Review Summaries

• Readers tend to praise the gradual tightening of the siblings' emotional bond and Hartley's elegant prose. Some are drawn to the psychological precision, while others find the deliberate pace demanding.

• Bringing the three books together is presented as making the underlying dependence and conflict even clearer. The review highlights the accumulation of subtle feeling and the work's sustained emotional intensity.

Reviews

• gentle story.

  If you enjoyed the shrimp and the anemone you will like this book as well. Try the series.

• Eustace and Hilda

  Passionnant

• A great novel is a pleasure forever . . .

  . . . or some similar heading is rightly earned by L. P. Hartley's _Eustace and Hilda_. You will have read elsewhere that this trilogy is told largely through the point of view of Eustace Cherrington; he is the central consciousness, though an omniscient (all-knowing) narrator method is necessary to make the novel work as a whole, and to give the novel a sense of movement outside the mind of one person. Everyone enjoys reading _The Go-Between_ whose main character, Leo, is another sensitive young boy, and, in retrospect, Eustace seems to be a preparation for that novel, but E & H is an enduring element in British fiction. I didn't want this trilogy to end; from time to time, I would set it aside and read other novels so that I could ponder the fate of the Cherringtons. There seems to be a debate as to whether or not the entire trilogy, _Eustace and Hilda_, (including _The Shrimp & the Anemone_, _The Sixth Heaven_ and _E & H_) can be called a masterpiece. Novel One is an outright masterpiece, partly because Eustace is still a child at the end, and as a result, the novel has no awkward life-changes to negotiate. We meet all the main characters, Mr. Cherrington and his sister, Aunt Sarah, the housekeeper and Eustace's confidante, Minney, as well as the wealthy Staveleys, the adventurous Steptoes, and Miss Fothergill. And there is Hartley's evocation of the Norfolk coast, the seaside village, and the dark woods of the Anchorstone Hall mansion. (Hartley has that quality of all great British novelists: the skill to evoke the darkly romantic countryside.) In volume one, we also discover the enduring themes: the effects of money on human identity and a hint of the sexual confusion to come in adulthood. I'm not giving anything away if I say that money solves some problems and creates others. Also in the first volume, Hartley hints that repressed sexuality will move the plot in volume two and three. Early on, Eustace goes on a paper-chase with Nancy, and Hilda turns down an opportunity to go horseback riding with Dick Staveley; both dramas burn in the minds of Hilda and Eustace and color their lives. (I don't want to give anything away.) If novels two and three of the trilogy are not clear-cut masterpieces it might be because the classic realist text was no longer possible after World War II (the novel of clear, simple, unambiguous action), but also because it's a novelist's minefield when the main characters go through those horrible years of identity formation--from age twelve to twenty-five. But Hartley is an unqualified genius in the way he takes the potentially banal Freudian interpretations of the 1930s and `40s and makes then into art. If consistency and comprehensibility of the plot, and believability of character, constitute a masterwork then the sum of _Eustace and Hilda_ is just that: finely orchestrated genius. There are episodes in which Eustace will daydream and fantasize--presaging magic realism--and it's a quite believable. Moreover, the total meaning of E & H is completely acceptable, if sad and regrettable. The sections set in Venice with Lady Nelly Staveley are a feast for the imagination--and Eustace has the soul of an artist. For some readers, Hilda might be a little too controlling and dominating to be believable, but the pieces of the puzzle were set up early in the novel when she was fourteen and Eustace about ten. It's important to note that they have an infant sister, Barbara, who represents the "normal" human development of the time: love of jazz and dancing plus early romance and marriage. It seems that Hilda and Eustace were thrown together because their mother died young, and insecurity and mutual influence would result; in addition, Aunt Sarah and Minney want Hilda and Eustace to remain children--unfortunately believable in people who fear change. The scenes at Oxford University were a delight to read, and when I realized that most of volume two and three would take place in Venice, I was thrilled. I don't understand reviewers who recommend that we pass up Eustace and Hilda. Besides, there is nothing like a solid British sentence, and Hartley's have the cadence of poetry and the arc of drama. Rest in peace, Leslie. And thank you, again, to NYRB Classics; the book cover illustration suggests the theme of "the tomb of our greatest desires."

• L. P. Hartley should be more well-known & respected as a writer!

  Exceptional writing, humorous, complex character development... A joy to read! As it is actually a compilation of 3 books, it is quite long, but well worth the time spent!

• I enjoyed this least

  An interesting trilogy. I had read no.one - the Shrimp and the Anemone, I and no. three, Eustace and Hilda. and bought this so that I could read the second. I enjoyed this least, as it made Hilda seem so impossible and therefore the whole series less credible. But interesting look at childhood and sibling rivalry. Not equal to The Go Between.

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