What do you think?
Rate this book
Thunder on the Left
This is antiquarian book contains Christopher Morley's 1925 novel, 'Thunder on the Left'. This beautifully written and masterful piece of mystery fiction was a best-seller upon its original release. With its rich language and interior monologues, it is highly reminiscent of the writings of Virginia Woolf. Morley explores maturity, individual growth, and human nature in this gripping volume that is not to be missed by fans and collectors of his work. Christopher Morley (1890 - 1957), was an American novelist, poet, and journalist best known for his true American wit. Some of his better known works were 'Parnassus on Wheels' and 'The Haunted Bookshop'. We are republishing this vintage book now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.
292 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1925
6 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Morley
371 books192 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
American writer Christopher Darlington Morley founded the Saturday Review, from 1924 to 1940 edited it, and prolifically, most notably authored popular novels.
Christopher Morley, a journalist, essayist, and poet, also produced on stage for a few years and gave college lectures.
American writer Christopher Darlington Morley founded the Saturday Review, from 1924 to 1940 edited it, and prolifically, most notably authored popular novels.
Christopher Morley, a journalist, essayist, and poet, also produced on stage for a few years and gave college lectures.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 26, 2025
Initially I was very taken with this novel mixing stream-of-consciousness technique with a supernatural element, but my interest started waning about 2/3 into the story. George, who works in advertising, and his beautiful wife Phyllis have rented a house somewhere on the New England coast for a quiet summer with their 3 small daughters. Coincidentally, Phyllis visited the house when it belonged to the Richmond family, who gave it up when their daughter died. Although George and Phyllis still love and desire each other, the little tensions of daily life often escalate into rows between them. For their annual picnic, George has invited 2 of Phyllis's childhood friends, Ben and Ruth, as well as an artist with whom he has fallen in love, Joyce, who also belonged to the same group of friends. Uninvited, an odd guy called Martin shows up and is coopted by the couple and especially Phyllis who feels immediately attracted to him. The novel follows this small set of characters as they come to terms with the fears and disillusionments of advancing years. Martin, who has retained a child's outlook on life as a result of a birthday wish he made in the first chapter, unwittingly helps the others to assess where they are and what they really want. The framework of a house party, complete with artists, on the eve of a ritual eagerly anticipated by children and mostly dreaded by adults, is eerily close to the set-up of "To the Lighthouse" which came out 2 years later. The novel is richly atmospheric and I can't quite put my finger on why I found the ending wanting. Somehow the musings of the characters on life and love become repetitive after a while and the resolution isn't nearly as cathartic as that of Woolf's novel.
May 12, 2013
So glad to be done with this. The action could have fit into 30 pages. The angst was off the charts. Kind of interested in the idea that being a grown up sucks, but I'm pretty sure that these people didn't have to suck as much as they did. Plus, it seems like that was put across in the first 20 pages, so did we need the other 250?
October 4, 2020
Romanzo curioso e interessante, alla moda degli anni Venti (ricorda molto Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh e Rosamond Lehmann; Morley era americano ma aveva studiato a Oxford, e si sente). Un gruppo di bambini si chiede com’è essere adulti e si propone di infiltrarsi come spie nel mondo dei grandi: uno di loro lo farà davvero, trovandosi come per incanto nel corpo di un adulto, venticinque anni dopo, fra i propri amici cresciuti, e divenuti genitori a loro volta; amici che si dibattono fra gioie e dolori, nella stessa vecchia casa in riva al mare, piena d’atmosfera.
Lettura piacevole, ma non imprescindibile.
Lettura piacevole, ma non imprescindibile.
June 4, 2023
Mix a light fantasy with a touch of ghost story and throw in lots of deep thoughts about adulthood, love, and life, and you get Thunder on the Left. Morley's language often veers into fascinating metaphorical imagery, which sometimes succeeds in supporting the atmosphere of impending doom, and sometimes leaves the reader confused. Take for instance this passage, which I found both beautiful and confusing:
"For life is all one piece, of endless pattern. No stitch in the vast fabric can be unravelled without risking the whole tapestry. It is the garment woven without seams."
