Viola Meynell
Viola Meynell (1885-1956) was an English novelist, short story writer, and editor, born in London into a literary family. Her father, Wilfred Meynell, was a journalist, while her mother, Alice Thompson Meynell, was a poet and essayist well-connected in literary circles. This rich literary upbringing influenced her writing, which often explores the complexities of love and the moral implications tied to her Roman Catholic faith. Meynell published her first novel, *Martha Vine: A Love Story of Simple Life*, anonymously at the age of twenty-five, followed by *Cross-in-Hand Farm* under her own name.
Throughout the 1910s, she released a novel nearly every year and engaged in editing works, including a notable edition of George Eliot's *Romola*. Her writing style emphasizes characters' psychological and emotional states rather than episodic plots, with acclaim for its wit and form. Following a period of personal challenges, including her separation from her husband, she revised and republished her novel *Follow Thy Fair Sun*, showcasing her growth as a writer. Meynell's later works include *Ophelia* and a memoir about her mother, alongside a posthumously published collection of short stories. Her legacy reflects a nuanced understanding of love and identity, shaped by her experiences and cultural background.
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Subject Terms
Viola Meynell
Fiction Writer and Poet
- Born: October 15, 1885
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: October 27, 1956
Biography
Viola Meynell was born on October 15, 1885 in London. Her parents were Wilfred Meynell, a journalist and editor, and Alice Thompson Meynell, a poet and essayist with a large circle of literary friends. Viola was the fifth of the couple’s eight children. Both of her parents converted to Roman Catholicism. Viola attended a Catholic school. Among Alice Meynell’s literary friends were George Meredith, Robert Browning, Henry James, and Francis Thompson. Thompson was a particularly ardent admirer of Viola’s mother, and he wrote two poems, “The Making of Viola” and “To Stars,” inspired by Viola, the Meynell’s third daughter.
When she was twenty-five years old, Meynell anonymously published her first novel, Martha Vine: A Love Story of Simple Life. The following year, she published her second novel, Cross-in-Hand Farm, under her own name. For eleven years, from 1910 to 1921, she published approximately one novel per year. During this time, she also edited a book of poetry and a volume on George Eliot. Her edition of George Eliot’s Romola was published in 1922. Meynell served as a typist in the World War I Women’s Emergency Corps. She continued editing, but did not publish her own work again until 1924 with Young Mrs. Cruse, a volume of short stories.
Meynell’s novels and short stories deal with the choices made by characters caught in love triangles. Her Roman Catholic upbringing influences her view of the moral dimension of love as well as the metaphors and images she uses to describe it. Her emphasis on her characters’ psychological and emotional states, rather than an episodic plot, moves the story along. The New York Times review of Young Mrs. Cruse credits Meynell with “the breathless trenchancy of Katharine Mansfield. . . A delicate and unobtrusive wit and a sure feeling for form are further graces to her abundant gift.”
“Pastoral,” a short story included in Young Mrs. Cruse, borders on an autobiographical situation: a sophisticated woman marries a simple farmer. On February 28, 1922, Meynell married John Dallyn, a farmer, with whom she had one child, a son named Jacob. Viola’s mother died in 1922. For five years, Meynell worked on a biography of her mother: Alice Meynell: a Memoir (1929). A New York Times review of the biography praises Viola for capturing her mother’s charm and intelligence. The following year she published a volume of poetry, The Frozen Ocean, and Other Poems.
Viola Meynell did not publish again until 1935, a year after she separated from her husband. This novel, Follow Thy Fair Sun, was one that Meynell revised and republished in 1944 as Lovers. The novel chronicles the psychological disintegration and rebuilding of the male and female protagonists who share an obsessive and ill-fated love. In her later revision, Meynell changed the original ending that suggests this self- destructive cycle will continue in order to suggest a happier outcome for the pair. Meynell wrote her final novel, Ophelia, in 1951 and followed it the next year with a memoir of her father and the poet Francis Thompson.
Just before her death in 1956, she published two volumes of letters to her friend Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, who was Secretary of the Kelmscott Press, private secretary to William Morris and from 1908 to 1937, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. She also completed a volume of her own short stories that was published posthumously the following year as Collected Stories.