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Here Are Lovers
Bored and frustrated with the restricted life of a Victorian young lady, Laetitia—the beautiful and bookish daughter of the local Anglicized Squire Wingfield—encounters the romance she longs for when she becomes lost during a clandestine nighttime ride and is rescued by Gronwy Griffitch, the son of a Welsh tenant farmer. Attempting to assist Gronwy’s ambitions to become a classical scholar by lending him books from her father’s library, Laetitia becomes increasingly aware of her own disempowerment and the passionate desires that drive her into a love affair with him. Their secret meetings are paralleled with the tender relationship developing between Gronwy’s brother Peter and another local farmer’s daughter, Elizabeth Evans. After Gronwy is imprisoned for inciting a riot at the local by-election, the narrative moves inexorably towards its tragic ending. Demonstrating how both Gronwy and Laetitia are trapped, one by class, the other by gender, this historical novel explores the ways in which these roles intersect with nationality in 19th-century Wales.
308 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
190 people want to read
About the author
Hilda Vaughan
14 books1 followerHilda Vaughan was a Welsh novelist writing in English. She was a descendant of Henry Vaughan and was married to novelist Charles Morgan.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 24, 2015
A brilliant novel...the story of Gronwy Griffith’s attempts to get an education and change class has obvious parallels with that of Jude in Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure. Gronwy’s family ekes out a meagre existence on a Welsh hillside, but Gronwy dreams of becoming a parson. The family are so poor they can’t afford to buy books, but a chance meeting with the squire’s daughter, Laetitia, opens up new possibilities for Gronwy when she agrees to lend him books.
While Gronwy is trapped by his poverty and lowly status, Laetitia is imprisoned by her gender and social position. She can call nothing her own; the horse she rides, her clothes, even the books she lends Gronwy are her father’s. She can barely call her time her own: every evening she must sit through interminable dinners.
Gronwy and Laetitia inhabit different worlds: he is a Welshman living in the power of an English squire who wants to eradicate the Welsh language and culture, and she is the squire’s daughter and is expected to behave accordingly. But what draws them together is more powerful than the social gulf that divides them. Both Gronwy and Laetitia are misunderstood by their peers, and this shared sense of not belonging is the germ of a passion that has tragic consequences for the lovers and their families.
Much more than a tale of star-crossed novels, Here Are Lovers is a razor-sharp dissection of power and politics: the power of patriarchy over women; of wealthy men over the impoverished; of the English squirearchy over the Welsh peasantry. A terrible struggle is chronicled in its pages – a struggle in which both sides suffer. It is against the background of this universal tragedy that the tragedy of the two lovers is played out in a story told with sensitivity and compassion. As one of the characters says, “ ’Tis the little small differences atween folk as do make them able to harden their hearts one against another. But if you were onst to see the great big likenesses o’all human folk, you ’ouldn’t be able to hate your enemies no more”. It is the denial of this truth that condemns Gronwy’s and Laetitia’s love, and perpetuates enmities.
It’s a beautifully written book, with some memorable characters and a compelling story, and I absolutely loved it. I hope Honno publish some more of Hilda Vaughan’s work.
While Gronwy is trapped by his poverty and lowly status, Laetitia is imprisoned by her gender and social position. She can call nothing her own; the horse she rides, her clothes, even the books she lends Gronwy are her father’s. She can barely call her time her own: every evening she must sit through interminable dinners.
Gronwy and Laetitia inhabit different worlds: he is a Welshman living in the power of an English squire who wants to eradicate the Welsh language and culture, and she is the squire’s daughter and is expected to behave accordingly. But what draws them together is more powerful than the social gulf that divides them. Both Gronwy and Laetitia are misunderstood by their peers, and this shared sense of not belonging is the germ of a passion that has tragic consequences for the lovers and their families.
