Bittersweet by Miranda-Beverly Whittmore

Warning: This review is going to spoiler the hell out of the book. This is quite an odd book and it is difficult to interpret both the author's intentions and the motives of Mabel, the first person narrator. The whole book is from the point of view of the ugly duckling Mabel who becomes friends with the glamorous Ev and her family. As I grew more and more frustrated with the utterly self-obsessed Mabel I began to wonder if the author was portraying her as an unreliable narrator and if we are supposed to dislike her? She certainly turns out just as unlikable as any of the family she exposes. Everything she discovers is pointed out in VERY BIG LETTERS, like the readers are unable to draw their own conclusions. Birch is flagged up as a bad guy from half-way through the novel by his cruelty to the dog, from there he is only a tiptoe away from becoming a Nazi Art looting father of incestuous children.

Anyway, the first half increasingly reads like a YA novel about the relationships between the young people, and I got increasingly impatient for the mystery element, as all Mabel seemed to be doing was mooning over Ev and her brother Galway (was it me or did he just seemed to be sort of tagged randomly with Mabel? All of a sudden he showed up and fell in love with her even though they had nothing in common other than her creepy obsession with his family?). The second half veers into overblown Gothic with the discovery of the incest, art looting and the murder, up until the horrible end where Mabel marries rescues Lu, marries Galway and the bad guy drowns. It just seems a bit, well, preposterous that everything get tied up so neatly and Mable 'wins' becoming part of the Winslow family.
I think I judged this harshly because with all the Paradise Lost references and some of the techniques she used such as deliberately obscuring the time setting, I was expecting this to be a bit more literary. As it was, I found it quite frustrating to read. 

I know I am no writer, just a woman who has read a lot of books, but in my humble opinion here is what I would do with it:

• Make Birch a more rounded character, not just an evil villain with a mask of geniality. All he needed really was a waxed moustache to twirl.
• Cut down the number of incestuous children to one, two makes it seem a bit overblown. There could also be a bit more doubt about the incest so that it looks more like Mabel is being manipulated.
• Make Mabel and Galway have something in common other than the creepy family, even if it's a liking for flippin' Paradise Lost. 
• Yes, I know it has the potential for being a bit dull and boring, but all that financial stuff Mabel was going into also had the potential for being quite interesting, I'm sure the Winslow's could have profiteered more from Great Depressions and wars, it's just I had the feeling the author was nervous about writing about it. 
• Focus more on Tilde, who is a much more interesting character than Indo, the colourful mad aunt. Indo isn't really needed to prompt Mabel's investigations, Mabel doesn't need a motivation, she is obsessed with the family anyway and an incurably nosy voyeur who seems to be there whenever anybody has sex.
• Change the pacing a little so that the mystery is drawn out more over the first half and it's less about meeting the 50,000 members of the family and Ev's relationship with John. We get it, it's a large clan.
• Change the ending, I suppose I would have found it more satisfying if Mabel had walked away and encountered Galway/Ev/Tilde in the future, subsequently finding that they had changed the family around, rather than Mabel being the catalyst and choosing to ignore everything that had gone on if the family returned the art.  As it is, nobody in this book seems to develop as a character, especially Mabel.
• Don't spell everything out in minute detail, readers can usually draw their own conclusions.This was particularly bad after Mabel discovered that Ev and John were brother and sister. We knew as soon as Mabel remembered that John's mother's name was Pauline, we didn't need Mabel explaining, we only needed her reaction. The subtle elements of the story get overlooked if there are aspects of the narrative that are applied with a paint roller rather than a delicate brush. For instance, the use of Paradise Lost as a metaphor, good, but not so good if it's used too much. I liked the Turtle bit too, but Lu didn't need to become a Marine Biologist.  

Anyway, I hope I haven't been too nasty and given constructive criticism. As a non-writer I don't like slating books, it's just that I thought this book had unrealised potential.

