The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley ~ 1929. This edition: Musson, 1930. Hardcover. 640 pages.
My rating: 10/10
A middle-aged Yorkshire laborer who has just been fired from his carpenter’s job at the local mill, a recent Cambridge graduate-cum-reluctant-schoolmaster with literary ambitions and a talent for creating catchy tunes on the piano, and a sedately dutiful upper-class spinster-daughter in her fourth decade recently freed of familial responsibilities by the death of her elderly father are all thrown together by the whim of fate.
The set-up of the main characters’ backstories takes up a good third or so of this very rambling narrative, and it is not until we are well into the book that their paths convene, as they fall in with another lot of fate-tossed travellers, the stranded members of a theatrical troupe, the ex-Dinky Doos.
The result of this leisurely and detailed approach is a likeable period piece of a book – “a long, comic, picaresque, a fairy-tale sort of novel”, to quote the author’s own words in 1937’s autobiographical Midnight on the Desert – as the newly united characters form a travelling concert party/pierrot troupe, performing in rural towns and small industrial cities throughout the Yorkshires and surrounding districts.
The Good Companions was written between the wars, when Priestley was dealing with some serious personal issues, such as the recent death of his young wife from cancer (leaving behind two baby daughters), and his own chronic physical difficulties resulting from injuries and gassing while serving in the trenches of WW I. His decision to create an ultimately happy novel – the characters, despite their very real troubles, all attain at least a modicum of their personal hearts’ desires – was immensely popular with the public, and the book was an astoundingly successful bestseller. But the highbrow critics sneered, and though Priestley enjoyed the much-needed financial security The Good Companions provided, the dismissive attitudes of his literary peers wounded him deeply.
The book retains its appeal today. The likeable concert party characters are all very human in their thoughts, desires, ambitions and reactions to various setbacks, and though we are aware of the author’s omnipotent hand in strategically arranging the various random incidents which result in the united happy ending, we good naturedly accept the more creative developments and cheer our people on. There is also a certain historical interest in the novel’s detailed portrayal of a now-vanished theatrical sub-culture, which, even as it still flourished, was being inexorably replaced by the “new-technology” moving picture shows, as is shown in one of the final plot twists of the novel.
Highly recommended, for “cultural literacy” reasons as much as for its engaging story.
Budget yourself a goodly chunk of time to read this one. At over 600 small-print pages, it takes a certain amount of optimistic persistence to embark upon, but once entered into will provide a lovely escape from the one’s own ho-hum everyday routine.
Lost Empires by J.B. Priestley ~ 1965. Subtitled Being Richard Herncastle’s account of his life on the variety stage from November 1913 to August 1914 together with a Prologue and Epilogue by J.B. Priestley. This edition: The Reprint Society, 1966. Hardcover. 381 pages.
My rating: 9/10
J.B. Priestley revisits the world of the travelling theatrical party which he so famously documented in 1929’s The Good Companions, but this novel, written some three decades later, is a much grittier and less outwardly cheerful thing than its predecessor.
Whereas The Good Companions was written as a contemporary novel reflective of its time (though a highly sentimentalized and “feel-good” version, and that’s not meant to be derogatory, as the author himself states that this was his intention), Lost Empires is frequently melancholy and foreboding, and very much about looking back and describing a certain rigidly defined period of time in relation to what came after.
The casual reader might assume Lost Empires to be lightly disguised autobiography, so intimate are the thoughts and events recorded, but Priestley distances himself from the narrative by presenting himself as the author of both the preface and epilogue to the tale, with the set-up being that an old friend, the Richard (Dick) Herncastle named in the subtitle, has asked Priestley-the-famous-writer to look over the memoir for him. The framing device works very well, and the resulting novel is taut with a certain suspense, as we-the-readers know what young Dick’s future may hold. He’s a physically fit, unencumbered young man in his very early twenties, and the year is 1913. Everything is about to change beyond recognition in his world; we know that as we embark upon the first chapter.
But though war is looming – and a number of the wiser characters in Lost Empires are grimly predicting what later came to pass – the mood in England is one of wanting to be distracted from the political rumblings all around, and the music halls are thriving, into which unlikely milieu our young protagonist is initiated by his black-sheep-of-the-family Uncle Nick.