Then there is this, which is easier to make sense of:
"Life is a foreign language: all men mispronounce it"
While the language is beautiful, there is little action, and most pages are taken up with the internal thoughts of the group of characters over a weekend gathering leading up to a frightful, culminating moment. The quick denouement which follows is haunting in its own right, but this may be lost on readers who don't have the patience or determination to slog through the gradual build up to reach it.
"For life is all one piece, of endless pattern. No stitch in the vast fabric can be unravelled without risking the whole tapestry. It is the garment woven without seams."
Then there is this, which is easier to make sense of:
"Life is a foreign language: all men mispronounce it"
While the language is beautiful, there is little action, and most pages are taken up with the internal thoughts of the group of characters over a weekend gathering leading up to a frightful, culminating moment. The quick denouement which follows is haunting in its own right, but this may be lost on readers who don't have the patience or determination to slog through the gradual build up to reach it.
October 16, 2019
I like Christopher Morley's writing. It reminds me of Fitzgerald (maybe it was just the style then), but whereas Fitzgerald's flowery language and unconventional metaphors enliven his ideas, Morley seems to use his figurative excursions to cover up the fact that he doesn't really know how to effectively say what he's trying to say.
I didn't understand the point of this story. I feel like there's a bit of a moral or a cautionary tale or a message to be gleaned from this story, but the best I could detect was "it's better to be a kid because you don't see how messy and dreary the world is," but that idea is neither new nor told here in an elucidating way. But, as is often the case, I suspect I might just be missing something.
Like I said, though, I like Morley's writing, and if I stumble upon another old copy of one of his books, I'll give it a shot.
I didn't understand the point of this story. I feel like there's a bit of a moral or a cautionary tale or a message to be gleaned from this story, but the best I could detect was "it's better to be a kid because you don't see how messy and dreary the world is," but that idea is neither new nor told here in an elucidating way. But, as is often the case, I suspect I might just be missing something.
Like I said, though, I like Morley's writing, and if I stumble upon another old copy of one of his books, I'll give it a shot.
April 16, 2015
My introduction to Morley. Wonderful use of language to describe scenes and characters. Sophisticated and adult, the story builds from a light to dark mood seamlessly, with a haunting finish.
January 12, 2022
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child...." This is a story of passages, of critical moments. It opens
and closes with the same birthday party for Martin, who is the center of attention and instigator of
games that include spying on and criticizing the adults in another room. Intelligence gathered shows the grown-ups guilty of the very sins they scold their children for, like reaching across a table for another cake, crossing legs, smacking lips, putting elbows on the table, and "chomping"! Who would want to be like that? (Perhaps THEY'RE playing a game, Martin thinks.) Discussion turns to what
benefits come with age. Phyllis, having reached thirteen, reasons they'll all find out in time.
The central section of the book shows several of the same characters now quite aware of what there was to find out. Phyllis and George, married with three daughters, have rented the same seaside
house that was the setting for Martin's birthday party years before. Their children eagerly await a
picnic, to which have been invited the self-satisfied Ruth and Ben, laconic commentators who pro-
vide gossip and grunts and have taken to heart Ruth's childhood aversion to parenting. Miss Clyde
(Joyce) is an artist from the city, who is to do the graphics featured in a travel brochure George is writing for his ad agency. It is Joyce whose interior monologue encapsulates the dynamic of this
beautiful bittersweet book about "the eternal collision between life as dreamed and life as encountered."
