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Edens Lost
"Come to us," Mrs St. James had said.To seventeen-year-old Angus, alone, orphaned, restless, it is a tempting invitation. Talk of Hitler and war looms ominously in the air and Angus is bored with his dreary life in the city. Drawn by the fascination of the off-beat St. James family, he goes to live with them in the Blue Mountains.At first he is delighted and awed by his new friends, but graduallly the glamour fades and reality exposes their individual flaws.Over the years, the magnetism remains and it proves to be one from which he is unable, or unwilling, to escape.
- GenresFiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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About the author
Sumner Locke Elliott
30 books15 followersElliott was born in Sydney in 1917 to the writer Helena Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsia one day after his birth. Elliott was raised by his aunts, who had a fierce custody battle over him, fictionalized in Elliott's autobiographical novel, Careful, He Might Hear You. Elliott was educated at Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill, Sydney.
Elliott began acting and writing for radio during his teens, and showed signs of a promising career during his twenties before he was called for administrative military service in World War II. In 1948, Elliott relocated to the United States where he became a highly regarded television scriptwriter. As a fiercely intelligent and bold person, he made a name for himself, until the era of live television drama ended in the early 1960s.
Elliott remained in the United States for the remainder of his life, commencing a literary career in 1963 with his autobiographical novel "Careful He Might Hear You", which won the Miles Franklin Award and was subsequently made into a film. He published ten novels in total, several of which dealt with issues from his own childhood and experiences in Australia before the War. Although he increasingly developed a following among Australian readers, Elliott remained uncomfortable with his country of birth, in no small part due to his homosexuality, which had marked him out for difference during his youth. He spent his final years in New York City, dying of cancer in 1991.
For the final six years of his life, Elliott lived with the American writer Whitfield Cook. The two men had been close for several years, although the exact nature of their relationship has been disputed. Cook was a widower from a heterosexual marriage, however his most notable works included the homoerotic Alfred Hitchcock film "Strangers on a Train". Cook cared for Elliott until his death.
Elliott began acting and writing for radio during his teens, and showed signs of a promising career during his twenties before he was called for administrative military service in World War II. In 1948, Elliott relocated to the United States where he became a highly regarded television scriptwriter. As a fiercely intelligent and bold person, he made a name for himself, until the era of live television drama ended in the early 1960s.
Elliott remained in the United States for the remainder of his life, commencing a literary career in 1963 with his autobiographical novel "Careful He Might Hear You", which won the Miles Franklin Award and was subsequently made into a film. He published ten novels in total, several of which dealt with issues from his own childhood and experiences in Australia before the War. Although he increasingly developed a following among Australian readers, Elliott remained uncomfortable with his country of birth, in no small part due to his homosexuality, which had marked him out for difference during his youth. He spent his final years in New York City, dying of cancer in 1991.
For the final six years of his life, Elliott lived with the American writer Whitfield Cook. The two men had been close for several years, although the exact nature of their relationship has been disputed. Cook was a widower from a heterosexual marriage, however his most notable works included the homoerotic Alfred Hitchcock film "Strangers on a Train". Cook cared for Elliott until his death.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 2, 2022
This was an unexpected treasure. I had not read his work before. It is written in three parts ,Angus,Bea and Eve where each is the central character of that chapter, and they are chronological and each some decades apart.
Set in Sydney and the Blue Mountains during and after WW11 it initially charts the story of 18 y.o Angus, orphaned and offered a respite with Eve St James, a friend of his deceased mother, at her family’s partly bushfire burnt hotel in Medlow Bath. The characters he encounters are hugely eccentric,witty and intelligent and there are many interesting dynamics at play.
The Bea chapter details her life as a talented and prolific radio script writer D.K. Durfee. It seems she uses her inventive writing to escape from her otherwise unhappy and lonely life. It is profoundly sad, especially the last scene where she bids farewell to a US soldier after a brief intimate relationship.
In the last section we return to Eve and the highlight and for me the real gem here was the description of meeting Heath, her enigmatic husband and someone she not only devoted herself to but found that her whole being and character was determined by her desire to be with him. Powerful stuff.
Excellent writing.
Set in Sydney and the Blue Mountains during and after WW11 it initially charts the story of 18 y.o Angus, orphaned and offered a respite with Eve St James, a friend of his deceased mother, at her family’s partly bushfire burnt hotel in Medlow Bath. The characters he encounters are hugely eccentric,witty and intelligent and there are many interesting dynamics at play.
The Bea chapter details her life as a talented and prolific radio script writer D.K. Durfee. It seems she uses her inventive writing to escape from her otherwise unhappy and lonely life. It is profoundly sad, especially the last scene where she bids farewell to a US soldier after a brief intimate relationship.
In the last section we return to Eve and the highlight and for me the real gem here was the description of meeting Heath, her enigmatic husband and someone she not only devoted herself to but found that her whole being and character was determined by her desire to be with him. Powerful stuff.
