Phyllis S. Allfrey (1915–1986)
Autor von The Orchid House
Über den Autor
Werke von Phyllis S. Allfrey
Zugehörige Werke
Her True-True Name : an anthology of women's writing from the Caribbean (1989) — Mitwirkender — 43 Exemplare
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Wissenswertes
- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Allfrey, Phyllis Byam Shand
- Andere Namen
- Shand, Phyllis (birth name)
- Geburtstag
- 1915-10-24
- Todestag
- 1986-02-04
- Geschlecht
- female
- Nationalität
- Dominica
- Geburtsort
- Roseau, Dominica, West Indies
- Sterbeort
- Dominica
- Wohnorte
- Dominica
London, England, UK
New York, New York, USA
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago - Ausbildung
- privately educated
- Berufe
- poet
novelist
journalist
politician
short story writer
Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, West Indies (1958-62) (Zeige alle 8)
Editor (Dominica Herald and Dominica Star)
social activist - Organisationen
- Fabian Society
British Labour Party
Parliamentary Committee for West Indian Affairs
Dominica Labour Party (founder)
West Indies Federation - Kurzbiographie
- Phyllis Shand Allfrey was born in Roseau on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean to a family of British colonial administrators and planters dating back to the 17th century. She married Robert Allfrey, an Oxford University engineer with whom she had five children.
She published two volumes of poetry, In Circles (1940) and Palm and Oak (1950), as well as a novel, The Orchid House (1953) that brought her recognition, including a prize in an international poetry competition. From 1941 to 1944, her reviews, poems, and short stories appeared regularly in the newspaper Tribune alongside those of regular contributors such as Stevie Smith, Julian Symons, Elizabeth Taylor, and George Orwell. When Phyllis returned to Dominica in 1954, political change became her main focus. She co-founded the Dominica Labour Party with Emmanuel Christopher Loblack and served as Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in the government of Sir Grantley Adams of the short-lived Federation of the West Indies. In 1965, she established a newspaper called The Dominica Star to continue campaigning for social justices and equality. A collected edition of her shorter fiction, It Falls into Place (2004) and Love for an Island: the Collected Poems of Phyllis Shand Allfrey (2014) were published posthumously by Papillote Press, which also re-issued The Orchid House in 2016. The Orchid House was adapted into a highly-acclaimed British television miniseries in 1991.
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Phyllis Shand Allfey was born on the island of Domenica and this novel is said to have been based on her own early life. Born into an elite white family she nevertheless saw herself as a West Indian, and was a socialist activist, journalist and Dominican politician. She also wrote several collections of poetry and a collection of short stories.
The story is largely narrated by Lally, the ageing Dominican nurse who supervised the growing up of three white, Creole sisters at Maison Rose with their mother and war damaged father, in the years following the First World War. Maison Rose is a house is full of characters, Christophine the cook, her son Baptiste, her daughter Olivet and Buffon the boatman – who have all been around the family for years. The house is steeped in memories for Lally, memories of when Miss Stella, Miss Joan and Miss Natalie were children, waiting their father’s return from the war, playing with their childhood friend Andrew. Now Lally’s working days should be at an end, but she can’t resist one last return to Maison Rose when she hears the young ladies she cared for in their infancy are returning.
“Madam sat down in my one room house and told me why she was happy. ‘Lally, the children are coming home to visit us,’ she said. ‘Imagine, Lally, after all this while we shall see the children again. For many weeks we have been making plans, and letters have been passing between us. And now, it seems to be coming true.’
‘It’s a long while,’ I said.
‘But you know the reasons,’ Madam said. ‘You know the reasons, Lally.’
Madam was right. I knew all the reasons; for she had never kept anything from me. I knew that Miss Stella and Miss Joan had married poor men and had babies, and Miss Natalie had married rich old Sir Godfrey, but before she could even have a baby the awful thing had happened, the car had gone over the cliff and Sir Godfrey had died. ‘And how are you feeling, Lally?’ asked Madam. ‘A little stronger?’
‘I never felt better,’ I told her. For I guessed what she was going to ask of me, and joy took away the ache in my stomach and the stiffness in my legs. I would nurse Madam’s grandchildren before I died. I would see Miss Stella, Miss Joan and Miss Natalie again.”
