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An Impossible Marriage
Originally published in 1954, and set between the wars, "An Impossible Marriage" is the classic coming-of-age story of a young woman forced to grow up too quickly when she marries a much older man.
Living out her bright, happy teenage years in south-west London, Christine's principal worries are jealousy of her dazzling best friend Iris Allbright, and avoiding the disapproval of her manager if she's late from her lunch break. But when Chris is suddenly whisked off her feet by the mysterious -- and much older -- Ned Skelton, life changes for her almost overnight.
Choosing to give up her job as a secretary in order to marry, Christine commits herself to life with Ned, only to discover that this beguiling man may not be the person she originally thought.
Living out her bright, happy teenage years in south-west London, Christine's principal worries are jealousy of her dazzling best friend Iris Allbright, and avoiding the disapproval of her manager if she's late from her lunch break. But when Chris is suddenly whisked off her feet by the mysterious -- and much older -- Ned Skelton, life changes for her almost overnight.
Choosing to give up her job as a secretary in order to marry, Christine commits herself to life with Ned, only to discover that this beguiling man may not be the person she originally thought.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
12 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
Pamela Hansford Johnson
66 books19 followersPamela Hansford Johnson was born in 1912 and gained recognition with her first novel, This Bed Thy Centre, published in 1935. She wrote 27 novels. Her themes centred on the moral responsibility of the individual in their personal and social relations. The fictional genres she used ranged from romantic comedy (Night and Silence, Who Is Here?) and high comedy (The Unspeakable Skipton) to tragedy (The Holiday Friend) and the psychological study of cruelty (An Error of Judgement). Her last novel, A Bonfire, was published in the year of her death, 1981.
She was a critic as well as a novelist and wrote books on Thomas Wolfe and Ivy Compton-Burnett; Six Proust Reconstructions (1958) confirmed her reputation as a leading Proustian scholar. She also wrote a play, Corinth House (1954), a work of social criticism arising out of the Moors Trial, On Iniquity (1967), and a book of essays, Important to Me (1974). She received honorary degrees from six universities and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1975.
Pamela Hansford Johnson, who had two children by her first marriage with journalist Gordon Neil Stewart, later married C. P. Snow. Their son Philip was born in 1952.
She was a critic as well as a novelist and wrote books on Thomas Wolfe and Ivy Compton-Burnett; Six Proust Reconstructions (1958) confirmed her reputation as a leading Proustian scholar. She also wrote a play, Corinth House (1954), a work of social criticism arising out of the Moors Trial, On Iniquity (1967), and a book of essays, Important to Me (1974). She received honorary degrees from six universities and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1975.
Pamela Hansford Johnson, who had two children by her first marriage with journalist Gordon Neil Stewart, later married C. P. Snow. Their son Philip was born in 1952.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
July 12, 2017
Чудесная и очень жизненная книга, и как-то жутко комфортно написанная.
January 28, 2020
I picked up my first Pamela Hansford Johnson novel, An Impossible Marriage, during a pre-Christmas trip to the Oxfam bookshop in St Albans. The author has been on my radar for ages but, probably because this once incredibly popular author has unfairly been forgotten, I had never been able to find any of her books. Thankfully, Hodder has begun to reprint her work in physical editions, and quite a few more are available for a small fee from the Kindle store.
Antiquated magazine Britannia and Eve: A Monthly Journal for Men & Women wrote that this novel, first published in 1954, contains 'a story so vivid it might be the memoir of a real person.' Set between the wars, An Impossible Marriage focuses upon young protagonist Christine, known as Christie. She is 'tired of London, her job in a travel agency, her friends, and the young men she's being set up with.' By chance, Christie meets an older man named Ned Skelton, who 'seems sophisticated and experienced', and she 'quickly becomes besotted'. 'But,' the question at the heart of this novel asks, 'will marriage to a man she doesn't know well truly offer this young woman an escape? Or is she walking into another prison of her own making?'
We first meet the elusive Ned, fourteen years her senior, at a dance which Christie attends with her friends. In retrospect, Christie writes: 'But this love of my eighteenth year was heedless, irrational and storming. I would not believe in it; it seemed not part of myself, like bone, flesh and fibre, but a hard and alien thing which had lodged itself within me.' Their later engagement comes as an enormous shock to Christie, whose 'inner critic' warns her against this decision: 'The critic within me had something to say; but I would not listen. Not at that time.' When Ned gives her an engagement ring, Christie is horrified: 'But though the ring might be little, it seemed to weigh heavily upon my finger. I was almost painfully aware of it. And it seemed to me strange and alarming, the thought that I must wear it until I died.'
