Dorothy M. Richardson
Dorothy M. Richardson was a pioneering English novelist and a significant figure in the development of modernist literature. Born in 1873, she is best known for her series of novels collectively titled 'Pilgrimage,' which consists of thirteen interconnected works that explore the inner lives of women in early 20th-century England. Richardson's writing is characterized by its stream-of-consciousness technique, a narrative style that delves deeply into the thoughts and perceptions of her characters, making her one of the first authors to employ this method in English literature. Her work predated and influenced later modernists, including Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, establishing her as a key figure in the literary movement that sought to capture the complexities of human consciousness. Richardson's literary contributions extend beyond her novels; she was also an essayist and a critic, engaging with contemporary issues such as feminism and the role of women in society. Her exploration of female identity and experience was groundbreaking at the time, providing a voice to women's inner lives that had often been overlooked in literature. Despite her significant influence, Richardson's work did not achieve widespread recognition during her lifetime, but her legacy has grown in the years since, with modern scholars and readers increasingly acknowledging her role in shaping modernist literature and feminist discourse.
Famous Quotes
View all 15 quotes“Stream of consciousness is a muddle-headed phrase. It is not a stream, it’s a pool, a sea, an ocean.””
“Art demands what, to women, current civilisation won't give. There is for a Dostoyevsky writing against time on the corner of a crowded kitchen table a greater possibility of detachment than for a woman artist no matter how placed. Neither motherhood nor the more continuously exacting and indefinitely expansive responsibilities of even the simplest housekeeping can so effectively hamper her as the human demand, besieging her wherever she is, for an inclusive awareness, from which men, for good or ill, are exempt.””
“She struggled in thought to discover why it was she felt that these people did not read books and that she herself did. She felt that she could look at the end, and read here and there a little and know; know something, something they did not know. People thought it was silly, almost wrong to look at the end of a book. But if it spoilt a book, there was something wrong about the book. If it was finished and the interest gone when you know who married who, what was the good of reading at all? It was a sort of trick, a sell. Like a puzzle that was no more fun when you had found it out. There was something more in books than that. . even Rosa Nouchette Carey and Mrs. Hungerford, something that came to you out of the book, any bit of it, a page, even a sentence - and the "stronger" the author was the more came.””
