Thalia

by Frances Faviell

‘You are a virgin?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘How dull! What’s the use of being a woman if you’re a virgin?’ ‘One has to begin sometime,’ I agreed. Recovering from an illness, Rachel, an 18-year-old art student at the Slade in London, is advised to spend a year in a warm climate. She agrees to go to France to act as companion to Cynthia, a delicate, temperamental woman whose husband is in India, and her two children, troubled 15-year-old Thalia and spoiled young Claude. Thalia quickly becomes devoted to Rachel, but their friendship is strained by Rachel’s romance with the son of a well-to-do Breton family. Though it’s the awkward, emotional Thalia who lends the novel its title, it’s Rachel on whom the novel centers, poignantly telling the tale of her sad first love, her dawning awareness of the vagaries and dishonesties of social life, and the tragedy she is powerless to prevent. Set in Brittany in the mid-1930s, with an excursion to the cafés and artists’ studios of Montparnasse, Thalia is a dramatic and poignant tale by the author of A Chelsea Concerto . It includes an afterword by the author’s son John Parker, and additional supplementary material.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Modern Classics, Ebooks

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Frances Faviell (1905-1959) was the pen name of Olivia Faviell Lucas, painter and author. She studied at the Slade School of Art in London under the aegis of Leon Underwood. In 1930 she married a Hungarian academic and travelled with him to India where she lived for some time at the ashram of Rabindranath Tagore, and visiting Nagaland. She then lived in Japan and China until having to flee from Shanghai during the Japanese invasion. She met her second husband Richard Parker in 1939 and married him in 1940.

Reviews

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those novels in which I knew something not-so-good was going to happen to somebody because there was a warning delivered by a character in the novel early on to not touch a certain key under no circumstances or something bad would happen. And as I was reading the novel, I kept that in mind. Did something bad happen? Well, yes and no. So there! 🙃 😉

I was engrossed in the novel throughout. Frances Faviell kept my attention.

It also didn’t hurt that on the back cover of this Dean Street Press (2016) re-issue of the original (published in 1957) was this blurb from The Sunday Times (J.W. Lambert): ‘She writes with a sharpness of outline which would not shame Simenon.’ Well Georges Simenon is no small potatoes let me tell you! The master of roman durs (psychological novels). So, I was impressed that Faviell’s writing was described a la Simenon.

It’s interesting that the book did not center on the eponymous character but instead on 18-year-old Rachel, who was recovering from pleurisy and took a one-year break from her art school studies by being an au pair to Thalia (15 years old) and her little brother Claude (I think 6 at the beginning of the book) in Brittany. During that one-year hiatus in the mid-1930s, she meets a dashing young man whom she falls in love with, and she may be happy about that and Armand her fiancé may be happy too but nobody else is. Beginning with Thalia for she has grown attached to Rachel and wants her to herself. There are hints throughout the book that there is something not quite right about Thalia...and that one better watch out.

I shan’t reveal the ending because I just don’t do that. And because I hope you consider putting this on your TBR list. But I will say that near the end I blurted out loud to an empty house “I knew it!”

Faviell used the word ‘hobbledehoy’ in the book, and I had no idea what that meant and wondered if she made it up. She didn’t. It means ‘clumsy or awkward” or ‘clumsy or awkward youth’.

Sometimes it was hard to keep track of who was who in the novel, but that is not a major criticism of the novel— in fact, I don’t have any. This book was a great, enjoyable read.

Only after I finished reading this did I go to my shelves and realize I had already read one of her novels already, ‘The Fledgeling’ and heartily disliked it (1-star 😮). I thought it was terribly boring. I’m glad with my feeble memory that I did not remember that when reading ‘Thalia’, because no doubt my attitude towards the ‘Thalia’ would have been negatively biased from the get-go.

Notes
• Frances Faviell (1905-1959) was the pen name of Olivia Faviell Lucas, painter and author.
• The book appears to be semi-autobiographical to some extent. This was in the Afterword written by her son in 2016: ‘...Thalia...based on her own experience in France before the War (WWII) when she was acting as chaperone to a young teenager for the summer’

Reviews (I’m not alone on this one...the book is well-liked!)
• https://theliterarysisters.wordpress....
• https://theidlewoman.net/2018/04/20/t...
• https://northernreader.wordpress.com/...

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a group read on Retro Reads this book was a bust!

So far I am the only one who has completed it.

It is not a bad book per se, but it is dark.