Phyllis would be the perfect hostess, wife, and mother--gracious, lovely, and loving. But the honey-
moon is over, the picnic impends, and the house has limited capacity. And needs repairs. George,
preoccupied by procrastination and the distractions of the seven-year-itch, anticipates an (incredibly
misbegotten) tryst with kindred spirit Joyce. And then there appears on the eve of the reunion the
improbable-but-inescapable catalyst, Martin. An attractive man asking often disconcertingly naive
questions, to Phyllis he seems poetic savant; to George, freeloading Svengali; to the children, too-
ticklish-to-be-flensed Moby Dick. To Joyce, the overwound clockwork mouse she gave him years ago,
safely inert with the bobtailed trio beneath the old wallpaper in the former nursery. To Bunny, big
brother too brave beyond borders, gerascophobic chrononaut, to go back.
The climax comes as Joyce is pleading (as had just-limned sister Bunny before she faded at the shore)
with Martin to go back, to avoid becoming "just like all of them." Ironically, "they" have had a cathartic night. The children are quite overcome. In their ardor, they stress the upstairs guardrail,
which breaks, and they fall.
Back at the birthday party, the blown-out candles still trail wisps of smoke, recalling (or prefiguring)
Ben's cigar, George's pipe. Kids and their raincoats and rubbers are being gathered to go. The simple
presence of grown-ups dampens the contentious mood overall, but not for Martin. He challenges his
mother to declare whether adults have fun. She deflects the question as absurd. He concludes with
passion, they do not tell the truth. They are all liars.
and closes with the same birthday party for Martin, who is the center of attention and instigator of
games that include spying on and criticizing the adults in another room. Intelligence gathered shows the grown-ups guilty of the very sins they scold their children for, like reaching across a table for another cake, crossing legs, smacking lips, putting elbows on the table, and "chomping"! Who would want to be like that? (Perhaps THEY'RE playing a game, Martin thinks.) Discussion turns to what
benefits come with age. Phyllis, having reached thirteen, reasons they'll all find out in time.
The central section of the book shows several of the same characters now quite aware of what there was to find out. Phyllis and George, married with three daughters, have rented the same seaside
house that was the setting for Martin's birthday party years before. Their children eagerly await a
picnic, to which have been invited the self-satisfied Ruth and Ben, laconic commentators who pro-
vide gossip and grunts and have taken to heart Ruth's childhood aversion to parenting. Miss Clyde
(Joyce) is an artist from the city, who is to do the graphics featured in a travel brochure George is writing for his ad agency. It is Joyce whose interior monologue encapsulates the dynamic of this
beautiful bittersweet book about "the eternal collision between life as dreamed and life as encountered."
Phyllis would be the perfect hostess, wife, and mother--gracious, lovely, and loving. But the honey-
moon is over, the picnic impends, and the house has limited capacity. And needs repairs. George,
preoccupied by procrastination and the distractions of the seven-year-itch, anticipates an (incredibly
misbegotten) tryst with kindred spirit Joyce. And then there appears on the eve of the reunion the
improbable-but-inescapable catalyst, Martin. An attractive man asking often disconcertingly naive
questions, to Phyllis he seems poetic savant; to George, freeloading Svengali; to the children, too-
ticklish-to-be-flensed Moby Dick. To Joyce, the overwound clockwork mouse she gave him years ago,
safely inert with the bobtailed trio beneath the old wallpaper in the former nursery. To Bunny, big
brother too brave beyond borders, gerascophobic chrononaut, to go back.
The climax comes as Joyce is pleading (as had just-limned sister Bunny before she faded at the shore)
with Martin to go back, to avoid becoming "just like all of them." Ironically, "they" have had a cathartic night. The children are quite overcome. In their ardor, they stress the upstairs guardrail,
which breaks, and they fall.
Back at the birthday party, the blown-out candles still trail wisps of smoke, recalling (or prefiguring)
Ben's cigar, George's pipe. Kids and their raincoats and rubbers are being gathered to go. The simple
presence of grown-ups dampens the contentious mood overall, but not for Martin. He challenges his
mother to declare whether adults have fun. She deflects the question as absurd. He concludes with
passion, they do not tell the truth. They are all liars.
May 28, 2007
This was a really great novel about infidelity and growing up. It had some interesting plot twists I couldn't predict and beautiful imagery and he used a number of vocabulary words that my wife and I didn't know. And that doesn't happen all that often. I want to read more Morley now.
