Down in the City

by Elizabeth Harrower, Delia Falconer (Introduction)

Stan had seldom seen Esther cry, and her tears had never gratified him more. They put her in the wrong, made his defection very understandable. At the same time, he complained, 'So this is the high-and-mighty thing I married!'

Esther Prescott has seen little of the world outside her family's Rose Bay mansion - until flashy Stan Peterson barges up the drive and into her life. Within a fortnight they are sharing his Kings Cross flat. Esther tries desperately to please him, but Stan - moody, manipulative, cruel - is bitterly resentful of her privilege.

First published in 1957, Down in the City announced Elizabeth Harrower as a major Australian writer. With an introduction by Delia Falconer.

Genres: Fiction, Australia, Audiobook, 20th Century, Novels, Literature

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Elizabeth Harrower is an Australian novelist and short story writer.

(from Wikipedia)

Elizabeth Harrower is regarded as one of Australia's most important postwar writers, and is enjoying a recent literary revival. Born in Sydney in 1928, her first novel, Down in the City, was published in 1957 and was followed by The Long Prospect (1958) and The Catherine Wheel (1960). Her most well-known work, The Watch Tower, was published in 1966 to huge acclaim. Four years later she finished In Certain Circles , but withdrew it before publication for reasons she has never publicly spoken of. The manuscript was rediscovered recently by her publisher who felt it should be published immediately. Harrower has since received rave reviews, including comparisons with Emile Zola and F Scott Fitzgerald.

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the introduction to Down in the City, Delia Falconer writes about women who find male aggression as a "call to arms". While reading Down in the City, one wonders how many women lived under the thumb of an oppressive husband in a male-dominated society. On a deeper level, one wonders why: complacency, the need for security, a Stockholm-syndrome attraction to the oppressor/abuser? Lamentably, there were probably many women (and still are), but in this book the focus is narrowed to one woman in particular: Esther Prescott.

Esther, who previously lived a sheltered life in one of Sydney's most elite suburbs, is dragged out of her Rose Bay slumber and into the melting pot of venality, hedonism and bohemia that is Sydney's Kings Cross thanks (or no thanks) to her self-made man Stan. Through their entanglement, we are introduced to an array of colourful characters, including the gaudy Vivian, a former (or still burning) flame of Stan's who works as a waitress in a bar. There is also a neighbour of Ester and Stan's, Laura Maitland. Laura is primarily concerned with good-manners and good-taste, and in her own way is also a victim of societal oppression but is blithely unaware of her circumstances, or perhaps unwilling to confront them. She is quite clearly a victim of the Women's Day and Good House Keeping magazines that so perfectly pander to women of this era.

In fact all of the characters in rotation in this novel, even the men, have fallen prey to that stifling anti-intellectual environment where everything is flashy, status-oriented and surface-driven, and thus Down in the City seems particularly relevant today in our ostentatious society where everything is about a facade. At the time of this book, even in progressive Sydney, gender roles must be fulfilled: Stan upholds his fragile masculinity at all costs, while Esther is conventionally ladylike: composed, calm, always standing by her man despite his obvious shortcomings and her own unhappiness. Stan attempts to cure his woes with sex and alcohol, yet always comes across as an unfulfilled person, while Esther probes her life with a curious graciousness, but is rarely, if ever, self-destructive.

I relished the opportunity to read this book in a time where the patriarchy seems to be slowly dismantling, and wonder what its female characters would have to say if they knew what was coming.

A bonus to Down in the City is the way Harrower evokes a post-war Sydney, when its Victorian heritage was still completely intact. One can only imagine how charming the city would have been in this era, before it was swamped by subpar, hastily finished building practises by investors and developers who care entirely about capital, and not at all about architectural merit. The setting seems to exist in that very narrow margin between a postwar conservatism, when Australia was undulating between British Empirical loyalty, and the burgeoning influence of American culture with its chintzy automobiles, discos, underground bars and dance-halls that some of the characters frequent.

