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Frost in May #2
La Viajera Perdida
When Clara returns home from the convent of her childhood to begin life at a local girls' school, she is at a loss: although she has comparative freedom, she misses the discipline the nuns imposed and worries about keeping her faith in a secular world. Against the background of the First World War, Clara experiences the confusions of adolescence - its promise, its threat of change. She longs for love, yet fears it, and wonders what the future will hold. Then tragedy strikes and her childhood haltingly comes to an end as she realises that neither parents nor her faith can help her.
The Lost Traveller is the first in the trilogy sequel to Frost in May, which continues with The Sugar House and Beyond the Glass. Although each is a complete novel in itself, together they form a brilliant portrait of a young girl's journey to adulthood.
The Lost Traveller is the first in the trilogy sequel to Frost in May, which continues with The Sugar House and Beyond the Glass. Although each is a complete novel in itself, together they form a brilliant portrait of a young girl's journey to adulthood.
370 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
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535 people want to read
About the author
Antonia White
41 books46 followersAntonia White was born as Eirine Botting to parents Cecil and Christine Botting in 1899. She later took her mother's maiden name, White.
In 1921 she was married to the first of her three husbands. The marriage was annulled only 2 years later, and reportedly was never consummated. She immediately fell in love again with a man named Robert, who was an officer in the Scots Guards. They never married, and their relationship was brief but intense, which led to her experiencing a severe mental breakdown. She was committed to Bethlem, a public asylum, where she spent the next year of her life. She described her breakdown as a period of “mania”. After she left hospital, she spent four years participating in Freudian studies. She struggled the rest of her life with mental illness which she referred to as “The Beast”.
Her second marriage was to a man named Eric Earnshaw Smith, but this marriage ended in divorce. By the age of 30, she had been married 3 times. During her second marriage, she had fallen in love with two men. One was Rudolph 'Silas' Glossop. The other was a man named Tom Hopkinson, a copywriter and S.G. who is described as “a tall handsome young man with a slightly melancholy charm”. She had trouble deciding whom she should marry following her divorce, and she married Hopkinson in 1930. She had two daughters, Lyndall Hopkinson and Susan Chitty, who have both written autobiographical books about their difficult relationship with their mother.
Her career as a writer seems to have been driven by the desire to cope with a sense of failure, resulting initially from her first attempt at writing, and with mental illness. She was quoted as saying, “The old terrors always return and often, with them, a feeling of such paralyzing lack of self-confidence that I have to take earlier books of mine off their shelf just to prove to myself that I actually wrote them and they were actually printed, bound, and read. I find that numbers of writers experience these same miseries over their work and do not, as is so often supposed, enjoy the process. "Creative joy" is something I haven't felt since I was fourteen and don't expect to feel again."
With regard to the content of her writing, White remarked, “My novels and short stories are mainly about ordinary people who become involved in rather extraordinary situations. I do not mean in sensational adventures but in rather odd and difficult personal relationships largely due to their family background and their incomplete understanding of their own natures. I use both Catholic and non-Catholic characters and am particularly interested in the conflicts that arise between them and in the influences they have on each other.”
Bibliography:
Frost in May (first published 1933)
The Lost Traveller (first published 1950)
The Sugar House (first published 1952)
Beyond the Glass (first published 1954)
Strangers (first published 1954)
The Hound and the Falcon: The Story of a Reconversion to Catholic Faith (first published 1965)
Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1957)
Living with Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1970)
Play: Three In a Room: Comedy in 3 Acts (first published 1947)
In 1921 she was married to the first of her three husbands. The marriage was annulled only 2 years later, and reportedly was never consummated. She immediately fell in love again with a man named Robert, who was an officer in the Scots Guards. They never married, and their relationship was brief but intense, which led to her experiencing a severe mental breakdown. She was committed to Bethlem, a public asylum, where she spent the next year of her life. She described her breakdown as a period of “mania”. After she left hospital, she spent four years participating in Freudian studies. She struggled the rest of her life with mental illness which she referred to as “The Beast”.
Her second marriage was to a man named Eric Earnshaw Smith, but this marriage ended in divorce. By the age of 30, she had been married 3 times. During her second marriage, she had fallen in love with two men. One was Rudolph 'Silas' Glossop. The other was a man named Tom Hopkinson, a copywriter and S.G. who is described as “a tall handsome young man with a slightly melancholy charm”. She had trouble deciding whom she should marry following her divorce, and she married Hopkinson in 1930. She had two daughters, Lyndall Hopkinson and Susan Chitty, who have both written autobiographical books about their difficult relationship with their mother.
Her career as a writer seems to have been driven by the desire to cope with a sense of failure, resulting initially from her first attempt at writing, and with mental illness. She was quoted as saying, “The old terrors always return and often, with them, a feeling of such paralyzing lack of self-confidence that I have to take earlier books of mine off their shelf just to prove to myself that I actually wrote them and they were actually printed, bound, and read. I find that numbers of writers experience these same miseries over their work and do not, as is so often supposed, enjoy the process. "Creative joy" is something I haven't felt since I was fourteen and don't expect to feel again."
With regard to the content of her writing, White remarked, “My novels and short stories are mainly about ordinary people who become involved in rather extraordinary situations. I do not mean in sensational adventures but in rather odd and difficult personal relationships largely due to their family background and their incomplete understanding of their own natures. I use both Catholic and non-Catholic characters and am particularly interested in the conflicts that arise between them and in the influences they have on each other.”
Bibliography:
Frost in May (first published 1933)
The Lost Traveller (first published 1950)
The Sugar House (first published 1952)
Beyond the Glass (first published 1954)
Strangers (first published 1954)
The Hound and the Falcon: The Story of a Reconversion to Catholic Faith (first published 1965)
Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1957)
Living with Minka and Curdy (children's book, first published 1970)
Play: Three In a Room: Comedy in 3 Acts (first published 1947)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
January 13, 2018
This is the second of Antonia White’s series of four novel about a girl growing up in a Catholic family in the early twentieth century. At the end of Frost in May Clara (she was known as Nanda in the first book, White just decided to change her name) has to leave the convent school and start at a local girl’s school. The book opens in 1914 when Clara is 14 and we follow her for the next three years. White captures the usual adolescent problems of love, parents, friendships, what to do in life, religion and so on. It could easily be an average coming of age tale; but it is more than that.
White captures the sheer intensity of being 16/17. Clara battles with whether she should continue studying and go to Cambridge, she worries about whether she has a vocation to be a nun and eventually decides to spend a few months being a governess to a boy from an Old Catholic family, away from London in the country.
So what lifts it above the mundane? The characterisation of Clara’s parents (based on White’s own parents) is very strong. Her father in particular with his strong emotions; almost wanting to live through his daughter, but there is also a disturbing edge to his character:
“Oh thank you, Daddy. You do look magnificent,” she said, pinning on her flowers and gazing at him with admiration. Evening clothes suited him; they set off his fairness and made him seem taller. Never, she thought, had she seen him looking so young and handsome.
She giggled with sheer happiness.
“I never thought I’d go to the opera with you in your opera hat, I do feel grand.”
He offered his arm.
“Your carriage is waiting.”
To her amazement, it was no mere taxi but a hired car with a chauffeur in livery. A hired car was the very greatest of luxuries associated only with the most solemn family feasts such as her parents’ wedding anniversary. Never before had he ordered one just for Clara.
“Daddy you are spoiling me,” She said, leaning back on the thick grey cushions.”
This is almost a seduction and there is a slightly sinister edge to Claude’s character. There is a temptation for the reader to think they are over-reacting and it is entirely innocent until very near the end of the book when Claude is alone with one of Clara’s friends at a time of high emotion. His behaviour then confirms the previous suspicions. Clara’s mother also has her trials and tribulations and her almost affair is a revelation. The backdrop to it all is the Catholic faith and the restrictions it places on the characters.
