
Chatterton Square is essentially a novel about two marriages, taking place in two neighboring houses in a genteel but shabby neighborhood in Upper Radstowe. We first meet the odious and self-important Mr. Blackett, who escapes from the life that has been thrust upon him by talking pretentiously about books and the life as a writer he would otherwise have had, and his wife Bertha, who comforts herself by holding onto her grievances against Mr. B. and her long-ago love for her cousin, Piers Lindsay. The Blacketts and their daughters live next door to the Frasers, a family doomed, in Mr. Blackett's eyes, by the lack of a man at its head. There's instant friction between Mr. Blackett and Mrs. Fraser, who is dreamy and unsuitable, and as it turns out, not widowed but abandoned by her husband.
She thought of Fergus with another sudden gust of longing as she ran down the hill. She knew how willing he would be to smash the blandness out of Mr. Blackett’s face. The physical difference between the two men was that between a tomcat and a tiger and she would have been glad to show Mr. Blackett what kind of man she had married, a brave man with all his wounds in front, incapable of a sneering insult and if she had seen him coming towards her at that moment, lean and lithe, as he had been when she first saw him in this very place, she would have flung herself against him and burst into tears. And soon afterwards, he would have become an intolerable nuisance and she would have wanted to be rid of him. The power responsible for the world to whom she had been grateful, early that morning, for the necessary tasks imposed on men and women, have evidently determined that nothing should be perfect. Even a fine summer evening must be ruined by midges, in the desire, perhaps, to create a divine discontent and the hope of a midgeless life hereafter.
I have to admit that it look me a while to get into the flow of this novel and to really start to enjoy it (as I did by the end). I have the feeling that this is a book where more might come out in a re-reading. There is wonderful humor in many of the characters (I grew very fond of Miss Spanner) and their encounters (Rosamund with Mr. Blackett, Mr. Blackett with just about everyone, Flora with James, James with Rhoda, Miss Spanner with the people in the wireless shop), and although the story seems to center on Mrs. Fraser, there is something much more subtle and very satisfying about Mrs. Blackett. The novel is set in the summer leading up to World War II, and except for one relationship (and it's one involving one of the less interesting children), nothing is tidy or resolved at the end, which also seems right. ![]() |
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3 comments:
Sounds fantastic, Audrey! I think you're the first person to post during Virago Reading Week - brilliant first post and a wonderful sounding book. I'm yet to read any E H Young and you've intrigued me.
I haven't read her either, but am intrigued enough to get this now, so thanks for leading me to an author whose name I knew, but not her work. I love novels of that era, have been reading a lot of them lately.
I have read every EH Young novel Virago published (at least I'm pretty sure I have - 7 all told), starting with Miss Mole. Loved them all ... and what an interesting woman she was too. I too like t read about this era.
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