This is one of the two most recent releases from The British Library Women Writers Series (the other was Mamma by Diana Tutton). I have to admit that, though I've dipped into one two of Delafield's novels before, I have never read her enduringly famous Diary of a Provincial Lady. So you could almost describe me as a sceptic rather than a fan, unlike many of the bloggers I follow. Could Tension convert me?
Published in 1920, this was Delafield's sixth novel. Set in the fictional cathedral town of Culmouth, somewhere in Devon, the action centres around an institution called the Commercial and Technical College for the South West of England. As its name suggests, it teaches shorthand and typing to classes of mostly young women, keen to get secretarial work. As the novel begins, the college has just appointed a new Lady Superintendent, a Miss Pauline Marchrose, described by Fuller, the Principal, as being 'almost a lady' as well as 'a thorough woman of business, capable, and hard as nails'. This last epithet will prove to be sadly untrue. What happens to Miss Marchrose will be the central story here, but what happens to her is a direct result of the actions of Edna, Lady Rossiter. She and her husband Sir Julian are patrons of the college, and Edna is proud of her position on the management committee. There's nothing she likes better than patronising those who she sees as her social inferiors, and believes, quite erroneously, that they respond well to her frequent commiserations about their sad, enclosed lives.
Edna Rossiter is an astonishing fictional creation. A monster of hypocrisy, she believes herself to be an exceptionally sensitive soul, alive to the beauties of nature (the 'Divine Spark'), which she is endlessly trying to impress on anyone she considers to be ignorant of nature's healing properties, generally much to their annoyance. This description of het makes me laugh every time I read it:
Edna Rossiter, in common with the majority of her sex, supposed herself to be a religious woman because she had, from early girlhood, indulged nightly in five minutes spent on her knees beside her bed, her face pressed against the satin quilt, while she thought about herself.
Very soon after her marriage she formed the habit of prolonging the five minutes into ten, or even fifteen, while she consecrated a few vindictively earnest thoughts of forgiveness towards her husband.
She is convinced that her method of dealing with life is informed by the the maxim she is so fond of - 'Is it kind, is it wise, is it true'. Needless to say, her actions bely this in every possible way. The trouble starts when she hears the name of the newly appointed Miss Marchrose. She remembers at once that this was the name of a young woman who, some years ago, jilted her cousin Clarence Ibister, causing him to have some kind of mental breakdown. Long ago though this happened, and Clarence now being happily married to 'a true, pure, sweet loving girl - and one in his own class of life - just a well-bred English maiden', she persuades herself, and attempts to persuade others, that Miss Marchrose will be a malign influence on the morals of the young women she is teaching. Her greatest anxiety is the fact the the young woman is becoming very friendly with a fellow teacher, Mark Easter. Mark is a married man, but his wife has for a long time been incarcerated in a home for 'dipsomaniacs', while he struggles to look after his two undisciplined children on his own. Initially she is concerned as to whether 'Clarence Ibister's jilt' is aware of these facts, but it soon becomes clear that she is, and that is hasn't prevented her from enjoying Mark's company. So Edna quietly sets about creating suspicion and doubt among the rest of the college staff. The fact that she never actually spells out her grounds for suspecting the young woman's integrity only exacerbate the disquiet and tension which increases daily within the college.
Being an incurable romantic, I was hoping for a happy ending to Miss Marchrose's situation. She's clearly very drawn to Mark, and the two of them obviously enjoy each others' company and spend a great deal of time together. Certainly she would like this to develop into something more. But this is 1920, and despite the younger generation's frequent assertions of their support for Free Love, theory and practice are still very far apart. This is exemplified by the case of Mark's sister Iris, a rather foolish young woman who has just published a novel called 'Why Ben!', a 'Story of the Sexes'. Although the contents of the book are never revealed to the reader, it's clearly a very daring venture. Iris herself, however, is engaged to a Mr Garrett, and once married immediately abandons her belief in Free Love. Morality is still of the utmost importance in this society, and so, to hope for a positive outcome for Miss Marchrose's aspirations is not logical. What she ends up with as an alternative may not seem very romantic, but there's every indication that it may ultimately work out well for her.
Reading this novel over a hundred years since it was first published, it becomes very clear that this is an era in which women get a pretty raw deal. Pauline Marchrose is highly intelligent and competent, and wants to have an independent life but, as she tells the sympathetic Sir Julian, struggling to support herself in London as a young woman had been a gruelling experience:
...the deadly monotony of it - day after day sitting in the clatter of those machines, typing as hard as one could go. Nothing to look forward to, except Saturday afternoon and Sunday,, and then I was dead tired, and I hated my rooms, because they were cheap and ugly and uncomfortable.
Taking up teaching had improved her life immeasurably, and she loves her present job, but will she be able to keep it, given the gossip and distrust surrounding her in the college? It's even possible to feel some compassion for the awful Enid, who Sir Julian married in a sudden outburst of pity, though he has never really loved her and now finds her (quite understandably) boring and embarrassing. As for the men, they don't show up very well either. Both Sir Julian and Mark are pleasant and sympathetic, but essentially too weak to make any real changes to their own rather unsatisfactory lives.
I asked at the beginning whether Tension would convert me to an admirer of Delafield. On the strength of this novel the answer would be a resounding yes. I was delighted by her ironic wit, and her keenly perceptive view of the society of the day. So I'll be seeking out some more of her novels soon. Very grateful to the British Library for once again coming up with a winner.
