imported>1ctinus: adding "1972 novel by Beryl Bainbridge" as short description via DescDash

2024-06-08T21:55:31Z

adding "1972 novel by Beryl Bainbridge" as short description via DescDash

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{{short description|1972 novel by Beryl Bainbridge}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{infobox book | 
| name = Harriet Said...
| image = File:HarrietSaid.jpg
| caption = First edition (UK)
| author = [[Beryl Bainbridge]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series =
| genre =
| publisher = [[Gerald Duckworth and Company|Duckworth]] (UK)<br>[[George Braziller]] (US)
| release_date = 1972 (UK), 1973 (US)
| english_release_date =
| media_type = Print
| pages = 152
| isbn = 0-7156-0657-3
| dewey = 823/.9/14
| congress = PZ4.B162 Har PR6052.A3195
| oclc = 632645
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''Harriet Said...''''' was the first novel written by [[Beryl Bainbridge]], based on newspaper reports about the [[Parker–Hulme murder case]] in New Zealand which involved two young girls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/archives-cc/app/details.php?id=7372&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fphpbin%2Farchives-cc%2Fapp%2Fbrowse.php%3Fletter%3DB|title=Bainbridge, Beryl|website=[[Mugar Memorial Library#Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center|Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center]], [[Boston University]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713091656/http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/archives-cc/app/details.php?id=7372&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fphpbin%2Farchives-cc%2Fapp%2Fbrowse.php%3Fletter%3DB|archive-date=13 July 2011}}</ref>

Although completed in 1958<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.enotes.com/topics/beryl-bainbridge/critical-essays/bainbridge-beryl-vol-131|title=Beryl Bainbridge essay|website=[[eNotes]]|url-status=live|access-date=23 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026102843/https://www.enotes.com/topics/beryl-bainbridge/critical-essays/bainbridge-beryl-vol-131|archive-date=26 October 2016}}</ref> it was rejected by several publishers in the late fifties, and one of the rejections is quoted on the flyleaf of the first edition:
:''What repulsive little creatures you have made the two central characters, repulsive almost beyond belief! And I think the scene in which the two men and the two girls meet in the Tsar's house is too indecent and unpleasant even for these lax days. What is more, I fear that even now a respectable printer would not print it!''
The manuscript was thought lost but was found by one publisher, returned to the author{{cn|date=July 2021}} and finally published by [[Gerald Duckworth and Company|Duckworth]] in 1972, and by [[George Braziller]] in the US the following year.

==Plot==
It concerns two schoolgirls spending their holiday in an English coastal town. Harriet is the older at 14 and the leader of the two. The 13-year-old unnamed narrator develops a crush on an unhappily married middle-aged man, Peter Biggs, whom they nickname "the Tsar". Led by pretty, malevolent Harriet, they study his relationship with his wife, planning to humiliate him. Their plan quickly goes wrong, however, with horrifying results.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Beryl Bainbridge}}

[[Category:1972 British novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Beryl Bainbridge]]
[[Category:Gerald Duckworth and Company books]]
[[Category:1972 debut novels]]

{{1970s-novel-stub}}

Harriet Said... - Revision history

imported>1ctinus: adding "1972 novel by Beryl Bainbridge" as short description via DescDash