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Wintersmoon
Hugh Walpole's Wintersmoon turns the romance novel on its head. Janet Grandison and Wildherne Poole marry for companionship and convenience. Love isn't part of the arrangement. Janet wants to give her sister Rosalind a home; Wildherne wants an heir to his title and estate that the married woman he loves can't give him. Nothing goes according to plan. Rosalind and Wildherne can't stand each other. She marries a man she doesn't love to get out of living at Wintersmoon. Janet gets on the wrong side of Wildherne's mother and her entourage. Then she finds herself in love with her husband and pregnant with his child. Wildherne has grown to love Janet as well, but neither says anything because they agreed to a loveless marriage. Their son's death brings their marriage to a crisis that has far-reaching repercussions.'I am asking you again to marry me as I did a fortnight ago.'Janet Grandison turned towards him and said: 'Yes. You've been very honest.''I believe, ' he said, 'honesty to be the only thing for us. From the beginning I have always known that you valued that-honesty I mean-more perhaps than anything. I value it too.'She smiled.'I believe you do. But we all do. We make a fetish of it. It seems to me sometimes almost the only good thing that has survived the war. Well, ' she went on, 'I have had the fortnight I begged for. A fortnight ago you asked me to marry you. You said you weren't in love with me but that you liked and respected me, that you thought we would get on well together.... You want me to be the mother of your children.''Yes, ' he said. 'I am not in love with you. I have been in love for a long while with somebody, somebody whom it is impossible for me to marry and someone who would not marry me even though it were possible. With the exception of this one person I would rather marry you than anyone in the world. I like you. I admire you. I think we could be good companio
- GenresBritish Literature
357 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1928
About the author
Hugh Walpole
440 books89 followersSir Hugh Seymour Walpole was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large readership in the United Kingdom and North America. A best-selling author in the 1920s and 1930s, his works have been neglected since his death.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 23, 2022
"Damn it, Janet! I love you!"--Rocky Horror
In 1924, prolific horror and romance writer Hugh Walpole purchased Brackenburn, a stately home in Keswick where he lived until his death in 1941. Brackenburn was the inspiration for "Wintersmoon," which is about the respective marriages of two enmeshed sisters. One sister moves in to the declining but still elegant Wintersmoon estate of her titled husband, with it's ghosts, abandoned and mysterious wings, and rich history. The other is infatuated with a beatnik playboy but marries a more traditional husband for appearances. Both sisters marry their husbands not for love but out of reaction to the other. Walpole contrasts the lifestyles and psychology of these two relationships, one more traditionally English, and the other that of a more modernist post-Industrial and post-WWI Europe.
Like any complex and thoughtful novel Walpole portrays both sides with ambivalence, showing the good and the bad inherent in England's ancient traditions and in the burgeoning modernists. By extension, this book is a study of traditional vs contemporary literature. "Wintersmoon" takes place in an England divided by the conservative remnants of the old country and the more liberal, revolutionary modern youth.
On the one hand is traditional England, "...all those old families, noble and destitute, struck suddenly with poverty, lands sold and divided, their huge houses splitting into flats, but unchanged in themselves, unaware of Jazz and Cocktails, very vaguely aware of Bolshevists and Communism, believing in the things in which they had always believed, standing fast to their traditions..." There is a discernable scorn for traditional values in this modern England. The country is too white, too embroiled in false pomp and ritual of a dying and incestuous aristocratic system, lacking self-awareness as they follow outdated morals and religious beliefs imposed by an agrarian lifestyle that is long dead. They're social structure is based on broken backs of laborers and serfs, and keeps women as chattel for breeding and for show.
But on the other hand, those who grew up in the old ways mourn their changing homeland, feeling that there are social structures now lost that psychologically held the country together. The modernists lack any sense of grounding or meaning. They are nihilist, bored, lost, and confused. They are selfish and destructive in their laissez-faire and revolutionary attitudes. They are miserable because they live in and benefit from a country they despise. They're too busy tearing down historic statues and denigrating traditional marriage and parenthood to actually create a society that would last and not eat itself. They do not understand the traditional values of a village, where people know and take care of each other, but they believe in handouts, subsidies, and reparations from an all-powerful State. They think religion is ridiculous, but worship Socialism, "the science," and the products of manic Dadaists, Surrealists, and Futurists whose work was meant to be absurd. They accuse conservatives of being controlling, overly critical, and fascist, but it is the modernists who live every minute passing vitriolic and divisive judgment. When you read these descriptions of how the two factions of society clash in this post-1916 England, you cannot help but think of post-2016 England and their U.S. cousins across the pond.
