I can’t believe I waited almost a month after being given August Folly by Angela Thirkell at Christmas to read it – and a month more to finally review it! It was absolutely worth the wait though. August Folly is another of her perfect light comedies, with that acid bite that makes Thirkell so intensely wonderful. No one, however inconsequential they may be to the plot, is spared her sharp observations, which makes each character that much dearer to me.
Richard Tebben has just left Oxford and returned home to Lamb’s Piece, having done nothing to distinguish himself as a scholar. Moping about under the watchful eyes of his mother, who he would love much more if only she would feign complete disinterest in him and his affairs and never engage anyone he knows in her particularly embarrassing style of conversation, Richard seems doomed to spend the summer wallowing in his misery, when not helping to train the chorus for what promises to be a particularly awful village production of Euripides’ Hippolytus. But then Rachel Dean arrives with her outspoken, energetic family and Richard falls desperately in love with the exquisite matriarch. Meanwhile, Mrs Dean’s eldest son Laurence is falling in love with Richard’s sister Margaret but doing a particularly atrocious job of expressing himself, and Helen Dean, Laurence’s favourite sister, is struggling with the change in her once very close friendship with her brother while Charles Fanshaw, a middle-aged friend of the family, is coming to realise his love for her. It is, to say the least, a busy summer, particularly after you throw in rehearsals for Hippolytus, donkey rides, and an escaped bull.
In a number of her books, Thirkell deals with young men desperately but chastely in love with middle-aged matrons. They are always an object of fun to the narrator and the reader, but these affairs are also viewed as a sort of necessary learning experience for the young men, which the objects of their adoration must endure until they reach their natural end. In Richard’s case, at least he finds some sympathy from his sister Margaret when he confides in her the violence of his passion for Mrs Dean:
‘You may as well know, Margaret,’ said Richard in a hoarse croak, the effect of emotion, ‘that I love her.’
‘Oh Richard,’ said his sister, not critically, but with just the right blending of admiration and awe.
‘She makes one feel a clumsy, clod-hopping bobby,’ said Richard, who appeared to consider that a high recommendation of his beloved.
In Pomfret Towers, the novelist Mrs Rivers is mocked for having passionate relationships between younger men and older women at the center of all her books because for her, as the older woman, it is an appealing fantasy that no one could really imagine playing out in real life. In Thirkell’s books, only women who are perfectly content with their families and have age-appropriate love interests have young men fall in love with them, when there is clearly no chance of reciprocation. The young men yearn devotedly while the women do their best to tolerate them, keeping their distance without (hopefully) doing too much to damage young hearts.
In August Folly, poor Richard really wakes up after Mr Dean helpfully and very casually mentions his wife’s age in conversation. Perfect goddesses, objects of worship really should not be considered in terms of earthly years and the shock of finding out that Mrs Dean is ‘nearly fifty’ jars Richard horribly and though he vows not to let it shake his affections, of course it does:
Richard went round to the stable-yard with the words ‘nearly fifty’ sounding unpleasantly in his ears. He had never thought of his divinity having any particular age, but now he came to think of it, if Laurence, as he happened to know, was twenty-seven or nearly twenty-eight, Mrs Dean could hardly be much less than fifty, unless she had married unusually young. Fifty was rather a drab word. Of course age meant nothing with such a woman as Mrs Dean, but one oughtn’t to have to think of it.
But when the extreme age difference is the other way round, the more traditional older man and younger woman, we are sadly denied any attempts at humour at the expense of the lovers. Charles Fanshawe is a contemporary of the elder Deans, being almost fifty himself, and is in love with the twenty-five-ish Helen. Yes, Charles has some mildly comic sufferings, which he brings entirely on himself, but as the narrator, the Deans, and the couple themselves seem to think very little of the age difference, it becomes unimportant. I liked this pairing too and had no issue with the age difference because the two characters seem so well-suited to one another but they way the ‘couples’ are treated does make for an interesting contrast.
There are some comments early on in the book from Mr Fanshawe, exhausted after years of dealing with emotionally volatile female undergraduates at Oxford, that I should have probably been offended by but instead found vastly amusing. Finding Helen upset over her brother’s behaviour, he offers wise counsel, the result of years of experience with ‘over-wrought’ young women:
‘You had better cry,’ said Mr Fanshawe, very kindly.
‘I am,’ said Helen.
‘Good. You’ll feel better presently.’
They stood still while Helen pressed her face against Mr Fanshawe’s coat sleeve and cried.
‘I am better now,’ she said gracefully. ‘How did you know?’
‘How did I know?’ asked Mr Fanshawe with a slightly bitter note. ‘My dear child, part of my job is to put a few elementary facts into the heads of young women. They all get over-wrought. Most of them cry. After that they cheer up.’
‘Do they fall in love with you, Charles?’
‘I regret to say they do. It means nothing. No woman in her senses would fall in love with me, but to adore one’s tutor, however old and ugly he may be, is part of a university career.’
Young men are so often dismissed as foolish and useless as long as they are school-aged that it was actually rather nice to see females being treated the same way – however uncomplimentary.