There is a significant tragedy in the book; the first real tragedy in her life which almost destroys her and will resonate through the rest of her life and the effects will flow through the rest of the novels in this series. Given White’s own history and battles with her own mental health, you can see the beginnings here of what Clara will have to face in the future. Although this could stand alone I think the books are much better read in sequence.
White captures the sheer intensity of being 16/17. Clara battles with whether she should continue studying and go to Cambridge, she worries about whether she has a vocation to be a nun and eventually decides to spend a few months being a governess to a boy from an Old Catholic family, away from London in the country.
So what lifts it above the mundane? The characterisation of Clara’s parents (based on White’s own parents) is very strong. Her father in particular with his strong emotions; almost wanting to live through his daughter, but there is also a disturbing edge to his character:
“Oh thank you, Daddy. You do look magnificent,” she said, pinning on her flowers and gazing at him with admiration. Evening clothes suited him; they set off his fairness and made him seem taller. Never, she thought, had she seen him looking so young and handsome.
She giggled with sheer happiness.
“I never thought I’d go to the opera with you in your opera hat, I do feel grand.”
He offered his arm.
“Your carriage is waiting.”
To her amazement, it was no mere taxi but a hired car with a chauffeur in livery. A hired car was the very greatest of luxuries associated only with the most solemn family feasts such as her parents’ wedding anniversary. Never before had he ordered one just for Clara.
“Daddy you are spoiling me,” She said, leaning back on the thick grey cushions.”
This is almost a seduction and there is a slightly sinister edge to Claude’s character. There is a temptation for the reader to think they are over-reacting and it is entirely innocent until very near the end of the book when Claude is alone with one of Clara’s friends at a time of high emotion. His behaviour then confirms the previous suspicions. Clara’s mother also has her trials and tribulations and her almost affair is a revelation. The backdrop to it all is the Catholic faith and the restrictions it places on the characters.
There is a significant tragedy in the book; the first real tragedy in her life which almost destroys her and will resonate through the rest of her life and the effects will flow through the rest of the novels in this series. Given White’s own history and battles with her own mental health, you can see the beginnings here of what Clara will have to face in the future. Although this could stand alone I think the books are much better read in sequence.
May 28, 2021
I misunderstood what this book would be. I thought it was a true sequel to Frost in May and that’s not entirely accurate. In this book’s introduction, White is quoted as saying she wanted this to be a “proper novel,” a “real novel,” meaning not a novel seen through the eyes of only one person and not as closely aligned to her own life, as her first book was. I’m glad I read the introduction before starting, as I could adjust my expectations before embarking on the first chapter, which is told from the main character’s father’s point-of-view. The names of the characters were changed from the earlier book as well, which might seem superficial, but it did set off the other differences even more.
I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t get what I was expecting, as I loved the close third-person point-of-view of Nanda, the young convent girl in Frost in May, but this is well-written too and I was never bored with it. Its climax might seem a bit melodramatic, but it is gripping. Because of earlier happenings, the reactions to this dramatic event by Clara, the now seventeen-year-old protagonist, her father, and her mother are psychologically astute. I’m not sure if I will go on to read the next book in the series, which is a true sequel: Time will tell.
I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t get what I was expecting, as I loved the close third-person point-of-view of Nanda, the young convent girl in Frost in May, but this is well-written too and I was never bored with it. Its climax might seem a bit melodramatic, but it is gripping. Because of earlier happenings, the reactions to this dramatic event by Clara, the now seventeen-year-old protagonist, her father, and her mother are psychologically astute. I’m not sure if I will go on to read the next book in the series, which is a true sequel: Time will tell.
January 25, 2025
Wow !! Stunning - absolutely stunning. It's probably the best book I have read in a very long time.
And I've read it in quite the strangest way. I got stuck in that chapter where Isabel meets Reynaud and I was appalled for them; appalled by both of them. I couldn't finish the chapter. If I had, I would have found my horror resolved, because their meeting is a recognition of each other. When I finally picked up the book again after a hiatus of about a month, I read and recognised what could only be Yeats. It's Clara who provides the information at the chapter end - lines takes from an early play The Land of Heart's Desire.
Here is the original:
Mary. Come, faeries, take me out of this dull house!
Let me have all the freedom I have lost;
Work when I will and idle when I will!
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
(Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,)
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
And so I continued to the end. The first two-thirds I can accurately describe as very slow; but they are the essential and necessary building blocks to understand the characters - Clara and her mother and father; and then the last third of the book seems to explode with action and drama. I would say contrary to the obvious scene, that most might comment on, is that explosive chapter where Claude Batchelor reveals his true feelings concerning his daughter Clara; and in strong opposition to the father is Isabel - utterly redeemed with the wisdom of love; and bitter also because she knows that it is always to her father that Clara will look, for his approval and approbation.
There is so much to say about this novel - how Lady Cressett is both so right and yet so wrong in her advice to Clara. She wants something good to come out of the terrible tragedy that has happened. Most interesting of all however, is the way in which White challenges the Catholic religion. For me the words of comfort offered by Lady Cresset are identical to any words offered in a time of grief and pain. I was surprised in fact by how much I approved all the directives and plot lines woven through this novel in reference to how people use religion to give them guidance in their lives.
Even Claude, the awful, awful father - with his authority and learning and deeply screwed psychosis is redeemed somewhat - as he recognises Isabel's understanding and compassion for their daughter. It's a truly marvellous read. And exactly what I needed at this time in my life. Even that break in the middle was necessary. I couldn't have read through to the end then anyway, but now I can and have found it is exactly what I needed.
And I've read it in quite the strangest way. I got stuck in that chapter where Isabel meets Reynaud and I was appalled for them; appalled by both of them. I couldn't finish the chapter. If I had, I would have found my horror resolved, because their meeting is a recognition of each other. When I finally picked up the book again after a hiatus of about a month, I read and recognised what could only be Yeats. It's Clara who provides the information at the chapter end - lines takes from an early play The Land of Heart's Desire.
Here is the original:
Mary. Come, faeries, take me out of this dull house!
Let me have all the freedom I have lost;
Work when I will and idle when I will!
Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
(Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,)
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.
And so I continued to the end. The first two-thirds I can accurately describe as very slow; but they are the essential and necessary building blocks to understand the characters - Clara and her mother and father; and then the last third of the book seems to explode with action and drama. I would say contrary to the obvious scene, that most might comment on, is that explosive chapter where Claude Batchelor reveals his true feelings concerning his daughter Clara; and in strong opposition to the father is Isabel - utterly redeemed with the wisdom of love; and bitter also because she knows that it is always to her father that Clara will look, for his approval and approbation.
There is so much to say about this novel - how Lady Cressett is both so right and yet so wrong in her advice to Clara. She wants something good to come out of the terrible tragedy that has happened. Most interesting of all however, is the way in which White challenges the Catholic religion. For me the words of comfort offered by Lady Cresset are identical to any words offered in a time of grief and pain. I was surprised in fact by how much I approved all the directives and plot lines woven through this novel in reference to how people use religion to give them guidance in their lives.
Even Claude, the awful, awful father - with his authority and learning and deeply screwed psychosis is redeemed somewhat - as he recognises Isabel's understanding and compassion for their daughter. It's a truly marvellous read. And exactly what I needed at this time in my life. Even that break in the middle was necessary. I couldn't have read through to the end then anyway, but now I can and have found it is exactly what I needed.
July 16, 2023
“I don’t think I want to be anything. In fact, I hate thinking about the future at all.”