I believe that in writing this novel, Walpole was trying to exorcise his own demons. He was trying to figure out just where he stood as a gay man with traditional values in this transitioning England. He was influenced by Nathaniel Hawthorne and his ideas of evil, and he also was a disciple of Walter Scott and his historical romances. But Walpole also greatly admired and was friends with Virginia Woolf. He fancied being a more modern and experimental writer, but he knew deep down that he was "hopelessly old-fashioned" and romantic. When Walpole moved to Brackenburn, he held on to his London flat. Therefore, just like the characters in this novel, he had one foot in the bustling life of the modern city and another in the pastoral world of country mansions and devoted chauffeurs.
"Wintersmoon" can feel rather drawn out at times, but Walpole really knows how to make his characters and dialogue gleam with realism and charm. Perhaps the most unlikeable character was Rosalind, the modernist sister who is the foil for the more traditional Janet. She is truly a selfish and destructive brat, but Janet married into an aristocratic family in part to provide Rosalind with a home and a means of support. Meanwhile, Rosalind hates Janet's husband, his family, and everything that Wintersmoon represents. In turn, the old house rejects her too, or at least, that is her projection. Though narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders were not an established diagnosis like it is today, Walpole managed to capture these traits perfectly in his character of Rosalind, which doesn't make this an easy read. She accuses everyone of hating her, yet this is the natural consequences of her a priori contempt for everyone around her. She wants to be seen with young influential people who serve as her own echo chamber which advances her artificially in the public arena, but she herself has no talent or intelligence to contribute to society. She wants to be adored and needs others to provide for her, but she lacks empathy and so can only manipulate others with her charm and beauty while she remains an ugly monster deep down inside. There were times where I felt sorry for her, but mostly she genuinely irritated me. One of the old codgers suggests to Rosalind's husband that he "beat her and shut her up." Though this was supposed to be an example of how old English patriarchal values are obsolete and indecent, the reader can't help but hope that the ghosts of Wintersmoon would drop a gargoyle or a piano on her, or at least that her friends would cancel her Twitter account.
The novel is full of small touches that deeply impressed me. For example, there is a scene where Janet is giving birth while her husband is bewildered by the changes happening in his life, and how his father and Janet are suddenly cold to him. He genuinely doesn't know what he has done to alter these previously companionable relationships. He just stands there in the snow, having a panic attack while stuck in his dark thoughts, not knowing what to do or say. I certainly could identify with this at multiple points in my life.
"Wintersmoon" takes a surprising turn in the last act, bringing together supernatural and suspense elements to a stunning conclusion of 550 pages of epic melodrama. I must say this was one of the most impressive novels I've ever read, one that somehow successfully melded classic romance, high-brow horror, realistic characterization, clever narrative arcs, emotionally moving tragedy, close-to-home marriage struggles, frustrating family dynamics, and touching pathos into a satisfying and highly accessible philosophical and psychological masterpiece.
Another reason modern readers must rediscover the ever-ingenious Hugh Walpole! A perfect cozy book for when the storms are blustering outside. At some point, this should definitely be on your list of read books.
In 1924, prolific horror and romance writer Hugh Walpole purchased Brackenburn, a stately home in Keswick where he lived until his death in 1941. Brackenburn was the inspiration for "Wintersmoon," which is about the respective marriages of two enmeshed sisters. One sister moves in to the declining but still elegant Wintersmoon estate of her titled husband, with it's ghosts, abandoned and mysterious wings, and rich history. The other is infatuated with a beatnik playboy but marries a more traditional husband for appearances. Both sisters marry their husbands not for love but out of reaction to the other. Walpole contrasts the lifestyles and psychology of these two relationships, one more traditionally English, and the other that of a more modernist post-Industrial and post-WWI Europe.
Like any complex and thoughtful novel Walpole portrays both sides with ambivalence, showing the good and the bad inherent in England's ancient traditions and in the burgeoning modernists. By extension, this book is a study of traditional vs contemporary literature. "Wintersmoon" takes place in an England divided by the conservative remnants of the old country and the more liberal, revolutionary modern youth.
