whereabouts to their family. But nothing can stop their former guardians, the eccentric writer Anonyma Martin and her husband, their dry cousin Gustus, from setting out to try to find her, using clues from Jay's letters. The problem is, Jay's letters have been fabricated from her extraordinary dream-filled imagination; she's set them on a wild goose-chase!
We begin by following The Gardener in a shambolic and romantic walking journey, as his inexperience leads him a merry dance through youth's many poses, away from his shabby boarding house in London, toward the coast. Along the way, he falls for The Suffragette, but she rejects him. The problem is, she likes him, despite herself. But is she capable of traditional love? And so we also follow her, led through not only her political convictions, but also all the less certain parts of her personality, about which she is blindingly honest. Can she fit love for The Gardener into her busy passion for women's rights? Does she really want to? She thinks probably not. And yet...