I enjoyed the relationship between Louisa Ashton & her granddaughter Rachel very much. This is a theme that's mentioned in every review I've read so far. Rachel is about three when the novel begins & 18 at the end. Her relationship with Louisa is the most nurturing one she has. Her mother, Letty, is a disappointed woman. Married to pompous Ambrose & with three sons as well as Rachel to look after, she often seems exhausted. Rachel's schools are chosen not for their academic excellence but for their proximity to Greenbanks so that she can have lunch with her grandmother & stay there as well. Louisa encourages Rachel in her ambitions, but subtly. When Ambrose refuses to allow Rachel to take up her scholarship to Oxford, Louisa is there to support Rachel.
Louisa's marriage wasn't particularly happy either. Her husband, Robert, was a philanderer & is killed in a carriage accident while driving out with his latest mistress. Her eldest son, Jim, runs the family business but he's an unsympathetic man, thinking about the fortune he hopes to make & the awful young woman, Mabel, that he wants to marry. He has no real sympathy with his mother & is contemptuous of his brother, Charles, his mother's favourite. Charles is charming but feckless & eventually Jim & Ambrose pack him off to South Africa to make a living or disappear altogether - they don't really mind which. The scene where Louisa travels to London to see Charles off is heartbreaking.
The agony was long. The train did not move. Louisa's lips ached intolerably. She was determined not to cry, not to upset him. When the train went out, she could give way, but not before. She began to long for the train to go, to get it over, to let her heart break this iron oppression, and yet when the train began to move, she hurried along with it, and Charles had forcibly to tear his hand from hers.
When Charles returns with no money, a monkey & a parrot, his brother is appalled & soon packs him off to Malaya. Only Louisa is really pleased to see him & her only rebellions against the might of the men of the family are on Charles's behalf. Charles returns from Malaya in 1914 to enlist in the Army & cause his mother more anxiety.
Louisa's daughter, Laura, is another unhappy woman. Engaged to Cecil Bradfield, the love of her life, they quarrel over her green velvet hat, the ridiculous argument turns serious & neither will back down. Laura marries a rich manufacturer from Nottingham out of despair & leads a miserable life of luxury. Her rebellion, when it comes, causes Louisa anguish but when Laura, as always, relies on her mother to help her, Louisa is again the rock on which all her children rely. The loving, supportive relationship of Louisa & Rachel contrasts always with the ungrateful, selfish generation in between.
The most interesting character in the book for me was Kate Barlow. Kate had an affair with a married man, had his child, and, after the baby was taken for adoption, left town to work at poorly paid jobs as companion. After Charles leaves for South Africa, Louisa, who has kept in touch with Kate, decides to ask her to come & live with her. The family are scandalised, of course, & Kate, when she arrives, is quite different to how Louisa expected. Louisa made the offer from friendship & thought that Kate would look on her position as that of a guest. Kate, however, can't leave her past behind. The scandal of her love affair has scarred her character & she can't let anyone forget it. The portrait of this woman is summed up in one phrase, "She was always inadequate at rejoicing." Her presence is a blight on family dinners, her attempt to join a wartime sewing circle is a disaster, she gives no pleasure to anyone & isn't able to receive the gifts of friendship & love that Louisa would happily give her. She is ungracious, prickly & difficult. Even when her life seems about to change for the better, circumstances are against her.
I did enjoy reading Greenbanks. It's absorbing & full of those domestic details of middle-class life of the period that I enjoy. There are characters to love & characters to sneer at. Even then, Dorothy Whipple is too clever to have merely stock characters. Even Ambrose can be pitied at the end of the book as he imagines that his wife & daughter have rejected him. I think it's just that I have such high expectations when it comes to reading Dorothy Whipple that anything less than complete absorption & staying up far too late to finish the book, means that I feel slightly disappointed. There are other reviews of Greenbanks at normblog, Book Snob, & A Year of Actually Reading My Own Books.
I must admit I was a little ambivalent about The Priory but I did enjoy They Were Sisters and High Wages -- so this one gladly goes on my list.
ReplyDeleteI feel I need to reread The Priory as I was surprised I didn't enjoy it more. However, another friend has said she isn't as absorbed in the Whipples named after houses so maybe that's why! I'm glad you enjoyed TWS & HW, two of my favourites. Happy Australia Day!
DeleteI read Greenbanks last year and enjoyed it, but as my first exposure to Dorothy Whipple, it left me a little let down. Your list of her most gripping books is inspiring me to try again, especially since I have High Wages sitting on the shelf. I was impressed by how, as you say, Ambrose comes across as an unlikable, but human character as does Kate (although i felt more sympathy for her) and the portrayal of the warm relationship between Rachel and her grandmother made me want to curl up on the Greenbanks sofa with a book and her grandmother as Rachel does. Susan E
ReplyDeleteSusan, I did enjoy Greenbanks, I read 100pp at a sitting, it just wasn't as good as some of her other books. It's interesting that you felt the same without knowing any of her other books. I'd be interested to know what you think of HW.
DeleteSusan: Thanks for the link to my review!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Greenbanks very much, but found it harder to get into than Someone at a Distance. Once I was pulled in, I loved it. And I'm reading High Wages now - that one really pulls you in quickly and never lets you go.
If I had to recommend a first time Dorothy Whipple, right now, I'd probably go with High Wages. Someone at a Distance is fantastic, but I found the emotional roller coaster physically painful - I say this a good thing, the reader is so enthralled with the characters that you anticipate and feel their pain, but High Wages is (so far) more of a delightful romp. Thanks, Ruby
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Kathy, I think you're right. I'd recommend High Wages or They Were Sisters as a first Whipple. I'll be interested to see what you think of the ending of HW.
DeleteGreenbanks was my first Whipple, so I think I really have something to look forward to with They were sisters in my TBR piles.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy TWS, Annabel. Geoffrey is one of the truly horrible husbands in literature. James Mason did a very good job of playing him in the movie.
DeleteThe Priory was my first Whipple and I really liked it. If Greenbanks is at least as good as that one I won't be disappointed. Still better than lots of the other dreck currently being published!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's better to start with a lesser Whipple and then be delighted with the best stuff later.
I enjoyed Greenbanks more than The Priory but I think I need to give TP another try. As you say, anything by Whipple is better than most of what's published today so I'm not complaining too much!
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