Rachel was too unwell to keep attending renowned art school the Slade, but an action of hers causes her aunt not to take her to Egypt but instead sent her to France to be an unpaid dogs body for the brittle Cynthia. Her main duty is to look after the spoilt & undisciplined Claude (around nine from memory) & teenage Thalia. It soon becomes clear that there is something(s) very wrong with Thalia - more than eighteen year old Rachel should have been expected to cope with. In fairness to Cynthia, she was told Rachel was twenty.

The book is more than a little disturbing with close-to-middle aged Laurence romancing both Cynthia & pursuing a relationship with Rachel which Rachel is, at best, uncomfortable with. & then Rachel falls in love...

This book (first published 1957) reminded me of both of Bonjour tristesse (first published 1954) & The Greengage Summer published after this book in 1958. I do emphasise that I read Bonjour over 30 years ago & the young Cécile in my memory was far more in control of her choices. But I think both of the other books were influenced by some of the attitudes displayed in Tristesse.

The book succeeds in the sense of place it gives Brittany & the attitudes it gives some of the characters. it would have been a very bewildering world for Rachel.

To those who struggle with the book, you may want to skip to near the end, which has a short newspaper story by Faviell that was published by the London Evening Standard in 1956. The newspaper didn't know if The Uninvited Guest was fact or fiction, but it is a very entertaining tale of the narrator's encounter with a monkey in India.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darker than expected.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many bloggers and readers, I was immensely excited when I heard about Dean Street Press teaming up with Furrowed Middlebrow to release some little-known books written by women, and lost to the annals of time. I was so looking forward to trying Frances Faviell's work particularly, as I have heard a little about her over the last few years, and her storylines very much appeal to me.

The first of her novels which I decided to try was Thalia. The novel is narrated by a young woman, eighteen-year-old Rachel, who is sent away from her aunt's London home in something akin to disgrace. She takes up a post in Dinard in Brittany, as a kind of companion to a young and decidedly awkward teen named Thalia. There is a lot of family scandal within its pages, and characters as startlingly original as prickly Cynthia, Thalia and young brother Claude's mother. The storyline takes twists and turns here and there, and one can never quite guess where it will end up; one of the true delights of the novel, I felt.

One of the other strengths within the novel - and there are many - is the sense of place which Faviell details. France springs to life immediately, and the minutiae which she displays, both in terms of the general region of Brittany, and within the home, are vivid. One feels present in Rachel and Thalia's colliding worlds through Faviell's stunning use of colour and scent. Rachel herself is startlingly three-dimensional; I would go as far as to say that she is one of the most realistic narrators whom I have ever come across.

Faviell's writing is taut and beautiful; she is an extremely perceptive author. I was completely entranced by Thalia, and was loath to put it down. Thalia is brilliant; a cracking read, which definitely put me in mind of Daphne du Maurier in terms of its character development, and the use of settings as characters in themselves. Faviell's Brittany comes to life in just the same way as du Maurier's evocation of Cornwall; it is clear that she adores the place, and has her own experiences there have informed this novel.

In a loose way, one can see Thalia as a coming-of-age novel, but it is so much more. The social history evokes a period both gone and still present; there is simply so much here to love and admire. Thalia is breathtaking and captivating, and I am now going to happily read my way through all of the Furrowed Middlebrow/Dean Street Press titles. I imagine that, based upon the strength of Thalia, each one is going to be an absolute gem.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took quite a while for me to read, I'm not sure why besides that at first I couldn't quite find my footing with. It is very dated, with old traditional views of women and some sexists attitudes scatter within, but as it is an older book I can't fully fault it there. It did have some of ruminations on women and what they could do at that time that helped to, not excuse the attitudes, but repair them in some way. What was super interesting about it though was the different reflections on 'truth', the look at a disturbed or abused young girl, and our narrator's coming of age. The characters were in turn lovable and terrible, which gave them depth I didn't expect and even though the situations were incredibly frustrated (because they were caused by the character's nativity or stupidity) I was invested in it.
Overall I'm surprised at how much I liked this, I think I'll be picking up more of 'Frances Faviell's' work from Dean Street.