Dick, newly orphaned by the death of his mother, aspires to be an artist, but has been forced by circumstances to give up his plans of attending art school to instead work as an office clerk. Uncle Nick, attending his sister’s funeral, takes Dick aside and offers him a position as his assistant in his very successful variety show act.
Uncle Nick is an accomplished illusionist of the “vanishing lady” type, and his perfectionism and scornful antipathy to any sort of sentiment make him an awkward sort of employer, family ties or not, but Dick’s dogged determination to continue with his artistic goals despite the logistical difficulties earns his uncle’s respect, and the two settle into a mostly successful working relationship.
Dick has never been in a position to travel or to associate with people from such a broad strata of society as the touring variety show allows, and it rather goes to his head. His good looks and polite middle-class manners make him the focus of unnervingly aggressive attention from some of the women in the other acts (and also from his uncle’s own act’s female member, one of whose unofficial duties is to share the principle’s bed), but the one woman he would like to get on closer terms with is unaccountably cold and snubbing, though she unbends for a brief period, long enough for Dick to fall deeply in love with her, before she again cold-shoulders him.
Emotionally bruised and sexually frustrated, a situation made much worse by the continual presence of nubile young women in revealing costumes, Dick, still a sexual virgin as his variety-stage history opens, is ready to fall, and fall he does. He is seduced by and then obsessively enters into a torrid relationship with one of the older women in a co-starring act, with disastrous consequences when his real love is told of his defection to the well-experienced arms of another.
This book is chock-full of sex, not particularly graphic but described with enough detail to make one very aware of the change in times since The Good Companions first appeared to the time when Lost Empires was written. Though we have no doubts that some of the characters in The Good Companions were also sexually active, and prone to drinking too much on occasion, and sometimes involved in questionable personal pursuits, many of the details aren’t given, and the more risqué bits are generally glossed over, or given the light comedy treatment.
Very much not so in Lost Empires, with the result that it is a much stronger sort of novel in a modern, no-topic-is-forbidden sense, though Priestley provides a soft-focussed epilogue which echoes that of his earlier tale, with our hero finding his personal redemption and with most loose ends neatly tucked away.
And that final soft focus is what docked Lost Empires its point in my personal rating in comparison to The Good Companions‘ solid 10.
The Good Companions satisfied because it did exactly what it said it would on the flyleaf: it amused. The author dances his characters for us, and he blatantly manipulates fate to favour them, and, as it’s all part of the game and known to us going in, we cheerfully play along.
Lost Empires is, for the most part, a rather deeper book, with its vividly imagined and occasionally disturbing coming-of-age tale, and its sober look back at a nation heading unhappily into a devastating war. I felt, however, that J.B. Priestley pulled back just a bit from where he could have gone with it, and though Lost Empires is a very good thing, the eventual resolution of its hero’s problems felt slightly deus ex machina, hand of puppet master evident at the last.
This said, also very highly recommended. A good example of Priestley’s later fiction, and a must-read for anyone interested in exploring this prolific writer’s A-list.
Leaves & Pages 
I enjoyed reading The Good Companions a million years ago (early 70s perhaps). With that jacket picture even.
I remember Lost Empires as a mini series another long time ago, though not quite so far. I just checked the date at IMDB. 1986. Well, a nice surprise, the young man was played by….Colin Firth.
It’s a library discard copy, very well worn. Picked it up in a small town in Alberta in 1988 – I remember that day with vivid detail. The book sale was being held in the old library building, all high ceiling and sculpted dadoes and varnished wainscoting and cast iron radiators. The library proper had recently moved to more modern digs, and the old books were being culled from its collection, with the old space as a sales venue. I wish I could time travel back to that particular sale; I am sure I would have found many more treasures with my greatly increased knowledge of who-to-look-for, and their increasing scarcity.
Re: the Lost Empires mini-series – it seems to have garnered good reviews. And Colin Firth is always watchable, though he looks absurdly young in the stills I’ve seen from that production. (As he was!) Not quite my idea of Richard Herncastle, but he will do… 😉
I loved The Good Companions too, a good few years ago. I’m really surprised that it was so long, it certainly didn’t seem that long when I was reading it. For some reason I haven’t read anything else by Priestley, I must rectify that.