“How do people become real? Does one just change as one gets older? Or did something definite happen to you?”
On the brink of the Great War when Clara Batchelor is almost 15, her grandfather dies and her mother, Isabel, becomes seriously ill with “female troubles” related to a dangerous, later-in-life pregnancy. Having had to finance Isabel’s costly operation, Clara’s father, Claude, can no longer afford to send the girl to Mount St. Hilary Convent School, where prominent Catholics send their daughters.
White not only tells the story of Clara, now back at home and attending the Protestant St. Mark’s Girls’ School, but she also spends a good deal of time on the two people who exert the greatest influence on the girl: her intense, conflicted, and emotionally disturbed father and her beautiful, narcissistic mother. Clara’s new friendships with two Jewish girls—the studious Ruth Philips and the flirtatious, high-spirited Patsy Cohen (whose lively, busy and noisy home provides a significant contrast to Clara’s dark and quiet one on Valetta Road)—are also explored.
Claude Batchelor converted to Catholicism when Clara was a child of seven. The ritual, the pomp, Claude’s self-identified “feudal temperament”, and a compulsion to rein in dark urges and a sinful nature were all factors in his decision. Claude’s relationship with Clara, though not literally incestuous, is certainly emotionally so. His reaction to her budding sexuality is alarmingly inappropriate. Claude is demanding, controlling, and ambitious for his daughter. A boys’ school classics teacher who would have preferred a son, Claude sees academic potential in his daughter and attempts to steer her towards Cambridge, at a time when few women attended institutions of higher education.
Clara is, however, “the lost traveller” of the title. She is rudderless after leaving the convent school. She belongs neither to the Catholic world nor the Protestant one, and though she claims she does not want to marry, she also rejects life as a bluestocking. She ends up taking a position as a governess to a precocious, spoiled ten-year-old boy, Charles Cressett, the only heir to a wealthy, old Catholic family in Worcestershire. Once installed in the Cressetts’ Jacobean great house, Clara meets a young man from a nearby estate who is even odder and more adrift than she, Archie Hughes-Follett. “From babyhood,” we are told, “he had attracted accidents and misfortunes of all kinds or [had] been the innocent cause of accidents to others.” A soldier, now at home convalescing after a grenade explosion that killed another man, Archie, is another only son of a wealthy old Catholic family. Clara’s meeting with this young man proves to be a fateful one, life-changing and tragic.
The Lost Traveller is an intense, absorbing, “old-fashioned” (in the best sense) read. It explores not only the adolescence of a young girl but the lives of her parents (and their influence on her). Though there are melodramatic elements, characterization is strong, the writing can be quite evocative, and White creates a convincing portrait of a girl who cannot find her way.
“How do people become real? Does one just change as one gets older? Or did something definite happen to you?”
On the brink of the Great War when Clara Batchelor is almost 15, her grandfather dies and her mother, Isabel, becomes seriously ill with “female troubles” related to a dangerous, later-in-life pregnancy. Having had to finance Isabel’s costly operation, Clara’s father, Claude, can no longer afford to send the girl to Mount St. Hilary Convent School, where prominent Catholics send their daughters.
White not only tells the story of Clara, now back at home and attending the Protestant St. Mark’s Girls’ School, but she also spends a good deal of time on the two people who exert the greatest influence on the girl: her intense, conflicted, and emotionally disturbed father and her beautiful, narcissistic mother. Clara’s new friendships with two Jewish girls—the studious Ruth Philips and the flirtatious, high-spirited Patsy Cohen (whose lively, busy and noisy home provides a significant contrast to Clara’s dark and quiet one on Valetta Road)—are also explored.
Claude Batchelor converted to Catholicism when Clara was a child of seven. The ritual, the pomp, Claude’s self-identified “feudal temperament”, and a compulsion to rein in dark urges and a sinful nature were all factors in his decision. Claude’s relationship with Clara, though not literally incestuous, is certainly emotionally so. His reaction to her budding sexuality is alarmingly inappropriate. Claude is demanding, controlling, and ambitious for his daughter. A boys’ school classics teacher who would have preferred a son, Claude sees academic potential in his daughter and attempts to steer her towards Cambridge, at a time when few women attended institutions of higher education.
Clara is, however, “the lost traveller” of the title. She is rudderless after leaving the convent school. She belongs neither to the Catholic world nor the Protestant one, and though she claims she does not want to marry, she also rejects life as a bluestocking. She ends up taking a position as a governess to a precocious, spoiled ten-year-old boy, Charles Cressett, the only heir to a wealthy, old Catholic family in Worcestershire. Once installed in the Cressetts’ Jacobean great house, Clara meets a young man from a nearby estate who is even odder and more adrift than she, Archie Hughes-Follett. “From babyhood,” we are told, “he had attracted accidents and misfortunes of all kinds or [had] been the innocent cause of accidents to others.” A soldier, now at home convalescing after a grenade explosion that killed another man, Archie, is another only son of a wealthy old Catholic family. Clara’s meeting with this young man proves to be a fateful one, life-changing and tragic.
The Lost Traveller is an intense, absorbing, “old-fashioned” (in the best sense) read. It explores not only the adolescence of a young girl but the lives of her parents (and their influence on her). Though there are melodramatic elements, characterization is strong, the writing can be quite evocative, and White creates a convincing portrait of a girl who cannot find her way.
February 24, 2019
Although this is billed as the first of a sequel trilogy to Frost in May, the starting point rewrites the ending of that first book or, rather, erases it - which is a bit disconcerting, at first. Also the main character's name is changed from (Fer)Nanda Grey, clearly too similar to Antonia White, to Clara Batchelor. But, the character herself is still recognisable in all her ethereal fluidity: the solidities, however restraining, of the convent are now in the past and Clara finds herself adrift: caught between her parents and some kind of independence, between adolescence and womanhood - not sure what she wants, or who she is.
The structure is episodic and there are switched PoVs between Clara herself, her dissatisfied mother, Isabella, and her volatile father, Claude. The relationships between Clara and each parent are beautifully delineated: her intense desire for her father's approval, her almost off-hand, irritated manner with her mother. And there are set pieces that are written with such clarity that they're impossible to forget: Clara's night at Covent Garden with Claude, for example, which is slightly unsettling in the intimacy between father and daughter.
The latter part of the book which throws tragedy and guilt into Clara's young life is done with such simplicity and brutality. And it's interesting to find a book set during the outbreak and early years of WW1 that shows not everyone was obsessed by it - Clara more or less ignores it.
White's writing is unshowy but beautifully precise - and she has the knack of making us *feel* without over-emoting - I started getting nervous as we approached *that scene* and the aftermath is handled with delicacy and sensitivity.
A wonderful depiction, then, of a young woman's emergence from childhood/adolescence in the early decades of the twentieth century: always understated but immensely powerful.
The structure is episodic and there are switched PoVs between Clara herself, her dissatisfied mother, Isabella, and her volatile father, Claude. The relationships between Clara and each parent are beautifully delineated: her intense desire for her father's approval, her almost off-hand, irritated manner with her mother. And there are set pieces that are written with such clarity that they're impossible to forget: Clara's night at Covent Garden with Claude, for example, which is slightly unsettling in the intimacy between father and daughter.
The latter part of the book which throws tragedy and guilt into Clara's young life is done with such simplicity and brutality. And it's interesting to find a book set during the outbreak and early years of WW1 that shows not everyone was obsessed by it - Clara more or less ignores it.
White's writing is unshowy but beautifully precise - and she has the knack of making us *feel* without over-emoting - I started getting nervous as we approached *that scene* and the aftermath is handled with delicacy and sensitivity.
A wonderful depiction, then, of a young woman's emergence from childhood/adolescence in the early decades of the twentieth century: always understated but immensely powerful.
