The Squire.

London: William Heinemann,, 1938. First edition, first impression, the author's own copy, inscribed by her on the first blank, "Men build their own lives: but no girl knows her journey", enclosed within a hand-drawn scroll, and signed by her beneath. A portrait of a middle-aged mother with an absentee husband anticipating the birth of her fifth child, Bagnold considered the present title to be her best work, and it has proven her most influential. The inscription underscores the thrust of the novel: while men are in control of their own lives, "no girl knows her journey". Bagnold studied art under Walter Sickert, and the scroll that encloses the inscription is nicely done. Never named, the protagonist is referred to simply as "the squire" throughout the novel; the "ambiquity of her sexual identity is emphasized by her lack of name... she is simply the squire as she deals with butler, cook, scullery maid, gardener and nurse" (Kolba, p. 76). Awaiting the birth of her baby amidst the mundanity of upper-class domesticity, the squire sees herself as "having been female... then, but now what was left standing at the core was the rock of neutral human stuff, neither male nor female" (p. 191). The novel has attracted the attention of feminist critics for its innovative account of childbirth from the point of view of the mother giving birth. The squire's labour "is presented in terms of military and religious patterns of imagery", framing motherhood in masculine language as a soldierly duty, "a heroic male action" (Cosslett, pp. 264-65). The memories of her sexual, love-filled, and decidedly feminine youth are contrasted with the masculine, career-like duty of middle-aged motherhood. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, publisher's device in blind to rear cover. With dust jacket. 8 pp. of publisher's advertisements at end. Spine ends bumped, offsetting to endpapers, traces of adhesive to front endpapers, edges lightly foxed, blue ink markings to p. 1. A very good copy in good dust jacket, unclipped, spine ends chipped, spine panel toned, lettering otherwise bright, somewhat browned and foxed, a couple of small stains. Ellen D. Kolba, "Recommended: Enid Bagnold", The English Journal, vol. 72, no. 6, 1983; Tess Cosslett, "Childbirth from the Woman's Point of View in British Women's Fiction: Enid Bagnold's The Squire and A. S. Byatt's Still Life", Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 8, no. 2, 1989.