On the one hand is traditional England, "...all those old families, noble and destitute, struck suddenly with poverty, lands sold and divided, their huge houses splitting into flats, but unchanged in themselves, unaware of Jazz and Cocktails, very vaguely aware of Bolshevists and Communism, believing in the things in which they had always believed, standing fast to their traditions..." There is a discernable scorn for traditional values in this modern England. The country is too white, too embroiled in false pomp and ritual of a dying and incestuous aristocratic system, lacking self-awareness as they follow outdated morals and religious beliefs imposed by an agrarian lifestyle that is long dead. They're social structure is based on broken backs of laborers and serfs, and keeps women as chattel for breeding and for show.
But on the other hand, those who grew up in the old ways mourn their changing homeland, feeling that there are social structures now lost that psychologically held the country together. The modernists lack any sense of grounding or meaning. They are nihilist, bored, lost, and confused. They are selfish and destructive in their laissez-faire and revolutionary attitudes. They are miserable because they live in and benefit from a country they despise. They're too busy tearing down historic statues and denigrating traditional marriage and parenthood to actually create a society that would last and not eat itself. They do not understand the traditional values of a village, where people know and take care of each other, but they believe in handouts, subsidies, and reparations from an all-powerful State. They think religion is ridiculous, but worship Socialism, "the science," and the products of manic Dadaists, Surrealists, and Futurists whose work was meant to be absurd. They accuse conservatives of being controlling, overly critical, and fascist, but it is the modernists who live every minute passing vitriolic and divisive judgment. When you read these descriptions of how the two factions of society clash in this post-1916 England, you cannot help but think of post-2016 England and their U.S. cousins across the pond.
I believe that in writing this novel, Walpole was trying to exorcise his own demons. He was trying to figure out just where he stood as a gay man with traditional values in this transitioning England. He was influenced by Nathaniel Hawthorne and his ideas of evil, and he also was a disciple of Walter Scott and his historical romances. But Walpole also greatly admired and was friends with Virginia Woolf. He fancied being a more modern and experimental writer, but he knew deep down that he was "hopelessly old-fashioned" and romantic. When Walpole moved to Brackenburn, he held on to his London flat. Therefore, just like the characters in this novel, he had one foot in the bustling life of the modern city and another in the pastoral world of country mansions and devoted chauffeurs.
"Wintersmoon" can feel rather drawn out at times, but Walpole really knows how to make his characters and dialogue gleam with realism and charm. Perhaps the most unlikeable character was Rosalind, the modernist sister who is the foil for the more traditional Janet. She is truly a selfish and destructive brat, but Janet married into an aristocratic family in part to provide Rosalind with a home and a means of support. Meanwhile, Rosalind hates Janet's husband, his family, and everything that Wintersmoon represents. In turn, the old house rejects her too, or at least, that is her projection. Though narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders were not an established diagnosis like it is today, Walpole managed to capture these traits perfectly in his character of Rosalind, which doesn't make this an easy read. She accuses everyone of hating her, yet this is the natural consequences of her a priori contempt for everyone around her. She wants to be seen with young influential people who serve as her own echo chamber which advances her artificially in the public arena, but she herself has no talent or intelligence to contribute to society. She wants to be adored and needs others to provide for her, but she lacks empathy and so can only manipulate others with her charm and beauty while she remains an ugly monster deep down inside. There were times where I felt sorry for her, but mostly she genuinely irritated me. One of the old codgers suggests to Rosalind's husband that he "beat her and shut her up." Though this was supposed to be an example of how old English patriarchal values are obsolete and indecent, the reader can't help but hope that the ghosts of Wintersmoon would drop a gargoyle or a piano on her, or at least that her friends would cancel her Twitter account.
The novel is full of small touches that deeply impressed me. For example, there is a scene where Janet is giving birth while her husband is bewildered by the changes happening in his life, and how his father and Janet are suddenly cold to him. He genuinely doesn't know what he has done to alter these previously companionable relationships. He just stands there in the snow, having a panic attack while stuck in his dark thoughts, not knowing what to do or say. I certainly could identify with this at multiple points in my life.
