"Menacing Mothers" in Books

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1iy3g8n/menacing_mothers_in_books/

created by sunny-spring24 on 25/02/2025 at 19:27 UTC

2 upvotes, 2 top-level comments (showing 2)

I've been reading "The Brockets" by David Vardy recently (also has a good audiobook version). It revolves around the misadventures of an over the top social climbing mother, "Penelope Brocket" - probably intended as a caricature (parody?) of Jane Austen's legendary Mrs Bennet, though set in an outlandish Father Ted/Monty Python-esque regency period world.

I would recommend it as a fun, light read for anyone who might like a modern humoured, over the top, absurd family sitcom. Where each chapter almost comes off as an episode, so good for short digestive reads / attention spans.

The book most definitely does not take itself seriously - especially the on going war between the mad matriarch mother and her maid. This is a case where the mother is too menacing to work for, and the maid is too inept to work for anyone else. So despite the calamities, both end up perpetually paired and fighting against each other.

Also, for anyone who's read The Brockets, I wasn't sure whether the author was going for a caricature, satire, or parody of Mrs Bennet. The book's subtitle "Pride and Prejuice" (yep, not a spelling mistake) gives a clear finger point. But maybe he just took a stereotypical regency period matriarch and ran with it.

There's also other books (and a few plays) I've particularly enjoyed, which also feature what I like to term as "Menacing Mothers", so thought I'd share my thoughts on this niche genre of books, and why I found them appealing.

And - when I say a menace, I guess I mean a mother that's portrayed in a somewhat amusing light. Like poking noses into other people's business, calling the shots with audacity, and blundering their family through chaos.

I'm glad to say my own mother was great. Others have not been so lucky - and had it not been for this fact, I probably wouldn't have found the subject of motherly menaces in literature quite so amusing...

So here's some books that stood out in my mind, and why.

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Title: Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

Menacing Mother: Mrs. Bennet

Why: The original and classic misguided matriarch - unrelenting in her quest to see her daughters married off to wealthy suitors. She's frantic, matchmaking and overbearing. Austin cringe comedy at its finest. She’s not wicked, but does shame her daughters in front of guests which gives her a delightfully ominous edge. Insists that one of her daughter's travels on horseback to Netherfield, knowing she’ll be caught in the rain and forced to stay over night, which maximizes the chance of a romance.

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Title: The Brockets (as above)

by David Vardy

Menacing Mother: Penelope Brocket

Why: She takes her family's misadventures to absurd heights each chapter, trying to marry the daughters off or raise her social profile in some deluded schemes. At one point, a horseman, so fed up of her, ditches her and her argumentative maid, leaving their carriage horseless in the forest. At which point, Mrs Brocket tells the maid simply to get out - and pull. Another time, she forces the maid to fix an early plumbing system that's currently wrecking havoc during a matchmaking dinner with a suitor. Deliberate ridiculousness, reminiscent of several 90s BBC sitcoms. (Keeping up Appearances, Father Ted, comes to mind)

(And Bucket/Bennet/Brocket, spotting a naming pattern here perhaps...)

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Cold Comfort Farm

by Stella Gibbons

Menacing Mother: Aunt Ada Doom

Why: She stays in her room most of the time and keeps the whole family scared by saying dramatic stuff. She’s not actually the mother, but she’s in charge of the house. She always repeats the same line, "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!" to make everyone do what she says. If anyone tries to leave or argue, she acts like her bad memories are coming back, so nobody dares to go against her.

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The Rivals (a play, but available in print)

by Richard Sheridan

Menacing Mother: Mrs. Malaprop

Why: Famous for misusing grand words in her attempts to sound refined. While she isn’t a literal mother, she’s the guardian of Lydia. She wields her authority with comic ferocity, meddling in Lydia’s love life in ways that teeter between hilarity and tyranny. Beyond her famed malapropism, Mrs. Malaprop sabotages Lydia’s romance by intercepting letters and scheming to marry her off respectably. Her sense of sophistication and her misuse of words creates a blend of farce and tyranny making Lydias love life difficult, to say the least.

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A Confederacy of Dunces

by John Kennedy Toole

Menacing Mother: Irene Reilly

Why: Irene is a loud, overbearing, and goes between caring for her adult son and threatening to throw him out on the street. She guilt-trips and humiliates him in public. I foudn the friction between them grim but funny, along with her dramatic antics. I particularly liked irene’s guilt-tripping, which after she drunkenly crashes their car, she doesn't accept blame, but instead berates Ignatius for giving her bad advice while driving. She's also always reminding him to find a job (or risk eviction), and can flip from doting to dominatng in the span of a single conversation.

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Matilda (who hasn't read or seen this childhood classic?)

by Roald Dahl

Menacing Mother: Mrs. Wormwood

Why: Mrs. Wormwood’s dismissive treatment of her brilliant daughter, I found to be both comedic and dreadful. She’s vain, lazy, and more absorbed in bingo winnings and TV than raising a child, yet her outrageous neglect and casual cruelty supply the menace. Like when Matilda demonstrates her extraordinary reading abilities, her mother says she should think about makeup and boys, rather than than books. She’s so wrapped up in bingo and beauty tips that she boo hoos her daughter’s intellect outright, resulting in the hair-dye fiasco.

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So perhaps we should give some minor thanks to those Mothers out there with narcissistic personality disorder. You may have been an exhausting pain to live with, but you have certainly provided comedy gold material in a range of literature.

"Menacing Mothers" in Books

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