The Sun in Scorpio by Margery Sharp ~ 1965. This edition: Heinemann, 1965. Hardcover. 231 pages.
My rating: 10/10.
She does it again.
Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know about Margery Sharp’s eclectic style, she pulls something new out of the hat. This is an absolutely crisp, clean and elegantly written novel, by a master of her craft, with some attention-catching stylings. I suspect the author was enjoying herself quietly and deeply while working this out, based as it is on her memories of her childhood years in Malta.
Nice. Very, very, nice.
I’ve been sitting on this post for a few weeks now, waiting for an inspired moment to sit down and really delve into this book, but things are picking up speed in my real life and computer time for blogging is getting a bit pinched, so it’s looking like now or never. A quickie review it will have to be.
Everything sparkled.
Below the low stone wall, beyond the rocks, sun-pennies danced on the blue Mediterranean; so dazzlingly, they could be looked at only between dropped lashes. (In 1913, the pre-sunglass era, light was permitted to assault the naked eye.) Opposite, across the road called Victoria Avenue, great bolts of sunlight struck at the white stone buildings and richocheted off the windows. A puff of dust was a puff of gold-dust, an orange spilled from a basket like a wind-fall from the Hesperides…
Young Cathy Pennon, middle child of three growing up on an outpost of the grand British Empire, on the small island “next-door” to Malta, glories in the sun and basks in its rays. She is soon to leave the scene of her young years, as the growing winds of the Great War unsettle her civilian parents enough to urge a return to safer England. Cathy is soon to discover that she never will be truly warm again; the rainy isle of “Home” being resistant in its mists to the heat of that lost-and-mourned Mediterranean sun.
We follow Cathy, and to a lesser degree, her older sister Muriel and younger brother Alan, as they grow up in England, move into their adult years, and go their separate ways. Muriel is to find a comfortable niche in married domesticity; Alan settles into a happy bachelor existence while dedicating himself to the banking business – he is, ultimately tragically, of just the age to be destined to fight in the next great war – and Cathy drifts into a loosely-defined position as companion-lady’s maid to the aristocratic Lady Jean.
The book is a delicious moving picture of the years of and between the wars; our author touches delicately but succinctly on the many personalities and types of those years of tremendous flux, when the world is continually shaking itself and forming itself again as its inhabitants struggle, with various degrees of success, to come to grips with every new normal.
Cathy survives, though not without some scars, and we leave her at the end of the Second Great War poised for what looks to be the greatest change yet in her four decades of life, contemplating with wild surmise and growing joy the possibility of a return to the sun.
What a very good book this is. Margery Sharp is in absolutely fine form, having created a crisp, clean narrative with beautiful styling and more than a little cynically black ink in her accomplished pen. Cathy is a most human protagonist; full of flaws and not at all likeable a certain amount of the time; she tends to stand back a step from those around her, never fully entering in to the lives of those she bumps up against. A girl and then a woman of unexpected responses, and a few hidden talents…
Leaves & Pages 
This sounds wonderful. I though The Eye of Lovewas so good – as you say ‘crisp, clean and elegantly written’. I shall look out for this.
Thank you for the review – short, but excellent.
Have you found the other Martha books yet? If you enjoyed The Eye of Love you will appreciate those. Definitely keep your eyes open for Sun in Scorpio – it is very well written – well up to Margery Sharp’s best standard. 🙂
I will definite add this one to the pile. You introduced me to this terrific writer through “The Innocents” and she is one of those must-read-more authors to me now.
Oh, if you liked The Innocents you will definitely appreciate The Sun in Scorpio. Same sort of understated and occasionally slightly shocking humour, and a few twists to keep the reader paying attention. Really liked it, and it’s one of the easier ones to find, too.
The Malta descriptions sound gorgeous! Haven’t read any of her works yet, this one sounds quite good. Which one would you recommend as introduction to her?
Oh, that’s a tough question! Well, easiest to find is perhaps The Eye of Love, as it was in print not too long ago, but if I could recommend the ones I think are her very best I would have to say that The Innocents (1974, I think) is, along with The Sun in Scorpio, the best of the later works. Going back a little farther, I am particularly fond of Something Light, which is gentle (for Margery Sharp) and deliciously amusing. If you could choose *anything*, I would say to seek out The Flowering Thorn (horribly hard to find), or The Nutmeg Tree (easier to come by & delightful). Or Cluny Brown, or Britannia Mews, or The Gypsy in the Parlor (slightly biographical). The Foolish Gentlewoman is something of a quiet classic, too…
I loved this review! And it has made me want to get my copy out and re-read it, as I was not as favorably impressed the first time I read it. It seemed a bit bitter, and I suspect that much of it is autobiographical. But it just goes to show you…there are gems to be found in every Margery Sharp.
It did seem a bit bitter; many of her later works have that tint, don’t they? But I thought very highly of The Sun in Scorpio; I found it deeply satisfying.
I am so glad to have found this post.I have every book of Margery Sharp, including her short stories collection – The Lost Chapel Picnic and other stories, for example, and the stage play Lady in Waiting – based on The Foolish Gentlewoman…the only book I don’t have is Fanfare for Trumpets. I deeply regret not having purchased it the one time I found it for $200…sigh…
Fanfare is among the most rare, isn’t it? I paid (whispering) $150 for mine, after much agonizing. It’s a fair enough example of early Margery Sharp, but not quite as well done as Rhododendron Pie, in my opinion. A bit “lighter”. I should really scan it and make it available as a pdf for others…something I thought of doing for R Pie. Maybe some day when I have a goodish stretch of free time. (Ha ha ha :-))Keep hoping someone will pick these up and republish them, but so far no go. I now have *all* of the novels, as well as Lost Chapel Picnic, and a few of the juveniles. So nice to hear from another sincere fan!
I’m really looking forward to reading this one as my next Margery Sharp, especially since I see you gave it a 10/10. In fact, I’m thinking of taking it along on my own upcoming trip to the Mediterranean!
Oh, I do hope you enjoy it! Looking forward to your review. (But please don’t hesitate to say if you didn’t find it as appealing as I did – it’s one of MS’s more than slightly cynical later books.) And have a lovely Mediterranean trip – lucky you! 🙂
I’m not giving anything away, but WHAT A FINISH! Totally unexpected.
One of the great delights of all the Margery Sharp books is the quality of the endings. She never lets the reader – or her characters – down. The stories are beautifully crafted, and her skills really show in The Sun in Scorpio.
Yes! Everything you said. 🙂
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