Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting
Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer is a literary fiction novel published by McNally Editions on May 17, 2022. This edition spans 152 pages and is presented in English. The narrative centers on Ruth Whiting, a bourgeois housewife whose life is marked by a sense of suburban loneliness and routine. As she navigates her days filled with coffee mornings and bridge parties, Ruth grapples with the solitude of her existence, exacerbated by her husband’s frequent absences and her children’s distance.
Readers will find a poignant exploration of psychological themes as Ruth confronts the unexpected pregnancy of her daughter, Angela, who is away at Oxford. This situation forces Ruth to reflect on her own past and the constraints of her repressive marriage. The novel delves into the complexities of maternal relationships and the struggle for connection in a patriarchal society, highlighting the emotional turmoil faced by women in such circumstances.
Official synopsis Publisher
A breakthrough novel of suburban loneliness and subversion—“her style, spare and singular, cuts through the decades like a scalpel” (Rachel Cooke, The Observer)
Bourgeois housewife Ruth Whiting is “paralysed by triviality,” measuring out her days in coffee mornings, glasses of sherry, and bridge parties—routines that barely disturb the solitude of her existence. Her husband spends his weeknights in town; their daughter, eighteen-year-old Angela, is at Oxford; and their sons are at boarding school. Then Angela accidentally falls pregnant, and Ruth must keep her own past from repeating itself.
First published in 1958, Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting shocked critics with its “feminine rage” (New York Times). It captures the suffocation of a repressive marriage and the desperate longing for connection between a mother and daughter who must join forces in a man’s world.
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