It may have taken me a while to pick up a novel by Dorothy Whipple, but since I finally had a taste I think I might just have to make my way through the rest of her books--at least the books I can get my hands on. Although I have The Priory and High Wages (the latter a fairly recent acquisition--part of my last hurrah of book purchasing before I sealed away my credit card), I, of course, wanted to start with a book that I don't own and that is out of print. Is it just me, or is there some strange pleasure to be gotten out of the hunt for hard to find books? Unfortunately some of Dorothy Whipple's books really are going to be hard to find, and I've already had to admit defeat in locating a copy of her first novel, Young Anne. I can find no library in the US that owns and is willing to loan a copy of it. Maybe Persephone Books will choose to reissue it?
I easily found a copy of Greenbanks, however, and it was even at a library close to home. Published in 1932 it is very much a family drama. Although perhaps not the same caliber as Someone at a Distance, it's still a fine story with excellent characterization. It's the sort of story where not a lot happens yet life happens full of happiness and disappointments--maybe especially the disappointments. I think Rachel was spot on when she said Whipple "is realistic about the often thankless task of having children; of the disappointment many of us face when our real lives don't live up to the dreams we had; of the pain of marriages that are held together by habit rather than love, peppered with bitterness and resentment." I hope she won't mind me quoting from her post on the book as I don't think I could have said it better than she did.
As I still have a third of the book yet to read (am now reading in earnest as it is due back to the library at the end of the week) I'll save my thoughts on it for later, but I did want to share a little teaser. I read this earlier today and was struck by the feelings one of the characters had, which was so true to life and so heart wrenching. I think there often comes a time when youth has passed and a person has lived enough of life to start looking back and wonders about the choices they've made. In this case one of the married daughters of the family is reflecting on her life in light of the fact one of her sisters has left her rather staid husband she is not in love with, to run away with a man she does love.
"No, she has never seen anyone she wanted to go off with. When she thought of going, it was never with a man. Once she had indulged in wild dreams. For years after she was married she felt that someone would one day come, someone she could love with all her heart, with that high, free elation and that deep satisfaction she could imagine. She would be able to share everything with him; her fears in the night about loneliness, death, the end of things. He would understand, she felt, but he would not explain, for after all there is no explanation. He would laugh, too, at what she laughed at; he would enjoy shop incidents, tram incidents, street incidents--all the queer, funny things that go on to make up every day. Letty felt, for years, that someone like this would come before it was too late."
And she goes on,
"But the years went on and now she was over forty and looked for nobody to rescue her as if she was a damsel in distress. She no longer expected to be loved by any man. Men wanted youth and beauty; no matter how old and ugly they were themselves, they felt entitled to youth and beauty in women. She had missed the great love she had dreamed of as a girl, but she thought about it no more. Her wishes had changed as she grew older; she now only wanted to get away by herself, to enjoy life in her own way."
I felt infinitely sad when I read this, but I think Whipple is right in her depiction of this woman who is no longer in her first flush of youth when anything is possible. With age comes experience as well as disappointments, but it doesn't always mean dreams are dashed but there is perhaps a more realistic expectation from life. Not everyone gets the picture perfect ending, but there might still be a happily ever after of sorts.
I've still a bit more to read, WWI has just started and there are more problems to work out and growing up to do. I think I'll be a little sad when I turn the last page on this family, but there are still more works by Dorothy Whipple to explore.