Reading Harrower's books, particularly Down in the City, is like unearthing buried treasure and one marvels at how she flew under the radar for so long. Her prose is both simple yet satisfying and elegant. Esther is a remarkably fascinating character in her level of tolerance and passivity for a flighty, unstable man who has never been taught the basic rudiments of respect. Highly recommended.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really believe that the important and inspiring books (and authors) find you at the right time - the moment when they will have the maximum effect! This is definitely the case for me and Elizabeth Harrower. Her name has been following me like around for about ten years. Occasionally, I told myself: I must read one of her books. I heard praise for The Watch Tower and put it on my list but when I finally came across an article recently calling her the F. Scott Fitzgerald of Australia then she definitely was on my radar! Soon after I found out that Down in the City was partly set in one of the wealthiest suburbs of Sydney - well I couldn't get my hands on the book fast enough!

Esther Prescott is a woman in her thirties who has lived a very sheltered life in an exclusive suburb of Sydney. Her parents are dead. There is her stepmother and three brothers. There is the house, the garden and lots of time spent alone until Stan Petersen walks into her life. With psychologically sound characters and sharp observations Harrower brings to life the collision of a completely naive woman and an arrogant battler with suspect morals.
My favourite character is Stan. His thoughts and his language are just right! We really know where we are with him:

"Stan felt himself cringe again at her tone. She despised him. Money, and his talent for acquiring it painlessly, easily, gave him a place of respect amongst his own crowd. Few of the boys were as wealthy as Stan, or as smart. They gave him confidence. He could hardly have managed without their admiration and envy. They made him a big fellow. She couldn't treat him like this-he was a big fellow. Everyone knew he was." Brilliant!

Esther, is much more elusive and hard to read as the other characters discover. I love the way Harrower gradually lets us discover the true natures of both minor characters - Laura Maitland and Rachel Demster, as well as the main characters of course. Laura and Rachel's particular personalities have a part to play in the final chapters of the book and this is where Harrower's strengths as a writer are fully revealed. She doesn't flinch in taking a "real life" stance. In her depiction of domestic abuse she is decades ahead of her time just as the landscapes her characters move through are gone forever - women in white gloves, men in hats, running for the tram and orchards in Gosford. Lost indeed! Mesmerising and powerful! Highly recommended!!

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging, unsettling novel about Esther Prescott, who at the age of 33, marries Stan Peterson after knowing him for only two weeks. Esther has seen little of the world outside her family’s Rose Bay mansion in Sydney, Australia.

Stan is 40 years old and doing well financially. He has been involved in illegal business operations for a long time. Stan is moody, manipulative and cruel. An orphan. Esther has lived a privileged life and has a dignity and elegance in how she appears to others. Stan can be abusive to Esther and disappear for weeks. His excuse is that he is involved in business dealings requiring his full attention. He does not let Esther know that all his business activities push the legal boundaries.

This book was first published in 1957 and is the author’s debut novel.

[Elina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is 100% up my street & I thought it was pitch perfect. In some ways it's quite a small story, two people fall in love for misguided reasons & the results are disastrous for both. Harrower has managed to blend this romantic drama with elements of psychological realism & almost gothic hits of melodrama, violence & sadness. The prose has whiffs of Wharton & Lawrence, & the sadness of the story is perfectly interspersed with some very funny social commentary. I cannot speak highly enough of this book, so go & read it now!!! Please.

[Theresa Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down in the City is Elizabeth Harrower’s first novel, published in 1957. It tells the story of Esther Prescott, a sheltered woman who has grown up wealthy and motherless, who marries a man after only knowing him for two weeks, thus leaving her Rose Bay family home to live in a flat in Kings Cross. Harrower is best known for her fourth novel, The Watch Tower, but to only consider that novel is to overlook the unfolding of her talent, her ability to convey so much with a mere line or a certain character gesture. Her writing is so precise, not just with the words she chooses, but with her punctuation, her sentence structure, and above all, her dialogue, which is layered and impactful.

‘He was too old to cry. He had not cried when he was a very small boy and he was not going to start now. But tomorrow he would tell her that he would truly die for her – that he would not let a cold wind blow on her if he could help it.’

Harrower wrote Down in the City while living abroad in London and I feel like this is evidenced in the way she writes of Sydney throughout the novel. Sydney is its own character, the places, the seasons, the ebb and flow of life bursting out of its neighbourhoods. I had a sense of her, if not feeling homesick for Sydney, then nostalgic for it, as she wrote about her hometown from a desk in London. I always appreciate a solid sense of place within a story, that window into life on those streets in that time, and in this case, a beautifully vivid snapshot of social history.

