Netta Syrett
Netta Syrett was a British writer, educator, and a progressive figure in early 20th-century literature, known for her novels, children's stories, and plays. Born to a silk merchant in a family of five siblings, she received a robust education influenced by her father's modern views. Syrett earned a teaching certificate from Cambridge Training College and began her career as an English teacher before dedicating herself to writing. Her first published story, "Thy Heart's Desire," was released in 1894 and reflected themes of women's struggles within societal constraints, a recurring motif in her works.
Throughout her literary career, Syrett produced numerous stories that often featured strong female protagonists confronting personal and societal challenges. Her notable works include "Nobody's Fault" and "The Victorians: The Development of the Modern Woman." In a bold move for her time, she introduced a lesbian character in her 1934 novel "Judgment Withheld," diversifying her portrayals of women's experiences. Syrett's contributions to literature, particularly in children's fairy tales and adult fiction, showcase her ability to weave folklore with contemporary issues, making her a significant figure in the literary landscape of her era.
Netta Syrett
English adult and children's novelist, playwright, and short fiction writer.
- Born: March 17, 1865
- Birthplace: Landsgate, Kent, England
- Died: December 15, 1943
- Place of death:London, England
Biography
Netta Syrett was born the daughter of British silk merchant Ernest Syrett, and she had four sisters and a brother. Ernest Syrett had progressive views on education, and he sent Netta to live at Myra Lodge and attend North London Collegiate School for Girls when she was eleven years old. After finishing at North London, Netta Syrett attended Cambridge Training College and there earned a teaching certificate in one only year. (The program was designed to take three years.) She taught English at a Swansea, Wales, school for two years before moving to London to live with four of her sisters. In London, she initially taught at the Polytechnic School for Girls.
By the time she was around thirty, however, Syrett was focusing more on her literary career. She had struck up a friendship with fellow teacher Mabel Beardsley at the Polytechnic School, and Beardsley’s brother Aubrey, an artist, subsequently introduced Syrett to his community of friends. Through this group, Syrett established a relationship with Henry Harland and then the prestigious publishing company Bodley Head. Harland published three of Syrett’s stories in the Yellow Book. Her first published story, “Thy Heart’s Desire,” appeared in July, 1894. This story was one of several of Syrett’s publications to center on a woman who had reluctantly entered into an unhappy marriage to escape financial burden, loneliness, or other troubles. The women then typically rebelled against the constraints imposed on them, whether constraints by parents, society, profession, or spouse. Three other stories to feature such characters were “Her Wedding Day,” published in Quarto in 1896, “Far above Rubies,” published in Yellow Book in 1897, and “Madame de Meline,” included in Acorn in 1905.
Syrett’s literary circle continued to expand, as she met Ella D’Arcy and Evelyn Sharp, among others, during her work with the Yellow Book. Syrett’s first book, Nobody’s Fault, appeared in 1896. Also a writer of children’s stories and fairy tales, Syrett introduced folklore into her adult fiction for the first time in 1909 in A Castle of Dreams. The novel features another insightful and determined female protagonist, this time one surrounded by the fantastic and supernatural. Other books were decidedly realistic and autobiographical. The God of Chance, published in 1920, reveals how lonely and mundane a teacher’s life can be, and The Victorians: The Development of the Modern Woman (1915), republished as Rose Cottingham, was a bildungsroman with a female lead.
Syrett is also known for one of the last of several books she wrote: Judgment Withheld (1934), published when the author was nearing seventy years old. One of the book’s foremost and reader-friendly characters, Mimi Landsfeld, is a lesbian. Creating such a character was bold for Syrett, given the hailstorm of criticism that had fallen on Radclyffe Hall for the lesbian-themed The Well of Loneliness just six years earlier.