An Impossible Marriage is profound and considered from the outset. In the first paragraph, for instance, Christie narrates: 'I do not like looking back down the chasm of the past and seeing, in a moment of vertigo, some terror that looks like a joy, some joy crouched like a terror. It is better to keep one's eyes on the rock-face of the present, for that is real; what is under your nose is actual, but the past is full of lies, and the only accurate memories are those we refuse to admit to our consciousness.' She is a wise character. Later in the novel, she comments: 'The most dangerous of all our plans are the ones we formulate right at the backs of our minds and leave to grow there, like water-cultures. They are the plans we never examine until we put them into practice. The moment they are exposed we realise our hideous recklessness. We realise the damage we have done.'
I immediately connected with Hansford Johnson's prose style. Throughout, I found myself admiring Christie's wry narrative and amusing asides, as well as the way in which the novel has been so skilfully crafted. Christie's interactions with others have been well considered, particularly in those instances where she is feeling anguished, or anxious.
I was completely entranced by this coming-of-age story. I loved the tone of the book and its tight, taut writing. Hansford Johnson is sharp and perceptive, with regard to both characters and scenes. At one point in the book, she writes of winter in London: 'Sunday was a day of snow. It lay in a crusting of black and silver beads along the privets in the front garden, clung in lichen patches to the rooftops, and was stacked, hard as steel, in the gutters. The sky looked white and hard; there was sun behind it, but it would remain invisible, would not break through.' Christine feels entirely realistic throughout, and even the secondary characters hum with life. Tension builds wonderfully under Hansford Johnson's pen. Had this novel been twice the length, I still would have delighted in it.
Upon her death in 1981, Hansford Johnson was described by the New York Times as 'one of Britain's best-known novelists'. I can only hope that hundreds of other readers discover her, and soon. Her writing is such a treat to read. I for one am so excited that she has a vast oeuvre of twenty-seven novels, plus countless other publications; I imagine that there are a lot of gems in store for me to discover.
Antiquated magazine Britannia and Eve: A Monthly Journal for Men & Women wrote that this novel, first published in 1954, contains 'a story so vivid it might be the memoir of a real person.' Set between the wars, An Impossible Marriage focuses upon young protagonist Christine, known as Christie. She is 'tired of London, her job in a travel agency, her friends, and the young men she's being set up with.' By chance, Christie meets an older man named Ned Skelton, who 'seems sophisticated and experienced', and she 'quickly becomes besotted'. 'But,' the question at the heart of this novel asks, 'will marriage to a man she doesn't know well truly offer this young woman an escape? Or is she walking into another prison of her own making?'
We first meet the elusive Ned, fourteen years her senior, at a dance which Christie attends with her friends. In retrospect, Christie writes: 'But this love of my eighteenth year was heedless, irrational and storming. I would not believe in it; it seemed not part of myself, like bone, flesh and fibre, but a hard and alien thing which had lodged itself within me.' Their later engagement comes as an enormous shock to Christie, whose 'inner critic' warns her against this decision: 'The critic within me had something to say; but I would not listen. Not at that time.' When Ned gives her an engagement ring, Christie is horrified: 'But though the ring might be little, it seemed to weigh heavily upon my finger. I was almost painfully aware of it. And it seemed to me strange and alarming, the thought that I must wear it until I died.'
An Impossible Marriage is profound and considered from the outset. In the first paragraph, for instance, Christie narrates: 'I do not like looking back down the chasm of the past and seeing, in a moment of vertigo, some terror that looks like a joy, some joy crouched like a terror. It is better to keep one's eyes on the rock-face of the present, for that is real; what is under your nose is actual, but the past is full of lies, and the only accurate memories are those we refuse to admit to our consciousness.' She is a wise character. Later in the novel, she comments: 'The most dangerous of all our plans are the ones we formulate right at the backs of our minds and leave to grow there, like water-cultures. They are the plans we never examine until we put them into practice. The moment they are exposed we realise our hideous recklessness. We realise the damage we have done.'
I immediately connected with Hansford Johnson's prose style. Throughout, I found myself admiring Christie's wry narrative and amusing asides, as well as the way in which the novel has been so skilfully crafted. Christie's interactions with others have been well considered, particularly in those instances where she is feeling anguished, or anxious.
I was completely entranced by this coming-of-age story. I loved the tone of the book and its tight, taut writing. Hansford Johnson is sharp and perceptive, with regard to both characters and scenes. At one point in the book, she writes of winter in London: 'Sunday was a day of snow. It lay in a crusting of black and silver beads along the privets in the front garden, clung in lichen patches to the rooftops, and was stacked, hard as steel, in the gutters. The sky looked white and hard; there was sun behind it, but it would remain invisible, would not break through.' Christine feels entirely realistic throughout, and even the secondary characters hum with life. Tension builds wonderfully under Hansford Johnson's pen. Had this novel been twice the length, I still would have delighted in it.