If On A Winter's Night a Traveler

Having been warned by reviews that this was a 'difficult' book I ploughed on, undaunted. And gladly. I sometimes wish that people wouldn't label books this way, although I am attracted by a challenge. I can see why people would hate it, it is like a Russian nesting doll of novels and makes you question the very nature of reading itself. It can mess with the brain, yet here I am in the sure knowledge that I could read it dozens of times and still get something out of it.
The structure is somewhat mind-bending in the way that it is narrated. The book begins in the second person describing how you, 'the Reader' goes to a book shop looking for Calvino's new novel and begin reading it, the second chapter is purportedly that novel, but only the first chapter. At the end of the first chapter, the novel returns to 'the Reader' who realises that he is not reading the book he is supposed to have bought, and the rest of the novel is missing. The rest of the book is divided into second person narrative sections describing 'the Reader' on a frantic, fruitless quest for the rest of the novel, and the ten first chapters of the rest of the novels he encounters, all vastly ranging in genre and breaking off at a plot climax. If you didn't know what you were letting yourself in for, you would probably find it a really frustrating book to read, but there is some sort of plot in 'the Reader's' quest and his meeting of a fellow reader, Ludmilla and the other characters. It could all become too mind-bending, but is saved from this by the author's playfullness and the fact that it is not just one good story to read, but at least eleven (not counting the anecdotal stories 'the Reader' hears on the way).      
It's an extremely postmodernist book and I can see the way that it relates to the dreaded structuralist and post-structuralist texts I had to study at uni. On one hand it would have been great to study this alongside that part of the unit, on the other hand, I'm not sure I would have 'got' it at the time. We can't all be David Mitchell (the novelist who wrote a review in the Guardian describing how he was amazed as an undergraduate but not so much re-reading it). It also relates to the idea of the death of the author in that there is seemingly no unifying 'author' or 'authorial voice', there is the narrative voice of 'the Reader' sections, then the voices of the ten other authors. I can also see how it has influenced subsequent fiction. 
Anyway, hopefully I will re-read it again one day and perhaps study it in more detail.

Within a Budding Grove (Part 1)

I don't know if it is my state of mind, but I found that after the gentle, meandering of the first book this was a little more difficult to read. Perhaps this was deliberate on Proust's part, after all, this is 'Marcel's' autobiography and we are  moving away from childhood.

The book opens with yet another party described in meticulous detail, this time a dinner party given by the narrator's parents who have invited the old ambassador, M. de Norpois over for dinner. It is some time after the narrator encountered Swann at his grandparent's house and he has fallen out of favour with the narrator's family due to Odette. Dr. Cottard, on the other hand, is enjoying the popularity that seems to have deserted Swann. Norpois, as a representative of the politica, is described satirically and is full of gossip about the Swann family.

The narrator is still somewhat obsessed with Gilberte, but is also completely obsessed with the actress Berma. He eventually manages to see her but is disappointed by her performance, only changing his mind about her when Norpois praises her.

Norpois scandalises the family by confessing he's been dining with Odette. She runs a kind of salon where married man go without their wives to meet women from the 'Republican world'. Swann has gone from discreetly associating with the pinnacle of society to openly boasting about the lower class people he invites over, and Swann's own aunt is trying to stop people from assoiciating with her. Norpois believes that Swann is 'not unhappy' although Odette uses Gilberte as a weapon to blackmail him. They seem to have found some sort of equilibrium where she is grateful for the marriage, although he worries about presenting her to the Duchesse. However, Norpois tells the narrator that Odette has already met her husband the Prince four years ago (before she married Swann), who likes her. Norpois met the writer Bergotte at the salon but disliked him so much that he puts the narrator off writing. Norpois offers to tell Odette and Gilberte about how much the writer admires them out of politeness but soon regrets it due to his gushing.