February 13, 2021
I read Frost in May two days ago and have other books by Antonia White and was aware Frost in May was the first of a quartet of connected novels. So, as they say, ‘curiosity killed the cat’ and I ploughed onto her second novel that was written ~17 years after the first novel (1933 UK edition, 1934 US edition). That’s a fairly long interval of time between two novels. Anyway, I would give this novel 3 stars. Not as good as ‘Frost in May’, but overall it held my interest and was a decent read.
The story is largely about a daughter, Clara, and her father Claude and her mother Isabel. There are a bunch of other characters introduced at the beginning of the novel, and ultimately that was annoying because I was constantly writing down characters’ names only to find out that most of the characters were never mentioned again. 🤨
The book includes nuns and Catholicism and such but really is far less about Catholicism than in White’s first semi-autobiographical novel. As in ‘Frost in May’, .
After I was through with the novel, I, out of curiosity (curiosity killed the cat), peeked at the third novel of the quartet, ‘The Sugar House’, only to see if I recognized any of the characters. Yes, I saw Clara there, but I also saw Archie’s name. What?! Did she marry the man? If so, that marriage was not made in heaven, that’s for sure. I’ll probably read ‘Sugar House’ today to see what is going on. Because curiosity killed the cat. 😏
Well, I just read some stuff about Antonia White, including the introduction to the novel in the Virago Modern Classic edition. It turns out that Antonia White wanted to write an introduction to the three books that followed ‘Frost in May’ and that were re-published by Virago Modern Classics. However, she ultimately decided to have a friend write it, Carmen Callil from Virago, and to write it based on the conversations the friend had with Antonia. There I learned some interesting things, among them:
• Characters in ‘The Lost Traveller” are indeed characters out of ‘Frost in May’. In other words, Clara Batchelor is Nanda Grey. Antonia White: “Of course Clara is a continuation of Nanda. Nanda became Clara because my father had a great passion for (George) Meredith and a particular passion for Clara Middleton (heroine of the Egoist). Everything that happened to Clara in ‘The Lost Traveller’ is the sort of thing that happened to me, though many things are changed, many invented, I wanted ‘The Lost Traveller’ to be a real novel — ‘Frost in May’ was so much my own life. So I changed her name …”
• Antonia White had written the first two chapters of ‘Frost in May’ when she was only 16, soon after she had been expelled from a convent school for writing a nasty story. She completed ‘Frost in May’ 16 years later when she was 32 years old and on her third marriage.
Reviews:
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• https://literaryreview.co.uk/hermione... (has reviews of the next two novels also)
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2009/...
The story is largely about a daughter, Clara, and her father Claude and her mother Isabel. There are a bunch of other characters introduced at the beginning of the novel, and ultimately that was annoying because I was constantly writing down characters’ names only to find out that most of the characters were never mentioned again. 🤨
The book includes nuns and Catholicism and such but really is far less about Catholicism than in White’s first semi-autobiographical novel. As in ‘Frost in May’, .
After I was through with the novel, I, out of curiosity (curiosity killed the cat), peeked at the third novel of the quartet, ‘The Sugar House’, only to see if I recognized any of the characters. Yes, I saw Clara there, but I also saw Archie’s name. What?! Did she marry the man? If so, that marriage was not made in heaven, that’s for sure. I’ll probably read ‘Sugar House’ today to see what is going on. Because curiosity killed the cat. 😏
Well, I just read some stuff about Antonia White, including the introduction to the novel in the Virago Modern Classic edition. It turns out that Antonia White wanted to write an introduction to the three books that followed ‘Frost in May’ and that were re-published by Virago Modern Classics. However, she ultimately decided to have a friend write it, Carmen Callil from Virago, and to write it based on the conversations the friend had with Antonia. There I learned some interesting things, among them:
• Characters in ‘The Lost Traveller” are indeed characters out of ‘Frost in May’. In other words, Clara Batchelor is Nanda Grey. Antonia White: “Of course Clara is a continuation of Nanda. Nanda became Clara because my father had a great passion for (George) Meredith and a particular passion for Clara Middleton (heroine of the Egoist). Everything that happened to Clara in ‘The Lost Traveller’ is the sort of thing that happened to me, though many things are changed, many invented, I wanted ‘The Lost Traveller’ to be a real novel — ‘Frost in May’ was so much my own life. So I changed her name …”
• Antonia White had written the first two chapters of ‘Frost in May’ when she was only 16, soon after she had been expelled from a convent school for writing a nasty story. She completed ‘Frost in May’ 16 years later when she was 32 years old and on her third marriage.
Reviews:
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2013/...
• https://literaryreview.co.uk/hermione... (has reviews of the next two novels also)
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2009/...
April 8, 2023
The first of Antonia White’s quartet can be called semi-autobiographical. At the beginning of the second, the author ambiguously declares that she wants to separate herself from the story—that parts were fictional but they easily could actually have happened in her life. She changes the central protagonists' and school names. You must readjust what you have just read. You understand it’s the same story but with important alterations! I found this troublesome, the story seems to be taking a new direction. The focus turns to the parents, and they irritated me immensely. Their whole way of being put me off—I could not relate to what they thought or did. They both felt superficial, false and self-centered. The story remains a coming of age story, but deals with both mother/daughter and father/daughter relationships. Religion still takes its place as a central theme. Not in a bad way, but a good way.
As I approached the end, I fell into liking it a lot again. It rings true. The story is primarily an eyeopener about the parents. One at least, has an awakening. I don’t want to reveal more! I see a glimmer of hope for the future. Not just for the parent, but also for the central protagonist too! Read the book and see what you think. Maybe you’ll agree; maybe you won’t.
By the end I was sold, but not in the beginning or middle. How do you rate a book—by the first 2/3 or the last third? And isn’t it a sign of good writing if an author is able to create characters that irritate a reader immensely? You are not left indifferent! That would be much worse. The author is I believe delivering a message.
Now that I have gotten myself into the second version of the story, I want to continue. I want to know where Clara ends up. She was scared of becoming a nun. Her father wanted her to go to Cambridge and get the best possible education, but what does she want, and will she get what she wants? Along the way we observe her maturing.
The audiobook is read by Gretel Davis, as was the first of the series. She is easy to follow. I don’t think her engagement was quite as strong as in the first, but till worth four stars.
********************************************
*Frost in May 4 stars
*The Lost Traveller 3 stars
*The Sugar House 3 stars
*Beyond the Glass 3 stars
As I approached the end, I fell into liking it a lot again. It rings true. The story is primarily an eyeopener about the parents. One at least, has an awakening. I don’t want to reveal more! I see a glimmer of hope for the future. Not just for the parent, but also for the central protagonist too! Read the book and see what you think. Maybe you’ll agree; maybe you won’t.
By the end I was sold, but not in the beginning or middle. How do you rate a book—by the first 2/3 or the last third? And isn’t it a sign of good writing if an author is able to create characters that irritate a reader immensely? You are not left indifferent! That would be much worse. The author is I believe delivering a message.
Now that I have gotten myself into the second version of the story, I want to continue. I want to know where Clara ends up. She was scared of becoming a nun. Her father wanted her to go to Cambridge and get the best possible education, but what does she want, and will she get what she wants? Along the way we observe her maturing.
The audiobook is read by Gretel Davis, as was the first of the series. She is easy to follow. I don’t think her engagement was quite as strong as in the first, but till worth four stars.
