Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone begins with an introduction into the mindset of the narrator Rosamund, a scholar focusing on her PhD in Elizabethan sonnet sequences while living in her middle class parents flat in England. In the beginning, Rosamund carefully explains her previous reservations about sex and relationships. She is hopeless when it comes to sex specifically and has focused all her abilities towards her work in which she is very successful. Her mindset is unfortunately one in which a successful scholar cannot expect success in other parts of their life because that would be expecting too much. She recounts her past failed sexual exploits leading up to the moment in which she also fails at aborting the child she realizes she’s expecting. Instead of leading with the story of how she became pregnant she recounts the failed abortion only to later fill in the gaps. This is important because she introduces her life and the people in it prior to introducing the character of the father of her baby. In a way, he’s irrelevant to the story in the beginning because it is the people she chooses to be around that also end up being there for her in times of need. The father of her child was someone she found charming but not necessarily in love with. While Rosamund slowly leads the reader into the story of how she became pregnant she sets the stage instead for how it is that she was able to cope and eventually embrace an unwanted pregnancy during the 1960’s. She fully acknowledges that her class privilege, education, and station in life allowed her to have a child and stay on top of her work. She laments that without these things neither her nor her baby would have been very well off. It is this acknowledgement to the struggle of motherhood in general that gives Rosamund the endearing qualities of a mother who will do anything necessary for her child. The same qualities make her relatable to women who choose to work and have family despite the hardships. It is in this aspect that Drabble was able to write a character with a personality of an intelligent yet naïve woman who comes into her own via motherhood. Her baby is born requiring a surgery that is made easier to bear in part by a connection to her parents. She explains how her economic situation while gainfully employed was not necessarily one in which she didn’t want for. Her parents selflessly allow her their flat while they temporarily moved out of the country; without this, she would have certainly been worse off and so would her baby. Furthermore, her descriptions of her experiences with the National Health System further her perspective in motherhood because she is made aware of how other classes handle motherhood and the difficulties it can present. Tess Cosslett identifies how class, race, and gender identity all play important factors in Rosamunds portrayal of the female middle class identity. In Cosslett’s article Nancy S. Hardin is quoted as saying that Rosamund “moves from an intellectual position…to a real social awareness which only participation can bring about…The National Heath Clinic offers her the first insights of understanding…First comes her heightened awareness of ‘others’, and second, even more important, her identification with them” (Cosslett). Therefore, Rosamund’s experience in pregnancy and childbirth further acknowledges the realization of class differences playing an integral role in her success as a single mother. tAuthor Tessa Hadley points out that Rosamund has an adventure that finds freedom throughout the story, “Rosamund’s adventure is pregnancy and motherhood, and her freedom is the option…to become a single parent without stigma” (Hadley). While her sexual encounter is an integral feature to the story, it doesn’t receive much attention in Rosamunds narrative because the relationship most important to her is that of her and her baby Octavia. She so selflessly devotes herself to becoming a mother that she casts aside her own pre-conceived notions of what a family consists of and what constitutes real love. Furthermore, the climax occurs when all her attention to manners and behavior are cast aside in favor of a wild defensive stance on behalf of her daughter that fully realizes her potential as a mother (Hadley). She is raising her daughter alone and will continue to do so despite having a second chance encounter with the father George. Since Rosamund has both the means and the love required to raise a child alone she is more of an exception in a society where it was frowned upon to have a child out of wedlock given the remarks of others and the designation of U for unmarried at her bedside. tInstead of having a partner to lean on in the form of a husband, Rosamund is able to call on her friends and the help of others in order to continue her work with a child. This is a sign of growth for an independent woman who was neither used to asking for help nor being responsible for anyone else. When she reluctantly asks her neighbor for help she comes to the realization that they are in fact kind and she had been wrong in assuming they would not help her. It is moments like this in the story where she comes to terms with the fact that she is not in entirely alone and that asking for help is necessary when raising a child. Her hardships are those in which many women find themselves in whether they are married or not. Drabble’s portrayal of motherhood is one where Rosamund’s socio-economic situation acknowledges its advantages through her experiences with women of all classes. Rosamund’s parents have raised her to humbly acquiesce to the needs of others while she has learned on her own what it is to love someone unconditionally thanks to Octavia. There are repeated moments in the story where Rosamund continually judges women both in and out of the clinic based on their actions and looks as she tries to find something in common with other pregnant women. This is the one negative element to her take on motherhood that is perhaps the greatest reflection of her class differences. However, in regards to motherhood specifically, this book depicted what was a generally an unfortunate situation into a positive experience for both mother and child and an enjoyable read overall. In an interview by NPR, Tessa Hadley points out that the relevancy and appeal of The Millstone’s is because it “insists that you can be an intelligent woman with a rich life of the mind, and have a baby, and that those two things are not going to be set in some sort of tragic opposition” (“This Weekend”). Cosslett, Tess. "Childbirth On The National Health: Issues Of Class, Race, And Gender tIdentity In Two Post-War British Novels." Women's Studies 19.1 (1991): 99. Academic tSearch Complete. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.Hadley, Tessa. “The Millstone-the crucial 1960’s feminist novel.” The Guardian 15 May t2015. Web. 11 Oct 2015“This Weekend, Experience The Enduring Power of ‘The Millstone’” Interview with Tessa tHadley. By NPR Staff. NPR.org, 01 March 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2015.