Author Works
Children’s and Young Adult Literature:
The Garden of Delight: Fairy Tales, 1898
A School Year, 1902
The Magic City, and Other Fairy Tales, 1903
Six Fairy Plays for Children, 1903
The Castle of Four Towers, 1909
The Vanishing Princess, 1910
Old Miracle Plays of England, 1911
Robin Goodfellow, and Other Fairy Plays for Children, 1918
Godmother’s Garden, 1918
Rachel and the Seven Wonders, 1921
Toby and the Odd Beasts, 1921
The Fairy Doll, and Other Plays for Children, 1922
Magic London, 1922
Tinkelly Winkle, 1923
Girls of the Sixth Form, 1934
Drama:
The Finding of Nancy, pr. 1902
Two Domestics: A Play for Women in One Act, pr. 1922
Two Elizabeths, pr. 1924
Long Fiction:
Nobody’s Fault, 1896
The Tree of Life, 1897
Rosanne, 1902
The Day’s Journey, 1905
Women and Circumstance, 1906
The Child of Promise, 1907
Anne Page, 1908
A Castle of Dreams, 1909
Olivia L. Carew, 1910
Drender’s Daughter, 1911
Three Women, 1912
Barbara of the Thorn, 1913
The Jam Queen, 1914
The Victorians: The Development of the Modern Woman, 1915 (also known as Rose Cottingham)
Rose Cottingham Married, 1916
Troublers of the Peace, 1917
The Wife of a Hero, 1918
The God of Chance, 1920
Cupid and Mr. Pepys: A Romance of the Days of the Great Diarist, 1923
Lady Jem: A Novel, 1923
The Path to the Sun, 1923
The House in Garden Square, 1924
As the Stars Come Out, 1925
The Mystery of Jennifer, 1927
Julian Carroll, 1928
The Shuttles of Eternity, 1928
Portrait of a Rebel, 1929
Strange Marriage, 1930
The Manor House, 1932
Moon out of the Sky, 1932
Who Was Florriemay?, 1932
Aunt Elizabeth, 1933
The Farm on the Downs, 1933
The House That Was, 1933
Judgment Withheld, 1934
Linda, 1935
The Farm on the Downs, 1936
Angel Unawares, 1936
Fulfilment, 1938
. . . As Dreams Are Made On, 1939
Gemini, 1940
Nonfiction:
The Story of Saint Catherine of Siena, 1910
Sketches of European History, 1931
The Sheltering Tree, 1939
Short Fiction:
The Endless Journey, and Other Stories, 1912
Stories from Mediaeval Romance, 1913
Bibliography
Ardis, Ann. “Netta Syrett’s Aestheticization of Everyday Life: Countering the Counterdiscourse of Aestheticism.” Women and British Aestheticism, edited by Talia Schaffer and Kathy Alexis Psomiades, UP of Virginia, 1999, pp. 233–50. Discusses Syrett role in British aestheticism.
“Toward a Redefinition of ‘Experimental Writing’: Netta Syrett’s Realism, 1908–1912.” Famous Last Words: Changes in Gender and Narrative Closure, edited by Alison Booth, UP of Virginia, 1993, pp. 259–79. Discusses realism in Syrett’s work.
Nelson, Carolyn Christensen, editor. “Netta Syrett.” A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, Drama of the 1890s, Broadview Press, 2001. Presents a brief biography of Syrett.
Owens, Jill T. “Netta Syrett: A Chronological, Annotated Bibliography of Her Works, 1890–1940.” Bulletin of Bibliography, vol. 45, no. 1, 1988, pp. 8–14. Provides an annotated bibliography of Syrett’s works.
Owens, Jill T. “A Merging of the Real and the Supernatural in the Fiction of Netta Syrett.” Publications of the Mississippi Philological Association, 1985, pp. 18–24. A critical study of the supernatural in Syrett’s fiction.
Owens, Jill T. “Netta Syrett’s Sister and ‘Uncle’: A Biographical Note on the Nineties.” University of Mississippi Studies in English, no. 4, 1983, pp. 191–92. Provides biographical information about Syrett.