********************************************
*Frost in May 4 stars
*The Lost Traveller 3 stars
*The Sugar House 3 stars
*Beyond the Glass 3 stars
December 30, 2013
the lost traveller
This was my final read for August, and I must say I absolutely loved it. Antonia White is mainly known for her quartet of novels which began with Frost In May, which was the first ever Virago Modern Classic. I re-read Frost in May about two years ago and although I enjoyed it – there was something a little disturbing about the story of the breaking of a young girl’s spirit. I have now collected each of the remaining three books of the quartet together – and I am so glad that I have.
In The Lost Traveller (which is apparently very autobiographical) Nada Grey of Frost in May has become Clara Batchelor – and The Five Wounds School has become Mount Hilary, but they are essentially the same place.
As the novel opens in 1914 Clara is fourteen, her paternal grandfather has just died, and with her father Claude grief stricken at the demise of the parent he had undeservedly put on a pedestal – Clara is called home from her Catholic boarding school for the funeral. Clara’s mother Isabel is a strange cool creature, irritated by her mother-in-law – she adores her daughter – but feels Clara’s reserve toward her very keenly. Clara both adores and fears her father; terrified of his disapproval she does what she can to please him.
At the heart of this novel is the complex relationship between Clara and her parents. Clara is an only child of Catholic converts, Claude a respected school master, and Isabel a fragile beauty whose ancestors were quite grand. Claude is ambitious for Clara – with a scholarship to Cambridge in mind for her, Isabel is less keen on the idea of a bluestocking daughter, wanting her only to be beautiful. Just as he worshiped his father, Claude worships his wife; Clara resents her, hating the way she speaks to Claude and her grandmother. The relationship between Clara and her father verges on the ever so slightly disturbing, Clara is a daddy’s girl, and yet the relationship with her father doesn’t always bring her happiness, at one moment revelling in a shared confidence or appreciation of a piece of music – the next made miserable by one of Claude’s dreadful rages.
“Oh thank you, Daddy. You do look magnificent,” she said, pinning on her flowers and gazing at him with admiration. Evening clothes suited him; they set off his fairness and made him seem taller. Never, she thought, had she seen him looking so young and handsome.
She giggled with sheer happiness.
“I never thought I’d go to the opera with you in your opera hat, I do feel grand.”
He offered his arm.
“Your carriage is waiting.”
To her amazement, it was no mere taxi but a hired car with a chauffeur in livery. A hired car was the very greatest of luxuries associated only with the most solemn family feasts such as her parents’ wedding anniversary. Never before had he ordered one just for Clara.
“Daddy you are spoiling me,” She said, leaning back on the thick grey cushions.”
Clara is irritated and even repelled by her mother’s affection. Isabel knows only too well the realities of a Catholic marriage, she wants her daughter to marry, but insists she must marry for love, in her terrible ignorance of the facts of life; Clara is bound to misunderstand her mother. Isabel is a wonderfully drawn character, often unhappy and jealous of Clara and Claude’s relationship. The one thing that Clara and Isabel seem to agree on is Pagets Fold, the Sussex country home of Claude’s family, a small house with 40 acres, where his two spinster aunts live in a sort of caretaker role. Clara and Isabel love the aunts and for Clara, Pagets Fold represents an idyll to which she looks forward to returning each summer holiday.
Shortly after the death of her grandfather, Clara is forced to leave her Catholic boarding school – that has become a blissful haven from home life – as her father can no longer pay the fees following a mysterious illness of her mother’s which resulted in high doctor’s fees. Clara will spend her final year of schooling and subsequent sixth form at a protestant day school. Saddened at the loss of her friend Nicole de Savigny – who Clara instinctively knows she will be unable to keep up with – their social orbits being of an entirely different kind, Clara fears her removal from the place where she feels safe. However at her new school Clara makes two particularly good friends, who serve to help Clara develop at little bit of spirit and creative flare. No longer quite as buttoned up, Clara starts to blossom, and is no longer quite sure that Cambridge is for her. On the brink of womanhood, and in the middle of the Great War – Clara leaves her family to spend six months as a governess in a good Catholic home, where she will be treated as one of the family and able to re-connect with her Catholic upbringing. Here Clara is supremely happy, reverting almost to childhood in her antics with her young charge. However when the first really tragic event of her young life comes along, Clara is really tested. Clara needs to work out how to heal herself and move forward.
This was my final read for August, and I must say I absolutely loved it. Antonia White is mainly known for her quartet of novels which began with Frost In May, which was the first ever Virago Modern Classic. I re-read Frost in May about two years ago and although I enjoyed it – there was something a little disturbing about the story of the breaking of a young girl’s spirit. I have now collected each of the remaining three books of the quartet together – and I am so glad that I have.
In The Lost Traveller (which is apparently very autobiographical) Nada Grey of Frost in May has become Clara Batchelor – and The Five Wounds School has become Mount Hilary, but they are essentially the same place.
As the novel opens in 1914 Clara is fourteen, her paternal grandfather has just died, and with her father Claude grief stricken at the demise of the parent he had undeservedly put on a pedestal – Clara is called home from her Catholic boarding school for the funeral. Clara’s mother Isabel is a strange cool creature, irritated by her mother-in-law – she adores her daughter – but feels Clara’s reserve toward her very keenly. Clara both adores and fears her father; terrified of his disapproval she does what she can to please him.
At the heart of this novel is the complex relationship between Clara and her parents. Clara is an only child of Catholic converts, Claude a respected school master, and Isabel a fragile beauty whose ancestors were quite grand. Claude is ambitious for Clara – with a scholarship to Cambridge in mind for her, Isabel is less keen on the idea of a bluestocking daughter, wanting her only to be beautiful. Just as he worshiped his father, Claude worships his wife; Clara resents her, hating the way she speaks to Claude and her grandmother. The relationship between Clara and her father verges on the ever so slightly disturbing, Clara is a daddy’s girl, and yet the relationship with her father doesn’t always bring her happiness, at one moment revelling in a shared confidence or appreciation of a piece of music – the next made miserable by one of Claude’s dreadful rages.
“Oh thank you, Daddy. You do look magnificent,” she said, pinning on her flowers and gazing at him with admiration. Evening clothes suited him; they set off his fairness and made him seem taller. Never, she thought, had she seen him looking so young and handsome.
She giggled with sheer happiness.
“I never thought I’d go to the opera with you in your opera hat, I do feel grand.”
He offered his arm.
“Your carriage is waiting.”
To her amazement, it was no mere taxi but a hired car with a chauffeur in livery. A hired car was the very greatest of luxuries associated only with the most solemn family feasts such as her parents’ wedding anniversary. Never before had he ordered one just for Clara.
“Daddy you are spoiling me,” She said, leaning back on the thick grey cushions.”
Clara is irritated and even repelled by her mother’s affection. Isabel knows only too well the realities of a Catholic marriage, she wants her daughter to marry, but insists she must marry for love, in her terrible ignorance of the facts of life; Clara is bound to misunderstand her mother. Isabel is a wonderfully drawn character, often unhappy and jealous of Clara and Claude’s relationship. The one thing that Clara and Isabel seem to agree on is Pagets Fold, the Sussex country home of Claude’s family, a small house with 40 acres, where his two spinster aunts live in a sort of caretaker role. Clara and Isabel love the aunts and for Clara, Pagets Fold represents an idyll to which she looks forward to returning each summer holiday.
Shortly after the death of her grandfather, Clara is forced to leave her Catholic boarding school – that has become a blissful haven from home life – as her father can no longer pay the fees following a mysterious illness of her mother’s which resulted in high doctor’s fees. Clara will spend her final year of schooling and subsequent sixth form at a protestant day school. Saddened at the loss of her friend Nicole de Savigny – who Clara instinctively knows she will be unable to keep up with – their social orbits being of an entirely different kind, Clara fears her removal from the place where she feels safe. However at her new school Clara makes two particularly good friends, who serve to help Clara develop at little bit of spirit and creative flare. No longer quite as buttoned up, Clara starts to blossom, and is no longer quite sure that Cambridge is for her. On the brink of womanhood, and in the middle of the Great War – Clara leaves her family to spend six months as a governess in a good Catholic home, where she will be treated as one of the family and able to re-connect with her Catholic upbringing. Here Clara is supremely happy, reverting almost to childhood in her antics with her young charge. However when the first really tragic event of her young life comes along, Clara is really tested. Clara needs to work out how to heal herself and move forward.