‘Dinner and dancing at Zito’s, and the sensuous music of the tango, beating sharply then drawing out, lengthening on a note of wailing sweetness. The tables were packed with the people who had been there that other night: the same youthful beauties blooming under concealed lighting, kept alive by air-conditioning, served by waiters who moved silently on ball-bearing feet.’

While this story is about the relationship between Esther and Stan, it’s also a close observation of social class within the context of post-war Australia, hints of racism towards the new Australians intermingling with the self-made man versus the old guard. In Stan marrying Esther, we see a bridging of class, and yet, while Esther doesn’t see Stan’s self-made status as a barrier, he is resentful of her privilege, and it forms the backbone of his swift and eventual metamorphosis into the object of Esther’s fear.

‘She had come to see Stan’s personality as one so precariously balanced on his desperate need for universal admiration, that criticism, however just, from anyone he deemed superior, plunged him from normality to a state where pride was burned and thought and feeling ran molten. After long ages and a period of forgetfulness he came back, and all was as it has been before.’

All of Harrower’s writing is informed by a lived experience of domestic violence by way of her stepfather’s relationship with her mother. She writes of toxic-co-dependency within relationships with a knife-like sharpness, conveying fear in a manner that leaps off the page and creeps under your skin. She was writing about coercive control more than seventy years before it was even recognised as a form of domestic violence. And yet, critics dismissed this as an obsessive preoccupation. Considered within the context of the dire state of our society at present, she was ahead of her time in drawing attention to domestic violence, and more specifically, the insidiousness of coercive control.

