Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple ~ 1949. This edition: Longmans, 1949. 1st Canadian edition. Hardcover. 358 pages.
Provenance: Purchased (via ABE) from A Biblio-Omnivore Harvey Lev, Montreal – March 2014.
My rating: 9/10
Sound the trumpets! I have finally read a Dorothy Whipple. And thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, too.
A satisfyingly nasty family of antagonists, and an absolutely feeble (though gentle and well meaning) family of protaganists, saved from themselves by the spunky youngest daughter, with the help of a lower-class social climber who has fallen in love with said daughter and uses his keen wits to their joint advantage.
Shortly after the end of the Great War, meek Mrs. Hunter, an architect’s wife, is suddenly left a widow with three young children, and who should she turn to but her husband’s business acquaintance, lawyer Mr. Lockwood, for help with her affairs. Mr. Lockwood, fully occupied with feathering his own nest and the care and nurturing of his beloved wife and three daughters, rolls his eyes and sorts things out in a resentful way. While going through the late Mr. Hunter’s papers, Mr. Lockwood comes upon a situation which he can twist to benefit himself to the detriment of the surviving Hunters; he immediately does so, and the stage is set for our emotionally heart-rending story.
Mrs. Hunter insists on being grateful to Mr. Lockwood, and cherishes the benevolent friendship of Mrs. Lockwood, which is – to give Mrs. Lockwood credit – meant well, even if it doesn’t turn out to be truly kind in practice.
The Hunter children grow up under the shadow of the Lockwoods, and as the youngest child, Thea, watches her older sister, Molly, withdrawn from school and forced into an unsuitable post as a governess at the age of fifteen on Mr. Lockwood’s advice (“Your children must start earning,” he sternly informs the compliant Mrs. Hunter), and her older brother, Martin, placed into a bank rather than being allowed to train as a doctor (“Does anybody need a boy?” casually inquires Mr. Lockwood of his banking acquaintances at his club), she sets herself to avoid her siblings’ fate. Thea will not be shunted off into an uncongenial occupation, oh no, not she!
Thea, cleverest of the Hunters by far, sets herself on an upward path, and eventually, at the age of eighteen, manages to make it to France in company with the Lockwood girls; they to be “polished” and to learn French, Thea to teach English at the same school for her keep. But Thea’s ascendant star is about to tumble from the sky, when she is caught in a compromising situation with a handsome young Frenchman, and is sent home in deep disgrace.
Social injustice, deliberate wrongdoing, frustrated hopes, romantic yearnings – what a fruitful set of circumstances for a novelist! Add to that romance and revenge, plus a dash of remorse, and we have an engaging story with which to while away several most diverting hours.
Dorothy Whipple is now very much on my radar, and I will be actively questing for more of her titles. Happily Persephone Press is actively reprinting the Whipple oeuvre, so some at least will be easy to acquire.
What bookish joy, making the acquaintance of Bryher yesterday, Whipple today. And what a happy time I will have exploring more by both of these congenial (though rather different) novelists!
Well I hope Persephone re-publish this one too.
Haha, “provenance”–I love that!
Dorothy Whipple has been on my radar for a while (also via the Persephone list), but I’ve yet to try any of her books. I like the sort of stream-of-consciousness style in that snippet you kindly provided above, so I can tell it’s good, solid writing. I’m not sure about Whipple’s actual plotlines; they all sound a little…bleak. Hmm, but again that excerpt makes me want to give some Whipple a go.
Oh, the bleak is only temporary – all the problems are resolved in the end. Though this one has a rather dark climax, which is also smoothed out by some fast work by the author right in the last page or two.
I read this in 2007, and the only bit that sounded familiar was the poor girl being sent home from France: I can’t really remember much else. But I did like it – I have read around four of her books and I know liked them all.
I’m looking forward to reading this — Whipple is on my radar, but I have yet to read any of her books — I only have one so perhaps that will be my first but I’d really like to find Because of the Lockwoods now, it sounds just my thing.
This was much better than I had expected it to be – very easy to get into and very hard to put down. I don’t know how well it will “stick” – I suspect it will fade from memory fairly quickly – but it was good while it lasted, and, quite frankly, that’s sometimes enough! 🙂
I can see I’ll have to add this one to my list. I’ve read three of the Persephone Whipples and loved all of them. My favorite is Someone at a Distance, which is also dark and very sad at times, but ultimately really wonderful and rather profound, I thought.
Someone at a Distance seems to receive universally positive mention; I may be looking for that one next.
I love Whipple but haven’t read this one– must look out for it . Glad you got around to her!
Looking forward to a much greater Whipple acquaintance. Her books are completely impossible to find in our local library system, so I will be pursuing these through online sellers as occasional treats throughout the year. Now that I’ve completed my quest for Margery Sharp’s novels, it is nice to have a new one to pursue. 🙂
I enjoyed this review, especially for the chance it gave me to read a phrase like ‘the Whipple oeuvre’! Love it…I am just getting ready to add to my Whipple collection; would love to find this one. Thanks
You’re most welcome! “Oeuvre” – possibly one of my personally overused words, but it does so often seem to be the best way to collectively describe the body-of-work of some of these writers. 😉
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