"Wintersmoon" takes a surprising turn in the last act, bringing together supernatural and suspense elements to a stunning conclusion of 550 pages of epic melodrama. I must say this was one of the most impressive novels I've ever read, one that somehow successfully melded classic romance, high-brow horror, realistic characterization, clever narrative arcs, emotionally moving tragedy, close-to-home marriage struggles, frustrating family dynamics, and touching pathos into a satisfying and highly accessible philosophical and psychological masterpiece.
Another reason modern readers must rediscover the ever-ingenious Hugh Walpole! A perfect cozy book for when the storms are blustering outside. At some point, this should definitely be on your list of read books.
June 20, 2008
Ugh. Walpole manages to commit the worst of DH Lawrence and Henry James's literary crimes without ever acheiving the insights of the others. The story swirls around Janet, a wellbred but poor woman who marries for companionship and security. Most of the book is about the characters around her--the good intentioned Purefoys who own the ancestral estate Wintersmoon, John Beauminster and Tom Seddon from The Duchess of Wrexe and Janet's younger, breezy sister Rosalind. Half of the book is about love, in its various forms: Janet falls in love with her husband, her husband desperately loves their son, Tom loves Rosalind but Rosalind loves no one but herself. It's rather histrionic, but the passing of some 80 years has not rendered it a meaningless puzzle.
The other half of the book is unfortunately about Walpole's favorite subject: the old vs the new. Janet and her new, aristocratic family stand for "Old England," made of traditions, stiff upper lips and doing ones duty. Rosalind and her catty friends stand for "New England," which is apparently all about criticizing the old, being completely emotionless and disconnecting physical compatability from love. The characters all talk about making a stand for their type of England, and how they have to be free to do the work they see needs doing--but absolutely none of them have any actual opinions or do anything at all. None of them translate their oh-so-important-feelings into campaigning for women's rights or labor unions or anything.
Walpole attempts more than he is capable of.
The other half of the book is unfortunately about Walpole's favorite subject: the old vs the new. Janet and her new, aristocratic family stand for "Old England," made of traditions, stiff upper lips and doing ones duty. Rosalind and her catty friends stand for "New England," which is apparently all about criticizing the old, being completely emotionless and disconnecting physical compatability from love. The characters all talk about making a stand for their type of England, and how they have to be free to do the work they see needs doing--but absolutely none of them have any actual opinions or do anything at all. None of them translate their oh-so-important-feelings into campaigning for women's rights or labor unions or anything.
Walpole attempts more than he is capable of.
June 18, 2018
I bought this book on a whim, having only heard it of the author from a Monty Python sketch, and again on a whim I started reading it.
From the start I found it intriguing and insightful, whilst still being easy to read. Being written and set in the 1920s of course the characters and writing are a little old fashioned, but that in itself is at the heart of the novel. It portrays very clearly that restless, changing era, where the old world of the end of the 19th century clashes headlong with a post WWI modern society.
The characters are well rounded and sympathetically written and each has their own natural conclusion, making for a very satisfying ending.
If you like a well written, coming of age historical novel with an ultimately optimistic ending then give Wintersmoon a try.
From the start I found it intriguing and insightful, whilst still being easy to read. Being written and set in the 1920s of course the characters and writing are a little old fashioned, but that in itself is at the heart of the novel. It portrays very clearly that restless, changing era, where the old world of the end of the 19th century clashes headlong with a post WWI modern society.
The characters are well rounded and sympathetically written and each has their own natural conclusion, making for a very satisfying ending.
If you like a well written, coming of age historical novel with an ultimately optimistic ending then give Wintersmoon a try.
May 30, 2018
A lovely novel; some beautifully profound but accessible writing. The characters, especially Janet, were incredibly well-rounded. I found it completely absorbing. The only weak areas were, for me, the opening chapter, I found the dynamic with Rosalind and Janet a bit overdone and the character of Rosalind throughout never quite took off or, got the comeuppance she so richly deserved.
February 23, 2015
Great book, Walpole does a great job at describing a turning point in British history, the end of an era ... a proper Götterdämmerung.
May 4, 2020
This was a hard book to slog through to the finish.
It seemed to take forever to finish and the finish was a bit disappointing.
It seemed to take forever to finish and the finish was a bit disappointing.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews