Review: Pilgrimage: Interim

Pilgrimage: Interim by Dorothy M. Richardson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fifth of the 13 volume series revolves around Miriam’s place of residence. If you ever wanted rooms aptly described and or spaces….that is precisely what stream of consciousness has achieved in this book. Not only that, the projection of the author through Miriam is just award winning.

I like to read authors who reflect on what they have been reading and ruminating upon, this is something that Dorothy M. Richardson (DMR) does so well. Up to this point I have not gone through any instalment she did not hasten the depth of other writers that she had been reading or maybe infer a learnt lesson. Interesting enough, most of the authors she seems to mention are not necessarily mainstream…. E.g. Ouida and why I raise this here is because I personally feel that in Interim Dickens (A man) gets a positive review in a conversation between Dr. von Heber, Dr Winchester and Mr. Leyton's goes like this….

“Some people think Dickens is sentimental. “Those who think so are hyper-critical. Besides being sentimental don't prevent him being one of your very greatest men. You should appreciate him highly. If ever there was any man revealed abuses. . . . You ought to read our Holmes' Elsie Venner — we call it his medicated novel over at home”

Actually two (authors) men Oliver Wendell Holmes and Dickens get a positive rave…..that is quite something for those familiar with DMR literature.
Given this setting was around Christmas (1896)…..and how Miriam loved classical music… I looked forward to a Christmas concert with all her favorites performing….. Chopin and Beethoven get major mentions in this instalment. Of course I would not forget Wagner who is introduced by someone playing his music in bad notes. Who plays Wagner the wrong way?

Make no mistake that Miriam is used to being single and independent. In as much as Miriam’s landlady changed the plan of where she lived from a lodging to a boarding room (providing meals in a shared dining room and so that everyone living there is in each other’s company) she is keen to talk about anything and everything and make friends….but her true solace is in solitude….and silence. Silence is not the absence of noise.

It is easy to see how Miriam struggles with a social situation in that her opinion to most approaches in most conversation was outlandish. She did not necessarily agree with everything that people around her said and had an ear for music.

Was there an attraction for Dr. Von Heber? Bringing his study to a public room seated quietly opposite a fair young English girl is the sort of thing that breeds attraction. Miriam discovers from her land lady gossip) about her relationship with Mendizabal and that the gossip scared off Dr. von Heber she was the object of considerable curiosity by all the male boarders in short…Antoine Bowdoin, Bernaard Mendizabal, and the trio of Canadian doctors.

The themes captured are varied… the lesson of life, age, music, culture, her themes are not tackled directly, only mentioning as if glossing over them at the beginning of chapters and layering throughout the read by allusion.

I have not figured out why there seems to gaps in her narrative. Art. Form. It seems intentional and this leaves you scrapping for information…. I mean as a reader it is hard to know the introduction, body and conclusion of this work….runs like a diary.

Attending those Dante lectures was a way to show us Miriam trying to fit in the social jigsaw puzzle…to try see how people reasoned around Dante. To try to touch Dante is to plunge down to misinterpretation and misunderstandings….. this means there had to be very deep conversations about Dante at those lectures. She seems impressed by the other women who attended that lecture and how attentive they were; commenting negatively on their ugly clothes. Such conversations had to go on about Dante..

“Purgatory. The waters of Lethe and Eunoe 'forgetfulness and sweet memory’; and then Heaven. The Catholics are right about expiation. If you are happy in the present something is being expiated. If life contains moments of paradise you must be in purgatory looking across the vale of Asphodel. You can't be in hell. . . . . . Yet hell would not be hell without a knowledge of heaven. If once you've been in heaven you can never escape. Yet Dante believed in everlasting punishment.”

I will not touch Dante at this point…. I have done all the Cantos and know for a fact that he was blind. He also taught poetry and how you perceive him is heavily dependent which translation you read. I wish he could be read in the original archaic Italian dialect…

A good read.

View all my reviews