The Hide

by Barry Unsworth

This early work by the Booker Prize-winning author Barry Unsworth chronicles one of his literary obsessions the corruption of innocence and forms it into a compelling contemporary narrative set in the rambling, overgrown grounds of an English estate. There, relying on his rich sister Audrey's beneficence, Simon obsessively digs a secret system of tunnels from which to spy on others. When Josh, a good-looking naif, becomes a gardener at Audrey's home, the two women of the household, Audrey and her distant relative and housekeeper, Marion, find Josh's strength and seeming innocence a potent spell, and his response escalates unacknowledged tensions between them. Meanwhile, Simon, worried about Josh, takes steps to prevent the exposure of his underground labyrinth. The explosive chemistry between the characters will eventually rip apart and rearrange all their lives.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Barry Unsworth was an English writer known for his historical fiction. He published 17 novels, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times, winning once for the 1992 novel Sacred Hunger.

Reviews

[Proustitute (on hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Homo homini lupus [Man is a wolf to man] The existence of this inclination to aggression, which we can detect in ourselves and justly assume to be present in others, is the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbour…

— Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

Josh, or Josiah, is a 20-year-old lower-class youth, working “on the stalls” at an amusement arcade in what reads like Brighton. An innocent, he latches on to Mortimer, an older and seemingly wiser man with whom he works, forming an odd and sometimes queer friendship with him. When Mortimer speaks of sex and class and the revolution and the bourgeoisie, the naive Josiah—who often asks “What’s your terms?” to get Mortimer’s use of vocabulary correct—begins to take on this man’s beliefs as his own.

Simon is a forty-something-year old neurotic effete: over-educated and under-socialized. Living on the grounds of his widowed sister Audrey’s massive estate, he has acclimated to life by burrowing underground, creating what he terms his “hide.” Some of Unsworth’s most stunning descriptions in this book of landscape and distance can be found in Simon’s sections, and, admittedly, it’s unclear just how skillfully Simon has constructed his hideaway or if it’s just merely a series of bushes and fences. From here, he moves about the estate, surveilling and watching neighbors and also the social gatherings of his sister’s theatre group—distanced, remote, but judgmental: “Why should I always be on the outside of everything, appreciating my exclusion with an aesthetic ache?”

When Audrey realizes that the estate needs a gardener, Josiah answers the call, and the lower-class gardener’s presence—bringing more to the fore the same-class but servant-like Marion, Audrey’s late-husband’s cousin—begins to complicate everyone’s lives. While Simon is innocent in his voyeurism and underground burrowing, insofar as he never acts on his desires, this is then juxtaposed with Josiah’s less-educated and much more youthful innocence: the wide-eyed, believe-all-you-tell-me sort that takes words at face value, an innocence that longs to explore. Both of these get tested and pitted against one another in a theatrical and truly psychoanalytical way; indeed, while immersed in this, my first Unsworth, I read somewhere that this was an early, minor work of his. I can only imagine how his insights into human nature have grown with his subsequent books.

Much of Unsworth’s strength in this book is how slowly the creepy and evil aspects of human nature begin to become apparent—and this is even long after the first chapter, when we witness Simon observing the neighboring woman (virtually naked) do her chores in a heat wave from the security of his hide:

I do not know her name. She has brought me often, and especially on windy days when I am vouchsafed incidental revelations, to the threshold of intense pleasure, and on occasion I have been enabled, kneeling in my little corner here, with the complicity of the laburnum… to cross the threshold. I have never been nearer to her than I am now, I do not desire any closer proximity.

Lust, covert queerness, hero worship, sibling rivalry, and an ever-growing sense of the strange and the downright eerie… The Hide grows steadily just as it ping-pongs back and forth between the two men narrating, keeping a running volley of counterpoint on very different voices' commentaries on social class, generational gaps, and displaced (or repressed) desires. A true commentary on, as Unsworth puts it, “how inscrutable we human creatures are, what a mystery inheres in every follicle.”

Highly recommended for fans of interior and gradually unsettling prose.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hide grows increasingly unsettling as it draws one further into its stifling atmosphere. The social web enmeshing these characters is as dense and interwoven as the 'hide' from within which Simon crouches as he spies on the world around him. He lives with his sister Audrey on an sprawling estate slowly being overtaken by the unruly forces of nature. Simon does not interface well with the world, and has in fact taken to 'tunneling' throughout the wilder sectors of the property, the better to indulge his solitary peeping habits, directed as they are toward specimens of both avian and human varieties. The widow Audrey barely tolerates her brother's presence as she distracts herself from lonely middle age through her engagement with the local Dramatic Society. Living with these two is the 'maid' Marion, a relative of Audrey's late husband Howard who took her into the house as an orphan, and who now acts as a de facto servant to the two siblings, primarily Audrey.

The novel rotates in first-person narration between Simon and the character of Josiah, a young itinerant worker under the powerful sway of the older, worldlier Mortimer Cade, who in manner and morals read to me as a less flamboyant Honeybuzzard from Angela Carter's first novel Shadow Dance, published just a few years before The Hide. The worlds of these two narrators collide once Josiah is hired on by Audrey as a gardener/handyman for the estate. This seemingly benign act upends Simon's world and sets in motion a series of escalating dramatic events bearing all the hallmarks of impending tragedy.

While Unsworth's style here is ornate at times, particularly in his descriptions of nature and the estate grounds, it is also efficient and tightly controlled. He effectively inhabits both the minds of the eccentric, intellectual upper-class Simon and the naïve, impressionable, and lesser-educated Josiah. Through the eyes of these two characters we also receive nuanced portraits of the other significant characters: Audrey, Marion, and Mortimer. Plot-wise the story is not overly complicated, but it offers compelling character studies and delves into themes of class, romance, aging, etiquette, and various forms and dynamics of human relationships.