[Ruthiella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sort of coming of age story with Chekhov's proverbial gun clearly signposted at the beginning. Rachel leaves England to be an au pair for an English family living in Dinard, Brittany. The father is posted in India. The mother and children left in France are very much acclimated to that kind of late-Empire life. The boy, Claude, is spoiled rotten, the mother, Cynthia, doesn’t know how to run an house without multiple servants and the awkward teenage daughter, Thaila, unwanted and unloved, is desperate to return. Poor Rachel, with her finishing school French and artistic temperament is put in the middle of family drama and more responsibility than an 18 year old should bear. Combine this with first love, heart break and a wish to become an artist free of all restraint, and you have a plot driven juggernaut. I quite enjoyed it, despite the awful behavior of almost all the characters and the overlay of melodrama. Read with Furrowed Middlebrow Club.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Thalia" is my third Frances Faviell novel and truly is fascinating and suspenseful read. I had no idea how this would end and it comes from a different place than her previous stories that took place after World War 2 in Germany during reconstruction and allied occupation, this takes place during King Edward's abduction, 1936, it is mentioned in the story several times. Dinard, France is the location a small resort town that is chosen by many military wives and others looking for a thrifty show. Rachel who has no last name stays with the Pembertons especially looking to be a friend to 15 year old Thalia while Tom Pemberton, the father who is doing his military service in India. This is a "coming to age" story for Rachel for Thalia seems years older in many ways. I had many different feelings for Thalia throughout this story as well as her mother Cynthia. There are many wonderful characters which makes this more memorable. Relgion is discussed in Rachel's agnostic as well as her father's views compared to Armand's beliefs yet not living in them, as well as the firm but kind faith of Marie's. It is also interesting that Thalia and Rachel seem to both have not the usual maternal instinct or maybe feminine ones, but seem to be more complicated, maybe lack of maternal caring while they were growing up.


Story in short - Thalia is to help the Pemberton family without pay but enjoys room and board. She finds more than this and after she is no longer the same.



The below is from the book jacket when it was published.

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RECOVERING from an illness, Rachel, an 18-year-old art student at the Slade in London, is advised to spend a year in a warm climate. She agrees to go to France to act as companion to Cynthia, a delicate, temperamental woman whose husband is in India, and her two children, troubled 15-year-old Thalia and spoiled young Claude. Thalia quickly becomes devoted to Rachel, but their friendship is strained by Rachel’s romance with the son of a well-to-do Breton family.
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Though it’s the awkward, emotional Thalia who lends the novel its title, it’s Rachel on whom the novel centers, poignantly telling the tale of her sad first love, her dawning awareness of the vagaries and dishonesties of social life, and the tragedy she is powerless to prevent. Set in Brittany in the mid-1930s, with an excursion to the cafés and artists’ studios of Montparnasse,
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The Dinard of Thalia is the Dinard of almost twenty years ago when the little seaside town had a flourishing colony of Anglo-American residents.


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WHEN the car was approaching the docks I looked at my aunt and it seemed to me that this—a profile—was all we ever knew of anyone. We can never know all the aspects but merely those which are shown to us. Was she as lonely as I was? She appeared
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suddenly such a small person and one at whom I had never really looked.
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She watched me struggling with tears. ‘There are five-pound notes in this packet, Rachel. Here’s the address of my London bank. They’ll always know where I am.

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‘You’re too good to me. I don’t deserve it.’ She looked surprised and gratified. ‘No, I don’t think you do. But it would be a poor world if we only got what we deserved.’
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A tall, attractive man who had been looking at me for some time suddenly threw away his cigarette and came over to me. ‘Mind if I sit down there too? Those enthusiasts are making me footsore with their indefatigable journeys on their maps.’ I said I didn’t mind. ‘You’re alone, aren’t you?’ he went on. ‘I saw you being seen off.’
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It was as light as day but with the milky elusiveness of moonlight. I saw that his hair, which I had thought dark, was red, and that the backs of his hands were covered with fine red hairs. I thought it a pity—I don’t like red- haired men. ‘Cigarette?’ I said I didn’t smoke. After the usual exchange of platitudes on the night and the stars he asked me bluntly where I was going. He was clever at putting me quickly at ease, and I began telling him
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of the recent illness which had interrupted my art training at the Slade and which necessitated my being out of London for the forthcoming winter.
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Living in Truth”!’ exclaimed my fellow traveller, looking down at me as I huddled into my coat collar. ‘How young you are if you can believe in such things. God, I remember having the same impossible ideas once.’
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‘But you still haven’t told me why you’re going to Dinard.’ ‘My aunt wouldn’t take me with her to Egypt unless I apologized to the vicar and did another portrait so I’m going to a family in Dinard.’
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I was being appraised and weighed as a possible companion for her young daughter Thalia. ‘Thalia’s a difficult girl,’ she had said doubtfully. ‘And you look terribly young.’ ‘Thalia . . . Thalia. . . . What a lovely, lovely name!’ I had rolled it on my tongue. She had said indifferently that the choice had been her husband’s, not hers. Thalia was fifteen—three years younger than I. There was a little
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boy aged six and a half. When his mother mentioned him her face had come alive and into her cold, clipped voice there had come a sudden warmth and colour. When I had asked my aunt about this friend Mrs. Pemberton all she had said was, ‘Her father was a very famous general. She’s been brought up in the tradition of a great military family. She’s a woman who would never fail in her duty—something you’d do well to emulate, Rachel.’
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‘I know that gentleman. He’s often on the boat. He lives in Dinard. You’ll see plenty of him. He’s Captain the Hon. Terence Mourne,’ she said as she hustled me below. ‘The Hon. Terence Mourne.’ I liked the name. ‘He’s a good-looking man. I’ll grant you that. And he’s kept his figure. But he’s old enough to be your father. He’ll risk lumbago to sit up all night with a young thing.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert

It was such a tragedy that Thalia had died at the end. Rachel thought Thalia might have been trying to make Rachel afraid that she went into the sea, and it was not a suicide, I am inclined to agree. It could have been suicide but unlikely. I think Claude's accident was semi intentional, meaning she did not truly want him to die but a part of her did. It is wanting in character that she left her brother there, she who seemed so in command would leave him without anyone knowing he was hurt. Was Tom Pemberton really missing or dead? I am inclined to think he will be coming home and that is how I see it. He will be heart broken about his daughter's death but I think both parents have seen more of Thalia's behavior and temperament, and he will not blame Rachel. Even though Rachel thought therapy for all knowing Thalia would not be helpful, it might have helped her to at least reach adulthood, and if her passions could not be helped, they might have lessened some. Cynthia was very vain but there is also more to her than realized and in the end, I think she loved her husband more than she really known. It seems that she loved Terence, but I am not sure that it was more for him being in love of her than anything more. Even though Rachel loved Armand, I think she will find out later it was a first love that is more superficial when all is said and done, she will find love again and not have a husband or lover looking to see his mistress while she waits for him to return to her. She would have lived a life of embarrassment instead of just once in him cheating throughout their courtship. He read poetry to her but also others, he did not truly love but made love. She would have had problems with religion, her art and many other things had they married, in addition her feeling that the family was so strange to her. In coming to Dinard, she had met an older man, 35 year old Terence, the weather was perfection. She doesn't know the terrible things ahead, she is young and trusting. The older man is the start of things to change. In the end, leaving Dinard the weather was terrible but a young man is by her side, troubles are ahead and she has grown but the young man shows hope and forgiveness. Her hearing Thalia over and over because it is fresh, though she will never forget, she will come to accept that the past must stay and the future must move on.


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Terence Mourne, who was standing near me, inquired after my night’s rest, and whether I was to be met. He looked fresh and alert in spite of his lazy manner. I was searching the crowd on the quay for Mrs. Pemberton. Suddenly I saw her waving to me. She was standing a little apart from the crowd with a tall man, a little boy and a tall girl. ‘They’ve come to meet me. Look!’ I cried, waving back. He gave a start of surprise, and muttered something which
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sounded like ‘impossible’. ‘Is that the family to whom you are going?’ he asked harshly. ‘Yes.’ ‘Does your aunt know Cynthia Pemberton well?’ ‘You know them?’ I said, surprised. I hadn’t mentioned the name Pemberton to him. ‘Does your aunt know Cynthia well?’ he repeated. ‘I don’t know.’ I was nettled at his insistence.
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‘Damn!’ he said. ‘Oh, damn!’ and then apologized. ‘You know them then?’ He didn’t answer and from his sudden peculiar change of attitude I didn’t like to pursue the question. A closed, watchful look had taken the place of the former nonchalant one on his face. I was intrigued—but at the same time apprehensive. What was this? What was the matter? He had been so attentive and anxious to see that I was being safely met, and now when he knew by whom
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he had completely changed. I was upset at his strangeness. We were preparing to disembark, crowded together waiting for the gangway to go down. He was smoking rapidly—one cigarette after another—and I saw that one of his long, sensitive hands was shaking a little. ‘How long have the Pembertons been here?’ he asked. ‘Only a week.’ ‘Which villa have they taken?’ I told him the name of the villa.
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‘We’ll be meeting again. Dinard society is very limited—as you’ll discover—and you may need a friend.’ He put so much emphasis on this last remark that I was very uneasy. What did he mean? I thanked him perfunctorily, resenting his desire to detract from my pleasure in the first exciting impressions of the place. What was he trying to do? To put me off the family or the place?

