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Summary: At Last Bryher's first Novels in Print again!
Review: I am thrilled that this title is finally available. It consists of the first two novels by the British author known as Bryher. An amazing and under appreciated author, philanthropist, educator and more. The two novels are "Development" which has been called "the story of the artist as young dyke" and "Two Selves" a coded-lesbian love story. "Development" first published in 1920 is a quixotic look in to the mind of a young woman who yearns to write but is hampered by family, decade, class and gender. It includes moving descriptions of why she feels that she is really a boy, her longing for adventure and desire to run away to the sea. It is an uneven book and barely a novel, but historically significant with beautiful passages on childhood and an essay on color-hearing. Her second novel "Two Selves" first published in 1924 is a true gem. It follows Nancy from the isolation of Developement through her intense longing for a friend who will understand and climaxes with the meeting with "the poet". Historically the book describes Bryher's first meeting with the American poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, whom she supported emotionally and financially til death did them part -- And whose daughter she adopted and co-parented). The language, especially in the final passages, is simply beautiful. See also her post-World War II historical novels: Gate to the Sea, Ruan, The Player's Boy, etc. -- Out of print but available in many libraries -- and her memoirs "A Heart to Artemis" and "Days of Mars."
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