| Title | 8. Breakdown |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Barbara Fisher (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0377.08 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0377/chapters/10.11647/obp.0377.08 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Barbara Fisher |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2024-09-04 |
| Long abstract | In the fall of 1898 while in Edinburgh with Jack’s family, Trix became more and more depressed. The Flemings were alarmed as Trix’s moods alternated wildly from periods of agitation and anger to periods of immobility and mutism. Trix was furious with Jack, refused to see him, and was adamant that she be allowed to separate from him. It is likely that Jack had betrayed her. Trix was sent to stay with her mother in Southern England, where she was treated with the standard care prescribed for women—rest, quiet, and a fattening diet. Freed from the marital and domestic duties—sexual and otherwise—imposed on her by Jack, Trix was amazingly productive during this period. She wrote poems in concert with her mother, which were eventually published as Hand in Hand, and composed one hundred pages of comic dialogue featuring a miserably mis-matched married couple. In the spring of 1901, Trix was well enough to travel with her parents to Italy. During the period, referred to by Rudyard’s biographers as Trix’s breakdown, from the late fall of 1898 to the early fall of 1902, she was more often than not utterly sane and unusually creative. With Alice’s cooperation, Trix gave herself almost four years of what was essentially a separation from Jack. |
| Page range | pp. 145–166 |
| Print length | 22 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Barbara Fisher graduated from Bennington College with a B.A. and received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English Literature from Columbia University. For many years, she taught 18th and 19th Century English Literature, mostly at Eugene Lang College, the undergraduate college of the New School University in New York City. She has also been a book reviewer for major U.S. newspapers including the The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, for which she wrote a book column every other Sunday for fifteen years. This is her first book as an independent scholar. She is currently working on a biography of mid-20th Century cultural and literary critic Lionel Trilling.