Upon her death in 1981, Hansford Johnson was described by the New York Times as 'one of Britain's best-known novelists'. I can only hope that hundreds of other readers discover her, and soon. Her writing is such a treat to read. I for one am so excited that she has a vast oeuvre of twenty-seven novels, plus countless other publications; I imagine that there are a lot of gems in store for me to discover.
August 5, 2014
There was a small part of me that didn’t want to like Pamela Hansford Johnson; An Impossible Marriage, the first of her novels I have tried. As many of you will know I love the writer Elizabeth Taylor – and Elizabeth Taylor and Pamela Hansford Johnson were contemporaries, only they didn’t exactly get along. Apparently (according to the one biography of Elizabeth Taylor which exists – The Other Elizabeth Taylor which I have read twice) Pamela Hansford Johnson and Olivia Manning were really quite vile about Elizabeth Taylor and her work – spitefully so, although I get the impression that Elizabeth Taylor gave as good as she got – in private at least, which is fair enough. As an ardent fan of Elizabeth Taylor I felt that reading PHJ was a bit of a betrayal – I know that’s bonkers. Worse still I really liked the book and no doubt will read more of her work, sorry Elizabeth. For those of you with no such qualms it is good to see Bello books re-printing Pamela Hansford novels as paperbacks and ebooks. An Impossible Marriage was being offered for about 59p so it seemed a good opportunity to at least try her work – I am now actually very glad that I did.
“The Dutch boy put his finger to the breach in the dam and he stemmed the sea, but the sea held him prisoner. I was caught, I was done for, I was frightened—what other word? Not terrified. Not panicked. Simply, as a child, frightened. It is frightful to be caught by your future in a corridor of youth, to feel its hands of iron across your eyes. Caught you! Did you think you could go further? There are corridors and corridors, rooms and rooms, gateways that open on to gardens orientally bright with peonies and singing-birds, but they aren’t for you. You’ve been caught right at the beginning of the game. This is your end, this is the end for you.”
animpossiblemarriage2A coming of age style story An Impossible Marriage tells the story of a young woman Christine, or Christie, between the wars forced to grow up a little too soon. As a young woman still in her teens, Christie lives in the shadow of her more beautiful manipulative friend Iris Allbright. Christie is sympathetically drawn, as a young girl with a lot to learn, haven’t we all been there? Iris is brilliantly awful, with her baby talk, flirting and man stealing.
As the novel opens we meet Christie more than twenty years on – arriving at Iris Allbright’s flat to see her old friend for the first time in many years, a meeting that Christie is rather dreading, and which takes her thoughts back to the time when they were young women together.
Young Christie already involved in an unsatisfactory romance with Leslie – his slightly over inflated ideas of himself hide his true naivety – longs for something more glorious. Working as an office junior, Christie as the youngest, newest member is given some of the dullest jobs to do, and has to work hard to keep herself on the right side of her boss. Her youth and inexperience is the biggest problem in her relationships, for Christie has a lot to learn in her ways of dealing with people, as we all do when young. During an awkward blind date arranged by Iris, Christie first spots Ned Skelton, a much older man, who she is instantly attracted to
.
Gradually, having dispensed with the hapless Leslie, Christie finds herself in a heady relationship with Ned; he has a past which includes a mistress called Wanda, sexual experience and a strangely beguiling presence. Christie has also to learn to listen to that small voice inside of us – the voice that can act as an early warning system.
“I told him that I would do whatever he said, that I would learn from him, that I would trust my life to him. When he thought I was sufficiently conscious of my errors he took me and kissed me until I was breathless with joy and on the edge of hysterical tears; but inside of me a small, cold critic sat aloof”
For the reader, there is something rather unpleasant about Ned, he’s not obviously cruel, certainly not violent, but he is quietly manipulative and when Christie meets his family she has more reason to hear faint alarm bells. Instead of being suspicious of this gauche young girl, and protective of their adored Ned, as Christie had fully expected them to be, they seem instead rather too glad to pass the responsibility of managing Ned onto Christie, asking her abruptly to ensure he sticks to his work. Christie and Ned’s engagement is not trouble free, disagreements which result in Christie running home in tears, concerns over Ned’s latest business and later the start of real doubts for Christie. Ned is quick to soothe Christie’s doubts – and the marriage eventually takes place, celebrated along the lines dictated by Ned.
“Now if many of us know the pressures of the inner critic, many of us also recognise – though not until his task has been carried out – the activities of the secret planner. We are unhappy in the prison of our lives – we want to break out. And so, without realising what we do since it is the secret planner who thinks for us, we slowly lay our schemes for escape.”