[Derek Bridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

An almost palpable sense of menace pervades this tale. Its themes are voyeurism, manipulation and the corruption of innocence. Even in this early work, Barry Unsworth shows his mastery of the form.

[Keith Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barry Unsworth’s novels fall into two categories: the historical novels which start with Pascali’s Island and include Sacred Hunger and the early novels which are shorter pieces, focusing on vulnerable individuals exploited by other amoral types. The Hide falls very much into this latter category. Set on a dilapidated and neglected country estate the story is told through the words of two flawed people, the reclusive voyeur Simon, sister of the house’s owner and the simple gardener Josh, who hero worships the ruthlessly amoral Mortimer, whom he imagines is his friend.

The gardens of the state are a fecund wilderness, Eden after the Fall, whose plant and bird life are described in detail by the observant Simon. Simon lives with his dominant sister Audrey whose dead husband had owned the house and estate. Also resident as an unpaid servant is Marion, a young relative of Audrey’s dead husband. The employment of Josh as a gardener sets in play a series of events culminating in disaster.

Manipulation and exploitation are major themes. All the characters are damaged in some way. Marion is abused and exploited by every character in the book. Josh’s simple nature is abused by Mortimer. Audrey suffers bitterness and loss. Simon watches everything. This is a dark and sinister story, punctuated by wonderful dialogue, acutely observed characterisation and some very funny scenes – usually involving the disfunctional Simon.

As for the presentation of Mortimer Cade, evil, sinister and amoral, and what a resonant name! His name recalls the working class rebel Jack Cade, famous from Shakespeare’s Henry IV, who renamed himself John Mortimer in his attempt to overthrow the nobility. Make of that what you will.

[David Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

wes anderson meets e.m. forster, in late-sixties rural england... and in some ways, re-invisioning of mice and men (in a much more entertaining and humor-filled read)... my only knock would be the all-too-sudden ending. the writing is so wonderful, i'd have preferred to be carried to the finish on a larger pillow of words.

[Nat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, twisted in various ways, and ultimately dark. Very highly recommended.

[Gerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is a masterpiece.

Written over 50 years ago in 1970, the story is set around a seaside town and a large house and garden just outside the town. It is pieced together by two narrators, one an inhabitant of the house and garden, the other a young boy who is undertaking casual work on the fair ground when we first meet him but soon takes up a position of gardener at the house.

It is one of the most unsettling books I have read but nevertheless it is compelling reading. It is quirky, occasionally extremely funny but also edgy, sinister and uncomfortable. I must also add that it is very well written. I literally read it in a day, I just couldn't put it down. A great novel.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look into the subtle snares and manipulations of evil.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sinister tale about how habitual actions (or inaction?) can lead to great evil. This book is not for the faint of heart.

[Andrew Sare · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a pleasure this one was. Dark, humorous and quirky - very memorable. Multiple meanings and symbolisms given to birding, and tunnelling. Sacred Hunger will be eagerly anticipated now.

[Rowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

oddly gripping. it is hard to place when exactly it is supposed to take place. jukeboxes, jeans and Eartha Kitt are mentioned, yet the attitudes of the characters suggest earlier times.

themes are hero-worship, manipulation, sociopathic behavior, eccentricity, sex, love, innocence and packs a lot of story into a short amount of pages. this is probably not the best or most descriptive review but i'm afraid i'll give too much away. i enjoyed it, though i found it disturbing in parts. the ending leaves the reader hanging somewhat.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Opening - There is reasons for wanting to get off this stall. Not that I been here long. I only been here a month. Mortimer has been here longer, that's my friend. He's been here since before Easter. A change is as good as a rest, I tell him. He likes it though. There is plenty other jobs, I tell him, this time a year, plenty, but he don't want to move.

This was my first outing with Barry Unsworth and it won't be my last as I have ordered Sacred Hunger on the back of this.

Strong 3*.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't remember a lot of details about this book, except that one of the main characters, in true eccentric British fashion, has constructed a vast underground maze at the estate where he lives, which he uses to spy on the other characters, leading to most of the plot complications. And Unsworth is always interesting.

[Mercurymouth · Rating 2 out of 5]

snippets of darkness revealing itself in humanities frailities...good stuff, right up my alley-speaking of alleys I trash picked this book around x-mas last year...I got some great books that night! Thanks THRIFT FOR AIDS! and your lil' FREE BOX.

[Aida]

winner of the booker prize

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Unsworth's dark, menacing little tale; The Hide is unforgettable.

[Rebecca Jessup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark, disturbing, brilliantly well written.

[Virginia]

One of Unsworth's weirder books. His books never end up the way I think they will. No one is a particularly sympathetic character in The Hide. They are all a bit awful. It's a good thing it was short or I might not have made it to the end. I don't know why I feel drawn to his stories but they do make me think about them long after I put them down.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cloak and digger perviness, Unsworth writes Hitchcock as suburban garden farce. Possibly my favourite of Unsworth's first three novels (alongside 'The Partnership').

[Chakib Miraoui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very unsettling and dark consciouses ramble about their desires, fears, and act foolishly all the way, all through this, Usworth writes very beautiful and elegant, even genuine descriptions and nature, creatures, and emotions. I loved this story so much, and invite any serious fan of English prose to read this.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Convolutions and labyrinthine, literal and figurative, plot, distracted me from humanist concerns. Takes effort and high degree of concentration, to like. Maybe mind was not in good place. Need to reread.

[Beth Shields-Szostak]

1st American edition, copyright 1996