Mothers of the Mind: The Remarkable Women Who Shaped Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath

by Rachel Trethewey

Overview

The stories of the remarkable mothers who shaped Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, and Sylvia Plath

Julia Stephen, Clara Miller, and Aurelia Plath were fascinating women in their own rights, and their relationships with their daughters were exceptional; they profoundly influenced the writers’ lives, literature, and attitude to feminism.

This book charts the complex, often contradictory, bond between these mothers and daughters. Too often in the past Virginia, Agatha and Sylvia have been defined by their lovers, this book redresses the balance by focusing on their formative affinity with their mothers.

Drawing on previously unpublished original sources from archives around the world and talking to family and friends of the women this book offers a new perspective on these iconic authors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781803991894
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	376,843
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

RACHEL TRETHEWEY studied History at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where she won the Philip Geddes Prize for student journalism. During her journalistic career she wrote features for the Daily Mail and Daily Express, and subsequently reviewed history books for The Independent. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author of The Churchill Sisters about Winston's daughters. She lives in Devon.

Editorial Reviews

"The biographical background offers astute insight into how the writers’ mothers influenced their work...It’s an original take on three literary legends.”—Publishers Weekly

"The three separate portraits evoke their settings with historical finesse, from Victorian and Edwardian England to midcentury America. The complexities and contrasts within each relationship are developed with restraint, in consideration of the positive and negative impacts of each woman’s own maternal environment. Via three revelatory and compelling case studies, Mothers of the Mind examines the pivotal impact of motherdaughter relationships upon the creative process."—Foreword Reviews

"Enjoyable and informative...[Diana, Sarah, and Mary] deserve to have their full stories told as well. Trethewey gives them, and us, this long-overdue gift inThe Churchill Sisters." —The Washington Examiner on The Churchill Sisters

“Trethewey sheds new and fascinating light on the drama, passion and tragedy surrounding Diana, Sarah, Marigold and Mary, and the pivotal role each played in their father's illustrious political career…[a] richly drawn, gorgeously written group biography.” –Shelf Awareness(starred) on The Churchill Sisters

"[Trethewey] sets a brisk pace and succeeds in depicting a trio of intriguing women at a perilous moment in world affairs." -Publishers Weekly on The Churchill Sisters

"This remarkable, sometimes tragic story of the daughters who supported their brilliant historical giant of a father will appeal to a broad range of readers...an engrossing and intelligent group biography. --Kirkus Reviews on The Churchill Sisters

From the Publisher

2024-01-25
An examination of the mothers behind some of history’s most recognizable authors.

In three parts, Trethewey, author of The Churchill Sisters, takes a deep dive into the lives of the women who raised Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and Agatha Christie. Although all three have been written about in numerous works, this book shines a fresh light on how they were raised and how the women who raised them shaped their work. Trethewey begins with Julia Stephen, Wolff’s mother, pulling from unpublished first-person accounts and historical documents. In this section, the author focuses on themes involving how Julia’s beauty was a hindrance throughout her life; while she was a muse to many, she was ultimately unable to escape her own demons. Even though Julia lacked vanity, “Virginia believed there was a penalty for her mother’s beauty.…‘[I]t came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life—froze it.’ It made her seem aloof and untouchable.” In the section on Clara Miller, Christie’s mother, Trethewey describes how Clara displayed a wide breadth of complex emotions and rich intelligence, as well as how Clara and Agatha’s relationship was quite different from Julia and Virginia’s relationship. “They adored each other and that unconditional love was the bedrock on which Agatha built her life,” she writes. Lastly, Trethewey delves into the tumultuous relationship between Aurelia and Sylvia Plath. “Reflecting the duality of her personality,” she writes, “there was a bond between mother and daughter as intense and loving as Agatha’s with Clara, but running alongside that version, in Sylvia’s mind there was an equally powerful relationship which was full of hatred and resentment.” Although each mother endured her fair share of challenges, they raised women who went on to change the course of literature. Trethewey provides an informative portrait of the similarities and differences among each of them.

An insightful biographical portrait.

Kirkus Reviews