Having given up her job, Christie finds married life to be not quite all she had expected. A little older now although only twenty one Christie is soon to wonder at the choices she made, and begins to plan her own liberation.
An Impossible Marriage offers a fascinating exploration of the social expectations placed upon women at this time, well written and perceptive; this will not be the only Pamela Hansford Johnson novel that I read.
“The Dutch boy put his finger to the breach in the dam and he stemmed the sea, but the sea held him prisoner. I was caught, I was done for, I was frightened—what other word? Not terrified. Not panicked. Simply, as a child, frightened. It is frightful to be caught by your future in a corridor of youth, to feel its hands of iron across your eyes. Caught you! Did you think you could go further? There are corridors and corridors, rooms and rooms, gateways that open on to gardens orientally bright with peonies and singing-birds, but they aren’t for you. You’ve been caught right at the beginning of the game. This is your end, this is the end for you.”
animpossiblemarriage2A coming of age style story An Impossible Marriage tells the story of a young woman Christine, or Christie, between the wars forced to grow up a little too soon. As a young woman still in her teens, Christie lives in the shadow of her more beautiful manipulative friend Iris Allbright. Christie is sympathetically drawn, as a young girl with a lot to learn, haven’t we all been there? Iris is brilliantly awful, with her baby talk, flirting and man stealing.
As the novel opens we meet Christie more than twenty years on – arriving at Iris Allbright’s flat to see her old friend for the first time in many years, a meeting that Christie is rather dreading, and which takes her thoughts back to the time when they were young women together.
Young Christie already involved in an unsatisfactory romance with Leslie – his slightly over inflated ideas of himself hide his true naivety – longs for something more glorious. Working as an office junior, Christie as the youngest, newest member is given some of the dullest jobs to do, and has to work hard to keep herself on the right side of her boss. Her youth and inexperience is the biggest problem in her relationships, for Christie has a lot to learn in her ways of dealing with people, as we all do when young. During an awkward blind date arranged by Iris, Christie first spots Ned Skelton, a much older man, who she is instantly attracted to
.
Gradually, having dispensed with the hapless Leslie, Christie finds herself in a heady relationship with Ned; he has a past which includes a mistress called Wanda, sexual experience and a strangely beguiling presence. Christie has also to learn to listen to that small voice inside of us – the voice that can act as an early warning system.
“I told him that I would do whatever he said, that I would learn from him, that I would trust my life to him. When he thought I was sufficiently conscious of my errors he took me and kissed me until I was breathless with joy and on the edge of hysterical tears; but inside of me a small, cold critic sat aloof”
For the reader, there is something rather unpleasant about Ned, he’s not obviously cruel, certainly not violent, but he is quietly manipulative and when Christie meets his family she has more reason to hear faint alarm bells. Instead of being suspicious of this gauche young girl, and protective of their adored Ned, as Christie had fully expected them to be, they seem instead rather too glad to pass the responsibility of managing Ned onto Christie, asking her abruptly to ensure he sticks to his work. Christie and Ned’s engagement is not trouble free, disagreements which result in Christie running home in tears, concerns over Ned’s latest business and later the start of real doubts for Christie. Ned is quick to soothe Christie’s doubts – and the marriage eventually takes place, celebrated along the lines dictated by Ned.
“Now if many of us know the pressures of the inner critic, many of us also recognise – though not until his task has been carried out – the activities of the secret planner. We are unhappy in the prison of our lives – we want to break out. And so, without realising what we do since it is the secret planner who thinks for us, we slowly lay our schemes for escape.”
Having given up her job, Christie finds married life to be not quite all she had expected. A little older now although only twenty one Christie is soon to wonder at the choices she made, and begins to plan her own liberation.
An Impossible Marriage offers a fascinating exploration of the social expectations placed upon women at this time, well written and perceptive; this will not be the only Pamela Hansford Johnson novel that I read.
maybe
May 29, 2019
"Sainthood is acceptable only in sainhe."
English novelist, playwright, poet, literary and social critic, Pamela Hansford Johnson was born #OnThisDay in 1912 #ReadMoreWomen
October 29, 2025
I haven't really read up on why Pamela Hansford Johnson disliked Elizabeth Taylor so much. At first glance, the similarities seem to outweigh the differences, and it seems like the two contemporaries could have been allies, if not friends.
But I've been thinking about this for some time now, after my third PHJ novel, and I feel like she never touches upon the chaos that Taylor loves to unleash. While the PJH novels I've read have an air of courage, of brutal bleakness, of anti-sentimentality, they are in fact quite neat and tidy. There's a psychological explanation for everything.
And while she's subtle and elegant about it, and while it makes for suspenseful and engaging (if bleak) reading, PHJ doesn't much allow for the contingencies of life and writing. I think Taylor seems more polite and subdued, as a writer, but is in fact more complex and more interesting.