Read
February 25, 2017No, wait just a minute here. None of you have read Frost in May?! Nevermind..... Go out and get Frost in May and then come back here for the Trilogy.
March 27, 2023
Like some other readers, I liked Frost in May more - but I wonder if that is, for me at least, because it was easier to read, more of a piece as it were. In Lost Traveller , we are drawn into the lives, especially the inner lives, of many more characters, notably her father and mother amongst several other vital and compelling minor ones.
At first, sympathy and interest is all directed to Clara ( btw, does anyone know why White changed the name from (Fer)Nanda?) and it is easy to find her father somewhat of pompous and self absorbed bully - and her mother a die-away and equally self absorbed ex-Beauty. But none of them are just these things, all three have complex and unexpected attributes, often attractive, sometimes decidedly not . Personally I was very happy White did not develop Mr Batchelor's romantic feeling towards Clara. Indeed, it is cleverer and more complex than that, his Victorian attitude ranges from mad rages at the idea that some man has touched her - and he blames Clara that it happened at all, bringing out the old patriarchal saw than no girl is ever handled or approached against her will, to seeing her as a Cambridge don and/ or mother to many Catholic children.
Mrs Batchelor, survivor of several stillbirths and lingering gynaecological problems is under no illusions as to what Catholic marriage entails, but still hopes for Clara to be happily married. Though for her, love is mandatory for happiness .
Clara herself, through almost all the book inhabits a fervid interior world of poetry, scholarship, intense ( and often tedious ) self reflection, romantic notions abounding , though not about love exactly, as such notions are completely uninformed by anything remotely resembling an adult understanding of sexuality. Indeed to me, at the end, despite being engaged to be married,she seems to exhibit no greater maturity in this regard than she did at 13, though she been instructed by a competent and trusted friend.
It is a masterful and compelling book, and I look forward to reading the sequels, even when there are times when White compels you to think you just want to shake Clara and tell her for heaven's sake STOP banging on about yourself and your interminable feelings and look outward and do something for someone else. Anybody else, except perhaps father, that is. Especially true when she is involved in a tragedy and is unable, it seems, to rise above her own part in it and her own guilt and her own .... and so on and so forth . This leads her into a situation, the resolution of which gives her mother the chance to at last take on the role of wise parent, a role you just know she will be bitterly punished for.
Read Frost in May first - then this, and see if you are not seriously impressed with Antonia White
PS, I hate the cover , very inappropriate
At first, sympathy and interest is all directed to Clara ( btw, does anyone know why White changed the name from (Fer)Nanda?) and it is easy to find her father somewhat of pompous and self absorbed bully - and her mother a die-away and equally self absorbed ex-Beauty. But none of them are just these things, all three have complex and unexpected attributes, often attractive, sometimes decidedly not . Personally I was very happy White did not develop Mr Batchelor's romantic feeling towards Clara. Indeed, it is cleverer and more complex than that, his Victorian attitude ranges from mad rages at the idea that some man has touched her - and he blames Clara that it happened at all, bringing out the old patriarchal saw than no girl is ever handled or approached against her will, to seeing her as a Cambridge don and/ or mother to many Catholic children.
Mrs Batchelor, survivor of several stillbirths and lingering gynaecological problems is under no illusions as to what Catholic marriage entails, but still hopes for Clara to be happily married. Though for her, love is mandatory for happiness .
Clara herself, through almost all the book inhabits a fervid interior world of poetry, scholarship, intense ( and often tedious ) self reflection, romantic notions abounding , though not about love exactly, as such notions are completely uninformed by anything remotely resembling an adult understanding of sexuality. Indeed to me, at the end, despite being engaged to be married,she seems to exhibit no greater maturity in this regard than she did at 13, though she been instructed by a competent and trusted friend.
It is a masterful and compelling book, and I look forward to reading the sequels, even when there are times when White compels you to think you just want to shake Clara and tell her for heaven's sake STOP banging on about yourself and your interminable feelings and look outward and do something for someone else. Anybody else, except perhaps father, that is. Especially true when she is involved in a tragedy and is unable, it seems, to rise above her own part in it and her own guilt and her own .... and so on and so forth . This leads her into a situation, the resolution of which gives her mother the chance to at last take on the role of wise parent, a role you just know she will be bitterly punished for.
Read Frost in May first - then this, and see if you are not seriously impressed with Antonia White
PS, I hate the cover , very inappropriate
September 6, 2019
… this produced at times an uncomfortable sense of dissipation. She felt she was not so much growing up as expanding shapelessly in all directions. She read omnivorously, devouring but not absorbing; never going deep into anything for fear of missing something else till her head was a chaos of unrelated ideas. All the values that had seemed so clear at Mount Hillary were becoming muddled. It was not that she doubted the truth of her religion but that it was becoming more and more difficult to make it a real part of her life. The nuns had prepared her to expect hostility and ridicule; what she found was indifference.
A full twenty years after her near-miraculous Frost In May debut, Antonia White returned to the story to continue almost exactly where she had left off. For some reason Nanda, our heroine from Frost, is now Clara in Traveller, but virtually all else remains the same, parents, home, convent-school Mount Hillary, and surrounding circumstances.
Like any sequel, the reader is here as much to find out what happens as to expect a discrete, modular work in itself, and in that we are certainly not disappointed. As any kind of through-the-looking-glass adventure though, we are not, this time, witnessing anything new. The Frost book somehow took us inside of wobbly adolescence, fraught with all confusing headwinds, stabilized by the intuitive intelligence of the lead character.
This one finds all the conditions generally known, but our lead is hitting the skids, being controlled by the circumstances rather than giving much fight. It's that awkward age. Questions and conflicting beliefs smashing all around, oceans of notions and no reliable moral compass anywhere within reach.
To give White her due, she doesn't neatly package this little trip through the doldrums, and as it happens, a random, tragic event arrives to break up the sideways motion of the book. It's not what the reader expects, and it certainly knocks the protagonist back on her heels. As such--- and after all as very clearly pegged by the title of this novel-- this outing serves as a kind of turning point, repositioning from what was, to what will be.
________________________
Should be mentioned that the bulk of this installment takes place outside of Mount Hillary's, so really nothing in common with the first book. Also, the first book wasn't super specific about time frame, leading some (me) to wrongly assume is was in the late teens, just after the war. It wasn't-- it was well before the war, because the onset of the Great War happens within the time frame of Lost Traveller, so it is somewhere around 1913 as it opens.
A full twenty years after her near-miraculous Frost In May debut, Antonia White returned to the story to continue almost exactly where she had left off. For some reason Nanda, our heroine from Frost, is now Clara in Traveller, but virtually all else remains the same, parents, home, convent-school Mount Hillary, and surrounding circumstances.
Like any sequel, the reader is here as much to find out what happens as to expect a discrete, modular work in itself, and in that we are certainly not disappointed. As any kind of through-the-looking-glass adventure though, we are not, this time, witnessing anything new. The Frost book somehow took us inside of wobbly adolescence, fraught with all confusing headwinds, stabilized by the intuitive intelligence of the lead character.
This one finds all the conditions generally known, but our lead is hitting the skids, being controlled by the circumstances rather than giving much fight. It's that awkward age. Questions and conflicting beliefs smashing all around, oceans of notions and no reliable moral compass anywhere within reach.