There is something sad about the way that Proust depicts Odette and Gilberte. I think that in one way the reader is meant to look down on them and on Swann for being in love with Odette, and the way that she is depicted is somewhat common and unattractive, particularly as she ages. Yet I think in some ways I sympathise with them. Swann seems to be terribly concerned with the opinions of society and despite Odette's commonness, there is probably something to be admired in a courtesan who manages to firmly cement her position in society despite all the problems she encounters. There is something sad about the narrator's obsession with Gilberte too, as if he can't help but follow Swann's example. Society, it turns out, does not make one happy, and the narrator is swayed by the opinions of the people around him, particularly his father's poor opinion of his ambition to become a writer.

Yet Proust also portrays society in such a satirical way that it is difficult to read the romance is a straightforward way. The opinions of the narrator's parents are not really either the narrator's opinions nor that of the writer. In retrospect the narrator does not seem to be that enamoured of Norpois even though his parents seem to believe he has class and the narrator himself takes his opinions as the truth, he is portrayed as being a bit shallow and gossipy. It's as if the people in the society have a kind of dual persona, the Swann who visits the grandparents is not the Swann of society, nor is he the Swann who is married to Odette giving dinner parties in the salon.

The narrator's ambitions to become a writer lead to major theme within the novel, that of the passing of time, which is capitalised. The narrator's childhood is behind him; his father believes that his personality is now fixed. something which the narrator finds rather depressing.

The new year brings a fresh determination to become acquainted with Gilberte, and resolves to write to Swann. Gilberte confesses to him that in actual fact her parents detest him and believe that he is 'a young person of love moral standard' whose 'influence over their daughter must be evil'. The narrator is rather offended and falls ill with chocking fits. The doctor prescribes caffeine along with whatever alcohol the narrator fancies, including beer, champagne and brandy. Dr. Cottarde then comes over and prescribes purges and milk (his wonder drug of choices), his parents are sceptical at first but eventually he tries it and recovers (due to not drinking more than anything).

Gilberte writes to him to invite him to tea. It is a kind of a parody of an adult tea party. He encounters Odette, who has become a copy of Mme Verdurin. They treat him like an honoured guest and the narrator imagines getting close to them. They are a bit too obsessed with impressing society, however, which amuses the narrator's parents. Then the Dreyfus affair happens, which affects society and no doubt society's opinion of Swann.

Otherwise, he tolerates and is even amused by Odette's ignorance, as the family tolerate the narrator, even though they seem to look down on him, probably because his parents are not really part of society.

Swann’s Way Part 6 – The novel’s close

Ivan Kramskoy painting, Bois de Boulangne

The final part seemed quite short compared to some of the parts I’ve written about. It’s at this point that I began to truly appreciate Proust’s mastery in the way that he completes the novel bringing everything together. I can see some of the themes and the motifs that he has used more clearly here, particularly how each of the characters play different roles throughout the novel, and how Swann’s experience is reflected by that of the narrator. 

The point of view is returned to the narrator who is a young man, on the cusp of adulthood. He has returned to Paris where he lives with his parents and Francois. Although he is not exactly a perfect specimen of manhood, he seems a little more confident and dreams of travelling away from Combrey. Combrey is an important location in the novel which represents different things, for example, it represents a place of security to Swann, a place where he can go to where he can recover from his relationship with Odette, and to the narrator I think it represents his childhood which he is slowly leaving behind him. 

Part of this is the proposed travel plans. The theme of duality is present here in the way that the narrator separates the way he imagines places from the places themselves, pointing out that they are completely different. He opens the chapter describing a room that he has visited in Balbec sometime in the past, but it is not at the moment he is describing, as he is prevented from travelling by an illness and is forced to confine himself to wandering around the Champs-Elysees with Francoise.

Balbec is associated in his mind with storms. Nature is another reoccurring motif in this chapter, and is associated with sex and with the transition into adulthood. The narrator longs to witness the storms as an example of something real and genuine as opposed to created by man. Legradin further improves if by describing its historical attraction, which the narrator asks Swann about. The imagery of fisherman living as they had always lived and of the Gothic church that Swann describes further sparks his imagination, and he day-dreams about taking the train to see Balbec. 

