Anne Severn and the Fieldings

May Sinclair (1863 - 1946)

Written in an era of cheap, formulaic romantic fiction, the nuanced, seditious, quietly erotic novels of May Sinclair stand out like literature from another era entirely. There is romance in “Anne Severn & the Fieldings,” but it’s romance of the best and profoundest kind, set in the context of authentic human personalities and tragic historical events. The motherless Anne Severn is adopted into the Fielding family and grows up in intimate friendship with the three Fielding sons, all of whom love her. World War I explodes into their lives with hideous effect, sending all three sons back damaged in one way or another. Anne herself sees the horrors of war as an ambulance driver, meeting along the way (in a whimsical little self-referential sentence) a “queer little middle-aged lady out for a job at the front” whom we recognize as May Sinclair herself, who volunteered for just such an adventure in 1914. Sinclair always was half-Victorian, half-modern, so it is no surprise to find her using subtle, lovely, dreamlike, decorous prose to undermine social conventions on all sides. Most startling, perhaps, is the unambiguous sexuality that complicates the lives of her characters, troubling marriages and consummating true love. She creates personalities about whom we care much more than we care about proprieties and social boundaries, and Anne Severn stands as one of Sinclair’s most courageous and compelling heroines. - Summary by Expatriate

Genre(s): Literary Fiction

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 I. Children (1-4) Expatriate
00:16:22
Play 02 I. Children (5-9) Expatriate
00:15:46
Play 03 I. Children (10-14) Expatriate
00:14:45
Play 04 II. Adolescents (1-3) Expatriate
00:16:44
Play 05 II. Adolescents (4-7) Expatriate
00:14:25
Play 06 III. Anne & Jerrold Expatriate
00:22:47
Play 07 IV. Robert Expatriate
00:22:09
Play 08 V. Eliot & Anne Expatriate
00:22:10
Play 09 VI. Queenie Expatriate
00:21:19
Play 10 VII. Adeline Expatriate
00:18:11
Play 11 VIII. Anne & Colin Expatriate
00:11:54
Play 12 IX. Jerrold Expatriate
00:24:48
Play 13 X. Eliot Expatriate
00:14:30
Play 14 XI. Interim Expatriate
00:11:52
Play 15 XII. Colin, Jerrold, & Anne Expatriate
00:15:06
Play 16 XIII. Anne & Jerrold Expatriate
00:25:06
Play 17 XIV. Maisie Expatriate
00:26:23
Play 18 XV. Anne, Jerrold, & Maisie (1-3) Expatriate
00:20:57
Play 19 XV. Anne, Jerrold, & Maisie (4-7) Expatriate
00:23:30
Play 20 XVI. Anne, Maisie, & Jerrold Expatriate
00:14:24
Play 21 XVII. Jerrold, Maisie, Anne, Eliot Expatriate
00:22:28
Play 22 XVIII. Jerrold & Anne Expatriate
00:20:15
Play 23 XIX. Anne & Eliot Expatriate
00:25:22
Play 24 XX. Maisie, Jerrold, & Anne Expatriate
00:17:44