The Optimist

Written by E. M. Delafield

Narrated by Brittney Wash

Once said to be one of Delafield’s oddest books yet also said to be her most thought-provoking novel. The story is largely dominated by Canon Morchard, an 'utterly impossible clergyman' whose children and lives are dominated by his wishes and manipulation. The story is largely seen through Owen’s eyes – a man who fought on the Western front for two years and returns to England to the home of his old tutor, Canon, whose life becomes based on illusions as his children protect him from anything that might upset him. Owen learns his own life lessons after Canon’s death and reverses certain judgments he previously made.

This story follows one man's interactions with the family of an English Canon following World War I and the way the children in the family negotiate their relationships with their father, with his strong personality and religious beliefs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Libriafrica
• Release date: Aug 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669656685

E. M. Delafield

E. M. Delafield (1890-1943) was born in Sussex. Her mother was also a well-known novelist, writing as Mrs Henry de la Pasture, and Delafield chose her pen-name based on a suggestion by her sister Yoé. A debutante in 1909, Delafield was accepted as a postulant by a French religious order in 1911 but decided against joining, a topic she explores in her novel Consequences (1919). Delafield worked as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment following the outbreak of the First World War, and her first novel Zella Sees Herself was written during this time and published in 1917. Diary of a Provincial Lady, her most successful novel, inspired several sequels and is a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Delafield herself, written after a request by the editor of Time and Tide for some 'light middles' in serial form.