His desire is replaced when his parent offer to take him to Italy. Whereas Balbec is associated with storms, Italy is associated with sunshine and flowers (particularly lilies), and with architecture. The names take on a significance which is not related to how the places that he later visit really are. However, he is too ill to be able to travel, or to be able to do anything that excites him such as going to the theatre. He can only walk around the Champs-Elysee, a place which he cannot imagine anything about. 

On one of his visits he encounters Gilberte, Swann’s daughter. He immediately begins to obsess over her, and tries to meet her at every opportunity. She is not that attached to him at first, it is like she is an Odette in training in the way that his obsession and her indifference mirrors Swan and Odette’s romance. The narrator is already the type of person to obsess over people (hence his obsession with his mother kissing him in the night), now he transfers it to Gilberte. She meets a mysterious older woman who asks about her mother and sits reading the newspaper watching her grandchildren. The woman re-occurs several times in the narrative.

Gilberte doesn’t tell the narrator that she loves him, much to his despair. In fact, she compares him with other boys and can be cold towards him. He finds that the picture he has in his head of her is different to the way she really is. She buys him a marble the colour of her eyes to remind him of her, as well as an out-of-print pamphlet. He experiences a kind of doubling; there is a sense of multiple Gilbertes representing different things.

The narrator encounters her father, who is no longer friendly with “Marcel’s” parents. Whilst Swann is welcome at Combrey, I think his parents fear that inviting him will lead to his wife joining him, and besides, he has a bad reputation in Paris. He is fascinated by M. Swann, who doesn’t really recognise him (however, the narrator is quite embarrassed by his former behaviour in trying to force his mother to come up to see him).

He convinces himself that Gilberte is going to write a letter to him confessing her love and why she can’t tell him, she has to keep it a secret. Like Swann, he dreams of a woman who can be beside him, helping him with his work. He tries to get his parents to talk about Swann and particularly Gilberte’s friend, the mysterious lady. He has assumed that she is upper class (‘…she must at least me an Ambassador’s widow, if not actually a Highness’ p390) but his mother tells him that’s Mme. Blatin, a widow of a bailiff, and his mother had encountered her at his gymnastic lessons, where she kept bothering his mother. “She is, really, a horrible woman, frightfully vulgar, and besides, she is always creating awkward situations.” (ibid). His parents are unimpressed with his attempts to emulate Swann and lack of interest in anything but Swann, and he also becomes obsessed with Mme. Swann.

He witnesses the effects that her notoriety has on her in the way that she avoids speaking to anyone in the street although many men recognise her. She dresses too expensively, and behaves like she thinks she’s the queen, which draws attention to her. She has different faces for different men. She seems to want to be noticed, but doesn’t want to recognise it. People talk about her. 

His burgeoning sexuality is associated with his spying on Odette in the Bois de Boulogne, which in turn is associated with the jungle and other types of wild foliage such as trees and large red flowers. The trees represent women, hence the narrator’s association with the trees and the dryad. There is also something mysterious and sensual about the trees. He later remembers the park and the splendour of the carriages and the way that people dressed, comparing it unfavourable with the modern dress and motor cars. Like Swann, he longs to share a cup of tea with a sympathetic woman, but the houses that he remembers longing to visit have gone. 

The way that the novel concludes is perfect in its symmetry as the older narrator remembers how his younger self obsessed over Odette/Gilberte (I think that these two characters are doubled, as is the young narrator and Swann).

Swann’s Way Part 3 – Mobile Proust

Mobile, because I am attempting to do this on Kindle with my notebook, not the giant copy of Proust I’ve made notes in. Not quite as easy to search, but I’ve been having trouble finding the time to do any more writing about it and part of me wants to finish more of that before I go on to read any more as I am conscious I’ve got quite a lot of book to analyse. This is going to be a rather long post as there wasn’t really anywhere convenient I wanted to stop. Kindle Proust is not that bad a method of writing, although I miss page numbers. Some Kindle books have them, but the version I have doesn’t. Onto the Proust.

