The pelicans

In Short

The Pelicans follows two orphaned sisters, Rosamund and Frances, after the death of their musically absorbed mother. Taken in by the energetic and well-meaning Bertha Tregaskis in Cornwall, the sisters diverge sharply in their paths. Frances becomes consumed by a desire for the intellectual discipline of the Catholic Church and enters a convent, a choice that strains her physical endurance and ultimately leads to her tragic illness and death. Rosamund, whose world was entirely anchored by her sister, is left to navigate profound grief and find her own understanding of love, culminating in a quiet acceptance of Ludovic Argent’s proposal. The book has lasted through its delicate mastery and keen, witty observation of early twentieth-century English family life.

The Story

The story opens in the Wye Valley, where Lady Argent and her son Ludovic discuss the death of their neighbor, a widowed mother who leaves behind two daughters, fourteen-year-old Rosamund and younger Frances. The orphans are placed under the guardianship of the capable, boisterous Mrs. Bertha Tregaskis, who whisks them away to her Cornish home, Porthlew. There, the household includes Bertha’s husband Frederick, their spirited daughter Hazel, and a perpetual guest, Miss Blandflower.

As the girls grow, tensions arise. Hazel shocks her mother by accepting a marriage proposal from Sir Guy Marleswood, a divorced man. Meanwhile, Frances becomes intensely drawn to the Catholic Church, declaring a deep need for its intellectual discipline. Despite Bertha’s practical objections and bewildered amusement, Frances pursues her calling, eventually entering a convent to begin her novitiate.

Frances embraces the rigorous routine of the convent, rising at five every morning and submitting to the harsh physical demands of the life. Though she grows thin and exhausted, she feels deeply that she is in the right place. Rosamund visits her, struggling with an intense agony of protective love and sensing a widening gulf between them. When Frances falls gravely ill, Rosamund rushes back to the convent, only to be barred from entering her room immediately. A gentle old nun, Mother Juliana, brings Rosamund the news that Frances is dying and at peace.

Following Frances’s death, Rosamund is hollowed out by grief and a sense of overwhelming loneliness. Morris Severing, who had previously fixated on Rosamund, grapples with his own dramatic sorrows alongside his self-absorbed mother, Nina. In the end, Ludovic Argent proposes to Rosamund. Reflecting on Frances's sacrifice and the painful lesson that love requires giving, Rosamund gives Ludovic her hand, recognizing that her path of love differs from her sister's, yet feeling spiritually reunited with her.

How It Unfolds

• The voyage begins — The orphaned Rosamund and Frances leave their childhood home in the Wye Valley to live with their new guardian, the efficient and jovial Mrs. Tregaskis, in Cornwall.
• Clashing ambitions — In the Porthlew household, Hazel defies her mother by accepting a proposal from a divorced man, while Frances confesses her consuming desire to enter a convent.
• The novitiate — Frances joins the religious community, throwing herself into an unforgiving daily routine of early rising, meditation, and strict silence that slowly wears down her physical strength.
• The final barrier — When Frances falls fatally ill, Rosamund returns to the convent, where the nuns keep her away from her sister's bedside until the final moments.
• The horizon reached — After Frances passes away at peace, a grieving Rosamund returns to the Wye Valley, where Ludovic Argent offers comfort and asks for her hand in marriage.

The People

• Rosamund — The elder orphan whose entire emotional world centers on her younger sister. She struggles against a paralyzing sense of chaos and grief before eventually learning through Frances's sacrifice that love means giving.
• Frances — The younger sister who is driven by an intense spiritual need. She gives up everything to enter the convent, enduring severe physical exhaustion to find a definite anchor for her soul.
• Bertha Tregaskis — The capable, practical, and good-humored guardian of the girls. She manages her household with firm authority and cheerful dogmatism, entirely baffled by the romantic and religious torments of her charges.
• Ludovic Argent — Lady Argent's observant son. He watches the unfolding domestic dramas with dry irony and a discerning eye, eventually offering steadfast love to Rosamund after her sister's death.
• Morris Severing — A handsome, impulsive young man whose clashes with his melodramatic mother, Nina, over a musical career highlight the generational friction and self-absorption common to their circle.

In Its Own Voice

“As a matter of fact--although one hates to say such a thing----” Lady Argent paused, in order to give the thing its full conversational value.

Lady Argent and her son Ludovic open the book by discussing the sudden death of their neighbor and the orphaned children left behind.

“My poor romantic darling,” cried the unwise Nina; “because you know nothing of life, nothing, you think that the career of a musician would amuse you, and that it would be all easy success and triumph.”

Nina attempts to crush her son Morris’s ambitions with patronizing certainty during a tense argument in the billiard-room.

“I don’t think her better,” said the nun quietly. “I do not think she will get better in this world. God wants her for Himself.”

Mother Juliana delivers the devastating update to Rosamund regarding her sister's rapidly declining health in the convent infirmary.

What It's Really About

The novel explores the friction between practical, worldly competence and the uncompromising demands of spiritual or emotional idealism. Bertha Tregaskis represents an unshakeable, earthbound common sense that cannot comprehend why young women would choose emotional tragedy or rigorous asceticism over a normal life. In contrast, Frances and Rosamund embody the painful cost of devotion. Frances seeks absolute surrender through the Catholic Church, while Rosamund must learn that love is not about keeping people close in one's own way, but about selfless giving and acceptance. The book questions whether human beings can ever truly understand the profound, interior motivations that drive others to make irrevocable sacrifices.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate subtle, character-driven domestic drama paired with sharp psychological observation will find much to love here. E. M. Delafield writes with a dry, unsentimental clarity that cuts straight through Victorian and Edwardian melodrama, offering a reading experience that feels remarkably modern in its psychological accuracy. It can be a difficult book at times, particularly in how it portrays the quiet, grinding exhaustion of convent life and the rigid social expectations placed upon young women of the period. Yet, the emotional payoff is profound. The depiction of grief is unvarnished and heavy, but it leaves the reader with a lingering sense of quiet resilience. It stays with you because it refuses to offer easy Hollywood resolutions, preferring instead to show how human beings clumsily piece their lives back together after the foundations have cracked.