Oh, it is very long, but at no point does one find oneself longing for it to be shorter. It works wonderfully well, in its rambling way. You really should explore Priestley – he has some grand books. (Though some not quite so grand, too.) If you enjoyed The Good Companions, might I suggest Bright Day? It’s rather similar in feel, being a coming-of-age sort of story strongly based on JBP’s own industrial-Yorkshire background.
Ooh, there’s nothing I enjoy like a “comic, picaresque, fairy-tale sort of novel” about a theatrical sub-culture! And my library even has it. Your blog is so great for alerting me to these titles I would NEVER find otherwise.
Yes, the great advantage of the long-lasting popularity of The Good Companions is that it is readily available. Enjoy!
Thanks for this, L&P. I enjoyed reading this review of “The Good Companions” & the darker but no less fascinating “Lost Empires.” This is Priestley at his best &, as you well know, when he was at his best he was as great as any British writer you can name. (Of course, he also wrote some less than wonderful books, as your reviews of “Saturn Over The Water” & “The Shapes of Sleep” suggest. It could be argued, I suppose, that he wrote too much. Still, I don’t mind these books. They’re very much of their time & JB always had something to say to people even when his plots & attempts to be “contemporary” left a lot to be desired in terms of plausibility &/or erotic appeal.)
I wish someone would reprint “The Image Men” – a 2-part 1965 novel which deserves to take its place alongside his greatest work. It also contains a character based on the great English comic Tony Hancock – someone JB knew & wrote about with incredible perceptiveness for the time.
Those who are interested might like to read my review of “Wonder Hero” – an early work from 1933 that pleases, amuses & provokes serious thought despite some obvious holes in its hastily constructed whirlwind plot.
Here’s the link: http://bentleyrumble.blogspot.com/2015/02/jb-priestley-wonder-hero-1933.html
February must be Priestley month. All the best to you & yours for 2015 (& good luck with your home renovation).
Hugely enjoyed your examination of Wonder Hero – a Priestley novel I am not at all familiar with. (I wonder if I will ever catch up to him? His profligacy was astounding, wasn’t it? And even a “bad” book by this writer is worthy of reading – though I occasionally wonder what a really stern editor could have done to improve some of the iffy bits plot-wise in certain of his more uneven works. 😉 )
Fellow readers – do visit BR’s post: http://bentleyrumble.blogspot.com/2015/02/jb-priestley-wonder-hero-1933.html Very good stuff.
Regarding the renovations – we’re progressing, but of course not as quickly as we’d hoped. It’s coming together nicely now, and we will very much enjoy a properly finished main room. No more bare light bulbs hanging perilously from the ceiling! (Among more substantial improvements. But hanging a proper light fixture yesterday from a refinished ceiling felt like a major step forward on our personal standard of living.) At current time bookcases are being built – we have a very high ceiling along one side of the space and I have long desired to put it to good use – in other words, for more book storage! My husband has good-naturedly entered into the spirit of things, and is in the throes of cabinet making. Sadly these new shelves will only house a relatively modest portion of our ever-growing accumulation – there will still be a shaming number of books living in boxes in our lives.
I have been slightly emotionally sidetracked from the house project by the unexpected acquisition of a new project car. We have a long-standing (though relatively modest, being unendowed with great riches) vintage car interest, and while looking about for something quite different (a new-to-us farm truck, much needed) an oldish Merecedes sedan (1972 250/8, for those interested in such details) somehow followed me home… must share a picture at some point. I am most fervently wishing for spring so we can put this one through its paces and tweak a few of its little issues. Drove it the 50 miles from where we bought it going progressively faster as I got braver and it absolutely floated right along. Nice. I find myself standing at the window gazing pensively at it when I should be doing practical things. Poor old girl has no place to live as all available under-cover spots are taken, so she’s all covered in snow from yesterday’s substantial dusting. Will go out later and delicately brush her off and start her and sit there for a while, while working out my things-to-deal-with-first list.
And we’ve got a live blues evening coming later this week, so will make an evening of it, dining out first to make it a proper night on the town. Much to look forward to, in our low-key sort of way. 🙂 Wishing you the same sort of accumulation of small good things, BR – books and music and whatever else makes your pulse beat a bit faster and adds shine to your everyday.