‘His voice came at her suddenly and she went rigid at the hate in it. Coherent thought failed in the wake of such venom, leaving her stranded in total darkness, like someone in a house where lightning has cut the current. Instinct alone, called up by alarm, caused her hand to rise and fall over her sewing and kept her eyes on the shining needle. It mercifully dulled her hearing and slowed her breathing, so that for long stretches of time, while the voice sneered and cross-examined, she was barely half alive.’

~~~

‘Esther shrank with shame at the sound of her own voice, but at the same time the desire that compelled her to speak flourished with angry joy. Too many nights of silent fear and humiliation had given birth to this voice; she was unable to silence it. Gathering sustenance from the memories of nights spent listening for Stan’s footsteps, of hours spent wondering whether he would be raving, or kind, as he still could be, this voice overruled all others. But now, as it sometimes did, the violated centre hinted at rebellion; the sensation of it surged in her chest, lighting momentary panic.’

In my opinion, Down in the City is an entirely underrated work of Australian literature. For a novel published in 1957, it doesn’t read as dated in any way. It is a masterclass of quality literary fiction, and of pertinent sociological value. To read it is to look back through time, not by way of considering how far we’ve come, but rather, of how far we have not.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esther travels through childhood almost in the background of her family until she marries a man she met only 2 weeks before. The characterisation in they book is excellent, Harrower really captures the submissive nature of Esther and the dual personalities of Stan. a man used to doing and getting just what he wants. The narrative is at places slow moving but i think that works. Stan is almost a Jekyll and Hyde character I feel he loves Esther but can only go so far in showing it. The author portrays this difficult relationship in a way that brings the reader into it. I t is a well put together portrait of a difficult relationship

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautifully written depiction of a fraught marriage in the mannered society that was post-war Sydney.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have fallen in love with post WWII Sydney and Harrow's novels. Looking forward to reading more!

[Giovanna Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing of Sydney really evokes the scenery and climate. In broad brushstrokes. A bit like the characters, we get to 'see' them, broadly. Even broadly, some are most dislikable. The scenario of marrying within 2 weeks got me, I tried to suspend my disbelief, but struggled. Knowing that an heiress from the Eastern suburbs wouldn't end up with a guy like Stan. Really. It's about how women settled, for worse mostly, mentally and physically. There is a general ennui to all their lives, meant to be? I'm not sure. Money didn't necessarily 'buy' you freedom from the 'drudgery' of everyday life. Interesting snap shot of Sydney, back in the day. Whilst the environs might have changed, human nature doesn't really (so we can relate today).

[Harvard · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the watch tower younger and more uninformed of history and social dynamics I think Down in the City hit me harder. But perhaps it's also because The Watch Tower is so prescriptive in its villain's heinousness that it pushed me to consider how the situations were exaggerated and otherworldly. Down in the City reads more like it happens, and often. I don't like psychological dramas which feel like they're cautionary tales, but this one offered me an interesting insight into the constrictive nature of relationships and what each person wants out of the other. I found value in that.

[taramaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A riveting and upsetting novel centred around gender and class dynamics in Kings Cross, a locality in Sydney’s East in the late 1950s. Elizabeth Harrower writes brilliantly of an old by-gone era of Sydney with such sympathy and interest - the characters are also well-written, and complex. You come out loathing Stan Peterson, and empathising with his long-suffering wife, Esther. A sad reality for so many women of this era, who suffered in silence from domestic abuse.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 2 out of 5]

More 2.5 than 2, but I couldn't bring myself to give it a 3. I don't know, I just found so many of these characters so banal. Harrower seems to have nailed Sydney, but as someone who is not much of a fan of the city or its culture, I found the whole piece quite irritating.

[Matt Hunt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting bunch of characters very nicely presented but it all got a bit samey and dull after a while.

[Marguerite · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars.

Brilliant - full review to come.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toxic masculinity, toxic codependency, power and control, low self esteem and communication issues. Not much has changed in 70 years.

[Kirstey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a while for the book to capture my attention but in the end it wasn't terrible.

[Tilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t begin to express my gratitude that Harrower’s books have emerged and been reprinted. She truly is one of Australia’s best authors and her books (this one in particular) would be so perfect for a film adaptation. Although of course then you lose her beautiful prose which is just that kind of simple-clever that has you burning with envy why you couldn’t think of something similar. As with her other books, she is masterful at creating a sense of place. Sydney summer oozes through the pages which is such a nice tonic in Melbourne winter. But perhaps her greatest talent is in conveying the menace and cruelty of ordinary men. She does so in a way that is so devastating and suspenseful but also understated enough to leave some things to your imagination - truly unsettling. She is a genius.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Harrower's oeuvre is urban domestic suffering. The kind behind closed doors within relationships. 50's Australia; north of the Harbour bridge there remain unsealed roads, 6 o'clock swill, everyone smokes, the cars have running boards, overseas travel is a must to big-note yourself with the neighbours. Harrower is not writing about the pioneers, the convicts, settlers or man vs nature in the great expanse of the outback. She is concerned with the trams, the appliances, the decor and American magazines, pleated skirts, hosting parties and being seen; while behind closed doors women are too often powerless in the face of their men. This is Australia post WW II but before the cultural revolution of the 60's, the waves of feminism, it is an time not often depicted in Oz lit. It is full of great insight and characterisation. Recommended.

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esther Prescott is 33 years old. A rich girl with older brothers and a step-mother who let Esther do whatever she choses. For 33 years that meant stay at home.
Along comes Stan, a rogue, and someone very different to Esther's upper class world. Within 2 weeks they are married and she moves from the wealthy Rose Bay mansion to a flat in King's Cross.
Elizabeth Harrower then gives us another classic of life in Sydney in the 50s/60s where the men were men and women stayed at home.
Stan is a cad and runs his businesses by avoiding taxes, copyright laws, labour laws and any other laws. He also has a long term girlfriend. But Esther stays through his adultery, domestic violence and Stan's temper.
It's a book where not much happens but the questions of why a woman like Esther would chose Stan and then chose to Stan by him is left for the reader to ponder.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading The Watchtower I was eager to follow up with more by this wonderful author. Down in the City is also a story set in Sydney with a dominant man lording over his more fragile wife. But in this case it brings in a class difference, featuring a sheltered Rose Bay woman who meets, and is besotted by, a small time crook from Kings Cross. She marries him hastily and repents at leisure. Stan had a difficult upbringing and despite wanting to be a good husband and hopefully a father, he feels cut off from his wife's more polished relatives. Another thought provoking and emotionally acute novel.

[Diannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Prologue contains the best post-war description of Sydney. The book evokes a strong sense of time and place and is a wonderful read.