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Netta Syrett, Nobody’s Fault (1896), Netta Syrett, The Sheltering Tree (1939),


What is it exactly that is nobody’s fault? The accident of being born to working parents? The accident of being over-educated? Or, the accident of being born a woman? Janet (always known as Netta) Syrett’s first novel is one in which the strictures of sex, class, education and gender are all seen as impediments to progress. The novel’s protagonist Bridget Ruan must work through and overcome these obstacles in different ways in order to achieve fully formed adulthood. In a fashion true to the nineteenth-century Bildungsroman Bridget must learn the lessons that her life teaches her to arrive at the beginning of selfhood.

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Introduction By Vybarr Cregan-Reid
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    Nobody’s Fault (1896) By Netta Syrett
    • Part I
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        Chapter I
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        Chapter II
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        Chapter III
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        Chapter IV
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        Chapter V
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        Chapter VI
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        Chapter VII
    • Part II
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        Chapter VIII
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        Chapter IX
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        Chapter X
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        Chapter XI
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        Chapter XII
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        Chapter XIII
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        Chapter XIV
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        Chapter XV
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        Chapter XVI
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    The Sheltering Tree (1939) By Netta Syrett
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      Preface
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      I
      School
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      II
      The C.T.C.
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      III
      A Visit
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      IV
      The Swansea High School
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      V
      London
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      VI
      Friends – and Marriages
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      VII
      Friends – and Parties
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      VIII
      An Unorthodox School
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      IX
      The ‘Playgoers’ Play’
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      X
      Still Theatrical
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      XI
      Italy and the Riviera
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      XII
      Enter ‘Peter’ by Way of The Dream Garden
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      XIII
      Paris
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      XIV
      The Thorps and ‘The Decoy’
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      XV
      Jack
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      XVI
      Thomas Hardy – The Pen Club
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      XVII
      The Pre-war Russian Ballet: Plays and Pageants
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      XVIII
      Soho Square
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      XIX
      The Children’s Theatre
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      XX
      The Outbreak of War
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      XXI
      Hamilton Terrace
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      XXII
      Italy Again
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      XXIII
      Ebury Street
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      XXIV
      ‘Such Stuff as Dreams are Made on’
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    Back Matter