The Hidden River

by Storm Jameson

Beckley describes "It all takes place during twenty-four hours in a quiet French house on the Loire when an Englishman returns to visit the family that sheltered him during the desperate days of the war. His return coincides with the return from prison of the eldest member of the family, who was locked away five years for continuing during wartime an old friendship with a German general, as intellectual if not as completely immured in the peaceful pre-war world as he. Behind everybody and every action stands the figure of a resistance leader, Robert, who was captured at Orleans in 1944 and tortured to death by the invaders. He peers out of the grief-pained eyes of his mother, the guilt-clouded vision of the senior brother of the house and the Englishman who counts him a friend. All of these people are driven by an anguished need to identify his betrayer "

Genres: Fiction

249 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Margaret Storm Jameson was an English writer, known for her 45 novels, and criticism.

Jameson studied at the University of Leeds, later moving to London, where in 1914 she earned an MA from King's College London. She was a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. She married writer Guy Chapman, but continued to publish as Storm Jameson.

From 1939, Jameson was a prominent president of the British branch of the International PEN association, and active in helping refugee writers. She wrote three volumes of autobiography.

A well-received biography, by Jennifer Birkett, Professor of French Studies at Birmingham University, was published by the Oxford University Press in March 2009.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

KIRKUS REVIEW:

The sheer delight of a tightly knitted plot, interplay of characters on incident, completely realized background, and skilled craftsmanship of style is experienced in Storm Jameson's writing perhaps as much as in any other novelist today. There are some who feel that the very perfection dates her. For this reader it affords relief from the slipshod work too often encountered. The Hidden River lives up to her best -- while adding a story that draws its suspense by use of the pressure of what is past on what is present. The setting is an elegant manor house above the Loire, where the Monerie family holds tight the hates and fears left over from the war. Cousin Marie, presiding genius- and at times evil genius- of the house, cannot forgive the betrayal and death of her son in the French resistance. Her elder nephew, Jean, has tried to put it behind him, but the visit of the Englishman, with whom he had worked, brings it all to the fore. Francois, younger brother of Jean, demands of life only forgiveness and forgetfulness -- and buries his bitter share of responsibility in his cousin's death. Elizabeth, betrothed of Jean, unready for marriage, rediscovers in Hartley's visit an unrealized and all-dominating passion. And Uncle Daniel's return- from years of imprisonment as a collaborator, serves as catalyst to bring the buried secrets to light again. It is a tensely told story in which each participant furthers the inevitable march of fate. Good reading.

[Lucienne Boyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this novel Storm Jameson again confronts the problem of evil and the terrible crimes of which people are capable. Several years after the Second World War, Jean Monnerie and his family receive a visitor to their chateau: Adam Hartley, an Englishman who worked with Jean in the Resistance. Jean's cousin, Robert, whose mother still lives in the house as housekeeper, was also involved in Resistance work. Robert was captured, tortured and killed by the Nazis. Someone betrayed him - and it becomes clear that one of the people in the house betrayed him. The novel is a tense, gripping portrayal of treachery and collaboration. The war casts a long shadow, and one great tragedy is yet to be enacted... A magnificent book.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

1951 Six years after WWII has ended. An Englishman (Adam Hartley) visits a French country house to see his Resistance comrade (Jean Monnerie). A mostly philosophical look at actions during the war and after.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read any Jameson books I can find. She writes significant stories in beautiful prose and deserves to be reprinted. This book confronts the moral dilemma which faces all nations defeated and occupied by an evil regime. Comply with the rules and preserve your life or fight against it.