February 11, 2011
I really like his poetry and stories. He captures childhood with a very melancholy accuracy that only age and love can provide.
August 13, 2011
I honestly don't know why I love this book so much, but I do. There are fey bits and obscure bits, but all the characters work for me on so many levels.
December 12, 2023
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
Thunder On The Left has become a favourite book, author Christopher Morley a new sought after author. I have a copy of his famous novel The Haunted Bookshop (signed!) and his controversial novel Kitty Foyle, but when I stumbled upon this perfect condition 1925 hardcover, it thrilled my unbelieving eyes. Book lovers know what I am talking about. In fine cursive on the flyleaf: "Mabel, from Lou, Christmas 1928"
Now that the children were getting big, the party games they create have changed.
It's Martin's birthday with friends Ruth, Ben, Phyllis, Joyce and Bunny. The mysterious world of Grown Ups is reflected when they play "Stern Parents" (each pretending to be a parent talking about their terrible children), or "Quarrelsome Children" (where you must speak Very Seriously and forbid things). The children spy on the adults in the other room - the thrilling and exciting other world of Parents. Are they playing a game as well? Before the children can infiltrate the enemy camp and decide if they should Take Steps to always remain as young as they are, the party is over.
Twenty years later, Phyllis is married to George. To please her he has rented the beach house on Long Island, site of that summer party, and invited her childhood friends. Ruth and Ben are married, and Joyce is an artist working with George on a transit brochure. They are also having an affair.
Into this mix arrives a stranger to them, unrecognized by the others. A mysterious figure, he lets them think what they like, each believing he was invited by the other. Phyllis is enamoured with his naive charm and falls a little in love. The odd feeling I had that he was a spectral figure was added to by his being the only one to see Bunny, previously deceased, holding her hand on the beach only to look down and see his palm held a shell. Morley delves deeply into the inner life of each character and their feelings on the trappings of adulthood, the stunted marriages and the thrill of new affairs. The stranger oversees all these characters and holds the key - a secret he begins to reveal to Joyce - a secret for them all.
At once mysterious and fantastic, this had me hooked. The characters and his examination of them is heartfelt and insightful. Phyllis and Joyce are standouts, both in relationships with George who is a cad, both opposite examples of the modern woman of 1925. The stranger remained elusive and his presence kept me guessing. This is about adult lives and the childhood freedoms we leave behind. Morley captured me as a reader and I finished the last page I wanted to read it straight through again. I immediately bought three more of his novels. Although I have read a few other novels after this, it really spoiled me as any really enjoyable book will do.
One of my all time favourites. A total pleasure.
Thunder On The Left has become a favourite book, author Christopher Morley a new sought after author. I have a copy of his famous novel The Haunted Bookshop (signed!) and his controversial novel Kitty Foyle, but when I stumbled upon this perfect condition 1925 hardcover, it thrilled my unbelieving eyes. Book lovers know what I am talking about. In fine cursive on the flyleaf: "Mabel, from Lou, Christmas 1928"
Now that the children were getting big, the party games they create have changed.
It's Martin's birthday with friends Ruth, Ben, Phyllis, Joyce and Bunny. The mysterious world of Grown Ups is reflected when they play "Stern Parents" (each pretending to be a parent talking about their terrible children), or "Quarrelsome Children" (where you must speak Very Seriously and forbid things). The children spy on the adults in the other room - the thrilling and exciting other world of Parents. Are they playing a game as well? Before the children can infiltrate the enemy camp and decide if they should Take Steps to always remain as young as they are, the party is over.
Twenty years later, Phyllis is married to George. To please her he has rented the beach house on Long Island, site of that summer party, and invited her childhood friends. Ruth and Ben are married, and Joyce is an artist working with George on a transit brochure. They are also having an affair.