That said, this is a great marriage novel with a cast of fantastic characters.
But I've been thinking about this for some time now, after my third PHJ novel, and I feel like she never touches upon the chaos that Taylor loves to unleash. While the PJH novels I've read have an air of courage, of brutal bleakness, of anti-sentimentality, they are in fact quite neat and tidy. There's a psychological explanation for everything.
And while she's subtle and elegant about it, and while it makes for suspenseful and engaging (if bleak) reading, PHJ doesn't much allow for the contingencies of life and writing. I think Taylor seems more polite and subdued, as a writer, but is in fact more complex and more interesting.
That said, this is a great marriage novel with a cast of fantastic characters.
October 16, 2018
I keep going through the favorite books of my youth. So happy this one stood the test of time. I read this book in my teens under another title (it was published in USSR as «Кристина»). I remember me begging my parents’ friends to lend me this book (back then the books were a true treasure in our country). It was love at first sight. Since then I’ve been dreaming to have my own copy. So now I have it and this fact brings me a lot of joy. Such a shame that Pamela Hansford Johnson today is almost-forgotten novelist though back to the beginning of 20th century she was one of Britain best-loved ones. I should check out more of her novels.
April 12, 2017
Ned and Christie Skelton would be very comfortable living in the world of today. Why? Because both of them are incorrigible idiots. A 32-year-old lecherous manchild and a 19-year-old poorly educated mother are examples of people who are extremely rampant nowadays. The fact that the pompous manchild couldn't even propose marriage properly and had to rely on subterfuge should have been a massive warning sign, but because the female protagonist was an asinine imbecile, she swooned and hastened to be married.
I'm among the most emotionally insensitive people one could meet; and feelings are my inferior function, but even I understand that the immediate post-partum period is NOT sexy time. Men are naturally more sexually enterprising than females (generally speaking), but men are also born with a brain, and, consequently, possess a magical thing called self-control. This is a skill, however, only awarded to people who have spent years in intense study, and are in training to become wizards. I'm just an apprentice as yet, but by next year I will possess the arcane powers needed to transcend manchildishness, as manifested by Ned.
Ned is a fucking disgrace to men. He's the type of person that would make women frigid, and at the end of the novel, Christie seems to be sexually frigid because of his callousness. Both of them received their adequate comeuppance. Living with their mistakes is far more tragic than dying with them, after all.
It's a horribly-written novel with unsympathetic characters. I'm not even sure whether it's a better love story than Twilight.
I'm among the most emotionally insensitive people one could meet; and feelings are my inferior function, but even I understand that the immediate post-partum period is NOT sexy time. Men are naturally more sexually enterprising than females (generally speaking), but men are also born with a brain, and, consequently, possess a magical thing called self-control. This is a skill, however, only awarded to people who have spent years in intense study, and are in training to become wizards. I'm just an apprentice as yet, but by next year I will possess the arcane powers needed to transcend manchildishness, as manifested by Ned.
Ned is a fucking disgrace to men. He's the type of person that would make women frigid, and at the end of the novel, Christie seems to be sexually frigid because of his callousness. Both of them received their adequate comeuppance. Living with their mistakes is far more tragic than dying with them, after all.
It's a horribly-written novel with unsympathetic characters. I'm not even sure whether it's a better love story than Twilight.
May 26, 2019
A very detailed and engrossing study of relationship, and an interesting insight into pre-WWll values and behaviours.
I liked the poetic prose which occurred to emphasis pivotal moments in the protagonist’s thoughts; these were quite metaphoric. Yet the writing style was quite noticeably British in some phrasing and emphasis. Actually I had some difficulty with the English use of a comma as a pause to accentuate the next word. But the narrative style spares one unnecessary details and hence dignifies the insights into courtship, friendships, and in its terribly British way says ‘get on with it, no need to wallow’.
Couldn’t put it down. reminded me a bit of Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. Definitely worth the read!
I liked the poetic prose which occurred to emphasis pivotal moments in the protagonist’s thoughts; these were quite metaphoric. Yet the writing style was quite noticeably British in some phrasing and emphasis. Actually I had some difficulty with the English use of a comma as a pause to accentuate the next word. But the narrative style spares one unnecessary details and hence dignifies the insights into courtship, friendships, and in its terribly British way says ‘get on with it, no need to wallow’.
Couldn’t put it down. reminded me a bit of Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. Definitely worth the read!
April 6, 2019
I came across this book by chance in a bookshop, not my usual way of picking books these days. I also knew nothing about it before I started reading it. The book feels slightly slow paced, no cliffhangers on every page, no unnecessary dramas and constant raising of stakes - and I loved it for that. It might not be a book you read from cover to cover in a day but it gives the reader a chance to get into the story instead of luring them in with tension so they get to the end as soon as possible and move on to the next book.
October 9, 2024
Reading An Impossible Marriage really surprised me. I in fact read The Holiday Friend before it, which is a much later novel, and written in a completely different style, much more pared back, and deliberately bland. An Impossible Marriage to me is a more successfully realised psychological portrait — although the two novels aren’t necessarily comparable: PHJ was aiming for different effects in each.
I’m astonished to discover this author, who was so successful in her lifetime; so forgotten now.
I’m astonished to discover this author, who was so successful in her lifetime; so forgotten now.
July 6, 2014
An absolutely fantastic read. Set pre WWII the novel tells the story of Christine,her friendships, family and at the core of the book her marriage to Ned. The book is well written and I frequently forgot it was written in the 1950's as many of the themes and issues raised resonate with contemporary conflicts women in 21st century face in relation to marriage, in laws and the conflict between full time motherhood and the career woman. I shall certainly be reading more Pamela Hansford Johnson
May 8, 2014
A beautifully written tale of a woman's difficult marriage before the Second World War. Expectations of women in those times were so difficult and so limiting, but this woman learns to stand up for herself and still maintain dignity. A good social history lesson.
June 30, 2025
I had a friend like Iris. We're not friends now.
August 4, 2022
After reading An Impossible Marriage, I think that Pameula Hansford Jhonshon could not got the value which she deserved as a writer. I don't know about her other works but this is her great contribution toward literature.
The story is of a young girl Christine who is forced to grow up soon after the death of her mother. Being out of love with her innocent boyfriend Leslie, she wants to get something and someone she don't knows. Her friend Iris whom she defined with extraordinary beauty and childish traits, suffers with existential crisis, too. Christine after Leslie, wants escape from Iris with the fear that she could stole her Ned from her, a man who she is in love. Ned is a middle-aged man and of a queer nature. The relationship of Ned and Christine after alot of ups and downs leads toward the marriage but the life after marriage is not what Christine expected. Ned is a man who manipulates Christine by taking advantage of her innocence. Christine tries her best to make her marriage successful but then she again gets the same feeling of escape which lead her to leave Leslie. Will she transform herself into the person that Ned wants her to be or leave Ned to choose herself?
This novel is the best example of realism. The writer's way of describing and giving details of each and everything makes the novel worth reading. The description of characters is splendid especially of the character of Iris.
There are some points where the book becomes boring due to a lot of unnecessary details. The unnecessary details makes reader to just turn pages and pages without any interest. But most of the description is interesting when it's about characters and about the critical thinking of Christine.
The sexual content is very limited because the story is of the very much old times when society was lead with specific values. However, the friendship of Iris and Christine seems a bit of lesbian when Christine is attracted toward Iris and Iris too conciously becomes a form of attraction toward her.
I would give this book 3 stars. I would recommend this book to female readers because I guess female readers could enjoy this book because of its feminist perspectives and because of the lovely female characters.
The story is of a young girl Christine who is forced to grow up soon after the death of her mother. Being out of love with her innocent boyfriend Leslie, she wants to get something and someone she don't knows. Her friend Iris whom she defined with extraordinary beauty and childish traits, suffers with existential crisis, too. Christine after Leslie, wants escape from Iris with the fear that she could stole her Ned from her, a man who she is in love. Ned is a middle-aged man and of a queer nature. The relationship of Ned and Christine after alot of ups and downs leads toward the marriage but the life after marriage is not what Christine expected. Ned is a man who manipulates Christine by taking advantage of her innocence. Christine tries her best to make her marriage successful but then she again gets the same feeling of escape which lead her to leave Leslie. Will she transform herself into the person that Ned wants her to be or leave Ned to choose herself?
This novel is the best example of realism. The writer's way of describing and giving details of each and everything makes the novel worth reading. The description of characters is splendid especially of the character of Iris.
There are some points where the book becomes boring due to a lot of unnecessary details. The unnecessary details makes reader to just turn pages and pages without any interest. But most of the description is interesting when it's about characters and about the critical thinking of Christine.
The sexual content is very limited because the story is of the very much old times when society was lead with specific values. However, the friendship of Iris and Christine seems a bit of lesbian when Christine is attracted toward Iris and Iris too conciously becomes a form of attraction toward her.
I would give this book 3 stars. I would recommend this book to female readers because I guess female readers could enjoy this book because of its feminist perspectives and because of the lovely female characters.
February 7, 2018
It is seldom I award less than 5 stars. Why waste time with inferior stuff? Would I expect you to do that?
But now I'm giving this book 3 stars. And will give 3 again, or more, or less, to try and practise some discrimination in the case of this authoress, who is always top class and worth reading.
In a word, it's about man-woman relationships, for me the most important topic in fiction.
"827 (7th Feb 2018)
Who am I looking forward to reading, as a staple diet? It was Joanna Trollope, but alas, I have come to the end of her menu.
My next will be an old favourite, a great novelist, much decorated in her time, who has now fallen into undeserved oblivion.
Having last read her 40 to 50 years ago, all her books will be new to me. All 27 novels.
Just finished 'An Impossible Marriage', very readable and anything but shallow, and am looking to gorge myself on the other 26.
Gutenborg has not heard of her, but Archive.org has. Good luck!
"
But now I'm giving this book 3 stars. And will give 3 again, or more, or less, to try and practise some discrimination in the case of this authoress, who is always top class and worth reading.
In a word, it's about man-woman relationships, for me the most important topic in fiction.
"827 (7th Feb 2018)
Who am I looking forward to reading, as a staple diet? It was Joanna Trollope, but alas, I have come to the end of her menu.
My next will be an old favourite, a great novelist, much decorated in her time, who has now fallen into undeserved oblivion.
Having last read her 40 to 50 years ago, all her books will be new to me. All 27 novels.
Just finished 'An Impossible Marriage', very readable and anything but shallow, and am looking to gorge myself on the other 26.
Gutenborg has not heard of her, but Archive.org has. Good luck!
"
November 10, 2025
I do like books written in the first half of the 20th century by female authors. It's a fascination with how constricting and limited expectations were for women, in work, in relationships and in their home life.
This is the first reading of an author new to me - good - though I have to say she is no Barbara Pym or Elizabeth Taylor, who are both excellent.
However, the depiction of a woman desperate, year after year, to break free of her 'impossible marriage ' is an accurate one in that she just cannot manage to do it. The modern reader cannot fathom this at all but books like this are a historical reminder of the confines they lived within, and just how far women have come.
This is the first reading of an author new to me - good - though I have to say she is no Barbara Pym or Elizabeth Taylor, who are both excellent.
However, the depiction of a woman desperate, year after year, to break free of her 'impossible marriage ' is an accurate one in that she just cannot manage to do it. The modern reader cannot fathom this at all but books like this are a historical reminder of the confines they lived within, and just how far women have come.
February 15, 2015
The author does not state a purpose and the dedication page appears to be in French – I think. I love the appearance of old books and fell in love with this one on the shelf. A way to a girl’s heart if to buy her a book and the way to a man’s is through his stomach!
Published by the companion book club I imagine house wives are meant to read this at home while embroidering clothes. Christie is the main character who is a Plane Jane trying to get through a marriage that she falls into in her youth with a much older man. Growing up through the book she realises she cannot stand her husband but he simply will not let her go.
The conclusion of this book feels it is foretold in the first three chapters but overall it is well written. Similar themes to your modern day Jane Mansell or other trashy chic books that come free with Cosmo – this book however has a better cover and more realism than romance.
From Christies often selfish and blunt point of view she try’s to explain the complexities of her relationships but it always seems to lack emotion and be very practical – like reading an instruction book. Ned her husband is a pitiful character who try’s to hold on to her until his moral undoing. A nice book to read that will not upset you before bed time
The book reminded me that literature is often churned out every year on the same topics – recycled with a different cover but the same underlying issues we all face with human relationships. I can’t say it is a joyous book and maybe on a mental note its worth noting it wouldn’t make a favourable engagement gift.
I would recommend the book to my friends on the fact if I can’t give it away to someone it will take up space on my bookshelf and I’ll then have to take it to a charity shop when I remember. After all books are for us all to share.
On a side note the companion book club note at the back of the page is darling ` The Club is not a library; all books are the property of members. There is no entrance fee or any payment beyond the low Club price of each monthly book. Details of membership will be sent on request. Write to the Companion Book Club, 8 Long Acre, London, Wc2`
Maybe I will write to them and see if I get a reply?!
Published by the companion book club I imagine house wives are meant to read this at home while embroidering clothes. Christie is the main character who is a Plane Jane trying to get through a marriage that she falls into in her youth with a much older man. Growing up through the book she realises she cannot stand her husband but he simply will not let her go.
The conclusion of this book feels it is foretold in the first three chapters but overall it is well written. Similar themes to your modern day Jane Mansell or other trashy chic books that come free with Cosmo – this book however has a better cover and more realism than romance.
From Christies often selfish and blunt point of view she try’s to explain the complexities of her relationships but it always seems to lack emotion and be very practical – like reading an instruction book. Ned her husband is a pitiful character who try’s to hold on to her until his moral undoing. A nice book to read that will not upset you before bed time
The book reminded me that literature is often churned out every year on the same topics – recycled with a different cover but the same underlying issues we all face with human relationships. I can’t say it is a joyous book and maybe on a mental note its worth noting it wouldn’t make a favourable engagement gift.
I would recommend the book to my friends on the fact if I can’t give it away to someone it will take up space on my bookshelf and I’ll then have to take it to a charity shop when I remember. After all books are for us all to share.
On a side note the companion book club note at the back of the page is darling ` The Club is not a library; all books are the property of members. There is no entrance fee or any payment beyond the low Club price of each monthly book. Details of membership will be sent on request. Write to the Companion Book Club, 8 Long Acre, London, Wc2`
Maybe I will write to them and see if I get a reply?!
December 31, 2011
‘All at once I saw standing at the foot of the stairs a middle-aged, high-coloured woman talking to a young man. Though I glanced at them only casually at first, I felt impelled to look again at the man. At that moment his eye caught mine; he stared at me for a second, looked away. My heart moved, sending me without warning into such an anxiety, restlessness and desire that I was scared by my own emotion. In a stroke, I was in love.’
First published in 1954 An Impossible Marriage displays all of Pamela Hansford Johnson's range as a novelist as well as a beautifully classic prose style. It's a novel for those who enjoy Elizabeth Jane Howard, Dodie Smith and Elizabeth Taylor (the novelist not the actress).
The themes in her 27 novels centre around the moral responsibility of the individual in their personal and social relations and this novel is no exception. In 1930s Clapham, Christine grows up in the shadow of her popular friend, Iris. When she meets Ned Skelton, 14 years her senior, she falls hopelessly in love and nothing else matters.
This book has recently been reissued in digital format in the UK as part of the Bello imprint at Pan Macmillan, the aim of which is to bring lost, out-of-print popular classics to the attention of 21st century readers. Check out some of their forthcoming authors here: http://www.panmacmillan.com/Imprints/...
First published in 1954 An Impossible Marriage displays all of Pamela Hansford Johnson's range as a novelist as well as a beautifully classic prose style. It's a novel for those who enjoy Elizabeth Jane Howard, Dodie Smith and Elizabeth Taylor (the novelist not the actress).
The themes in her 27 novels centre around the moral responsibility of the individual in their personal and social relations and this novel is no exception. In 1930s Clapham, Christine grows up in the shadow of her popular friend, Iris. When she meets Ned Skelton, 14 years her senior, she falls hopelessly in love and nothing else matters.
This book has recently been reissued in digital format in the UK as part of the Bello imprint at Pan Macmillan, the aim of which is to bring lost, out-of-print popular classics to the attention of 21st century readers. Check out some of their forthcoming authors here: http://www.panmacmillan.com/Imprints/...
February 24, 2022
This book, published in 1954 and set between the wars, is charming. I enjoyed this book very much.
It begins with Christine enjoying her friends and flirtations as a young woman in the suburbs of London. She is frustrated by her friend Iris who steals hers and everyone else's boyfriends, simply because she can. Then Christine meets Ned, her future husband, and the book truly begins.
It is about Christine, a young woman, just turning 18, marries a man in his early 30's. She thinks she is in love, but we as readers know it is a young woman's infatuation. There are many early signs that Ned will be a controlling husband, and yes, it turns out to be so. While he never hits her, and truly does love her, one cannot help but cringe at what early passages in the book hint at what her married life may be like.
I would like to read this book again someday and absorb it more fully, as this reading was by many pauses and starts - not the book's fault, but my own schedule. If you can get your hands on this book, and want a gentle, quiet, reflective story, then you will enjoy it.
It begins with Christine enjoying her friends and flirtations as a young woman in the suburbs of London. She is frustrated by her friend Iris who steals hers and everyone else's boyfriends, simply because she can. Then Christine meets Ned, her future husband, and the book truly begins.
It is about Christine, a young woman, just turning 18, marries a man in his early 30's. She thinks she is in love, but we as readers know it is a young woman's infatuation. There are many early signs that Ned will be a controlling husband, and yes, it turns out to be so. While he never hits her, and truly does love her, one cannot help but cringe at what early passages in the book hint at what her married life may be like.
I would like to read this book again someday and absorb it more fully, as this reading was by many pauses and starts - not the book's fault, but my own schedule. If you can get your hands on this book, and want a gentle, quiet, reflective story, then you will enjoy it.
December 25, 2016
Worth reading for the excellent, almost contemporary, description of being a late teenager in the 1930s. Worth reading for the excellent prose and detailed characterisation. However, it is a somewhat wearing read. The prose is relentlessly one-pitched (if high quality), very dense and requires considerable concentration. I would certainly read another book by Hansford Johnson but perhaps not for a while.
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