This is one of those books where the subject matter (female scholar has unplanned pregnancy and decides to keep the baby) is of little interest to me, yet I could not stop reading. I found the writing really enthralling, and Drabble's tone was exactly in my literary wheelhouse. Was so perfectly wry and British, I loved the dry humor and loved the narrator's voice; for that alone I couldn't help but keep reading, not because I couldn't bear to not find out how the story resolved itself, but simply because I was so amused by Rosamund's inner monologue. She wasn't a flawless heroine by any means (far from it), but I found her really engaging and appreciated her candor. Also, even though the plot wasn't one that inherently interests me, I did think it was made more interesting given that the unplanned pregnancy was also tackled out of wedlock, which was still super dicey in the 1960s when the novel was first published. Interesting to see how we have progressed, but to read the story through that lens and the additional challenges faced by women in that situation made the story even more enjoyable. Nice slice of history and one of the more unabashedly enjoyable reads I have encountered in a long while.[As an aside, I have mixed feelings about the motherhood storyline and am unclear about what Drabble was trying to say about the importance of children to women... but rather than be overly pessimistic, I will err on the side of cautious optimism and choose to believe she was merely suggesting that it was possible for women to be both mothers and career-oriented without having to pick one over the other. I hope she wasn't suggesting that even those of us who feel little to no desire to have children will find ourselves unknowingly unfulfilled lest we do, but I allow that such an interpretation of the text is possible.)
What do You think about The Millstone (1998)?
I remember reading it as a young woman. In Czechoslovakia, getting a termination of pregnancy was simple, a freedom unusual in such a restrictive society. And at the time of reading this very well written book, I was convinced that if I got pregnant, I would not keep the baby.I never really thought about it.This book made me think. The dilemmas were well written. She even tries to get rid of the pregnancy by a hot bath and a bottle of gin. Doesn't work.The book made me think about other options. Suddenly, I was not so sure.Well, fortunately I was never put in that situation- I went n the pill after reading this book while carrying on using other precautions.I am a doctor,and have helped thousands of young women through their decisions. I still believe it is the woman's choice.But this book shows that it is not that simple.
—Lucie Novak
This is the story of a young academic in the mid 1960s who finds herself accidentally pregnant, and single.I first read this covertly in my early teens, having been shocked to find it on my (very conservative) mother's shelves. I remember being very moved by it, though too naive and inexperienced to relate to much of it. Nearly 30 years and one (planned) child later, I found it an excellent piece of writing, albeit for somewhat different reasons.Times may have changed in terms of the social acceptability of single parenthood, but it all rings very true for its time and many of her feelings around the time of the birth are pretty universal.It is a good mix of funny, thoughtful and sad, and avoids moralising, sentimentality or tidy plotting.It is interesting to compare it with Lynne Reid Banks' The L Shaped Room, which is a similar situation, written and set at roughly the same time (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...) and also McEwan's Chesil Beach (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...), which is a very different story, but which also features a woman struggling with sexual intimacy, against the zeitgeist of the "swinging" 60s.
—Cecily
As I wrote in my debut blog post, a scant six years ago, "After having recently finished Drabble's Radiant Way trilogy, which is quite grand in scope, I find returning to her 60s books, enjoyable as they are, tends to shrink the world back to the emotional lives of well-educated young mothers coping with tiny cars and grim National Health waiting rooms", but upon re-reading this, I find her portrait of an independent woman's emotional landscape to be quite compelling and the period details fill with me nostalgia (absurdly, since I'm not old enough to remember much of London in 1965 except the smell of coal and lack of central heating).The specifics are a young woman who finds herself pregnant at a time when single motherhood who was not regarded as a choice one would willingly opt for. I also like that there are no contrived extremes - she is neither punished for her sins, nor breezes through entirely unscathed. She struggles but things basically work out - of course she never has to worry about money for a moment, but I'm not willing to critique one of my favorite writers for failing to take on enough of the world outside her social class - later perhaps one could say she did so.
—Bob
