Wordsworth’s Exquisite Sister

Marjorie Wynn

Description

The life of William Wordsworth and his sister living in the rural and idyllic setting of the English Lake District, in novel form.
This is a biography of Dorothy, sister to William Wordsworth and shows how Dorothy may have contributed her own ideas to William’s poetry. Her detailed observations of their natural surroundings can be seen in her journals. Having lost their parents at an early age the two bonded together and stayed together for most of their lives, even after William’s marriage to Mary. I wanted to point out their closeness. The story is told from Miss Wordsworth’s old age when her health was deteriorating both mentally and physically. The title I have chosen ‘Wordsworth’s Exquisite Sister’ is a quote made by their close friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Relations familiales
• Biographical
• Fiction
• William Wordsworth

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press UK
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781982286651
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Wordsworth’s Exquisite Sister
MARJORIE WYNN


Copyright © 2022 Marjorie Wynn.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
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ISBN: 978-1-9822-8664-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-9822-8665-1 (e)
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 11/15/2022
Contents
Synopsis
Foreword
Prologue
 
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
 
Postcript
Synopsis
I categorize my story as a biographical novel. It concerns the life of Dorothy, sister to the poet William Wordsworth. She and her brother were made orphans at an early age and the only facts we have of her long life (she died more than 160 years ago aged 85) are from her journals which cover approximately five years, and from some letters which have survived. Therefore there is a certain fictional element to my story.
I have studied the lives of William Wordsworth and his sister and made many visits to their various homes in the Lake District. I have attended lectures and taken an active interest in the activities of the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere.
The story is told in flashbacks as seen from Miss Wordsworth’s old age when, although she was failing in health both mentally and physically, she still had remarkable powers of recollection. Her reminiscences are interspersed with relapses in her state of health. These took the form of spasms of uncontrollable emotional behaviour which could last hours or days, after which she would resume her thought processes in a perfectly lucid fashion.
She remembers growing up from the age of six when her mother died, being moved from place to place and meeting up again with her four brothers after a period of nine years. She recalls in detail a passionate affair she had in her teens with a local farmer which was very soon nipped in the bud by her relations. She never forgot this liaison and eventually resigned herself to the life of a spinster sharing a home with William, the sibling with whom she felt closest. From her late twenties she and her brother shared several places until they found their true home in the village of Grasmere in the Lake District. There she stayed until the end of her days, eventually sharing William with his wife and family. Throughout her long life she lived frugally, ate sparsely and never had very good health. I have used quotes from some of the famous lines of William Wordsworth, as Dorothy knew every line that he wrote.
Dorothy’s journals contain detailed observations of her natural surroundings, many of which appear in Wordsworth’s poetry as his own compositions and for which his sister was given no acclaim. I feel that her contribution to many of his lines needs to be correctly attributed.
In order that the reader is not confused by the switches in time, I have included dates as chapter headings, where necessary.
Other biographers of Miss Wordsworth have speculated what could have happened to the life she shared with her brother. My version is to blend true facts with fiction in order to present an interesting and entertaining story.
The title ‘Wordsworth’s Exquisite Sister’ is a quote made by their close friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Foreword
In turning the immortal story of Dorothy, sister of the poet William Wordsworth, into a novel, I wanted to explore the possibilities of the part of her life which has not, to my knowledge, been recorded, viz: her early life in Cockermouth where she was born, her teenage years when she lived in various places with numerous relatives, no less than in Penrith with grandparents who found her too much to cope with, and with her more understanding relations, and see how she could develop into the Dorothy we all know.
So much has been written about the times she recorded in her journals and letters, so much has been interpreted, mostly conjecture, by many different biographers, that I felt the need to describe an ordinary, middle class Lakeland girl who was devoted to her genius brother and his friends, and was then drawn along with them into their intellectual and bohemian existence which she obviously enjoyed, and became part of the artistic, bookish society that began to settle in the Lake District at that time.
My imagination took me down several avenues of what this innocent young girl could have experienced in her early years, followed by the ecstatic relationship with William and any feelings of dejection she may have felt after his marriage, and in some way attempt to understand how those calamitous events led to the final breakdown of Dorothy’s mind and body. I trust my story does not offend any members of the Wordsworth family or anyone who has their own ideas of Miss Wordsworth. My own contribution is fiction, maybe merely a fanciful idea.
I have enjoyed delving into the many versions of her life as given by as many writers, and cannot agree with the references to an incestuous relationship between Dorothy and her brother. Many families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shared one home (viz the arrangements at Greta Hall in Keswick during the residences of Coleridge and Southey) where siblings were looked after and cared for; and given the closeness of William and Dorothy, particularly with her highly strung temperament, it would be natural for William to take her, his younger sister, under his wing. She had no means of supporting herself and it was common practice for family members to live together and develop close relationships, particularly as they were orphaned at an early age. Dorothy and William were close companions at play, they understood each other, were only 20 months apart in age, and this brought them closer together than with their other three brothers. Even today, spinsters are often cared for by relatives, and they can offer a useful service to the rest of the family, as Dorothy did when William’s children came on the scene.
Later, finding that they shared the same sensibilities, particularly about the natural world around them, meant that whilst sharing a home they shared the same interests and Dorothy’s observations became an influential contribution to her brother’s work. This I think was her fulfilment, and she delighted in being allowed to be so much a part of William’s life and his artistic intellectual friends. Her education had been limited, (but she was eager to remedy this by reading extensively in English and French, always wishing for William’s approval), she possessed no special gifts other than her observation skills, she was unworldly, and she had no personal ambitions except to share a home with William, something she had never had since the age of six when her mother died.
The tragedy was, of course, for Mary, William’s wife, who had to agree to the arrangement. She and Dorothy had been friends since the Penrith days and loved each other. In her generous heart she must have considered that it could never be any other way. Both devoted their time to the same man - Mary as his wife, Dorothy as his muse.
M Wynn July 2015
Prologue
1777
They had walked through the frosty snow, being careful not to fall on the ice. Pavements like sheets of glass glittered everywhere; in the late afternoon the wind blew icy blasts down alleyways, biting into faces and hands. Icicles hung from roofs and windowsills, and Dorothy and her brothers skipped ahead knocking them off and attempting to hold them in their fingers and suck at the pieces of sparkling ice.
“Be careful, and look where you are going,” called their uncle. The light was fading and the afternoon growing so cold that it began to penetrate the bones as they hurried on towards home.
The children scurried along playfully, throwing pieces of ice and snow at each other, oblivious of the treacherous footpaths, managing to keep upright with only a few slips and slides, which made them laugh out loud. The little ones held on to Uncle Christopher’s hand now as the darkness came down but they all