To give White her due, she doesn't neatly package this little trip through the doldrums, and as it happens, a random, tragic event arrives to break up the sideways motion of the book. It's not what the reader expects, and it certainly knocks the protagonist back on her heels. As such--- and after all as very clearly pegged by the title of this novel-- this outing serves as a kind of turning point, repositioning from what was, to what will be.
________________________
Should be mentioned that the bulk of this installment takes place outside of Mount Hillary's, so really nothing in common with the first book. Also, the first book wasn't super specific about time frame, leading some (me) to wrongly assume is was in the late teens, just after the war. It wasn't-- it was well before the war, because the onset of the Great War happens within the time frame of Lost Traveller, so it is somewhere around 1913 as it opens.
August 23, 2012
My favorite in the quarter, by far. I had rather too much in common with Clara in some ways, and this book made me very nervous when I first read it.
November 2, 2022
If I hadn't read Frost in May some years ago, I wouldn't have finished this one, I think. For the first hundred pages, I was struggling with interest. I wanted to abandon the book. But, having in mind how much I was in awe with "Frost in May" I kept going. And, finally, I got interested in the story.
Again, by comparison, I wasn't as gripped as with the previous part of the series, yet Antonia White wrote these semi-autobiographies with love, understanding, and the need to tell us something (at least I feel so) and it made the book worth reading.
What the novel lacked in a plot, definitely made up in a moving and deep study of the relationship between a daughter and a father, between a daughter and a mother, also between a wife and a husband through their relationship with a child.
There were brilliant observations about growing up too.
Of course, I am going to read the next book about Clara in the future.
Already she fancied she could see the shadow of tomorrow faintly clouding his face...
Again, by comparison, I wasn't as gripped as with the previous part of the series, yet Antonia White wrote these semi-autobiographies with love, understanding, and the need to tell us something (at least I feel so) and it made the book worth reading.
What the novel lacked in a plot, definitely made up in a moving and deep study of the relationship between a daughter and a father, between a daughter and a mother, also between a wife and a husband through their relationship with a child.
For the last few months it had been misery for her to be alone with either of her parents. It was all the worse because he had no idea why this was and Clara was always frightened by anything she could not explain. There seemed to be a new creature growing up inside her, something still unformed and skinless that could not bear to be exposed to the light. The thoughts that nourished this inner self were too sacred or too silly to be told to her father or mother and the mysterious creature was insistent, resenting inter-ruptions and demanding constant attention. When she heard her mother say "All right, darling," she gave a radiant smile of gratitude on behalf of the mysterious creature and almost danced out of the room.
There were brilliant observations about growing up too.
And it was as if all these details were connected, that they were like the separate letters of a word in an unknown language and that, if only she could understand the word, she would understand everything.
Of course, I am going to read the next book about Clara in the future.
July 31, 2014
I had never heard of Antonia White. But Joan Wickersham, who wrote the glorious News From Spain, recommended this book on her website. And I am so, so happy I took this advice. I won't go into the plot, as that has been covered thoroughly by other reviewers. I will just say that I was totally drawn in by the characters, their complexity and authenticity, the credible contradictions in their personalities, their yearnings, deceptions, and occasional cruelties, both intended and inadvertent. The writing is glorious, the tragedy toward the end of the book heartbreaking. I have just bought the two other books in the trilogy. One Frost in May is about the protagonist Clara (though called Nanda in this book) as a youngster, versus a teenager in The Lost Traveller. The other, The Sugar House is about Clara as a young woman. All three, though novels, are loosely autobiographical.
September 16, 2008
Found it absorbing, though I don't know if it's actually any good. But will read more if I can find it anyway. Father ghastly. Was relieved to see the mother become more sympathetic as book progressed. All the stuff about Catholicism very interesting, particularly from my puzzled heathen standpoint.
April 13, 2008
Every time I read this book I enjoy it more. To be fully appreciated, it needs to be read alongside its sequels, The Sugar House and Beyond the Glass.
February 14, 2014
"Frost in May", Antonia White's powerful story of her time
spent in a soul destroying convent finished in a dramatic way
as Nanda is expelled for attempting to write a romantic novel.
In "The Lost Traveller" she is rechristened Clara and the
book opens as Clara is recalled from school to attend her
grandfather's funeral.
Even though it is a continuation of the first book (although
written 17 years apart) things and people are different. In the
former book the end is shattering with Nanda's relationship with
her father almost destroyed but this book finds Clara returned
to her family very much the golden girl. Her parents are not
the shadowy figures of formally but fleshed out - her father
Claude's conversion to Catholicism is detailed as well as his
devotion to a father not really deserving of such care and who
also didn't have much time for his only son. His mother is
forever at the mercy of Isabel, Clara's mother. The first book
had her weak and ineffectual, not really caring about her
husband's conversion, just content to go along without too much
inconvenience - with more spotlight on her she becomes a
predatory force, forever dropping snide and belittling comments
to Claude's mother.
Years of the stifling confines of the convent have given Clara
a detachment towards any outward signs of emotion, especially
towards her father. Pervading the whole book is the almost odd
protectiveness Claude feels toward Clara - it comes across as
a not very pleasant Victorian father and daughter relationship.
When Claude finds her in an innocent tete-a-tete with her cousin
Blaze his anger is explosive but as he muses, his life has not
been the success he hoped and he wanted something in it to be
perfect (his daughter) but she has shown him she is only too
human. Later on Claude fantasizes about how lovely it would be
for he and Clara not to be father and daughter - a bit odd but
as a watcher of silent movies it is amazing how often that theme
comes up ("Lazybones" (1924), "Laugh Clown, Laugh" (1928)) and
it is definitely a holdover from the morbidly repressed Victorians.
The mood continues as Isabel, fooled by Clara's glib manner,
delves deep into the mysteries of child birth and why the
Catholic church has a lot to answer for - Clara, inwardly, becoming
more and more horrified. Between her mother's selfishness and her
father's mercurial moods is it any wonder Clara is less relaxed at
home and seeks interests that take her away - even a stint as a
governess!!
That escapade precipitates a crisis and sends her into the arms of
Archie, someone she has nothing in common with, just as a comrade
in arms to help keep her irrepressible little charge, Charles,
amused. It also brings to a head her relationship with each of her
parents. Claude had always repressed the embittered feeling that
he had no sons but the War has bought it to the surface and his
anger at Clara's involvement in the accident knows no bounds. He
has no sympathy for what he feels is her gross negligence. By the
time she is home, newly engaged to Archie, her father has done an
about face - all because he is so impressed with Archie's wealthy
Catholic family but in yet another crisis, Clara finds solace and
understanding in the arms of her mother.
spent in a soul destroying convent finished in a dramatic way
as Nanda is expelled for attempting to write a romantic novel.
In "The Lost Traveller" she is rechristened Clara and the
book opens as Clara is recalled from school to attend her
grandfather's funeral.
Even though it is a continuation of the first book (although
written 17 years apart) things and people are different. In the
former book the end is shattering with Nanda's relationship with
her father almost destroyed but this book finds Clara returned
to her family very much the golden girl. Her parents are not
the shadowy figures of formally but fleshed out - her father
Claude's conversion to Catholicism is detailed as well as his
devotion to a father not really deserving of such care and who
also didn't have much time for his only son. His mother is
forever at the mercy of Isabel, Clara's mother. The first book
had her weak and ineffectual, not really caring about her
husband's conversion, just content to go along without too much
inconvenience - with more spotlight on her she becomes a
predatory force, forever dropping snide and belittling comments
to Claude's mother.