The only truly age-appropriate pairing of the book is between Margaret Tebben and Laurence Dean and the progression they follow is far more interesting than that of many of Thirkell’s youthful couples. Once they realise they are in love (which you never doubt they will), they become predictably silly, but the conflict that pushes their relationship forward (after Laurence’s singularly ill-considered, drunken proposal) brings up some fascinating issues. Margaret resents her lover’s careless generosity: the way he thoughtlessly provides all sorts of expensive foodstuffs for Tebbens’ dinner party, which they could never afford on their own; the way he forbids Margaret from looking for work as she needs to do…just his general obliviousness to the Tebbens’ financial situation and their pride. Laurence has some form of employment in the city but the Deans have never had to worry about money. Both Mr and Mrs Tebben work but can’t support both their adult children on what they make. Margaret, having just arrived home as the book begins, after having spent some time in Switzerland, has to face up to what her future holds:
There were careers and futures to think of. Richard must find a job. She must find a job too, if she could, though it wasn’t very easy for a girl who had no particular education. She could speak French and German fairly well, and cook a bit. That wasn’t going to get one anywhere. Probably it would just come to this: living at home, trying to be patient and good, helping daddy perhaps by looking things up or doing some typing, helping mummy in the house…
Margaret’s anxiety about her future hits a sombre note, even though the reader is confident that a suitable marriage will see her well-provided for at the novel’s end.
Really though, August Folly is about siblings. The Deans come into the neighbourhood to be near Mrs Dean’s brother. Young Robin and Susan Dean liven up the novel with their marvellous camaraderie and exuberant antics. Richard and Margaret Tebben, as they are tossed in love, are able to trust and confide in one another, as well as share the burden of such embarrassing parents. And, of course, there are Laurence and Helen Dean. Poor Helen is distraught to realise her special brother (as opposed to the many others) has found someone else to confide in and, though she loves Margaret, she struggles to adjust to the change in her relationship with Laurence, knowing she’ll lose her closest friend once he marries. Laurence, rather rudely, seems to be completely oblivious to all this and takes his sister’s affection for granted, hardly considering the change that his marriage will force. I’m always impressed by and drawn to the strong family relationships Thirkell includes in her novels. While the romantic pairings mostly serve to amuse, it is the parent-and-child bonds and the sibling loyalties that bring some reality into her stories; her comments on these relationships are the ones that make me stop and say ‘yes, that is exactly how it is’ or ‘yes, I’ve felt that way thousands of times’. She always writes amusingly but her observational humour about families is, I think, her best.
There are a number of Jane Austen allusions, which are always welcome, not to mention some truly excellent scenes between the Tebben family’s donkey and cat, who provide commentary on the family’s goings on. Of all the secondary characters that appear, Betty Dean, another of the Dean children, was an unexpected highlight. Serious and scholarly, desperate to be off to university, Betty is amusing but also heart-wrenching in her earnestness and it was hard not to feel delighted when she found like-minded souls more indulgent of her intellectual eagerness than her family. All in all, I was delighted by August Folly, finding it a highly amusing novel, full of entertaining characters and clever asides. Another wonderful encounter with Thirkell!
Jolly good! Apropos Richard’s disconcertion at hearing Mrs Dean’s age, you might take a look at Elizabeth von Arnim’s Love, which works out what happens when a younger man and older woman actually marry.
Love is certainly on my TBR list, though not because I have any interest in the older woman-young man topic (I don’t) so much as because I love von Arnim!
It pleases me to no end to learn that someone else has notonly discovered Mrs. Thirkell, but likes her so much, and, Claire, may I add, writes so very, very well about the novels!
I love the point about sibling relationships!
I like her so much, Tom! I only started reading Thirkell in January 2011 (beginning with Wild Strawberries) but I was an immediate and violent convert and now I can’t stop going on about her! It’s been difficult to track down some of her books but I’m slowly building my collection and having a wonderful time doing so.
I really want to read this! English country life (especially when brought to life with with and humour) back in time is terribly appealing to me. And, not to judge a book by its cover, but I do love the cover art 😉
If that’s the case, Lucy, I think you’d love Thirkell! And isn’t the cover fun? Ironically, Carroll & Graf (which published this edition) also issued some of the most absurd Thirkell editions, with Victorian/Edwardian cover illustrations on 1930s/1940s novels. Hideous stuff, though at least the text is undamaged (as opposed to the awful, error-filled Moyer Bell editions). I have a couple since I’ll take just about anything, Thirkell being very difficult to track down in my part of the world, but I just cannot understand how they came to pair those books with those images!
This is my favourite Thirkell so far and your review is beautiful. The exchanges between cat and donkey could have been excruciating but were instead masterly, and Margaret Tebben’s situation particularly brings a realism to the hearty of the novel that makes it something special. I think Thirkell is easier to find in the U.S than she is in the U.K but Virago are reprinting a couple late this year so perhaps she will have a moment and be properly rediscovered.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the review, especially since this is your favourite Thirkell! I too was thrilled when I found out that Virago were reprinting two of the early Barsetshire books and desperately hope more people will start reading her and all that eventually all the books will be reprinted. The only place I’ve had any success finding old Thirkells in volume was in the US (I haven’t been able to find much in Canada) at Powell’s Books in Portland. Given that they claim to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world, you’d certainly hope to find them there!
[…] but what I am most excited about right now are the three titles they are releasing in May 2014: August Folly, Summer Half, and The […]
[…] has arrived! Yesterday, Virago released their three new Angela Thirkell titles: Summer Half, August Folly, and The Brandons. The Brandons is as charming as Lavinia Brandon herself, August Folly delights […]
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[…] have weakened me. I do think she’s good, though if we are roasting her I will add that August Folly was rotten and I couldn’t get through […]