In the past, Lally watched her precious girls grow up amid the lush vegetation of their island home – running in and out of the Orchid house at their grandfather’s home L’Aromatique nearby. As young women, each of them left for England or America, married men Lally can’t quite envisage, the youngest sister now a widow, bringing much needed money into the family. Now Lally awaits their return, each sister expected on long awaited visits, two of them with young sons in tow – their husbands left behind. Lally is a wise, watchful old woman, not much gets past her – it never did. In the days before Miss Stella arrives – the eldest of the sisters, and also Lally’s favourite – she remembers fondly those far off days when the house rang with the voices of the three young sisters. She remembers the return of the master from the war – damaged, clearly suffering from shell shock, he came to rely heavily upon the wares peddled by the sinister Mr Lilipoulala who arrives from Port au Prince with the mail boat. The master is still in thrall to Mr Lilipoulala – of whom Miss Stella was always so afraid – he too is expected in the coming days.
The sisters each still love the same man, Andrew, the friend of their childhood, who stayed on the island, and now lives at Petit Cul-de-Sac, with Cornélie the sisters’ mixed-race cousin, and their child. Andrew, sick with TB does little but lie around the garden of their tiny home. Once the sisters whispered to Cornélie through the railings of her convent school, now Cornélie regards each of them with some suspicion.
“The house was empty of men. It was a house of women, like Maison Rouge in the old days. Madam had said to me that the girls would bring life to the place. They had brought more than that – they had brought sons and torment and love complications beyond the endurance of an old dark-skinned Methodist like me.”
Stella arrives first with her son Hel – beautiful, romantic and nostalgic for the days of her girlhood, Stella wastes no time in seeking out Andrew. Back in America, her German husband and his family await her return at the farm where she has been living a not very easy life. Now, returning to the place where she could always find solace she reflects on her marriage, and whether she wants to return to the farm. Joan arrives next from England, bringing her young son Ned with her. Ned, wakens something in his war damaged grandfather – making a touching connection which surprises everyone. Joan, brings her political activism with her – desperate to bring unions into the lives of local workers. Natalie arrives last, by sea plane, a very wealthy young widow, she brings Eric – her Canadian pilot lover with her. The island works its magic on each of the sisters in turn, leaving something of themselves behind them.… (mehr)
The story is largely narrated by Lally, the ageing Dominican nurse who supervised the growing up of three white, Creole sisters at Maison Rose with their mother and war damaged father, in the years following the First World War. Maison Rose is a house is full of characters, Christophine the cook, her son Baptiste, her daughter Olivet and Buffon the boatman – who have all been around the family for years. The house is steeped in memories for Lally, memories of when Miss Stella, Miss Joan and Miss Natalie were children, waiting their father’s return from the war, playing with their childhood friend Andrew. Now Lally’s working days should be at an end, but she can’t resist one last return to Maison Rose when she hears the young ladies she cared for in their infancy are returning.
“Madam sat down in my one room house and told me why she was happy. ‘Lally, the children are coming home to visit us,’ she said. ‘Imagine, Lally, after all this while we shall see the children again. For many weeks we have been making plans, and letters have been passing between us. And now, it seems to be coming true.’
‘It’s a long while,’ I said.
‘But you know the reasons,’ Madam said. ‘You know the reasons, Lally.’
Madam was right. I knew all the reasons; for she had never kept anything from me. I knew that Miss Stella and Miss Joan had married poor men and had babies, and Miss Natalie had married rich old Sir Godfrey, but before she could even have a baby the awful thing had happened, the car had gone over the cliff and Sir Godfrey had died. ‘And how are you feeling, Lally?’ asked Madam. ‘A little stronger?’
‘I never felt better,’ I told her. For I guessed what she was going to ask of me, and joy took away the ache in my stomach and the stiffness in my legs. I would nurse Madam’s grandchildren before I died. I would see Miss Stella, Miss Joan and Miss Natalie again.”