I’ve often wondered if JBP had an editor at all, let alone the “really stern” one you suggest. I think he was probably the victim – along with many a bestselling writer of the 1930s including the great Dorothy Whipple – of the 1960s publishing industry & its (ongoing) quest to capture the attention (& money) of the all-important “youth market” by whatever means possible. As everyone knows, nothing sells like sex. (Would anyone like to pause here to read a few pages of “Fifty Shades of Gray”, which is now officially the bestselling paperback of all time?) In JBP’s case the sex was, as you suggest, sort of tacked on willy-nilly (pardon my awful pun) to add a bit of spice & gratuitous James Bondish “glamour” to the proceedings. But it’s important to remember how thinly stretched JBP was a writer during the latter half of his career, trying to write/publish books & write/produce plays while doing extra duty as the unofficial spokesman of the “older generation” & helping to found & run the CND. The man was an engine & remains the envy of lazier, less inspired writers everywhere.
I don’t know if any of your readers have seen the 2006 film “Last Holiday,” starring Queen Latifah. It’s a US remake of a 1950 film of the same name that Priestley wrote for Alec Guinness. Both are well worth watching if you come across them. Light & entertaining, certainly, but not completely lacking in wit, intelligence & a deeper humanistic message re the importance of “seizing the day” before the day departs.
The home renovations sound like they’re proceeding nicely. More bookshelves are a welcome addition to any home, I find, but I know what you mean re there never being enough of them to suit one’s book storage requirements. Storing books in boxes, it seems, is one of the inescapable pitfalls of being a passionate bibliophile. Maybe your husband should take on a second garage as his next construction project to keep all that nasty snow off the ’72 Mercedes? I hope you drive it to the blues gig together & really make a night of it. Low key? I think not, mon ami. Non, non et non! Pleasure is pleasure, wherever you find it (a thought JBP might have concurred with, I can’t help feeling). Kind of makes me wish I was there to tag along.
Thanks for the positive feedback re my post, L&P, & for providing the additional link to it. Your kindness & generosity of spirit are both much appreciated as always.
I’ve never read anything by JBP, though I’ve always known about him. I think there was an old film of The Good Companions? Or maybe it was a stage play, in the 1930s I think. These sound absolutely fascinating, especially read as a pair, though I can’t imagine finding the time to read them at the moment. Interesting to hear there was a mini series of Lost Empires — perhaps it’s on You Tube where such things often end up. Colin Firth, ummm… another incentive to seek it out.
The Good Companions was adapted as a theatrical play (1931), filmed twice (1933 & 1957), made into a musical three times (1974 – with Judy Dench playing Miss Trant, 1995 & 2009), and filmed as a TV mini-series in 1980. I think it may be currently out of print, but the editions are endless. This was a highly appealing story!
None of which I knew when I picked up the pictured copy at a library book sale in the little town of Olds, Alberta back in 1988 – I just knew that it was a grand story in the old-fashioned sense of the word, and I have re-read it numerous times, usually when trying for a bit of escapism from hectic periods of real life. (As right now is – it’s been ridiculously busy in my world, mostly with positive stuff, but escape into a good book has been a most welcome thing.)
I saw mention of the Lost Empires mini-series when I was browsing looking for background info on the book; Colin Firth did indeed play Richard Herncastle in that production, looking impossibly young and rather sulky in the shots I saw. Not quite how I imagine the character from Priestley’s description, but most acceptable regardless. 😉 It’s supposed to be a fairly faithful adaptation; might be worth keeping an eye out for. Check the public library holdings, perhaps?
As far as reading these, Harriet – very worthwhile but decidedly time consuming. TGC in particular is very leisurely and meandering, which is part of its charm, but it is a commitment to get through.
Oh, how I loved these books a long, long time ago. I really must find copies and read them again.
Thank you for reminding me of these……..I can feel a re-read beckons!
I love both these books, so different from each other: Good Companions is a jolly romp, but I think Lost Empires is a tour de force, with its picture of music hall, its extraordinary atmosphere and the mysterious character of the (significantly-named) Uncle Nick. I think JBP is very under-valued.
[…] old and tired. How then to explain the excellence of the book before this one, the quite stellar Lost Empires, published in 1965? Two years shouldn’t make that much difference. We know the man still has […]