The narrator describes the ‘Guermantes Way’ which is harder than the ‘Meseglise Way’, and in the course of the description we learn more about the Guermantes family, who were also the Counts of Combray. There is a sense that they belong to the past in the way they are associated with ruins, but also with beauty in the sense of the landscape and of Mme Guermantes, whom the narrator imagines asking him to go fishing and questioning him about his writing. He develops a sort of obsession with her but his ideas are shattered when she attends the wedding of Dr. Percepied’s daughter and he finds that she doesn’t look that much like her portrait and she looks quite ordinary instead of like some sort of being from another age. Nevertheless, he convinces himself that he is in love with her and that she is beautiful because he thinks that she looks down on him. There is something rather obsequious about ‘Marcel’, perhaps because of his innate snobbery but his feelings of inferiority are linked with his fear that he is not good enough to be a writer.

He introduces the topic of Swann’s love affair that occurred before he was born. The next part of the novel switches from first person to third, which can be quite disorientating as I didn’t realise at first that we had gone back to the past, and it does switch back at times to the narrator’s recollections of his family’s opinions of the situation. Swann in Love opens with a description of a middle class couple, the Verdurins, who are horrendous social climbers who like giving embarrassing Abigail’s Party style ‘soirees’.  To make it classier, they invite a doctor, a pianist and a painter and Madame Verdurin pretends to be highly affected by music and art. They look down on everybody who is not part of their group as ‘bores’ or ‘nuisances’.

Like this, but in 19^th Century France and less dead people (link)

Odette is also a frequent visitor, although it is not clear why – perhaps, as a courtesan, she has associated with some wealthy men and the Verdurins think that she will start bringing them along.  Swann attends the party as Odette’s ‘guest’.

Swann, meanwhile, is a bit of a roué. He’s not snobbish about women’s appearances, but has associated with aristocrats in the course of his search for variety and pleasure. If he runs out of current women, he writes to his friends for letters of introduction, much to the grandfather’s disgust- the family can see how Swann quickly ‘drops’ women after they have been introduced, which is quite embarrassing for them.

When Swann meets Odette he doesn’t find her that attractive: ‘She had stuck Swann not, certainly, as being devoid of beauty, but as endowed with a style of beauty which left him indifferent, which aroused in him no desire, which gave him, indeed, a sort of physical repulsion…’ (p197). She, however, begins to visit him, ostensibly to see his collections of art. He somewhat regrets that he doesn’t find her attractive.  Odette seems quite obsessed with Swann; it is related how she begs to see him again soon in an ‘anxious, timid way’ (p198) and entreats him to teach her about Vermeer. As we only really see her from Swann’s perspective, it is not always easy to tell what she is really thinking or what she is really like, but re-reading this passage I get the sense that she is skilfully manipulating him, especially as Swann’s friend has told him that she is particularly difficult to seduce, but she seems to be trying to seduce him. It does work; Swann begins to obsess over her.

Part of this seduction is inviting him the Verdurins’ party .The grandfather is inevitably unimpressed by the Verdurins, thinking that they are too bohemian and severing acquaintances with them, so he can’t write a letter of introduction for Swann. The parties that they give are quite comical, particularly with the disparate guests like Dr. Cottard who has a bit of an odd sense of humour, probably caused by him having few social skills, he is in fact, sort of Asperger’s, being unable to tell whether someone is joking or not and unable to have the right manner or facial expression to suit the occasion. He’s also got an obsession with figures of speech, ‘plays on words’ or puns, which he has memorised by rote. Mme. Verdurin thinks he is wonderfully clever but even she gets offended after she foolishly asks for his opinion about Sarah Bernhardt meaning to be modest about the tickets she’s paid for and he takes her at face value telling his hostess he’s sick of Sarah. In return, they send Dr. Cottard a ruby worth 300 francs and pretend that it cost 3,000. They forgive him after that, and laugh like hyenas in a really false way whenever he comes up with another dreadful pun.

