Noel Streatfeild Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Lois E. Savage

Critical Essay by Lois E. Savage

"Beyond the Vicarage" deals with surface details of a life that should be exciting and stimulating. The book is neither. Too many words are used to record incidental information about house furnishings, habits of pets, and problems with housekeepers employed for the author's mother. Such minutiae could be of interest only to neighborhood gossips, not the general public and certainly not to teenage readers.

Sections of the book which cover Miss Streatfeild's welfare work in the slums of London and her wartime experiences as a canteen worker during air raids show warmth and humor. Characterization of others is well done; description of her own career as a successful author is painfully self-conscious. (pp. 151-52)

Lois E. Savage, "'Beyond the Vicarage'," in Best Sellers (copyright 1972, by the University of Scranton), Vol. 32, No. 6, June 15, 1972, pp. 151-52.