[Catie]

#FurrowedMiddleBrowClub on Litsy - November 2022

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do enjoy Frances Faviell's books. Although I've only recently found her I am reading my way through them and this one is a joy to read. I love the characterisation, the way she paints pictures of her characters with words, so that I feel I've really met them not just read of them. This is the story of Rachel, a teenage girl who is to spend a year in France as an unpaid helper to an English family, having been sent there by her aunt to recover after an illness whilst the aunt goes off on a jolly jaunt to Egypt. The Thalia of the title is one of the two children of the family to which Rachel is sent, and with whom she is supposed to connect and befriend. The children's mother, portrayed as delicate is still well enough to play bridge, go dancing, and spoil her younger child, whilst pretty much ignoring the needs of her daughter. The author has a keen perception of the nature of the relationship between mother and daughter, and its contrast to that between mother and son. All the while Rachel is moving from being a teenager to a young woman, experiencing her first love, learning how to make her own decisions, and how to deal with the consequences of those decisions.

[The Idle Woman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eighteen-year-old Rachel is a dreamy, idealistic student at the Slade and wants nothing more than to become a painter. When she paints an unflattering portrait of the local vicar, her aunt decides that this ungrateful girl doesn’t deserve to come on her planned trip to Egypt (despite Rachel’s obsession with Akhenaten and Nefertiti). Instead, Rachel is packed off for a year-long placement with an English family living in Brittany, to act as companion to their teenage daughter Thalia. Rachel’s first impression is that the Pembertons are much the same as any other military family wintering in a cheap, congenial climate. But, when Colonel Tom Pemberton returns to his regiment in India, she begins to notice deeper currents swirling through his household and, in particular, running in the veins of unloved, overlooked, lonely Thalia...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/04/20/t...

[Laurie K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sorry, but imo it was merely innuendo that moved this story along—the constant hints that there is something not quite right about Thalia, and Cynthia, and Catherine, and Madeline, etc. It’s all so thinly veiled. The only compelling thing for me was wondering how long it would take Rachel to figure it out.

My wish is that Flaviell had made Thalia the central character—seen through Rachel’s eyes. Yes, there is something very wrong with Thalia, but why? Rachel’s roll here only that of villain.

“It’s a wonder if she hasn’t done something desperate,’ he said reproachfully. ‘You were everything to her. You taught her, helped her, encouraged her, even made her beautiful just to gratify some whim of yours. And then you took it all away. Don’t you see? Don’t you see what you’ve done, Rachel?’

‘No. I’m not sorry for you. You’re only suffering from growing up. Now Thalia—that’s the child I’m sorry for.’

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicate and edgy coming of age novel

Faviell is a master of characterisation, and this book draws several fine portraits of women and the effects of love, desire, duty and happiness. With the Wallace Simpson affair as a backdrop, a young art student is forced to examine the price of love and the costs of marriage. I was a bit nervous about buying this book seeing the rather odd one-star review, but I found the book to be a compelling read dealing with a subject that never becomes dated in a way that feels as relevant today as it would in the 1930s or 50s.

[Marya DeVoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading my way through the Furrowed Middlebrow series of mid-century books, and a lot of them are enjoyable cozies but this is very much a literary novel and rather dark. It reminded me a lot of Lily King's The Pleasing Hour, which also involves a young woman living at the beach as an au pair in a situation that is less idyllic than it would seem. The setting is Dinand in Brittany, and in addition to walking into a mother-daughter conflict, our heroine (the au pair, not Thalia, who's the 15-year-old daughter she's meant to companion) ends up stepping in the conflict between artistic morals and the primmer (but different) moralities of the French and English expatriate communities there.

Very involving, great sense of place.

[N.S. Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review first appeared on my blog - https://nsfordwriter.com - on 15th May 2022.

An unusual 'lost classic' which deserves new readers! First published in 1957, this book reminded me a little of Jane Austen, Stella Gibbons and Muriel Spark.

Set in the mid-1930s, the book is narrated by Rachel, an 18-year-old art student. Recovering from illness, she goes to stay with a military family who used to live in India but who have taken a villa in Dinard, Brittany (France). She's supposed to be a companion for the daughter, Thalia. However, as Rachel begins her first love affair with a young French man, Thalia's jealousy threatens to derail Rachel's happiness. I find it difficult to summarise the plot, it seems simple but I there are hidden depths. I'll be thinking about it for a while! There are some intriguing characters, the setting is extremely atmospheric and the writing style is very interesting. I did notice that the word 'angry' or 'angrily' appears on almost every page! There are a lot of adverbs. It somehow works, maybe because Rachel is naive and headstrong, giving in easily to her moods. Another impressive element of this book is he surprisingly frank references to lesbians, periods and the differences between love and sex.

The 2016 edition from Dean Street Press includes an afterword from the author's son, which reveals the autobiographical nature of this novel. Sadly, Frances Faviell (1905 - 59) died only two years after Thalia was published.