Harriet Hume

 

Harriet Hume / Rebecca West
London: Virago, 1980, c1929.
288 p.

My goodness, what an odd read this was! Harriet Hume and Arnold Condorex are young and beautiful, and they've just spent the night together. But Harriet is a dedicated pianist and performer, while Arnold has his sights set on political power and riches. And remarkably, after their night together, Harriet can suddenly read Arnold's mind. The opening pages, and this conceit, seem to set up a quirky love story - but this isn't that. 

It reminded me in feel of the strangeness of  Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, or Charles Williams' All Hallows Eve, even if there aren't exactly the same elements to be found here. It was just the tone, the political content encroaching on the narrative, the slightly paranormal effect of Harriet's gift and how it infiltrates everything, and the ending.

Arnold leaves Harriet after their night together and progresses through life, sometimes jumping a decade or more between chapters. As he rises, he encounters Harriet intermittently, happily at first, then remembering the horror of her gift. And each time, she can see his thoughts that he's hidden even from himself, warning him of the outcomes like some kind of Cassandra. 

Despite his awful behaviour and lack of integrity, Harriet and Arnold seem to be linked inextricably. In some moments, Arnold can almost see a different life, one in which he and Harriet had married and had children and lived a normal middle class life, in a kind of wavering 'sliding doors' effect. But as it is, he keeps digging himself deeper into political schemes and debt and envy of those politicians who come from family and wealth and don't have to struggle like he does. 

I wanted to like this, but there is so much political content when Arnold is arguing his decisions to himself. I think you'd have to be a little better versed in English politics of the turn of the 20th century to get all the references and satire here. I ended up skimming much of that to get to the action, but there wasn't an awful lot of action. And the ending was surprising, although after a couple of pages of the last chapter I could see where she was going. 

Unusual, odd read, one I can't say I really loved, but I did appreciate the idea behind it, and there were some strong moments to enjoy. Overall not a big hit for me, though!