The Verdurins fear that Swann is going to be another ‘bore’ but are comforted by his manner and he is  pretty much a perfect guest, even getting past Dr. Cottard’s inspection.  In the course of the dreadful party the pianist plays a piece of music which deeply affects Swann, even though he doesn’t know who composed it.  Before he listens to the music he has no ‘ideal goal’ and pursues ‘ephemeral satisfactions’. He takes ‘refuge in trivial considerations’ and does not express an opinion with ‘any warmth’ – just supplies facts and details, or pretends that he is being ironic (p210). Proust returns to the motif of the invalid from the overture to describe how he feels; like an invalid who starts to hope that he is beginning to recover. He asks who the music was composed by and discovers that it was Vinteuil. As he listens to it again he begins to discover more, there is a sense that the composer  was ‘disenchanted with life’ (p217).  Mme Verdurin pretends to be deeply affected but doesn’t really appreciate it. The Cottards don’t understand it (and in fact are totally oblivious to cultural appreciation), so don’t give an opinion. Swann doesn’t believe that it was the work of the music master at Combrey, but it marks the start of his affection for Odette.  

The Verdurins are impressed with Swann but Dr. Cottard is surprised to discover that Swann associates with the Head of State as well as other members of the upper echelon. Even though the Verdurins are portrayed as being rather vulgar, Swann continues to visit for the sake of seeing Odette. He doesn’t want to see her alone as he is afraid that she will assume that he is falling in love with her and he prefers to spend the first part of the evening with a working girl that he has fallen in love with. He does, however, return her home in his carriage at the end of the night and keeps a chrysanthemum that she impulsively gives him.

Throughout their romance Odette is associated with flowers. Although in France chrysanthemums are associated with death and bereavement, they were a craze in Paris at the time, a flower that Swann looks down on usually but is somewhat pleased when he sees them in her lobby. The other flower that she is associated with, the cattleya, is a type of orchid, associated with beauty, royalty and love. Both flowers are known for their ‘showiness’. 

Link

She also has a penchant for oriental decoration and treats him like some sort of potentate or god when he visits her for tea, arranging the surrounding around her to their best effect and showing him all her knick-knack in turn. He is beguiled by her, considering what it would be like to always have a woman he could go to for a cup of tea, and he begins to try to find her attractive, comparing her to Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter in a fresco in the Sistine Chapel (painted by Botticelli).

Link

This allows him to see her as a romantic, beautiful figure rather than as he saw her before, and he places a copy of Botticelli’s fresco on his study table so that he can admire it.

The trouble is, she has not really changed except in his mind and they still have very little in common and little to talk about. To add a frisson when conversation is growing dull he sends her a letter ‘full of hinted discoveries and feigned indignation’ (p224) in the hope that she will declare her love for him, which she does, allowing him to act indifferently toward her in return. Yet, one day when he is late to the Verdurins and she has already gone, he realises how much he has come to expect her to be around. M. Verdurin notices, but Mme believes that it is purely platonic and they are somewhat dismissive of her.

Swann goes in search of her, but is continually held up and can’t find her in any of the restaurants, this causes him to realise how much he has changed, that he can no longer fool himself that he doesn’t care for her. However, I think it’s fair to say that Swann doesn’t love her in the traditional sense, there is a sense of obsession and wanting to posses her as he would posses a piece of art rather than a woman; he blinds himself to her faults in a conscious way and it is difficult to see who the real Odette is. In his searching for her, his obsession is magnified by her absence.

This seems like a convenient place to stop as I want to do a close reading analysis of the next part, and this has been far too long a post already!

