I've always had a special place in my heart for neglected or forgotten writers and have made a point of seeking them out both in my working life and in my private reading. Some of them, of course, turn out deserve their place in oblivion but others prove to be absolute goldmines, and that is really exciting. One such is EH Young, who I'd never even heard of until my book group read her Miss Mole a few months ago -- you can read my rave review of that wonderful novel here. After that, in a fit of enthusiasm, I ordered two more of her books but by the time they arrived the mood had passed and they languished on the shelf until I started packing for India and decided to put in Chatterton Square.
Any worries I might have had that Miss Mole would turn out to be EHY's only real success quickly went out of the window. On the contrary I'm now confirmed in my belief that she is a really important writer. I thought this was a magnificent book, though in a completely different mode from the Siege of Krishnapoor, which I was raving about a few days ago. Set in the summer of 1939, it's the story of two families who live next door to each other in a slightly shabby but still beautiful square in Upper Radstowe (aka Clifton, Bristol, where EHY spent most of her adult life). They are the Blacketts, Herbert and Bertha and their three daughters, and the Frasers -- still beautiful Rosamund, who is mysteriously husbandless, her five more or less adult children, and her spinster friend Miss Spanner.
And what happens? Really, on the surface, nothing very much out of the ordinary. The young people start to get to know each other, some friendships are formed, some flirtations peter out. Rosamund forms a gentle, warm relationship with a good man who would like to marry her. Herbert and his eldest daughter take a holiday on the continent where Herbert has a flirtation with an attractive widow. Miss Spanner fears for her security if Rosamund marries. All of this is very interesting and enjoyable reading, but it is the minds and personalities of the characters that make this such an enthralling book. Herbert, handsome, dapper, highly sexed, is really a monster of a purely domestic kind. Completely self-centred and terrifyingly conceited, he believes that the whole world revolves around him -- he is certain that Rosamund is attracted to him, though in fact she finds him rather horribly ludicrous. And he is absolutely sure that Bertha, his wife of some twenty years, is devoted to him, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Bertha literally cannot bear him, and her revulsion seems to to have stemmed from his forcing himself on her while they were on honeymoon. All these years she has repressed her feelings, but during the course of the novel she finds increasing inner strength and her final scenes with Herbert, when he finally realises what she has been thinking and feeling for so long, are quite wonderful -- not least because Herbert, finally forced to face what he has never before looked in the eye, is revealed as a rather pathetic and weak man who may, possibly, uncover some better qualities with the help of his newly strong wife. As for Rosamund, we slowly come to realise that much as she loves the man who wants to marry her, she cannot shake off the powerful, and sexual, feelings she has always had for her attractive, feckless husband.
All this, and much more, takes place in an England on the brink of war, and it is the attitude of the various characters to that threat that increasingly overshadows the novel. Rosamund and her family are only too aware that whatever the cost this war must be fought, but the cost, as they also realise, will include sending the two grown up boys off to fight and possibly lose their lives. Herbert, on the other hand, is in complete denial and believes it would be best to make peace.
EH Young writes extraordinarily well, with great intelligence and great compassion. This was her last novel, written in her sixties and published in 1947 just two years before her death. I really do recommend this.
