Peter Waring

by Forrest Reid, Filippo Bizzaglia (Translator)

Peter Waring è un adolescente romantico e un po’ cupo, che ama la natura e la poesia e crede in fantasmi che non ha mai visto. Vive con suo padre in un villaggio costiero dell’Irlanda del Nord e ama passare i pomeriggi nella villa della signora Carroll. Quando però gli eleganti nipoti londinesi della signora trascorrono qualche settimana con la zia, Peter sperimenta i terrori e le gioie del primo amore. L’estate finisce, Katherine e Gerald ripartono e anche Peter deve trasferirsi a Belfast, presso una famiglia di odiatissimi parenti, per frequentare l’ultimo anno di scuola. Non è abbastanza per togliersi dalla mente Katherine: e fra nuove amicizie, feste e incontri di boxe, spuntano delle foto pornografiche a complicare ulteriormente la situazione. Forrest Reid viene oggi ricordato come uno dei più grandi romanzieri prebellici dell’Ulster.

Con Peter Waring, considerato «un capolavoro» da E. M. Forster, ci regala una cronografia sentimentale, un romanzo di formazione interrotta, «uno splendido ritratto della confusione, delle goffaggini e dei tormenti dell’adolescenza».

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Forrest Reid was an Irish novelist, literary critic and translator. He was, along with Hugh Walpole and J.M. Barrie, a leading pre-war British novelist of boyhood. He is still acclaimed as the greatest of Ulster novelists and was recognised with the award of the 1944 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel Young Tom.

Reviews

[Tina Tamman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful novel that has been out of print for a long time. None of my friends has ever heard of Forrest Reid but they should. He is definitely worth your attention.
It is effectively an Irish story of the rites of passage. Written in the first person, it tells of young Peter's family, studies, friendships and first love. Not much of a story but ever so beautifully an sensitively told! There is a delicious underlying melancholy reminiscent of Hartley's "The Go-Between" and Profumo's "Sea Music".
Much recommended.

[Martyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the past year, since first discovering him, Forrest Reid has established himself as one of my favourite authors. This is the ninth of his books that I've read (after Private Road, Apostate, Young Tom, The Retreat, Uncle Stephen, Brian Westby, Milk of Paradise, and Walter de la Mare). All of his books are engaging to read, whether factual or fictional, both in terms of style and of interest.

Five stars is a misleading rating as far as any reader of this review should be concerned. It's not 'amazing' in that sense, and if you expect it to be you'll be disappointed. But as far as I'm concerned Reid is a master of characterisation. To a large extent his novels all feel very autobiographical - in terms of the thoughts, the feelings, the inner lives of his leading men, with all the emotion turmoil involved in living and growing up, in forming friendships and relationships. He did it in the Tom Barber trilogy, and in Brian Westby, and here he has done it again. He just captures the inner life, the inner thought-processes, so perfectly on paper, that this reader for one can step into his shoes and be feeling it all with him, reliving ones own experiences vicariously through the fictional Peter Waring.

I wouldn't say that that makes for an enjoyable reading experience as such. It's not a happy book. It's not uplifting. It's not reassuring. It's painful, it's isolating. Where is the consolation in knowing that there is someone else out there who has felt exactly what you have felt, someone else who had to go through all this before - to feel that you have found a kindred spirit a century too late! Reid was basically writing out of the depths of his own experiences, but he could just as easily have been writing about mine - and perhaps (or probably?) yours.

But I'm a man, getting on for middle-age, single, alone. There's not much plot to the book but what was there struck home, was pertinent to my own life as it is now. It all still rings true, is still my living experience, therefore I can vouch for its accuracy. Will someone reading this who has found love, who has been in a long-term and stable relationship for years, who grew up in a close-knit family, an extrovert, someone with an abundance of friends, be able to relate to this Peter Waring, to have patience with him, to understand what he is going through, to remember what it is like to be young, isolated, introspective, struggling to find like-minded friends and companions, people who you can be yourself with, people who you can express yourself honestly to, people who care about you for who you are, people who love you, and more significantly, people who can love you in the same way that you love them? I can't answer for anyone else. But for me this book was spot on, hence my five stars.

Re-read 2nd May - 17th June 2024:
My above review says it all and I can't improve upon it. Reading the book again four months later the same feelings still all hold true, the five star rating still feels warranted.

Re-read 25th - 28th February 2025:
This is the third time I've read Peter Waring in nine months, this time in the first edition, and it doesn't lose anything with the re-reading in spite of the story becoming very familiar. You still feel it all. A masterful piece of work.

[ALEARDO ZANGHELLINI · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very convincing psychological portrait of the trials and tribulations of adolescence. The writing is evocative; the gothic touches effectively contribute to conveying the turmoil and longings experienced by Peter. The homoeroticism is *very* restrained, as if same-sex desire is the one element in his own psychology that the highly perceptive Peter remains more or less oblivious to. This is a 3.5 for me.

[Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A re-write of the 1912 book, "Following Darkness", this is the better book of the two.

Unforgettable descriptive writing, excellent first person narrative.

Coming of age tales are nothing new, but this book is easily one of the best of them, set in 1890's era Northern Ireland.