References

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4195444/Avoiding-the-French-faux-pas.html

http://justaddiceorchids.com/_blog/Orchid_Blog/post/The_Symbolism_of_Orchids/

The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (some spoilers)

Wonderfully appropriate cover image

First, a word about the edition.  I’ve been reading the 2003 Penguin edition edited by Douglas Brooks-Davies and not been that keen. His introduction and notes are peppered with numerous spoilers and he has a tendency to over-analyse everything. If I was studying the book properly or re-reading it I would be really happy with it, but as it is a book that should be read without that much knowledge of the plot, I was disappointed with the heavy-handed editing. Having read the Colm Toibin introduction (available here on the NYRB Classics website), I think I’d prefer that edition. 

Leaving the edition aside, I really liked this book.  Hartley uses lyrical, evocative prose which perfectly captures the voice of young Leo and gives a sense of the period. I could see the resemblance between Hartley’s narrative style and Proust’s, but it wasn’t quite as difficult to read – paragraphs are shorter and are interspersed with dialogue. 

The plot is quite simple, but builds tension well. It begins with Leo remembering the summer of 1900 spent at Brandham Hall with a school friend. Leo innocently agrees to pass love letters between Marian (the school friend’s sister) and Ted (a local farmer) not realising why he is doing it or the implications that it will have for the family and for himself. 

The book works because of the way it is narrated in the first person with Leo gradually discovering what he is doing. He is an incredibly naïve character who is teased by the family because of it, and several humourous incidents in the novel occur due to his misunderstanding or interpreting something too literally. He lives with his widowed mother with whom he has a close relationship and is a rather sensitive child, who believes that he can affect circumstances with magic. With a lack of male guidance at home and feeling an outsider due to the fact that he is from a lower class than his friend Marcus, he is attracted to Marian, to Lord Trimingham (Hugh) and to Ted in turn.  

His relationship with Ted is peculiar; there is a suggestion that he is sexually attracted in the way that he admires Ted’s body and particularly in a deleted scene where Ted gives him a swimming lesson.  But this is a book which is about sexual awakening, Hartley uses belladonna as a symbolic device suggesting the ‘poisonous’ sexual undercurrents, alongside the imagery of the zodiac signs of the Virgin and the Water-Carrier and the changes in temerature.  Although it isn’t as explicit, the passage describing the swimming scene where Leo first observes Ted reminded me of Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, there is a similar overlap between the natural world and sexuality, and like Mellors, Ted is unashamed of his body and sexuality:

His clothes were lying at his side; he hadn’t bothered to seek the shelter of the rushes. Nor did he now. Believing himself to be unseen by the other bathers, he gave himself up to being alone with his body.

The first person narrative leaves the relationship between Ted and Marian open to interpretation.  Marian can be read as a rather selfish, cold character who intends to use Leo from the moment he arrives at Brandham Hall, and is using Ted as a bit of fun before she marries Hugh, or as a rather mixed-up woman who is about to be forced into a marriage with a man she doesn’t love for the sake of the propriety of marrying within her own class and living at Brandham Hall who has an intense relationship with a local farmer. By the end, many years later, it is clear that she is still deceiving herself about the relationship with Ted, having intended to carry it on even when she was married.  Hartley apparently intended the reader to disapprove of the relationship, particularly of Ted apparently seducing Marian, but despite Leo’s suspicion that he is being used by both parties, there is something nice about the character of Ted, he is probably the most likable character in the book as the upper class characters can be rather cold and distant. 

The ending, before the epilogue is devastating. Although I knew what was going to happen, it was still a surprise. It is done in such a quick way.  People have criticised the prologue and the epilogue as a framing devices, in some ways the epilogue could be seen as somehow ‘softening’ the impact of the end of the story, but in other ways this is a book about the past and its effect particularly on Leo, but also on other characters in the novel, both the events of the novel and the significance of the wars the characters have participated in. The prologue and the epilogue show that Leo has rejected relationships completely. Perhaps this is because of his latent homosexuality, but there is a sense that after his nervous collapse, Leo not only finds it difficult to form romantic relationships, but also finds it difficult to trust anyone. 

Overall, it's one of those books that stays with you, and having thought about it since finishing the book I find myself realising more about the book. It will quite likely become a re-read in the future.