Something Light by Margery Sharp ~ 1960. This edition: Little, Brown & Co., 1960. Hardcover. No ISBN. 216 pages.
My rating: 10/10.
I love the works of Margery Sharp. No exclamation mark needed, merely a sober statement of fact. I am slowly and with deep pleasure building up a collection of her works. In every “Definition of Happiness” there is included “something to look forward to”; I am therefore a happy woman as I look forward with pure anticipation to sitting down with each hard-won out-of-print title by this most excellent forgotten author.
Luckily Margery Sharp was popular enough in her day that her titles are for the most part reasonably available with a bit of on-line searching, though her first two novels, Rhododendron Pie (1930) and A Fanfare For Tin Trumpets (1932), fetch rather high prices in the used book world; well into the hundreds of dollars. In the meantime I haunt second-hand bookstores at every opportunity, peering hopefully at the faded titles of scruffy vintage hardcovers in eternal hopefulness. I did find two of her works this way, at the same most-excellent used bookstore in Kamloops, on separate occasions several years apart. I paid the princely sum of $5 each and controlled my great glee with difficulty until I was well away from the store. This also freed me up, as I gloatingly explained later to my slightly skeptical husband, to be able to shell out for several of her other works at much higher prices, because then they all averaged out, and each one of the others wasn’t so ridiculously expensive, etcetera, etcetera.
But I digress.
Something Light was my very first Margery Sharp, picked up on a whim at a little second-hand store I occasionally visit to scan through the modest book section. I noticed the book early in my shelf scan, but the faded and foxed dust jacket spine was less than appealing, and it wasn’t until my second pass around the stacks that something made me pull it out for a closer look. Here’s what I saw:
Hmm, I thought to myself. What’s all this, then? And I opened it up, noting that the pages easily turned as though it was used to being handled by a loving owner, and started to read. One, two, three pages. Then I quietly closed the book, walked up to the cash register, paid over my one dollar, tactfully ducked out of a conversation with the chatty proprietor, went out to my car, settled down and kept reading, completely neglecting my grocery and town chores list and stopping reading only when I was overdue to collect my daughter from her dance class. Definitely hooked.
Louisa Datchett likes men. No, not in the way that you’re thinking from that bald statement. Louisa likes men.
Here, read it yourself. A romp of a book, something light indeed among Sharp’s delicious oeuvre.
Leaves & Pages 
Thank you for this site! I happened to be re-reading “Brittania Mews” for the hundredth time since I bought my second-hand copy 46 years ago, when I was 15. I had the enormous pleasure of being introduced by a mutual friend to Sharp, all of whose books I have read except for the impossible to find “Rhododendron Pie”, in 1983 or 84 in London. She was actually a lovely looking woman even then, nearing 80 — her photos never did her justice. I had been aware that after the death of her husband, Geoffrey Castle, her vision as expressed in the books grew increasingly dark, almost cynical, though as hilarious — and, may I say — brilliantly written — as ever. She has NEVER received her due as a prose stylist; she actually wrote more elegant prose than certain of her more famous contemporary writers of comic fiction. “Something Light” is a huge favourite — Louisa is one of Sharp’s most fully realised characters, and the novel is, in fact, a picaresque journey though few critics have figured that out.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mitchell Geller
Hello Mitchell.
It’s so good to hear from another Margery Sharp admirer! I do believe that she has often been underrated by the critics. I find her work endlessly entertaining, thought-provoking and yes, often refreshingly and amusingly cynical. And yes, a wonderfully competent and stylish writer. How lucky you were to meet her.
I am still looking for, or, rather, waiting to purchase – only so many $$$ and so many places to spend them! – a few of her later works, but I have a goodly number of the hardest to find titles, including, as of a few weeks ago, Rhododendron Pie. I initially borrowed it through inter-library loan; the only copy available in all of Canada (apparently) was in Toronto, at a university library; it cost me a $20 fee to have it for 2 weeks. In that time I read it and photographed the pages so at least I could re-read it that way after I reluctantly sent the book back to its home.
I was planning on turning the pictures into a text file at some point. Then I stumbled upon a copy for sale for a “mere” $45 (others listed on ABE start at $200 +) and immediately ordered it. I am looking at it as I type this – quite exciting. I do wish someone would republish her earlier works; they are at least as good, and often much better, than much of what is being put out to market these days!
I am glad you enjoyed the review; I do have a few others of Margery Sharp’s work on the blog, which I imagine you have already discovered!
All the best,
Barb
I intend to add reviews of the rest of Margery Sharp’s work as I re-read them
Barb, I am madly jealous that you have found “Rhododendron Pie” at all. I worked as a reader advisor in a public library for 2 years in my 20’s, and even then, in the early 70’s, that novel had been withdrawn, and, rather than being put in the storage collection as non-fiction was, had been long since sold. The one copy I ever found online was £200.00, and I combed every second hand book shop in greater London!
Last year, having read Maureen O’Hara’s autobiography, in spite of her saying that “Brittania Mews” was one of the worst movies she’d starred in, I found a video online fairly cheaply! I had that sense of utter fury that a reader does on seing a bad film version of a much loved book. O’Hara was too beautiful to play Adelaide, and overacted a bit. Dana Andrews actually wasn’t bad, but instead of making Henry Lambert and Gilbert Lauderdale the two separate men they were in the novel, Andrews played a double rôle — the two men were cast as doppelgangers! But the worst casting was the beloved and distinguished Dame Sibyl Thorndike, a lady to her fingertips, as the evil, ill-kempt Mrs. Mounsey. But I am not sorry I bought it.
Thanks for providing a Sharp fan with such a great website.
best,
mitchell
ps Have you ever read any of Ada Leverson’s novels?
Perhaps I shouldn’t tell you that I’ve just finished Rhodendron Pie for the 2nd time? 🙂 It is a grand little story; Margery started her career as she was destined to go on. I still can’t believe I actually have the book – I have been looking for years as well – the cheapest copy I found before this one was $200+ on ABE, and up into the high hundreds. Crazy. I hope someone eventually republishes it – Virago? Persephone?
I have been mulling over a good way to turn my copy into a pdf file so I can send it out to others who are desperate to read it. Thinking of scanning it and compressing it etc. so it could be printed off or read as is. It’s over 300 pages so it would be a fairly big document with jpeg files…maybe could burn those to cds – that would be cheap & relatively easy. Just pop it in the mail. Interested? Maybe I should take this on as a project for the relatively quiet time I usually get in November, when I have some evenings free at home.
I have never seen any of movies made from the Margery Sharp books. Didn’t they do The Nutmeg Tree too? And possibly Cluny Brown? And of course the Disney-ized juveniles from The Rescuers & Miss Bianca. I have heard the adaptations were pretty dire, though they led to increased sales of the books. I have a paperback of Brittania Mews that is the movie tie-in version with stills on the back cover. Couldn’t recognize the scenes so that is always a bad sign! 😉
I have not yet read Ada Leverson, but I’ve just looked them up and they look very intriguing. I’ve added her to my “look for” list. Great to hear from you. Keep an eye out for more Margery Sharp reviews – I intend to write about the rest of the ones I have as I re-read them and get a bit of time to organize my thoughts.
OK, I have just ordered Something Light, and am looking forward to it very much… and you have inspired me to try look for some more by her.
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