Much more than a tale of star-crossed novels, Here Are Lovers is a razor-sharp dissection of power and politics: the power of patriarchy over women; of wealthy men over the impoverished; of the English squirearchy over the Welsh peasantry. A terrible struggle is chronicled in its pages – a struggle in which both sides suffer. It is against the background of this universal tragedy that the tragedy of the two lovers is played out in a story told with sensitivity and compassion. As one of the characters says, “ ’Tis the little small differences atween folk as do make them able to harden their hearts one against another. But if you were onst to see the great big likenesses o’all human folk, you ’ouldn’t be able to hate your enemies no more”. It is the denial of this truth that condemns Gronwy’s and Laetitia’s love, and perpetuates enmities.
It’s a beautifully written book, with some memorable characters and a compelling story, and I absolutely loved it. I hope Honno publish some more of Hilda Vaughan’s work.
January 3, 2013
This reissued novel of 1926 was pretty good, though I think it possibly fits in more with other novels of the same era around the Awfulness That Was The Life of the Victorian Upperclass Girl Destined For The Marriage Market (which makes me think that in the 1920s people were probably getting romantic about the Victorians the way people get romantic about the 1950s now, and that Delafield etc were keen to undercut that, stat) than the historical novelists the intro positions Vaughan among. Okay, like Naomi Mitchison Vaughan also has the colonial culture-clash narrative going on (English squirearchy in Wales), but it's really more, to me, at least in the Laetitia narrative, related to novels like Delafield's Thank Heaven Fasting/aka A Good Man's Love, though Laetitia is less of a wet drip than Monica. However, her head is stuffed with poetry and romance, and, even allowing for class difference, she has certain Elfine Starkadder tendencies.
I was a bit stunned at the melodrama of the ending - while realising that the relationship between Laetitia and Gronwy, the aspiring intellectual son of a tenant farmer, was going to end badly, I didn't foresee quite how badly and I'm not sure it works.
However, I give massive plus points for having several differentiated women characters in differing social positions who all have their own characters and agendas, even if Betty is just a bit the Welsh peasant version of the Angel in the House with a touch of the Earth Mother. Vaughan was married to a writer notorious even in his day for presenting women as fascinating mysterious beautiful enigmas (the Irene Forsyte syndrome), but he doesn't seem to have learnt anything from her.
I would certainly read anything else by Hilda Vaughan I could get my hands on.
I was a bit stunned at the melodrama of the ending - while realising that the relationship between Laetitia and Gronwy, the aspiring intellectual son of a tenant farmer, was going to end badly, I didn't foresee quite how badly and I'm not sure it works.
However, I give massive plus points for having several differentiated women characters in differing social positions who all have their own characters and agendas, even if Betty is just a bit the Welsh peasant version of the Angel in the House with a touch of the Earth Mother. Vaughan was married to a writer notorious even in his day for presenting women as fascinating mysterious beautiful enigmas (the Irene Forsyte syndrome), but he doesn't seem to have learnt anything from her.
I would certainly read anything else by Hilda Vaughan I could get my hands on.
March 3, 2024
With love hearts strewn around every corner, romance in February can be a toe-curling month for a cynical reader like myself. Here Are Lovers, by Hilda Vaughan offered the perfect compromise with a tragic love story woven around revolution, politics and the Welsh countryside.
Hilda Vaughan, similar to Jane Austen, writes about people and Here Are Lovers is very much a social dissection of Welsh life in the 19th Century. By slicing into the lives of rich and poor, the reader gets to experience an all encompassing narrative on Welsh culture, tackling issues of women’s rights and political ideology that is largely overlooked by better known classics.
Laetitia Wingfield is the independently-minded, book-loving, squire’s daughter who sparks a romance with Gronwy Griffiths an impoverished would-be scholar. Their relationship is doomed from the start as both suffer at the result of their station; Laetitia because she is a woman and Gronwy because he is both poor and intelligent. And yet their mutual love of books continually draws them together despite warnings from their respective families.