Years of the stifling confines of the convent have given Clara
a detachment towards any outward signs of emotion, especially
towards her father. Pervading the whole book is the almost odd
protectiveness Claude feels toward Clara - it comes across as
a not very pleasant Victorian father and daughter relationship.
When Claude finds her in an innocent tete-a-tete with her cousin
Blaze his anger is explosive but as he muses, his life has not
been the success he hoped and he wanted something in it to be
perfect (his daughter) but she has shown him she is only too
human. Later on Claude fantasizes about how lovely it would be
for he and Clara not to be father and daughter - a bit odd but
as a watcher of silent movies it is amazing how often that theme
comes up ("Lazybones" (1924), "Laugh Clown, Laugh" (1928)) and
it is definitely a holdover from the morbidly repressed Victorians.
The mood continues as Isabel, fooled by Clara's glib manner,
delves deep into the mysteries of child birth and why the
Catholic church has a lot to answer for - Clara, inwardly, becoming
more and more horrified. Between her mother's selfishness and her
father's mercurial moods is it any wonder Clara is less relaxed at
home and seeks interests that take her away - even a stint as a
governess!!
That escapade precipitates a crisis and sends her into the arms of
Archie, someone she has nothing in common with, just as a comrade
in arms to help keep her irrepressible little charge, Charles,
amused. It also brings to a head her relationship with each of her
parents. Claude had always repressed the embittered feeling that
he had no sons but the War has bought it to the surface and his
anger at Clara's involvement in the accident knows no bounds. He
has no sympathy for what he feels is her gross negligence. By the
time she is home, newly engaged to Archie, her father has done an
about face - all because he is so impressed with Archie's wealthy
Catholic family but in yet another crisis, Clara finds solace and
understanding in the arms of her mother.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 2, 2020
I loved so much of this book – the writing is sharp and witty, and the author has amazing psychological insight into relationships among women. There are lots of character sketches that other people might find tedious but I found delightful. And the complicated relationships that the main character Clara has with her mom, great aunts, mentors and friends is like nothing you ever see represented anywhere else.
This is a Catholic novel I guess, but religion remains pretty abstract and in the background. Where I found an antiquated religiosity popping its ugly head was in Clara’s relationships with men. Her dad shows up as the God figure, and the two have a creepy quasi-romantic relationship that is unsettling. Then Clara develops a worshipful, fawning attachment to a 10-year-old boy. Thankfully this novel ends on a high-note with Clara and her mom – kind of a cliffhanger actually, must read the third book. The author struggles a bit with plot and pacing but the fantastic portrayal of female relationships makes up for it all.
This is a Catholic novel I guess, but religion remains pretty abstract and in the background. Where I found an antiquated religiosity popping its ugly head was in Clara’s relationships with men. Her dad shows up as the God figure, and the two have a creepy quasi-romantic relationship that is unsettling. Then Clara develops a worshipful, fawning attachment to a 10-year-old boy. Thankfully this novel ends on a high-note with Clara and her mom – kind of a cliffhanger actually, must read the third book. The author struggles a bit with plot and pacing but the fantastic portrayal of female relationships makes up for it all.
July 5, 2012
It doesn't have the crispness that made Frost in May a classic in my view. But the progression Clara and Isabel make are interesting. In my view Isabel is the best drawn of the main characters and the most interestingly developed by the writer. Clara's father is not really drawn sympathetically at all....we see quite a bit of his thinking but a lot of it is pretty flawed and perhaps his flaws are not those that many will relate to.
Clara herself is described with clarity and understanding but she too I don't seem to understand thoroughly. Why she has so little feeling for her mother and so much for her father isn't quite apparent. Also some thought processes or feelings are described impartially, or are hinted at but not followed through.
Overall a good read, looking forward to the sequels.
Once again I must state that I hate the covers Virago has chosen to use for books by this author.
Clara herself is described with clarity and understanding but she too I don't seem to understand thoroughly. Why she has so little feeling for her mother and so much for her father isn't quite apparent. Also some thought processes or feelings are described impartially, or are hinted at but not followed through.
Overall a good read, looking forward to the sequels.
Once again I must state that I hate the covers Virago has chosen to use for books by this author.
May 8, 2019
I wanted to read the whole set by Antonia White. It follows the heroine through her time in a convent to her first job as a nanny to a young boy and her marriage..
These books are very evocative. There are memories of TV version they made of them which was excellent, but it is also an amazing portrayal of mental illness. These will live with you forever. I re-read all of the set.
These books are very evocative. There are memories of TV version they made of them which was excellent, but it is also an amazing portrayal of mental illness. These will live with you forever. I re-read all of the set.
December 9, 2017
I should perhaps reread this as my memories are hazy, but I remember it being powerful and painful.
April 3, 2018
God, but this is miserable. Brilliant. But miserable.
April 7, 2019
3.5 stars
May 5, 2020
I wasn't sure about it for a while as I loved the previous book so much. But I really got into the second half and devoured it. She understands people.
January 6, 2022
Billed as the second of four books in the semi-autobiographical Frost in May series, this actually has a different main character (a similar personality but with all names changed). Clara Batchelor has to leave her convent school at the age of 14 for a day school near her home after her mother's illness leaves the family unable to pay her boarding school fees. As she finishes growing up, she and her mother and father all have to face existential challenges.
This is a tragic story in many places. The characters are compelling although not always sympathetic. Not an easy read, then, but it feels very true emotionally, and the dialogue and descriptions are wonderful.
This is a tragic story in many places. The characters are compelling although not always sympathetic. Not an easy read, then, but it feels very true emotionally, and the dialogue and descriptions are wonderful.
August 16, 2020
I read this directly after Frost in May, which I heard about for the first time on the Backlisted podcast. Frost in May struck me as close to a "perfect" novel, which is to say, all of a piece, set almost entirely in one place, and completely coherent within itself. But though I loved it I also found it a little bit stifling, as these kind of books often are. (The convent setting and religious intensity probably contribute).
The Lost Traveller features the characters from Frost in May with their names changed. It's a plottier book, with action that veers into the melodramatic and ridiculous. Things happen to characters other than Nanda/Clara. The loathsome father is even more loathsome. The mother gets her own plotline. Although Catholicism looms large, it also seems a little irrelevant to the plot's main strands. There's a very nice evocation of old aunts in Sussex. It's not as "good" as Frost in May, I don't think, or as singular, but I enjoyed it a lot.
The Lost Traveller features the characters from Frost in May with their names changed. It's a plottier book, with action that veers into the melodramatic and ridiculous. Things happen to characters other than Nanda/Clara. The loathsome father is even more loathsome. The mother gets her own plotline. Although Catholicism looms large, it also seems a little irrelevant to the plot's main strands. There's a very nice evocation of old aunts in Sussex. It's not as "good" as Frost in May, I don't think, or as singular, but I enjoyed it a lot.
June 7, 2020
A marvelous read.
April 23, 2021
This is a coming of age story of the an only child of her recently converted Catholic parents. She attended school at the Catholic school until she had to leave because of financial strain due to mother's illness. She then attends public school, gets distracted by things that teenage girls get distracted by. It is nicely written, not much happens until toward the end. After finishing the book, I read some introduction that said this book was written out of the authors own life, while it is not a memoir, it is fiction.
February 14, 2021
Charming book
The Charles storyline was a tad farfetched but otherwise a very enjoyable read.
(I hadn't read the book that apparently comes before this but didn't feel I missed anything)
The Charles storyline was a tad farfetched but otherwise a very enjoyable read.
(I hadn't read the book that apparently comes before this but didn't feel I missed anything)
March 24, 2021
The second in this quartet, having read the first I wanted to continue. Interesting, touching, beautiful, sad yet hopeful.
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