Into this mix arrives a stranger to them, unrecognized by the others. A mysterious figure, he lets them think what they like, each believing he was invited by the other. Phyllis is enamoured with his naive charm and falls a little in love. The odd feeling I had that he was a spectral figure was added to by his being the only one to see Bunny, previously deceased, holding her hand on the beach only to look down and see his palm held a shell. Morley delves deeply into the inner life of each character and their feelings on the trappings of adulthood, the stunted marriages and the thrill of new affairs. The stranger oversees all these characters and holds the key - a secret he begins to reveal to Joyce - a secret for them all.
At once mysterious and fantastic, this had me hooked. The characters and his examination of them is heartfelt and insightful. Phyllis and Joyce are standouts, both in relationships with George who is a cad, both opposite examples of the modern woman of 1925. The stranger remained elusive and his presence kept me guessing. This is about adult lives and the childhood freedoms we leave behind. Morley captured me as a reader and I finished the last page I wanted to read it straight through again. I immediately bought three more of his novels. Although I have read a few other novels after this, it really spoiled me as any really enjoyable book will do.
One of my all time favourites. A total pleasure.
July 14, 2024
Some books make you feel annoyed and angry, this was one of them. A waste of time. I haven’t felt more angrier reading a book before. The book is awful. Author seems to be pretentious; he uses unwanted heavy words when its not required. He goes into unwanted details, adding to that, the Story being a disaster. I was about to tear the book and throw it in the dustbin but I didn’t. Worst read of my life. I wish there was an option to give negative stars. For now, its one star.👎
January 9, 2025
Great premise but very wordy. I suppose the words create a dreamlike quality but a bit of a plod. Still hoping there was a happy ending !
February 17, 2025
Published in 1925, this tale remains entertaining as it uniquely mixes a handful of characters together.
May 11, 2016
Il libro in sé non mi è dispiaciuto, ma accidenti non è quello che mi aspettavo avendo letto la quarta di copertina!
Lo spunto è interessante e anche le considerazioni degli adulti sulla loro vita da adulti, su quello che alla fine sono rispetto a quello che si immaginavano sarebbe stato da bambini. Però mi ha depistato parecchio.
Un personaggio su tutti non ho capito: Martino. Non ho capito questo suo modo di essere da grande, ma soprattutto il suo "contatto" con l'infanzia. Forse é un malato mentale? E' una metafora?
La copia che ho io è veramente datata così come la traduzione. Mi è piaciuta molto la vecchia casa in cui si svolge il romanzo, un po' come la casa di "Gita al faro" (questa mia considerazione è solo a "sensazione" perché il libro della Wolf l'ho letto anni fa) e come una casa al lago che frequentavo da ragazza.
Lo spunto è interessante e anche le considerazioni degli adulti sulla loro vita da adulti, su quello che alla fine sono rispetto a quello che si immaginavano sarebbe stato da bambini. Però mi ha depistato parecchio.
Un personaggio su tutti non ho capito: Martino. Non ho capito questo suo modo di essere da grande, ma soprattutto il suo "contatto" con l'infanzia. Forse é un malato mentale? E' una metafora?
La copia che ho io è veramente datata così come la traduzione. Mi è piaciuta molto la vecchia casa in cui si svolge il romanzo, un po' come la casa di "Gita al faro" (questa mia considerazione è solo a "sensazione" perché il libro della Wolf l'ho letto anni fa) e come una casa al lago che frequentavo da ragazza.
January 12, 2013
[WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.]
Morley's writing is beautiful to the point of being poetic - the sort of book from which one might jot down quotes for later inspiration.
However, the meat of the story was oddly disconnected from its introduction and conclusion and this left me a bit confused. Was it all supposed to have taken place in Martin's imagination? If so, what was Bunny's role in his fantasy? Why could only he and Joyce see her? Furthermore, why would a child aged ten be so concerned with unrequited love? I was somewhat disappointed that most of the book turned out to be centered on uninteresting love triangles.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2015
I would give the quality of the writing a four. I wasn't overly fond of the plot, but the writing was so good I finished the story.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews