Mollie Panter-Downes is one of my great finds this past year. When it was published in 1923, The Shoreless Sea was a great success. Panter-Downes was a mere 17 when it was published and it went through eight editions in a year and a half. Serial rights were purchased by the Daily Mirror and advertisements appeared on London buses with the slogan "read The Shoreless Sea", which no doubt aided in its popularity. While I felt it didn't have quite the same sophistication and maturity as One Fine Day (I wrote about it here), I enjoyed the story very much.
Nicola Beauman mentions The Shoreless Sea in her introduction to One Fine Day (I have a 1985 edition). She writes:
"On the basis of this novel one might have predicted a future as a novelist for Mollie Panter-Downes, indeed many reviewers did. The Times wrote, 'something still remains to wonder at--that is, that Mollie Panter-Downes should have achieved such maturity of style' and the Evening Standard commented: 'It did not seem credible that an author so young could write with such assurance and with such a good sense of character'."
The Shoreless Sea is essentially a love story with a bittersweet ending. Deirdre Bellamy lives with her family in the countryside. Tall, boyishly slender with a long black plait, Deirdre has an unselfconscious beauty about her. The eldest of three children she yearns to get away from her disinterested mother and distracted father. She spends her days wandering Gilly's Wood near her home losing herself in the picturesque beauty of the forest. Much like One Fine Day, there are many gorgeous descriptions of nature.
"Gilly's Wood was large, and a little stream ran through it, spanned at intervals by picturesque little bridges made of logs. Deirdre loved it at all times--when the first primroses and wind-flowers made a delicate carpet for one's feet; in bluebell time; in the Autumn, when she walked ankle deep in the orange and russet sea of dead leaves, the silence broken only by the soft whispering of falling leaves or the little 'plop!' of a beech nut falling; and even in the Winter, when the ground by the stream was thick in mud, and the trees stood stripped and black against a dreary sky. But bluebell time was her favourite, and it was bluebell time now."
One day out walking she meets a boy leaning against a tree. They discover a common interest in poetry and beautiful things and talk without embarrassment and with an odd sense of familiarity. He calls her Dear (short of Deirdre) and he tells her his name is Guy. Their meetings are magical and to make the spell last as long as possible they agree not to share their last names until a later meeting. One day Guy doesn't show up, and he's lost to Deirdre who's full of regret of not having exchanged last names.
Cynthia Bellamy, Deirdre's mother, is a vacuous beauty. She married for comfort and wealth and not for love. She takes little interest in her children and lets them run about like little hoydens while she drapes herself in luxury. All the children, but Deirdre especially, despise their mother. Deirdre will do anything to get away. She dreams of traveling to distant countries. Her Aunt Vi descends upon the household (much like a fairy godmother) and rescues her. As she is 17, she agrees to let her come to London and present her to Society. I think Cynthia Bellamy was happy to see her go as she was jealous of her own daughter.
Although Deirdre looks for Guy in all the faces of the young men she meets, she doesn't ever encounter him. Instead she meets a young man, slightly older than she, that she had been introduced to before she left home. Terence Liscarney is rich and successful and handsome. He's also in love with Deirdre, having fallen in love with her at first sight. Although Deirdre is fond of him, she knows she doesn't love him. When Vi suddenly dies Deirdre is left adrift once more with no choice but to return home to her parents. However when Terry once again offers her marriage, she agrees though she tells him she fears it's less love than the desire to not return home to her family that compels her to say yes. Terry doesn't seem bothered and believes she'll come to love him after they've married.
They pass several happy years together traveling. Deirdre grows very fond of Terry, who's an exceptionally decent man. The story hits a snarl, though, when Guy once again shows up in both Deirdre and Terry's lives. Although I really enjoyed the novel, I wonder if the strong sentimentality might be just a little too much for modern sensibilities. Deirdre and Guy's love is so pure, it's not often that I come across stories like this one. The ending had a tinge of melodrama to it, but I absolutely wouldn't want these factors to put anyone off reading the book. Actually I'd be very interested to hear any other reader's response to the novel. It is long out of print, so your best bet would be to try and find a library copy to borrow.
The Shoreless Sea has been compared to Rosamond Lehmann's Dusty Answer in "tone and attitudes (though not in its theme)". Dusty Answer was published four years later. Now that I've finished The Shoreless Sea, I'll begin reading the Lehmann in earnest with the Panter-Downes novel in mind. I've read that Panter-Downes wrote five novels, though I've only come across the two I mention here and one other called Storm Bird (which I had checked out, but it fell victim to an earlier library due date--I'll borrow it again later). There are two collections of short stories available from Persephone Books that I plan on reading this year as well. After that I have her London War Notes, 1939-1945 (a collection of columns that appeared in the New Yorker) to look forward to.