Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner
Bloomsbury Girls is written by the same person as The Jane Austen Society, which I wrote about in “Books I Read in 2022,” #2, Natalie Jenner. I liked it just as much. The main character is Evie, also a character in The Jane Austen Society. A friend told me I’d love it, and I did!
Evie gets a job in a job in The Bloomsbury Bookshop, “a quiet, dusty, tradition-bound London bookstore that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years” (Book flap*) shortly after World War II. She is talented in cataloguing books, and that is what she has been hired for, but she has a secret mission. She discovered that Jane Webb had written a science fiction novel that hardly anyone knew of. Jane Webb’s husband was a famous author and Jane dedicated herself to his work rather than her own. Her book had disappeared. Evie was determined to find a copy and use it to prove to the world that women writers should be considered and rewarded equally with men. She also knew the book would fetch a very good price, since it would be the only copy that existed.
The other characters, mostly Evie’s co-workers, are fun to get to know. The women who work in the shop are paid less than men and never allowed to be promoted because of the old-fashioned beliefs of the general manager, Mr. Dutton. In the course of the story, Evie and the other women slowly find ways to change their plight.
The book is organized with numbered rules written years ago by Mr. Dutton. Each chapter begins with a rule, such as:
Rule No. 17 Tea shall be served promptly four times a day.
Rule No. 44 The General Manager shall have sole authority and discretion regarding the hiring, elevation, and firing of staff.
Rule No. 28 Relations between staff members must remain strictly professional at all times.
Rule No. 40 Shop events shall be conducted with the greatest decorum by staff, attendees, and speakers alike.
Rule No. 10 Staff shall behave in a manner befitting their station, both on and off shop premises.
Rule No. 34 Staff shall not confuse work with pleasure.
Each chapter continues the story with the way the characters act in accordance with–or not!--the rule at the beginning of the chapter.
Evie isn’t on the lookout for a husband, but I thought this quote about her friend Charlotte was amusing:
Charlotte seemed in no hurry to marry and start a fmily, which confused Edie. She couldn’t otherwise see the point of men. (p. 60*)
About books, Evie had a very high regard. When thinking of her friend Ash and how he was “bemused by Evie’s preoccupation with what he called “stories,’” Evie thought:
…as if the contents of the books were merely tales to pass the time, rather than the most direct and lasting evidence of what the human species had felt and though across the ages. (p. 184*)
Grace, one of Evie’s co-workers, is in a loveless marriage and starts to get to know a man who is much kinder towards her. She thinks:
…that feeling of understanding [is] another form of love. Being understood, appreciated, and not judged: these surely, were the cornerstones of real love. The love that helps us move forth in life, no matter what it throws at us, no matter what we lose. (pp. 303, 304)
Bloomsbury Girls is a delight to read. The characters are people you like getting to know. There are some cameo appearances by some of the women authors of the time, which is fun. It’s a story of women who are limited by society, but work together to change their world.