Excellent writing.
September 25, 2020
Sumner Locke Elliott's third novel continues the career of a writer who was, in his time, vastly underrated, but who has aged poorly in some ways.
To the positive: Elliott's delicate shading of character is stronger here than in his previous two novels. Orphaned Angus journeys to the Blue Mountains to stay with the St James family, ruled over by cold fish Eve, the matriarch who has lost her youthful passion in favour of a cool detachment. Her daughter Stevie has inherited Eve's passion, but it is wasted on the beautiful young man she falls for, who is - unbeknownst to Stevie - gay. Elliott's first book, Careful He Might Hear You, had been a fictionalised version of his own childhood; here, Edens Lost feels like a sequel, telling the tale of young adults in love.
The interesting difference here is that, while the queer Marcus is clearly a stand-in for the author, Elliott is also to be found in the other St James daughter, Bea. Bea has hidden her desires for physical and emotional connection by retreating to her creative pursuits. She is writing for radio dramas, and gradually developing a career out of this. But her rational, intellectual point-of-view is challenged when she meets an American serviceman.
Edens Lost is an engaging read, and feels more purposeful than the forgettable second novel in the Elliott canon, Some Doves and Pythons. Still, fifty years after publication, it feels woefully archaic. I read a review that described the book as "strictly matinee entertainment", and I think that's the problem here. Elliott was an immensely talented and creative writer; he had made his name for years in radio serials and live television dramas, so he knew how to spin several plates before bringing them down together, and he knew how to conjure up engaging dialogue and plots. But - despite some fetching attempts at modernism - he is not a particularly literary writer. Most enervating of all is Elliott's habit of directing the reader to how dialogue is spoken. Words and sometimes individual syllables are italicised; the radio dramatist doesn't trust his own dialogue without an actor to interpret it! As a result, Edens Lost feels like a high-class airport novel. Of the three sections, the second - Bea's - is by far the most successful, clearly connecting to the writer's own sense of self.
This is the kind of novel to pass the time on a train journey or perhaps, better yet, on a rained-in weekend at a hotel with a partner you are secretly planning to abandon for a more attractive new lover. If you're not in that situation, though, don't worry about it.
To the positive: Elliott's delicate shading of character is stronger here than in his previous two novels. Orphaned Angus journeys to the Blue Mountains to stay with the St James family, ruled over by cold fish Eve, the matriarch who has lost her youthful passion in favour of a cool detachment. Her daughter Stevie has inherited Eve's passion, but it is wasted on the beautiful young man she falls for, who is - unbeknownst to Stevie - gay. Elliott's first book, Careful He Might Hear You, had been a fictionalised version of his own childhood; here, Edens Lost feels like a sequel, telling the tale of young adults in love.
The interesting difference here is that, while the queer Marcus is clearly a stand-in for the author, Elliott is also to be found in the other St James daughter, Bea. Bea has hidden her desires for physical and emotional connection by retreating to her creative pursuits. She is writing for radio dramas, and gradually developing a career out of this. But her rational, intellectual point-of-view is challenged when she meets an American serviceman.
Edens Lost is an engaging read, and feels more purposeful than the forgettable second novel in the Elliott canon, Some Doves and Pythons. Still, fifty years after publication, it feels woefully archaic. I read a review that described the book as "strictly matinee entertainment", and I think that's the problem here. Elliott was an immensely talented and creative writer; he had made his name for years in radio serials and live television dramas, so he knew how to spin several plates before bringing them down together, and he knew how to conjure up engaging dialogue and plots. But - despite some fetching attempts at modernism - he is not a particularly literary writer. Most enervating of all is Elliott's habit of directing the reader to how dialogue is spoken. Words and sometimes individual syllables are italicised; the radio dramatist doesn't trust his own dialogue without an actor to interpret it! As a result, Edens Lost feels like a high-class airport novel. Of the three sections, the second - Bea's - is by far the most successful, clearly connecting to the writer's own sense of self.
This is the kind of novel to pass the time on a train journey or perhaps, better yet, on a rained-in weekend at a hotel with a partner you are secretly planning to abandon for a more attractive new lover. If you're not in that situation, though, don't worry about it.
August 26, 2022
This was a weird read. The writing was really beautiful, but I had such a hard time figuring out what the point of the plot was.
Maybe this is just one of those you read for the beautiful prose and not for the well developed storyline.
Maybe this is just one of those you read for the beautiful prose and not for the well developed storyline.
January 25, 2013
The best part of this fascinating book is Part Two - "Bea" - a hidden gem inside what is an often hard read due to being a detailed study in human frailty expressed in ... well human frailty barely expressed. Nevertheless, it's a must-read. Elliott tackles a study of the chauvinistic foundations of western society and how it governs female expression. Perhaps it's because Bea is the character who fights it with the most pluck which makes Part Two so effective?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews