Desire

First published in 1908, Desire is the story of an Edwardian New Woman who finds fulfilment in work and love, that “satisfies the intelligence at the same time as it appeals to the emotions.” Desire Quebell is the illegitimate daughter and only child of a wealthy financier. He brings her up in luxury, and she enjoys the pleasures of society, yet she is not a conventional Edwardian daughter. She rebels intellectually, choosing not to marry a successful man where there is no love or honor. She admires the work of provincial novelist Peter Grimstone and uses him to engineer the break-up of her engagement. But when Desire’s father dies unexpectedly, she is forced to leave her home without a penny of her own. Just as she faces destitution, Peter tracks her down with the offer of a job: his father has had a stroke, and Peter needs help to run the family pottery business. Will Desire consider leaving London to be a bookkeeper in a small Staffordshire town, away from everyone she has ever known? Silberrad's novel challenged the gender stereotypes of the day and set out different ideals for masculinity that conflicted with contemporary expectations of how men should behave, with marriage as an institution also held up for examination. Cornelia Wächter’s critical introduction shows how Silberrad’s novel challenged the gender stereotypes of the day, and set out different ideals for masculinity that conflicted with contemporary expectations of how men should behave. Marriage as an institution is also held up for examination: how should a modern marriage work? And what is wrong with the older model? Desire’s reconnection with nature, as she walks the moors and hills, connects to the wider point in the novel that women and men need to reconnect with their ‘primitive instincts’, as a correction to the mechanised urban alienation that Desire has escaped.