Four Gardens

Four Gardens / Margery Sharp
London: Dean St Press, 2021, c1935.
228 p.

Another book about a marriage; well, about a woman in a marriage, anyhow. Caroline Chase is a young woman of middle class standing, it's Edwardian England and she's 17, and makes her way into an abandoned garden which she adores. There she meets a rich young man, her age but of a much higher social class. They have a bit of a pash, but of course it will never go anywhere. When she realizes this, the garden is forever ruined for her, and she ends up soon after marrying the dull but dependable clerk Henry Smith. 

Her second garden is the small one in back of their townhouse, in which she barely has time to dig. She now has 2 young children and Henry is working all the time, raising himself up in the shoe factory where he's an office worker. He's so successful, especially as he expands into army boots as the war begins, that he becomes a partner. And their status grows. 

When the children are a bit older, their fortunes allow Henry to provide a large house on the Common, complete with large fancy gardens in which Caroline isn't allowed to potter - they have a gardener. This house belonged to Lady Tregarthan, and Caroline is petrified at first meeting her, when seeing if the house will suit. But Lady T is a doll and they get along splendidly. The Smith children, Leon and Lily, are used to prosperity, and they seem shockingly modern to the staid Caroline, still hanging on to her Edwardian values. The contrast is sharp. Their love affairs and struggles are so important to Caroline, even when she doesn't quite understand them. 

Caroline's fourth garden comes when Henry dies quite suddenly, leaving them nearly broke. They leave the big house - Leon and Lily to their own lives, and Caroline to a small apartment in the town in which she creates a balcony garden all of her own, and finally feels the peace and contentment she had been looking for all her life. Solitude, her own garden, and nobody needing her. Ah, perfection. 

This story is nostalgic, looking back at an earlier era (published in the 30s, it really shows the sudden shift in societal norms between Caroline's generation and that of her children). Caroline is sweet but really put upon, everyone expects her to be there for them and whatever they may need but not much thought is given to Caroline's needs. There are interesting side characters, in particular a whiny friend from her youth who she never quite shakes off, and of course Lady T. And a very obnoxious modernist painter who entangles Lily, but doesn't stick around. 

I thought this was a quieter read, a little less snappy and plot driven than some Sharp stories. Much more a study of a character and of a social setting. And I liked it a lot. Some interesting commentary, and as always, sharp insight into characters and class.