In the surrounding farmlands, Peter Griffiths, Gronwy’s brother, offers a witty and world-weary narrative. He, like the rest of Gronwy’s family, have identified Gronwy’s chance at a better life and work themselves hard to try and give him the income he needs to move up the social ladder. All the while his neighbour Elizabeth is waiting for Peter to seize something for himself and marry her. In the squire’s house, Laetitia’s brother Charles is embarking on a long courting dance with his cousin Lucy. This dance has to be carefully navigated around his aunt and father and is threatened when Laetitia shames their family name. Each romance is uniquely different and pitted with dramatic twists as the story continues.
What readers might find most interesting however, is the undercurrent of revolution that rattles through the narrative from several of the characters. The squire, a man rooted in traditional English politics, spends much of the book concerned about a new wave of political reform that poses to ruin him, while his son—much to his frustration—seems more open to embracing change. In the farmhouses there is talk about fairness and righteousness that challenges their situation. In Gronwy is there is an activism that sees him getting arrested. And in Laetitia there is an ideology of female freedom that, at least in this story, seems wild and distant.
Hilda Vaughan, similar to Jane Austen, writes about people and Here Are Lovers is very much a social dissection of Welsh life in the 19th Century. By slicing into the lives of rich and poor, the reader gets to experience an all encompassing narrative on Welsh culture, tackling issues of women’s rights and political ideology that is largely overlooked by better known classics.
Laetitia Wingfield is the independently-minded, book-loving, squire’s daughter who sparks a romance with Gronwy Griffiths an impoverished would-be scholar. Their relationship is doomed from the start as both suffer at the result of their station; Laetitia because she is a woman and Gronwy because he is both poor and intelligent. And yet their mutual love of books continually draws them together despite warnings from their respective families.
In the surrounding farmlands, Peter Griffiths, Gronwy’s brother, offers a witty and world-weary narrative. He, like the rest of Gronwy’s family, have identified Gronwy’s chance at a better life and work themselves hard to try and give him the income he needs to move up the social ladder. All the while his neighbour Elizabeth is waiting for Peter to seize something for himself and marry her. In the squire’s house, Laetitia’s brother Charles is embarking on a long courting dance with his cousin Lucy. This dance has to be carefully navigated around his aunt and father and is threatened when Laetitia shames their family name. Each romance is uniquely different and pitted with dramatic twists as the story continues.
What readers might find most interesting however, is the undercurrent of revolution that rattles through the narrative from several of the characters. The squire, a man rooted in traditional English politics, spends much of the book concerned about a new wave of political reform that poses to ruin him, while his son—much to his frustration—seems more open to embracing change. In the farmhouses there is talk about fairness and righteousness that challenges their situation. In Gronwy is there is an activism that sees him getting arrested. And in Laetitia there is an ideology of female freedom that, at least in this story, seems wild and distant.
July 16, 2024
I don’t believe in ghosts. I don’t really believe in luck, despite losing the lot and receiving the smallest bedrooms (cupboards) in my uni flats two years running - fuck Edinburgh flats and they’re weird 19th century design plans. But, this book confirms my feeling that those damp, lonely Welsh valleys are haunted.
I have no proof. I’m guided by stories, such as this, which are barely even read any more. Parts of Here Are Lovers felt more like mystery than romance, trying to decipher the longing for earth and a love which was bound to the land. It felt quite distant, as if the lovers were hardly there. They roamed far beyond the walls of text, straying from prying eyes. We were only ever intruding. Drifting into the stream, unseen in their final meeting, the author let the pair fade into their own depths. Leaving the reader to linger in a now duller reality yet, forever cautious, as if such a love could stumble upon anyone of us.
I have no proof. I’m guided by stories, such as this, which are barely even read any more. Parts of Here Are Lovers felt more like mystery than romance, trying to decipher the longing for earth and a love which was bound to the land. It felt quite distant, as if the lovers were hardly there. They roamed far beyond the walls of text, straying from prying eyes. We were only ever intruding. Drifting into the stream, unseen in their final meeting, the author let the pair fade into their own depths. Leaving the reader to linger in a now duller reality yet, forever cautious, as if such a love could stumble upon anyone of us.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews