Customer Reviews

The Crowded Street (Virago Modern Classics)

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The Crowded Street is really a book more people should know about and read. It portrays Muriel Hammond, a young woman facing the eternal problem of how to make one's way in the world. In addition to this universal appeal, the book also gives an interesting view of Yorkshire life in the early part of the twentieth century. Holtby died young, but left behind a body of work worth reading; this book is an estimable example of her work, and a book worth discovery by a modern reader.

The Crowded Street is the story of a Muriel Hammond, a young girl--and then woman--who seems destined right from the start of the novel to be a spinster. At the age of eleven, she commits a major social faux pas--and her career in a marriage market that considers a woman a spinster by the age of 25 seems to go downhill from there. Although this is a social commentary about the plight of young unmarried (and married) women in early 20th century England, this is also a novel about one young woman's coming of age as she struggles with her own sense of value in the world.


The novel has a very strong message, but it's very subtly worked into the plot of the book. Right from the beginning, it's impressed upon these young women that they must make themselves attractive to the opposite sex, and to wait for a husband to come along. Everywhere around Muriel, young women of her age are rushing to get married, often not caring to whom. Holtby's message about the (sometimes desperate) rush to get married sees its extremes in the case of Muriel's sister Connie, who at first tries to make a life for herself but ends up getting pregnant and forced into a marriage she doesn't want.

Muriel is a very shy young woman, insecure in many ways, and I think she tries to hide that under a façade. She's always using excuses for not marrying or going off on her own, namely that her mother needs her--when it's very clear to everyone that her mother is just fine on her own. So it's interesting for the reader to see what happens to Muriel--will she have the courage to forge off on her own, or will she be tied to her mother forever? This is a lesser-known classic, but one well worth bringing back into print. I'm now on the lookout for more of her books; Anderby Wold and South Riding have been reprinted by Virago.

Like so many of the books republished by the small British publisher Persephone, _The Crowded Street_ tells of a woman whose life is constricted by the role she must play in the society of her time. Muriel Hammond's story starts at a dance in 1900, when she's in her early teens; already she feels the pressure to be attractive to boys, so that she may make a good marriage someday. Muriel is quiet and shy, yearning for a career or some way to be of service to others, but the only opportunities she's given are to marry (a chance which never seems to come her way) or to stay home and help her mother, who doesn't really need her help.

This was Holtby's second novel, and it does show some immaturity of style and plot: one section, dealing with Muriel's sister Connie, is overly melodramatic, and Muriel's final transformation is too much told and not shown. But Holtby's depiction of Muriel's plight is sympathetic to Muriel, yet biting to her family and society, and her clear wish for better opportunities for women shines through the novel. It's not as outstanding as Holtby's masterpiece, _South Riding_ (which I highly recommend), but well worth reading (and reprinting -- thank you, Persephone.)