Rose Macaulay

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Rose Macaulay

Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay , DBE (born August 1, 1881 in Rugby , Warwickshire , England , † October 30, 1958 in London ), also known as Emilie , was a British writer. She published 35 books, mainly novels, but also biographies and travel literature.

Life

Macaulay attended Oxford High School for Girls before studying Modern History at Somerville College of Oxford University .

She wrote her first novel, Abbots Verney (1906), immediately after completing her studies, while she was still living with her parents in Ty Isaf near Aberystwyth in Wales . Her later works include The Lee Shore (1912), Potterism (1920), Dangerous Ages (1921), Told by an Idiot (1923), And No Man's Wit (1940), The World My Wilderness (1950) and her last one and best-known book, The Towers of Trebizond (1956 - German: Tante Dot, das Kamel und ich , published 1958). Her non-fictional works include They Went to Portugal , Catchwords and Claptrap , a biography by John Milton and Pleasure of Ruins (German: Zauber der Vergänlichkeit 1966). Only two of her works have so far been translated into German.

During the First World War , Macaulay first worked as an auxiliary nurse in the medical service, then in the propaganda department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and finally in the Ministry of Defense. Between 1918 and his death in 1942 she had a love affair with the writer and former Jesuit Gerald O'Donovan. Between the wars she actively supported the British peace movement Peace Pledge Union . Her London apartment was completely destroyed during the series of German air raids known as The Blitz between September 1940 and May 1941, so that she had to start again from scratch, something she experienced in the partly autobiographical short story Miss Anstruther's Letters (1942) literarily processed.

The Towers of Trebizond , her last and best-known novel, is now regarded by critics and literary scholars as her masterpiece. Strongly autobiographical and at the same time extremely funny and deeply melancholy, the novel describes the attraction of Christian mysticism and the inextricable conflict between adulterous love on the one hand and the demands of Christian moral teaching on the other. The work was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1956 immediately after its publication .

Critics have described Macaulay as one of the very few important British novelists of the 20th century who professes to be a Christian in their writings and who consistently deals with Christian topics. Rose Macaulay, by her own confession, was never simply a Christian, and her work does indeed show a very complex, mystical relationship to God. For a long time she was above all not a member of the Anglican Church , which she rejoined in 1953. Although religious issues had a decisive influence on her work before, a critical and sarcastic attitude towards Christianity in the official church can be found repeatedly. B. Going Abroad and The World My Wilderness .

Rose Macaulay was ennobled in 1958, shortly before her death at the age of 77, by Queen Elizabeth II as Lady of the British Empire (DBE).

Well-known quotes

  • From The Towers of Trebizond :

"Adultery is a meanness and a stealing, a taking away from someone what should be theirs, a great selfishness, and surrounded and guarded by lies read it should be found out. And out of meanness and selfishness and lying flow love and joy and peace beyond anything that can be imagined. "

  • First movement from The Towers of Trebizond :

"Take my camel, dear," said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.

  • From Staying with Relations :

"Is rabbit fur disgusting because it's cheap, or is it cheap because it's disgusting?"

bibliography

Novels
  • Abbots Verney (1906)
  • The Furnace (1907)
  • The Secret River (1909)
  • The Valley Captives (1911)
  • Views and Vagabonds (1912) John Murray
  • The Lee Shore (1913) Hodder & Stoughton
  • The Two Blind Countries (1914) Sidgwick & Jackson
  • Non-Combatants and Others (1916) Hodder & Stoughton
  • What Not: A Prophetic Comedy (1918)
  • Three Days (1919) Constable
  • Potterism (1920) US edition Boni and Liveright
  • Dangerous Ages (1921) US edition Boni and Liveright
  • Mystery At Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings (1922) William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd; US edition Boni and Liveright
  • Told by an Idiot (1923)
  • Orphan Island (1924) William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd; US edition Boni and Liveright
  • Crewe Train (1926)
  • Keeping Up Appearances (1928) William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd
  • Staying with Relations (1930)
  • They Were Defeated (1932)
  • Going Abroad (1934)
  • I Would Be Private (1937)
  • And No Man's Wit (1940)
  • The World My Wilderness (1950) William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd
  • The Towers of Trebizond (1956) William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd; (German: Aunt Dot, the camel and me , Claasen, Hamburg, 1958)
Non-fiction
  • A Casual Commentary (1925)
  • Some Religious Elements in English Literature (1931)
  • Milton (1934)
  • Personal Pleasures (1935)
  • The Minor Pleasures of Life (1936)
  • An Open Letter (1937)
  • The Writings of EM Forster (1938)
  • Life Among the English (1942)
  • Southey in Portugal (1945)
  • They Went to Portugal (1946)
  • Evelyn Waugh (1946)
  • Fabled Shore: From the Pyrenees to Portugal By Road (1949)
  • Pleasure of Ruins (1953); (German: Magic of Transience , Droemer / Knauer, 1966)
  • Coming to London (1957)
  • Letters to a Friend 1950-52 (1961)
  • Last letters to a friend 1952-1958 (1962)
  • Letters to a Sister (1964)
  • They Went to Portugal Too (1990) (The second part of They Went to Portugal , which was not published in 1946 due to paper shortages after the war.)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Macaulay, Rose
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Macaulay, Emilie Rose (full name); Emilie (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Rugby , Warwickshire, England
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1958
Place of death London