A Novelist's Personal Pleasures

Rose Macaulay's Essays on Enjoying Life

She was moved to “set down a few pleasures randomly, as they came to mind.” —via

First off, apologies for my delay in this series — the Pleasure List newsletter was taking a long-winded holiday, during which we were out gathering more Pleasure. I’d love to hear what Pleasures have moved you as of late. I’ve been thinking about ways to expand the breadth of this newsletter in coming weeks, so stay tuned on more explorations of Pleasure.

Secondly, there are many new readers since I last sent one of these out (many thanks to

Haley Nahman

of

Maybe Baby

and

Emily Sundberg

of

Feed Me

for this!) I’d like to welcome you to the world of Pleasure Lists and say thank you for subscribing! It’s wonderful to have you as part of the Pleasure List community. You can read more about what The Pleasure Lists is, and the project here (more info at the bottom of this email as well). And now, onto this week’s installment of The Pleasure Lists newsletter.

Rose Macaulay (1881-1958)

Personal Pleasures is a 1935 anthology of 80 short essays (some of them very short) about the things the feminist critic and novelist Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) enjoyed most in life.

By 1935, when Personal Pleasures was published, Rose Macaulay was a well-established novelist, reviewer, columnist and feminist wit. She was part of the ‘intellectual aristocracy’ of England, but was also passionately interested in travel, driving, everyday life and its foolishnesses. (via)

In her essay “Departure of Visitors,” Macaulay extolls the pleasures of being alone:

An exquisite peace obtains: a drowsy, golden peace, flowing honey-sweet over my dwelling, soaking it, dripping like music from the walls, strowing the floors like trodden herbs. A peace for gods; a divine emptiness.

The joy and pleasure that can come from a moment of solitude can be second to none. What’s interesting is that the publisher of the recent edition writes, “each essay can be read on its own as a short dose of delicious writing, the collection is also an autobiographical selection, revealing glimpses of Rose’s own life.”

It’s not so far off from what I always say — that the Pleasure lists often reveal more about the list-maker than the things themselves.

Macaulay’s complete list of Pleasure essays consists of¹:

• Abroad

• Album

• Arm-Chair

• Astronomy

• Bakery in the Night

• Bathing

• 1 Off the Florida Keys

• 2 Off the Ligurian Coast

• 3 In the Cam

• Bed

• 1 Getting into it

• 2 Not getting out of it

• Believing

• Bird in the Box

• Book Auctions

• Booksellers’ Catalogues

• Bulls

• Candlemas

• Canoeing

• Chasing Fireflies

So, what will yours say?

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In Case You Missed It:

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Pleasures, Curated

Each week a member from The Pleasure Lists community curates a selection of their Pleasures, along with a Q&A about what makes them tick. Become a paid subscriber so you don’t miss out!

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Why submit a list?

Pleasure Lists are a summary of what you need, want, or have, or see at a particular moment in time. They are a survey, an overview, a summary of the crucial facts of the state of one aspect of your life. It’s a kind of blueprint that can be a guide to the future. 

Mull it over and if you’re moved to, send me a list.

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Questions? Comments? Send any recommendations or suggestions for what you’d like to see in these newsletters my way. I’d love to hear more about what you’re currently finding Pleasure in.

Please share this newsletter! The Pleasure Lists is meant to be a collaborative project that calls people from all over to write, read, and share their pleasures — a global community of artists, writers, and pondering minds alike.

Join the chat below to connect with other members of the Pleasure List community:

• Christmas Morning

• Church-going

• 1. Anglican

• 2. Roman Catholic

• 3. Quaker

• 4. Unitarian

• Cinema

• Clothes

• Cows

• Departure of Visitors

• Disbelieving

• Doves in the Chimney

• Driving a Car

• Easter in the Woods

• Eating and Drinking

• Elephants in Bloomsbury

• Fastest on Earth

• Finishing a Book

• Fire Engines

• Flattery

• Flower Shop in the Night

• Flying

• Following the Fashion

• Fraternal

• Getting Rid

• Hatching Eggs

• Heresies

• Hot Bath

• Ignorance

• 1. Of one’s neighbours

• 2. Of current literature

• 3. Of gossip

• 4. Of wickedness

• 5. Of one’s pass-book

• Improving the Dictionary

• Listening In

• Logomachy

• Meals Out

• 1 On the roof

• 2 On the pavement

• New Year’s Eve

• Not Going to Parties

• Parties

• Play-Going

• Pretty Creatures

• Reading

• Shopping Abroad

• Showing Off

• Solitude

• Sunday

• Taking Umbrage

• Talking about a New Car

• Telling Travellers’ Tales

• Turtles in Hyde Park

• Walking

• Writing

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