In the past, Lally watched her precious girls grow up amid the lush vegetation of their island home – running in and out of the Orchid house at their grandfather’s home L’Aromatique nearby. As young women, each of them left for England or America, married men Lally can’t quite envisage, the youngest sister now a widow, bringing much needed money into the family. Now Lally awaits their return, each sister expected on long awaited visits, two of them with young sons in tow – their husbands left behind. Lally is a wise, watchful old woman, not much gets past her – it never did. In the days before Miss Stella arrives – the eldest of the sisters, and also Lally’s favourite – she remembers fondly those far off days when the house rang with the voices of the three young sisters. She remembers the return of the master from the war – damaged, clearly suffering from shell shock, he came to rely heavily upon the wares peddled by the sinister Mr Lilipoulala who arrives from Port au Prince with the mail boat. The master is still in thrall to Mr Lilipoulala – of whom Miss Stella was always so afraid – he too is expected in the coming days.
The sisters each still love the same man, Andrew, the friend of their childhood, who stayed on the island, and now lives at Petit Cul-de-Sac, with Cornélie the sisters’ mixed-race cousin, and their child. Andrew, sick with TB does little but lie around the garden of their tiny home. Once the sisters whispered to Cornélie through the railings of her convent school, now Cornélie regards each of them with some suspicion.
“The house was empty of men. It was a house of women, like Maison Rouge in the old days. Madam had said to me that the girls would bring life to the place. They had brought more than that – they had brought sons and torment and love complications beyond the endurance of an old dark-skinned Methodist like me.”
Stella arrives first with her son Hel – beautiful, romantic and nostalgic for the days of her girlhood, Stella wastes no time in seeking out Andrew. Back in America, her German husband and his family await her return at the farm where she has been living a not very easy life. Now, returning to the place where she could always find solace she reflects on her marriage, and whether she wants to return to the farm. Joan arrives next from England, bringing her young son Ned with her. Ned, wakens something in his war damaged grandfather – making a touching connection which surprises everyone. Joan, brings her political activism with her – desperate to bring unions into the lives of local workers. Natalie arrives last, by sea plane, a very wealthy young widow, she brings Eric – her Canadian pilot lover with her. The island works its magic on each of the sisters in turn, leaving something of themselves behind them.… (mehr)
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Heaven-Ali | 8 weitere Rezensionen | Nov 11, 2017 |
Heaven-Ali | 8 weitere Rezensionen | Nov 11, 2017 | A lovely Virago Modern Classic set on the island of Dominica where three sisters come home to deal with issues with the men in their lives that stayed on the island.
This autobiographical novel is set during the decline of the colonial era on an unnamed Caribbean island which, if it isn't Dominica, is modeled on it. The story is mostly narrated by an English-speaking (as opposed to French-speaking) black nurse, Lally. She is called out of retirement to care for the sons of two of the three daughters she had nursed for the family when they were children. Life changed for the family after World War I. The Master, when he finally returned, was suffering from what would today be called post-traumatic stress, from which he never recovered. The three daughters left the island when they reached adulthood. Years later, they're all returning. First comes Stella and her son, with her romantic/nostalgic bent. Then Joan with her son, bent on organizing the island's black laborers. Finally the wealthy widow, Natalie, arrives. Each daughter tries to save what's left of the family in her own way.
Although Allfrey descended from the white colonial ruling class, her sympathies were with the black laborers. Her life was much like that of the novel's middle daughter, Joan. Allfrey's novel depicts the shifting balance of power between the downwardly mobile European colonial rulers, the upwardly mobile mixed race population, the black population still stuck at the bottom, and the Catholic Church.… (mehr)
Although Allfrey descended from the white colonial ruling class, her sympathies were with the black laborers. Her life was much like that of the novel's middle daughter, Joan. Allfrey's novel depicts the shifting balance of power between the downwardly mobile European colonial rulers, the upwardly mobile mixed race population, the black population still stuck at the bottom, and the Catholic Church.… (mehr)
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I have the sense that this is an excellent book. However, what I wanted to read was a book ab out an idyllic childhood on a tropical island. There was a tiny bit of that, but the book was much more a political and historical treatise about Domenica, partially reflecting the author's own life. She was raised on Dominica, and returned as an adult, became involved in politics (as an ardent socialist), and founded Dominica's first political party. It was also rather darker than I was looking for: their father was a drug addict who squandered the family's livelihood; the love interest was dying of TB. It was not a book I looked forward to coming back to, and I had to force myself to keep reading. At a different time, under different circumstances, with different expectations, I think I would have liked it a lot more.
3 stars… (mehr)